UK Prime Minister Secures Agreement to Stay in EU

by Shelby Vcelka

Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England–

Hours after announcing that a deal had been reached between the United Kingdom and other European Union member nations, British Prime Minister David Cameron stated that he will campaign with all his “heart and soul” to keep his country within a reformed EU system. The agreement came after two days of intense talks in Brussels, culminating with a unanimous decision by EU leaders that would allow the UK to stay within the system under negotiated terms.

Prime Minister David Cameron stated that “Britain would never be a part of a European superstate,” but believes a Brexit from the EU could be disastrous for Britain. (Photo courtesy of The Guardian).

Prime Minister Cameron is scheduled to hold a cabinet meeting on February 20th, where he will recommend that the government officially approve the terms, which will allow him to call a referendum on the matter. He stated, ““In an uncertain world is this really the time to add a huge new risk to our national and our economic security? I don’t believe that is right for Britain. I believe we are stronger, safer and better off inside a reformed EU and that is why I will be campaigning with all my heart and soul to persuade the British people to remain in the reformed EU that we have secured today.”

The negotiated agreement allows the UK to remain in the EU system with several major changes. An “emergency break” on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits will be in place for seven years, and individuals will only be covered for four years. Restrictions will also be placed on paying benefits to migrants from other EU countries, and Britain has no obligation to promote an “ever closer union among the peoples of Europe.” The UK also does not have to cooperate with the euro or contribute in eurozone bailouts. However, the UK will maintain full access to the EU’s free-trade market, and receive the advantages of European collaboration on crime and terrorism.

Despite the negotiations, many high profile politicians, including members of Cameron’s own cabinet, will continue to back the British exit, or “Brexit,” from the EU. Their worries primarily focus on backing a failing system of a European “super nation” and having to bear the burden of supporting struggling member nations. Britain has traditionally distanced itself from the rest of the European continent, and a Brexit would be seen as consistent with British foreign policy.

The referendum, if approved by the cabinet, could come as early as June. As of yet, it is unsure whether or not the agreement will be supported.

For more information, please see–

BBC–EU deal gives UK special status, says PM— 19 February 2016

CNN–Cameron: We have a deal with the EU— 19 February 2016 

The Guardian–Cameron will put ‘heart and soul’ into staying in EU after sealing deal— 19 February 2016

The Telegraph–EU summit – live: David Cameron hails deal ‘to give UK special status in the EU’ – including seven-year brake on migrant benefits – paving way for June referendum— 19 February 2016

ICTJ | World Report February 2016 – Transitional Justice News and Analysis

In Focus

South Africa: Impunity, Political Interference Emerge Below Veneer of a Celebrated Reconciliation Process

After 33 years in the relentless pursuit of truth and accountability the family of anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane will finally see justice done. On 8 February 2016, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) announced that it will charge four former apartheid security policemen with her murder and kidnapping.

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World Report

AFRICA

In South Africa, prosecutors announced that they will charge four former members of the Apartheid-era security forces with the 1983 kidnapping and murder of Nokuthula Simelane, a courier for the African National Congress. Kenya’s Vice President William Ruto faces an ongoing trial in which he is accused of committing crimes against humanity during the violence following the 2007 elections. Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Cote d’Ivoire, pled not guilty during the opening of his International Criminal Court (ICC) trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the aftermath of the contested presidential election in 2011. Meanwhile, ICC prosecutors presented 70 charges against former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen, who is accused of war crimes committed in Uganda. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said that the recommendations of Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission are in an advanced stage of implementation. The final stage in the torture trial of Hissene Habre, former dictator of Chad, began in Senegal. South Sudan has also been urged to form a unity government by the African Centre for Transitional Justice.

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AMERICAS

The UN Security Council approved the creation of an unarmed mission to Colombia to oversee a bilateral ceasefire, if FARC rebels and the government sign a peace agreement. In Guatemala, the trial of two former military officers charged with sexual slavery against indigenous women during the country’s civil war began. The University of Saskatchewan partnered with Canada’s National Center for Truth and Reconciliation to help provide the students and the public with information past abuses committed against the country’s Indigenous Peoples. Argentina’s cabinet chief met with national human rights organizations to discuss the newly elected government’s stance on human rights issues, including truth, memory, and justice. A UN panel recommended that the United States consider reparations for African-American descendants of slaves. A team of Argentine investigators released a report disputing the official account of what happened to 43 students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico who disappeared in 2014.

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ASIA

Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) urged the government to cooperate with the commissions in order to investigate civil war-era crimes, while the CIEDP forwarded a bill to parliament that would retroactively criminalize enforced disappearances. Before Myanmar’s newly elected parliament opened its first session, outgoing lawmakers passed a law providing lifetime immunity to former heads of state, while the government began releasing the first of about 100 political prisoners. In the Philippines, parliament extended the mandate of the claims board for victims of human rights violations under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. During a visit from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Tamil leaders called for the UN to help uncover the fate of over 4,000 missing civilians from Sri Lanka’s civil war. In Bangladesh, the special war crimes tribunal sentenced two more people to death for crimes committed during the country’s war of independence with Pakistan.

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EUROPE

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens commemorated the 22-year anniversary of a mortar attack on a Sarajevo market that killed 68 people. Meanwhile in Serbia, a court sentenced a former Bosnian Serb soldier to 10 years in prison for participating in the Srebrenica genocide, while a Serbian activist was charged for commemorating Srebrenica. European Union judges sentenced a Kosovo Serb politician to nine years in prison for war crimes. ICC judges authorized the opening of an investigation into the 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia. The family of a union leader believed to have been killed during Spain’s civil war filed a suit asking Mexican authorities to investigate his disappearance.

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MENA

Protests over youth unemployment spread throughout several towns and cities in Tunisia. In Libya, opposing factions proposed the formation of an 18-member unity government. The foreign minister of Egypt denied that his government is cracking down on dissidents. Lawmakers in Algeria passed a package of reforms that included the reinstatement of presidential term limits.

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Publications

More Than Words: Apologies as a Form of Reparation

This report explores many of the issues and challenges likely to be faced by those considering a public apology as a form of reparation for victims of serious human rights violations.

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Opening Up Remedies in Myanmar

This briefing paper calls on the soon-to-be-established NLD-led Burmese government to seriously consider taking steps to deal with Myanmar’s troubled past as a way to help end the cycle of violence and human rights violations in the conflict-torn country.

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Uganda Election Won With not so Popular Vote

By Tyler Campbell

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

 

KAMPALA, Uganda – It was announced yesterday that Yoweri Museven has been elected to his 5th term in office as Uganda’s President. However, the streets were rather quiet and lacked the celebration that you would expect for someone who won 60.8% of the vote. Instead of supporters filling capitol square to celebrate their re-elected leader armed soldiers and police kept watch silently. While President Museven sat comfortably in the capitol, the leader of the opposition party, Kizza Besigye, was at home under house arrest.

Ugandan police surround runner-up Besigye’s Home, keeping him in and reporters out. Photo Courtesy: VOA News.

This is the fourth time Besigye had been arrested since voting started. Finally, he was placed under house arrest after trying to enter a home where he believed ballots were being altered. Supporters of Mr. Besigye have also clashed with Ugandan police forces since voting began Friday. Police forces and Besigye followers traded rocks and teargas canisters thought the capitol city after the election was called for President Museven with just over 10% of the polls reporting.

 

Mr. Besigye has officially called for an independent audit of the election in an open letter he sent to the people of Uganda on Saturday. Besigye commented on the election calling it “stolen” and “what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda.”

 

Mr. Besigye and his supporters do seem to have good reason to be upset. During the election social media sites were blacked out along with mobile-money services. Urban areas that were expected to be heavily in favor of Besigye did not receive their ballots until late in the day. This led to lower voter turnout and ended with some citizens not getting to vote at all. Finally, there were reports of ballots arriving at polling stations that had already been marked for President Museven.

 

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) were in attendance at the election and do not claim to have seen this level of fraud, but stopped short of calling the election free and fair. The EU-EOM reported that there was great enthusiasm to go out and vote but also admitted that this enthusiasm was over shadowed by intimidation and a lack of transparency.

 

 

For more information, please see:

 

The Guardian – Uganda election victory extends Yoweri Museveni’s grip on power – 20 Feb. 2016

Al Jazeera – Uganda’s Museveni re-elected amid controversy – 20 Feb. 2016

All Africa – Uganda: Poll Observers Give Mixed Verdict – 21 Feb. 2016

The Economist – Yoweri Museveni wins a fifth term as Uganda’s president – 21 Feb. 2016

Police Abuses Escalate in Egypt, Thousands of Doctors Protest

By Brittani Howell

Impunity Watch Reporter, The Middle East

 CAIRO, Egypt – On Friday, thousands of doctors protested the assault of two doctors by policemen that occurred a month ago. This was the largest demonstration in Egypt since the unauthorized protests had been banned over two years ago.

Egyptian doctors protest outside of Cairo’s Doctors Union on Friday. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

A doctor working at a hospital in Matariya last month, told a police officer that his cut didn’t require stitches. The police officer’s response was to beat up the doctor and a colleague and take the two into custody. Mamoun Hassan el-Deeb, the deputy head of the hospital, told the Associated Press that the doctors, Ahmed Abdullah and Moamen Abdel-Azzem, had been attacked by two police officers.

According to a nurse who had witnessed the incident, seven additional police officers rushed to the scene to arrest the doctors. She also reported that when one of the doctors tried to resist, he fell and the policeman stomped on his head with his boots.

According to Abdel-Azzem’s Facebook page, he initially filed an official complaint but later withdrew the complaint. Abdel-Azzem feared detention in prison once he found out that officers filed a counter-complaint accusing Abdel-Azzem of assault.

The Egyptian Medical Syndicate called for the prosecution of the police officers that were involved in the alleged assault and stated that they would protest until the officers were brought to trial. Dr. Rashwan Shaaban, the assistant secretary-general of the syndicate told Reuters, “The general assembly of the syndicate decided to escalate the situation and is organizing a protest across all hospitals on February 20.”

According to human rights groups, there is a culture of impunity across Egypt as police brutality is widespread. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights stated, “The authorities (must) end the overall impunity enjoyed by police today to prevent the constant recurrence of such incidents.”

The protests came just days after the body of Italian student, Giulio Regeni, was found at the outskirts of Cairo. According to eyewitnesses, surveillance camera footage would have revealed that two Egyptian security agents, in plain clothes, took Mr. Regeni into custody when he was last seen.

Egyptian authorities have not yet requested the footage, according to shop keepers. Human rights groups indicated that this is typical police behavior in Egypt.

According to Egyptian security officials who were interviewed, Mr Regeni was “very rude and acted like a tough guy,” and was then taken into custody. Authorities also allege that Mr. Regeni was also suspect because certain contacts on his phone were associated with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the April 6 Youth Movement. One official stated, “They figured he was a spy,” continuing, “After all, who comes to Egypt to study trade unions.”

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Italy Mourns, Premier Demands Truth from Egypt Slaying – 12 February 2016

BBC News – Giulio Regeni: Funeral Held for Italian Student Killed in Cairo – 12 February 2016

Reuters – Thousands of Egyptian Doctors Protest Over Alleged Police Brutality – 12 February 2016

The New York Times – Egyptian Doctors Revolt Against Escalating Police Abuses – 12 February 2016

The New York Times – Italian Student’s Death Highlights Perils for Egyptians, Too – 12 February 2016