Colombian FARC Rebels to Discharge Fighters Under 15

By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia — Last week during negotiations, the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, agreed to stop recruiting soldiers under 17.  This week news comes that the FARC will discharge any child soldiers under the age of 15.  The group has said to have captured children as young as 13 to join their ranks.

Children in FARC rebel group / photo courtesy of colombianrefugeeproject

The leader, Ivan Marquez, told a radio program that the recruitment of children was “not our policy”.  Marquez said there are currently 13 children under the age of 15 fighting with the Marxist group.

Marquez, who is one of the FARC negotiators at peace talks in the Cuban capital, Havana, told Colombian’s Caracol Radio that “after internal consultation with the guerrilla structures across the country, the Farc leadership could determine there were only 13 fighters younger than 15” in its ranks.

He said they would be “discharged from the war within a short period of time”.

According to Marquez, the children are descendants of guerrilla fighters or had joined the FARC after they had been orphaned.  Though human rights groups have long accused the FARC of forcibly recruiting children.

Figures released by Colombia’s Ministry of Defence suggest that since 2002 more than 2,600 children under the age of 18 have left the Farc, either fleeing the group or being captured by security forces.

Although a majority were between the ages of 16 and 17, figures suggest more than one third of the child soldiers were younger.

The peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government have commenced in November 2012.

They have reached partial agreements on a number of issues, including on the drugs trade, land reform and political participation.

They are currently discussing the rights of victims of the five-decade-long conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Colombian Farc rebels ‘will discharge fighters under 15’ – 17 Feb. 2015

tele sur – FARC Discharges Under 15s to Comply with International Law – 18 Feb. 2015

Latin American Herald Tribune – Colombia’s FARC to Discharge Minors Under 15 – 18 Feb. 2015

Latin Post – Colombia and Farc Peace Talks, Conflicts, History & News: Rebels to Discharge Child Soldiers Younger Than 15 – 17 Feb. 2015

Another Minsk Peace Agreement Fails Ukraine

By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – Following another Minsk peace agreement involving leaders from England, France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, a cease-fire has once again failed. Fighting has restarted in Eastern Ukraine, particularly in Debaltseve where it was initially unclear whether the cease-fire reigned although later discussion between relevant parties found that it did.

Ukrainian soldiers playing soccer near Debaltseve during peaceful downtime, although peace did not last long. (Photo courtesy of Kyiv Post)

Sunday night at midnight, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued an order for Ukrainian troops to cease fire, but merely twenty minutes later pro-Russian rebel rockets caused collateral damage that made casualties of two elderly residents near Luhansk. Kiev claims more than 60 violations of the cease-fire within just the first 24 hours of the truce.

Many of the violations occurred in or around Debaltseve, where Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko believes “[t]he Minsk agreement doesn’t” mention. A strong push by the rebels, allegedly backed by Russian artillery according to United States sources, in the two days before the cease-fire went into effect has allowed rebels to surround the town, according to rebel sources. There are reported upwards of 8,000 Ukrainian troops within Debaltseve, although Kiev has not confirmed such. Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, claims that Ukrainian forces trapped within Debaltseve are hesitant to retreat because a similar situation yielding a retreat by Kiev forces from Ilovaysk in August was met by rebel artillery and rocket fire that led to many casualties.

In addition to the two elderly casualties, 5 Ukrainian security forces were reported killed along with 25 wounded by fighting with rebels at a military post near Zolote, also in Luhansk. These casualties were reported to have come from mortar shelling that occurred within 90 minutes of the cease-fire order from Poroshenko. Ukrainian defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko reports at least 129 violations have occurred since the cease-fire orders were given.

While the cease-fire still remains in power throughout much of Eastern Ukraine, and many of the violations occurred in or near a contested area that was arguably not mentioned within the Minsk agreement, the post-cease-fire incidents are causing a stir, and less than 48 hours into the cease-fire there is already a similar lack of faith in its holding as existed in prior agreements.

For more information, please see:

The Economist – Pseudo-peace – 16 February 2015

The New York Times – With Ukrainian Troops Trapped, a Cease-Fire Grows More Fragile – 16 February 2015

CNN – 5 Ukrainian security forces killed despite ceasefire, army official says – 16 February 2015

USA Today – Ukraine cease-fire ignored around key railway hub – 16 February 2015

The Wall Street Journal – Ukraine Cease-Fire Strained by Violence – 16 February 2015

United Nations: Violence against Schoolgirls Growing Worldwide

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, United Nations – The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has reported that young girls in at least 70 countries are facing increased threats of violence and even targeting killings simply for trying to exercise the basic human right of education by going to school. “Attacks against girls accessing education persist and, alarmingly, appear in some countries to be occurring with increasing regularity,” the OHCHR said in a background paper on attacks against girls seeking to access education, which was published on Tuesday. The educational rights of girls and women are often targeted due to the fact that they represent a challenge to existing gender and age-based systems of oppression.” The report said, “According to UN sources, more than 3,600 separate attacks against educational institutions, teachers and students were recorded in 2012 alone.” The background paper will be presented to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to contribute to the development of the Committee’s general recommendation on access to education.

According to the United Nations, the marginalization of young girls from both the educational and economic realms means they are denied fair access to their basic human rights. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

The report shows that attacks on girls seeking education take several forms and are not always explicitly motivated by a desire to keep girls from obtaining an education. The violence experienced by girls and women effects all areas of their public and private lives, the report notes. “Attacks involving sexual violence against teachers and girls in educational facilities or during the journey to or from them have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, the Philippines and Syria,” the paper notes.

The report cites several disturbing examples of attacks against girls seeking access to education, highlighting the fragility of achievements in increasing global access to education for all genders. Among the examples cited in the report are the murder in December 2014 of more than 100 young children in a Pakistani Taliban attack at an school in Peshawar attended by the children of army personnel, the abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in April 2014 by the Boko Haram movement in northeast Nigeria and the 2012 shooting by members of the Taliban in Pakistan of education activist Malala Yousafzai who recently became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The report also cites several disturbing incidents of poisoning and acid attacks against schoolgirls in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2014, the reported forced removal of young girls from schools in Somalia who are forced to become ‘wives’ of Al-Shabaab fighters in 2010, as well as the abduction and rape of girls at a Christian school in India in July 2013.

“Attacks on girls’ education have a ripple effect – not only do they impact on the lives of the girls and communities who are directly concerned, they also send a signal to other parents and guardians that schools are not safe places for girl,” the report states. However, if more parents chose to keep their young girls out of school in response to this growing trend young girls could be more vulnerable to other dangers associated with lack of access to education including the increased likelihood that they will face domestic violence during their lifetime or that they may become the victims of human trafficking and sexual and labor exploitation.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Brutal Attacks on Schoolgirls on the Rise: UN – 9 February 2015

Al Jazeera – UN Says Global Violence against Schoolgirls Rising – 9 February 2015

The New York Times – Schoolgirl Are Facing More Threat, U.N. – 9 February 2015

United Nations News Centre – UN Rights Report Points to ‘Increasing Regularity’ Of Attacks on Girls Seeking Education – 9 February 2015

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Background Paper on Attacks against Girls Seeking To Access Education – 9 February 2015

Illinois Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence For 1984 Rape and Murder

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America –On Wednesday, an Illinois man who served 29 years in prison for the 1985 rape and murder of a high school girl was freed after DNA evidence cleared him of any link to the crime. Christopher Abernathy, 48, confessed to the killing of Kristina Hickey, 15, in 1984 in Park Forest, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago, was released on a court order last week.

 

Christopher Abernathy’s case was dismissed after he was exonerated by DNA evidence (Photo Courtesy of NPR).

Abernathy, who was 18 at the time of the crime, confessed to the murder, but suffered from a diminished mental capacity. Abernathy was diagnosed with learning disabilities, but nevertheless was allowed to sign a statement confessing to the murder of Hickey, then a sophomore at Rich East High School. Lauren Kaeseberg, of the Illinois Innocence Project, said that Abernathy was held for two days at the local police station while being persistently questioned, until he was “coerced” into signing a false confession.

At the time of the crime, law enforcement did not have the scientific technology, which made it possible to conduct DNA analysis. However, last year, Abernathy’s attorneys asked for DNA testing on eight pieces of critical evidence from the crime. The evidence was subsequently tested and the results showed that Abernathy’s DNA profile did not match any of the available evidence. With DNA evidence clearing him, the charges against Abernathy were dismissed. Abernathy has stated that he is “scared” to be let out of prison, but his attorneys said that he is ready to start a new life.

While the DNA results showed that all eight pieces of evidence suggested that there was a single killer, the DNA database found no matches. A cold-case team will now be put to work on the 30-year-old murder.

The number of people exonerated in the United States in 2014 has grown exponentially. The exoneration rate is now at a record high of 125, partly due to a growing number of prosecutors willing to admit their mistakes.

 

For more information, please see the following:

ABC CHICAGO – Christopher Abernathy Freed By DNA Tests in 1984 Murder of Kristina Hickey – 11 Feb. 2015.

CBS CHICAGO – Chicago Man Freed From Prison After Sentence Vacated In Illinois Teen’s 1984 Death – 11 Feb. 2015.

NPR – DNA Evidence Frees Illinois Man Convicted of Rape, Murder in 1984 – 11 Feb. 2015.

REUTERS – Illinois Man Freed By DNA After 29 Years’ Imprisonment For Murder – 11 Feb. 2015.