News

Guatemalan Commission Presents Anti-Impunity Plans to United Nations

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A commission dedicated to fighting impunity in Guatemala presented a new strategy to the United Nations on Thursday.

Francisco Javier Dall´Anese Ruiz, head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (left), presented a new strategy at the United Nations on Thursday to protect human rights.

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, known by the Spanish-language acronym CICIG, identified four focus areas.  Commissioner Francisco Javier Dall’Anese Ruiz, alongside Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti, announced efforts to reduce impunity rates, boost anti-crime measures, stop illegal security forces, and educate people about the threats impunity poses on democracy.

The plans came one week after a United Nations independent expert warned that many Guatemalan children are victims of sexual exploitation and forced labor, despite the government’s protection measures.

“The phenomenon of sexually exploited girls in prostitution is very worrying, “said Najay Maalia M’jid, the Special Rapporteur on child trafficking, in a press release on Aug. 29.

Last month, a Guatemalan police officer was arrested and charged with using a 14-year-old as a sex slave.  Fox News Latino reported that about two-thirds of the 318 sexual violence reports were minors, according to the country’s human rights office.

“The strengthening of institutions that are tasked to implement, coordinate, and evaluate prevention and protection strategies for children should take advantage of the continued technical assistance of the United Nations and the international community,” Maala M’jid added.

There was no indication that Thursday’s announcement by CICIG that its four-focus plan was a product of Maala M’jid’s recommendation.  But UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco said UN leaders greatly values the commission’s work and deserves strong support from the international community.

The United Nations helped establish CICIG in 2006 with the Guatemalan government.  The goal was to create an independent body to help prosecutors, police, and other agencies investigate an illegal security organizations and dismantle them.  In its press release this week, CICIG said its efforts have led to more than 130 people being charged.

The list of Guatemalan dignitaries at Thursday’s announcement included Commissioner Ruiz, Vice President Baldetti, Supreme Court of Justice President Thelma Aldana, President of Congress Gudy Rivera, Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz, and Minister of the Interior Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.

For further information, please see:

The Commission against Impunity in Guatemala — Commissioner Presents CICIG’s 2012-2013 Work Plan at UN Headquarters — 6 September 2012

The Guatemala Times — CICIG’s 2012-2013 Work Plan Presented at UN Headquarters Today — 6 September 2012

UN News Centre — UN-backed Commission Presents Plan to Fight Impunity in Guatemala — 6 September 2012

UN News Centre — Many Children in Guatemala Still Facing Sexual Exploitation, Forced Labour – UN Expert — 30 August 2012

Fox News Latino — Guatemalan Cop Accused of Holding Teen as Sex Slave — 17 August 2012

Obama-inspired Gay Marriage Bill Passes First Vote in New Zealand

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand lawmakers overwhelming supported a gay marriage legalization bill this week that the bill’s sponsor said was inspired, in part, by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In its first of several votes, New Zealand Parliament overwhelmingly approved MP Louisa Wall’s gay marriage bill, which she said was partially inspired by U.S. President Barack Obama’s public support of the issue. (Photo Courtesy of The New Zealand Herald)

Parliament voted 80 to 40 after the bill’s first reading, well more than the simple majority needed to ensure a second vote.  Three votes are needed before the bill becomes law.

“I think the catalyst was around Obama’s announcement,” the bill’s sponsor, Labour MP Louisa Wall, told the Associated Press, referencing Obama’s declaration in May supporting gay marriage in the United States.  “Then obviously our prime minister came out very early in support, as did the leader of my party, David Shearer.  The timing was right.”

If the law ultimately passes, then New Zealand would become the 12th country to recognize same-sex marriage since 2001.  Recent polls show roughly two-thirds of New Zealanders support gay marriage.

But some political leaders cautioned observers that the vote was not an accurate reflection of the population.

Colin Craig of the Conservative Party indicated some MPs might not have done enough to get the views of their constituents.

“My biggest concern is the MPs who are just not consulting with their electorates at all,” Craig told Newstalk ZB.  “They’re being swayed by those who lobby with them directly, and we see that as a key point in terms of going forward on this one.”

Indeed, New Zealand media reported switches of support before the vote.  The New Zealand Herald reported that some of the significant turnarounds were National MP Paul Hutchison, who the day before the vote told the Herald he would oppose the measure; Labour MP David Clark, a former Presbyterian minister who was unsupportive of marriage equality a year ago; and, ACT MP John Banks, who was quoted as describing the gay marriage bill “evil” and its potential passing as a “sad and sickening day.”

Labour MP Phil Twyford explained to the Western Leader that it took him a month of talking with voters before he could reach a decision on how to vote.  Ultimately, he said the choice came down to doing “the right thing.”

“While there were differing views on the bill and some people have strong feelings, I believe the community on balance is ready to support the measure,” he said.  “I have been heartened to hear so many people express the view that all New Zealanders should have every chance in life regardless of color, sex, where they grew up, what school they went to, or who they choose to love.”

Still, opponents hope to stop the bill from becoming law.  Family First, a conservative lobby group, helped organize a petition drive that received signatures from 50,000 people against the measure.  The group’s founder, Bob McCoskrie, said government should not redefine marriage when civil unions suffice.

“Equality doesn’t mean sameness,” he told the Associated Press.  “Marriage has always been about the relationship of a man and a woman because of their natural potential to have children.”

For further information, please see:

The Western Leader — MPs Back Gay Marriage — 31 August 2012

The New Zealand Herald — NZ ‘Gayest Place on Earth’? — 30 August 2012

The Huffington Post — New Zealand Gay Marriage: 1st Stage of New Law Passed — 29 August 2012

Newstalk ZB — Day Has Arrived for Govt Vote on Gay Marriage — 29 August 2012

Australia Stands by Plan to Reopen Offshore Detention Centers for Asylum-Seekers

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Sunday that the decision to send asylum-seekers to detention centers on Pacific Islands rather than letting them on Australian soil could result in saved lives.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the controversial plan to send asylum-seekers to reopened detention centers on Pacific islands could result in saved lives. (Photo Courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek)

Australian leaders announced last week that they plan to reopen the camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, a move critics called regressive.  The asylum-seekers would remain in the detention centers while their immigration cases are processed.

“Yes, this is a tough policy,” Gillard told Sky News.  “I understand for many people that it’s hard for them, that it’s emotionally hard for them.”

Gillard said the move could result in preventing lives from being lost at sea.  According to a report released last week by a former Australian Defense Force chief, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers have drowned in the waters between Indonesia and Australia in the last decade.  More than 60 percent of them have drowned in the last three years.  These numbers helped prompt the policy change.

“We stood on a policy of not having offshore processing, but we’re seeing large numbers of people losing their lives at sea because they are enticed by people smugglers,” Gillard told Sky News, admitting that she compromised her position “in the nation’s interest.”

“We’ve got to be very clear with asylum-seekers that they will get no advantage by having paid a people smuggler,” she added.  Gillard said people could wait in the island camps for “an extended period of time,” but she would not say how long that might be.

But many have expressed concerns about the change, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  Navi Pillay said there is no evidence the effort would dissuade asylum seekers and could even lead to human rights violations.

“[Australian leaders must] break an ingrained political habit of demonizing migrants and asylum-seekers,” he said.

In fact, people smugglers have already adopted a new effort to counter Australia’s changed policy.  The West Australian reported that smugglers are telling asylum-seekers that Nauru is “just another Christmas Island,” in reference to Nauru being just a different stop on the path to be resettled in Australia.

The West Australian said Nauru and Manus Island processed 1,637 people between 2001 and 2008, the vast majority of whom were resettled in Australia or New Zealand.

Since Parliament approved the policy change last week, 10 boats of asylum-seekers have arrived.  These are just the latest in what has been a record year of immigrants attempting to reach Australia, mostly from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Iraq.  The centers at Manus and Nauru can hold up to 600 and 1,500 people, respectively.

For its part, Nauru has indicated it wants to exert some level of control over the process.  According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the island country’s foreign minister, Kieren Keke, told the Sunday Age that “his country would have ‘no problem’ with giving journalists access to report the stories and conditions of asylum seekers in its care who wanted to speak publicly.”

For further information, please see:

News.com.au — Australia out of Reach for Resettled Refugees — 21 August 2012

The West Australian — People Smugglers Using New Sales Pitch — 21 August 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek — Gillard Says Australia Asylum Policy Change in National Interest — 19 August 2012

The Daily News — Australia Defends ‘Tough’ Asylum-Seeker Policy — 19 August 2012

The Sydney Morning Herald — Nauru Demands Rights, Freedom for Asylum Seekers — 19 August 2012

Religious Leaders Call on Mississippi Church to Reject Racism

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

JACKSON, Mississippi — Southern Baptist leaders said Monday that a Mississippi church was wrong to prevent a black couple from getting married at the church earlier this month, and called on the church to reject racism.

Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson were forced to relocate their wedding just days before the ceremony after some members of the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, near Jackson, Miss., complained complained about the black couple having a wedding there. (Photo Courtesy of Black America Web)

Directors of the Mississippi Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention said in keeping with the Baptist tradition, the congregation needs to “chart its own course.”

“Our entire country, and especially here in Mississippi, has been on a long journey for right rational relationships,” read a statement from Jim Futral, the executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention board.  “Mississippi Baptists both reject racial discrimination and at the same time respect the autonomy of our local churches to deal with difficulties and disagreements under the lordship of Jesus.”

Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson found out days before their July 21 nuptials that some members of the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, near Jackson, complained about the black couple having a wedding there.  The church’s pastor, Rev. Stan Weatherford, married the couple at nearby church in an effort to make peace and avoid conflict.

“I didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea,” Weatherford said in an interview with the Huffington Post.  “I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day.”

Charles Wilson has said members of the congregation, nevertheless, have threatened to fire the pastor.

But some churchgoers denied that the story being played out in the media is fully accurate.  They said it has caused hardship.

“There’s a lot of people in the church that are suffering inner turmoil over this issue, said church member Ralph Miley in an interview with WAPT News.

The Jackson television station also reported on the congregation’s frustration, with one woman swinging her purse at one of the station’s reporters before entering the church for Sunday morning services.

Other congregants acknowledge the pastor was trying to do the right thing.

“He was trying to gain time to deal with racism among the few members of our church who created this situation,” said retired Southern Baptist pastor Robert Mack to WAPT News.

The state and national church leaders also said Monday they are praying for the church and are ready to help, if needed.

“We are all saddened when any sin, including the sin of racism, rears its head,” said Southern Baptist Convention spokesperson Sing Oldham.  “Part of our gospel is that we are being redeemed.  We are flawed, failed creatures, and redemption is a process.”

So far, the church has not contacted state officials for any assistance.

A community rally for racial unity was planned in Crystal Springs for Monday evening.

For further information, please see:

The Clarion-Ledger — Southern Baptists: Mississippi Church Wrong to Reject Black Couple’s Wedding — 30 July 2012

WAPT News — Baptist Bodies Call on Church to Reject Racism — 30 July 2012

The Washington Post — State and National Baptist Leaders Ask Church that Turned Down Black Wedding to Reject Racism — 30 July 2012

USA Today — Baptist Groups: Miss. Church Wrong to Not Marry Black Couple — 29 July 2012

WAPT News — Members Speak out on Crystal Springs Church Controversy — 29 July 2012

The Huffington Post — Black Couple says Racism Forced Wedding Relocation — 28 July 2012

New Motions in Challenge to Lawyer Access Rules at Guantanamo

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — In a motion filed this week, the U.S. Justice Department requested just one federal judge decide which rules apply to lawyers representing suspects being held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Justice Department filed a motion this week in a case over whether Guantanamo detainees can have continued access to counsel after losing habeas. (Photo Courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor)

Government lawyers asked for Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to be the decider in a growing dispute between the government and defense lawyers.

The issue is whether detainees who have lost their one-shot habeas cases can have continued access to their counsel.

“Respondents request that the instant Motions for Counsel Access be referred to a single judge for a coordinated ruling on the counsel-access issue that will govern in these and all other Guantanamo Bay habeas cases,” the motion stated.

According to Politico, Guantanamo leaders have tried “to unilaterally impose rules for lawyers’ visits to Guantanamo when no court proceedings are pending.  Lawyers for some inmates have complained that they should continue to be covered by orders issued by judges in Washington.  They argue that prisoners are free to file successive petitions for release, so the visits are directly tied to potential litigation.”

The filing stems from a case in which Yasin Qasem Muhammad Ismail, a Yemeni national detained at Guantanamo, was told he no longer had the right to see his counsel after losing his habeas petition.  An email from the Justice Department to Ismail’s lawyer reportedly said Ismail could only meet his lawyer if the lawyer signed a new “memorandum of understanding.”  Ismail’s lawyer, David Remes, described that new MOU as giving the government “absolute authority over access to counsel.”

According to Scotusblog, Remes challenged the new MOU earlier this month in federal court.

“As long as [Ismail] is detained, he retains the right to pursue any available legal avenues to obtain his release,” Remes argued, according to court papers.

As Scotusblog put it, those other avenues include “the right to file a new or amended habeas challenge, or to file a formal motion to have his case reopened in District Court.”

But this new legal challenge is not the only complaint defense lawyers have raised regarding the system for terror suspects detained at Guantanamo.

Just last week, lawyers for Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri alleged that the military official in charge of the tribunal attempted to rig the Guantanamo court to deliver the death sentence.  Nashiri is charged in connection with planning the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring dozens more.

The defense accused retired Vice Admiral Bruce MacDonald of “unprecedented bureaucratic meddling” in instructing the judge how to carry out jury selection, something normally left to the judge alone.

The instructions would result in a jury panel “that numerically favors a death sentence,” said Lieutenant Commander Stephen Reyes, a lawyer for Nashiri.

For further information, please see:

Lawfare — On Continued Counsel Access at Gitmo and the Government’s Filing — 27 July 2012

Politico — Feds: Single Judge Should Rule on Rules for Lawyers at Guantanamo — 26 July 2012

Reuters — Defense Lawyers say Guantanamo Court Rigged to Deliver Death Sentence — 19 July 2012

The Christian Science Monitor — Guantanamo Judge Refuses to Step Aside — 17 July 2012

Scotusblog — Are “Boumediene Rights” Expiring? — 13 July 2012