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The Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice: Syria in the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance

Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice

SCTJ Publishes a Report on Enforced Disappearance

Due to the widespread perpetration of enforced disappearance in states ruled by dictators and military regimes such as Latin America, the United Nation declared the 30th of August to be international Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance. On this occasion, enforced disappearance in Syria should be highlighted as tens of thousands have become forcibly-disappeared over the past three years. The United Nations’ International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance classifies this crime as a crime against humanity because it entails many violations of human rights, which affect the victims and their families.

The Syrian regime has systematically perpetrated this crime for decades. Hafez-Al-Assad used this crime as a method to strengthen his rule and to silence dissents. Additionally, the policy of enforced disappearance has affected the families of the victims for many years. It is estimated that about 17,000 persons had been victimized by this crime since the 1980s. The families of the victims have been suffering from systematic governmental discrimination since 1979. When the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, the intensity and the scope of the violations committed increased tremendously to include enforced disappearance. The documented number of cases recorded since the beginning of the Syrian revolution reached more than 53,000 cases. The United Nations acknowledged in most of its reports that enforced disappearance in Syria is being used in a widespread manner as a war tactic to terrorize civilians.

The Syrian Commission for Transitional Justice (SCTJ) affirms that the widespread perpetration of enforced disappearance by the Syrian regime against tens of thousands of victims and families is considered a crime against humanity. Subsequently this violation is one of the worst and the most widespread by Syrian regime. SCTJ urges the Security Council to investigate and refer these crimes to the I.C.C. in order to hold the perpetrators accountable. In addition, SCTJ calls the Human Rights Council to address this issue and work on investigating the enforced disappearance cases in Syria.

SCTJ published a report on enforced disappearance, which highlighted that there are more than 60,000 missing persons and about 53,525 forcibly-disappeared persons in Syria, 6722 of whom were killed including 1,348 children and 1,511 women.

The above figures reflect a challenge for us and for the entire world to end this ongoing crime, to take all the necessary measures to refer these crimes to the I.C.C., to hold the perpetrators accountable, and to put an end to the impunity culture.

Oil in Ecuador: Sacrificing Tradition and Future Wealth for Short-term Profits

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Managing Editor

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park is one of the world’s most biodiverse places. Just 2 ½ acres of its Amazonian forest contains more than 100,000 species of insects, and is home to more plant species than the entirety of the United States. Scientists believe the forest is home to several species of undiscovered and unclassified plant and animal species. Botanists believe the critical Yasuni ecosystem could hold the key to the development of future pharmacological and other scientific discoveries. One third of all pharmacological drugs are derived from nature, mostly from plant species located in biodiverse communities like the Amazonian forests. Botanists say the preservation of Yasuni, one of the world’s vanishing pristine forests, is critical to the development of future medicines.

The Coca River cuts through the once pristine forests of Ecuador, now vulnerable to the long-term environmental effects of oil extraction in the region. Last year, 400,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Coco river in a single event. The water remains unsuitable for drinking. (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera America)

In 2007, the Ecuadorian government announced that it wouldn’t drill for oil in an untouched section of Yasuni, known as the ITT block. However, despite this promise, President Rafael Correa announced last year that oil extraction would be permitted go ahead in the ITT block. Since then, oil companies have been surveying Yasuni’s ITT block. President Correa claims the project will help alleviate poverty, but many communities fear that continued oil production could destroy the ecological value of the region, putting its residents in danger and forgetting the economic value of the forests for short-term profits. Profits that may never improve the lives of the regions residents.

Oil production has been slowly eroding the Amazonian forests and the incalculable value of its resources, as well as the traditional lifestyle the forests sustain for the regions indigenous peoples. The Waorani tribe has lived off the surrounding forest and river alone. However, over the years, they’ve seen their traditional way of life disappear.

Wani, a Waorani tribesmen, said his children and grandchildren get sicker more often now because of environmental pollutants and introduced diseases. Newly developed roads, forest fragmentation, pipelines and drilling operations have withered away the forests, cutting off the tribe’s access to its traditional sources of food.  “Every day there are more cars and fewer animals,” Wani said. He says the oil companies came in and “damage and pollute the land.”

According to Wani, oil companies promise progress, saying that the money brought by oil extraction will improve their lives. But for a people who want nothing more than to live, as they have for centuries, in a pristine environment free from pollution and the illness it brings, the opposite is true. “The oil companies talk about helping us,” Wani said. “But it’s a lie.”

The Waorani aren’t the only people worried about the long-term effects of oil extraction. A few hours upriver from the Waorani’s traditional homeland lies the impoverished town of Coca, the hub of Ecuador’s oil industry. Last year, a broken pipeline spilled nearly 400,000 gallons of crude oil into the Coca River, a tributary to the Amazon. The spill left Coca’s 65,000 residents without access to safe drinking water. The spilled oil was traced through the western Amazon as far away as Peru. A year later, the water in the Coca River still isn’t safe to drink.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera America – Oil in the Amazon: Who Stands to Win and Lose? – 30 September 2014

The Economist – Oil in Ecuador – 25 September 2014

Al Jazeera America – Indigenous Groups Call for Drilling Limits to Fight Climate Change – 22 September 2014

The Wall Street Journal – State Oil Firms to Invest $400 Million in Ecuador Oil Block – 12 September 2014

Australia Makes Deal to Send Refugees to Cambodia

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Canberra, Australia 

On Friday, Australia’s Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, signed a deal with Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng for Cambodia to accept some of Australia’s rejected asylum seekers for money. The deal requires Australia to pay $40 million (Aus.) over a four-year period to cover resettlement costs. A spokes person for Morrison pointed out that under the deal only those refugees that chose to go to Cambodia would be sent. The trial phase is set to begin first and Cambodia has said that it plans to take between two and five people from the Australian refugee center on Nauru for relocation to Cambodia. It is understood that the deal could involve the relocation of up to 1,000 refugees from Nauru to Cambodia.

 

Families on Nauru protest the Cambodia refugee deal (Photo Curtesy of The Guardian)

Political opposition groups in both countries have voiced their dissent about the new deal. The Australian Green Party has said that the refugees would be at high risk of abuse and exploitation in Cambodia. The Australian opposition parties have warned that the level of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation in Cambodia have increased dramatically in recent years. These groups have also said that any deal signed with Cambodia must get Parliamentary approval first. So far Parliament has not voted on the new refugee deal and has only approved refugees to be sent to Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Human rights groups have also voiced their displeasure with the deal. The U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights was not involved in the deal and a spokes person said that there is concern with such a bilateral agreement that might involve the divesting of certain obligations under the refugee convention. The director of Australian Human Rights Watch said the deal would send people to a country that has a terrible record of protecting refugees and has many human rights issues of its own.

The Refugees of Nauru have said that they will reject the offer to be relocated in Cambodia. Those refugees that have been interviewed stated that it was the common opinion amongst the camp that Cambodia is very poor with a long history of abuse and killings. 80 refugees staged a protest outside the Australian High Commission on Nauru in response to the deal.  Australia has also recently granted temporary visas to refugees on Christmas Island, who arrived on the same boats as those on Nauru but those on Nauru now only have the option of going to Cambodia.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian — Australia Signs Controversial Refugee Transfer Deal with Cambodia — 26 September 2014

ABC News — Scott Morrison to Sign MOU on Refugee Resettlement, Cambodian Government Says — 25 September 2014

BBC News — Australia and Cambodia Sign Refugee Resettlement Deal — 26 September 2014

The Phenom Phen Post — Refugees in Nauru Protest — 30 September 2014

Australia Expands Laws to Face Terrorist Threat

By Max Bartels

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Canberra, Australia 

The Australian Senate has passed a new bill in response to the recent foreign and domestic terrorist threats facing Australia. The new legislation will make it easier for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to access the personal information on computers and cell phones of Australian citizens overseas. The bill would also create an increased penalty of up to 10 years in prison for disclosing secret information, this is especially concerning for journalists, who are concerned that they will be targeted with these new penalties. Lastly the new legislation gives civil and criminal immunity to Australian intelligence agents. The government was quick to comment that the immunity would not be extended to those agents that caused death, serious injury, engaged in sexual offenses or severe damage to property.

IS TERROR SUSPECT RAIDS
Australian police outside a house in Sydney during raids last Thursday (Photo Curtesy of SBS)

The Parliament has pushed for these new laws in response to major counter terrorist operations in recent weeks, where Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies foiled an ISIS plot to stage a public beheading in Sydney. There have also been smaller incidents, including a number of arrests involving ISIS recruiters operating in Australia. The Australian response was to lift restrictions on the intelligence community however; the political opposition parties are voicing their disapproval. Both the Liberal Democratic Party as well as the Green Party has stated that these new laws will effectively restrict freedom of the press. The major concern is that if the press is not able to report on intelligence activities then democracy in Australia will be undermined.

Another major concern of the opposition groups was that torture could be included in the new laws. Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave a speech in response to this rumor that torture would not be included in the new legislation and that it will remain outlawed in Australia. The legal immunity was also explicitly stated to not cover incidents of torture. It has only  been in the last few weeks that Australia responded to a call from the U.S. to aide international efforts in combating ISIS. In response to that call Australia deployed troops abroad, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott stating that Australia was not out of the reach of the ISIS threat. Shortly after the deployment announcement, ISIS became very active in Australia, evident from a foiled terrorist plot as well as a slew of arrests. Now Australia has adapted their laws to face the new threat but many worry that it will lead to injustice.

For more information, please see:

ABC News — Senate Passes New Counter-Terrorism Giving Stronger Powers to Intelligence Agency ASIO — 25 September 2014

The Guardian — Torture Ruled Out of Counter- Terrorism Laws For Australian Security Agencies — 21 September 2014

The Guardian — Australia’s Counter- Terror Laws Will Restrict our Free Speech and Free Press — 21 September 2014

SBS — What Will the Counter- Terror Laws Mean for Australians? — 24 September 2014