North Korea to Undergo Review by Human Rights Council

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

GENEVA, Switzerland– Following the UN General Assembly’s resolution heavily criticizing the human rights situation in North Korea last month, the Human Rights Council will conduct North Korea’s first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Monday.

Human Rights Watch is encouraging UN member states to put an end to the horrific human rights violations in North Korea at the upcoming UPR session.  Specifically, the organization has named executions, collective punishment and punishment of defectors among the human rights issues to be raised at the session.

In addition, Human Rights Watch has requested that Pyongyang allow international humanitarian agencies to monitor aid programs in North Korea to ensure transparency and accountability.

The organization has also asked that North Korean citizens be able to travel freely in and out of the country.  Human Rights Watch added that North Korea should stop punishing defectors who are forced to return.

Furthermore, the activist organization has stated that the North should ensure the rights of children set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a treaty North Korea ratified.

NK UN ambassadorNorth Korea’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN Pak Gil Yon.  Courtesy of Getty Images.

Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “North Korea should take concrete measures to address human rights, not just pay lip service…The first step in that direction is participating in the UN system and inviting the UN rights experts to observe and advise.”

Moreover, North Korea routinely executes its citizens for stealing state property and stockpiling food, as well as other “anti-socialist crimes.”  Thus, Human Rights Watch said that the Human Rights Council should call for an end to North Korea’s death penalty system.

Under UPR, each UN member’s human rights record is reviewed every four years. North Korea has participated in the review process for other member states, but it has rejected resolutions from the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council condemning its own human rights violations.

Pearson said, “While North Korea has rejected UN resolutions against it, calling them a smear campaign, it has spoken up about other countries in the review process.  If it can dish out criticism, it should show that it can take it too.”

For more information, please see:

Daily NK – UN Passes North Korean Human Rights Resolution – 20 November 2009

Human Rights Watch – UN: Use Upcoming Rights Review to Press North Korea – 3 December 2009

JoongAng Daily – North to be under UN rights review – 4 December 2009

Guinea Leader Wounded In Shooting

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

CONARKY, Guniea-Guinea’s military leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was shot and wounded in an attack on his presidential convoy in the nation’s capital, Conakry.  The attack was lead by a renegade faction of Guinea’s presidential guard. Only limied Information regarding the extent of Camara’s injuries has been made available. However reports have been made that the degree of harm was not severe.
Neighboring country, Senegal sent a medical plane to Conakry to bring Camara to Dakar. Camara’s Communications Minister, Idrissa Cherif said, “ the president of the republic is still the president of the republic and he is in good health.”

The shooting occurred after Camara had left the country’s main military barracks from where he has been running the country since leading a military coup that saw him seize power over eleven months ago. Upon leaving his barracks, he went downtown to a military camp, which is where the shooting took place.

This shooting comes at a time of great division within the country’s military and nation. Camara had promised to hold elections when he initially seized power. Not only has he delayed these elections, he has begun hinting that he plans to run for office. Upon the news of his alleged plans to run for election, mass protests erupted on September 28. In response to the protests the country’s presidential guard opened fire on the peaceful protesters, killing 157 people and further causing the current unrest in the country.

As a result of the massacre, sanctions were imposed on Guinea by the European Union, and the African union. Travel bans were also imposed on members of the military junta along with other sanctions.

For more information please see:

AP – Guinea’s President Wounded In Attack – 3 December 2009
CNN – Guniea Leader Survives Attack – 3 December 2009
BBC – Guinea’s Leader Shot and Wounded By Aide – 3 December 2009
Bloomberg – Junta Leader Camara Hurt In Shooting By Aide – 3 December 2009

Thousands of Palestinians Lost Residency Rights in East Jerusalem

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – The Israeli Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem of their residency rights during 2008, according to official state records released on December 3. The total was twenty-one times higher than the average number during the past forty years, and the highest total since the beginning of the Israeli rule over East Jerusalem.

 

The Interior Ministry said the drastic increase was due to an investigation into the legal status of thousands of East Jerusalem residents during March and April 2008. The Ministry said that most of those whose permits were revoked were no longer in Israel; ninety-nine were minors under the age of eighteen.

 

Israel began its rule over predominantly-Palestinian East Jerusalem after the 1967 War. During the first forty years of Israeli occupation, from 1967 to 2007, the Interior Ministry deprived a total of 8,558 Palestinians of their residency permits. Of all the Palestinians who lost their residency rights in the past forty-two years, 35% lost theirs in 2008.

 

Yotam Ben-Hillel, an attorney with Hamoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, said that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are treated the same as legal immigrants to Israel and are not entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return. Residents can easily lose their status, and once a Palestinian has lost his or her residency status, it can be extremely difficult or impossible to return to Jerusalem for any reason, even for a family visit.

 

“The list may include students who went for a few years to study in another country, and can no longer return to their homes,” said Ben-Hillel.

 

Those who had their residency permits revoked may not be associated with any other nation, so the individuals may now by stateless.

 

Palestinians have attacked the Interior Ministry’s actions, saying it undermines the feasibility of the Palestinian plan to have East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also excluded East Jerusalem from the recent freeze in settlement construction.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Financial Times – Israel Strips Thousands of Palestinians of Jerusalem Residency – 3 December 2009

 

Ha’aretz – Israel Stripped Thousands of Jerusalem Arabs of Residency in 2008 – 2 December 2009

 

Jordan Times – Israel Strips More Palestinians of Their Palestinian Status – 2 December 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Thousands in East Jerusalem Lost Residency Rights – 2 December 2009

New York State Senate Votes Against Same-Sex Marriage

03 December 2009

New York State Senate Votes Against Same-Sex Marriage

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

NEW YORK, United States – On Wednesday, the New York State Senate defeated legislation that would allow homosexuals to marry. The decisive defeat of the legislation ensures that the issue will not come up again until after the 2011 election when a new state legislature is elected.

After its passage in the New York Assembly, and with the approval of Governor David Paterson, the bill reached the State Senate. Supporters of the legislation hoped that they could garner enough votes to legalize same-sex marriage. However, the bill was defeated by a vote of thirty-eight to twenty-four. The vote was along party lines. All thirty Republican senators voted against the legislation. Those senators who were considered politically vulnerable also voted against the bill. The bill garnered most support from the senators representing New York City and Westchester County.

Supporters of the legislation expressed disappointment after defeat of the legislation. They believed that the bill had a good chance of being passed. The sponsor of the legislation, Senator Thomas Duane, felt betrayed in defeat. Senator Duane is New York’s first openly gay legislator. Governor Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg also expressed their disappointment in the defeat of the bill. State Senator Kevin S. Parker stated that “this is the worst example of political cowardice I’ve ever seen.”

The reason why so many supporters believed that the bill could be passed and felt betrayed in defeat was the actions taken by some conservative members who promised their support before the vote. Many of the previous supporters switched their votes on the floor of the Senate when they saw that bill would not overwhelmingly pass.

The opposition to the legislation was led by Senator Reuben Diaz, a conservative minister. Senator Diaz was the only senator opposing the bill to speak in debate on the legislation. Deputy Republican leader, Senator Tom Libous, believed that the issues surrounding the economy affected the vote.

Seven states have legalized same sex marriage since 2003. If New York passed the legislation, it would have become the eighth state. However, two of those states, California and Maine have rescinded their same-sex marriage laws.

For more information, please see:

AP – Gay-Marriage Opponents Welcome NY Bill’s Defeat – 3 December 2009

Huffington Post – New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage – 2 December 2009

NY Times – New York Senate Rejects Gay Marriage Bill – 2 December 2009

More Mistreatment Allegations at Bagram

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Although one of President Obama’s first actions in office was to be to eliminate the so-called “black jails” from Afghanistan, it seems a new facility has opened as a separate part of  the recently renovated Bagram Air-Base.  The President’s promise produced significant friction with another statement in which he granted the military commanders in Afghanistan great discretion in how best to execute the U.S.’s agenda in the war-torn nation.  Despite the U.S.‘s deference to its military in making such decisions, the government has come under much criticism on human rights grounds due to the soul-breaking conditions of “black jails.”

The term “black jails”, coined by detainees in such confines, refers to a holding cells with only one light-bulb, no windows, and no amenities whatsoever.  Inmates at Bagram Air-Base, the U.S.’s largest establishment in Afghanistan, have been known to be imprisoned in black jails for weeks at a time.  During this detainment period, black jail prisoners have no access to the Red Cross, media, civilians, or any other significant human contact.  Moreover, the black jails are not actually connected to the large Bagram Air-Base, which currently houses over 700 inmates.  

The practice of placing prisoners in black jails began with the Bush administration and was supposed to have ended with Obama’s entry into office.  The continuing practice of throwing prisoners in black jails also runs afoul of the Obama administrations proclaimed ends of increased transparency regarding operations in Afghanistan and the preservation of the dignity of Afghan detainees.  Particularly after the renovation of the Bagram Air-Base, in response to the sharp criticism of the international community and  human rights organizations, the Obama administration made numerous statements that it would rectify the evils perpetrated by the Bush administration.  However, it seems the tension with the leeway given to military officials has undermined this purpose.

The Bagram Air-Base has been used to house Afghan prisoners since the early 2000’s, and the main facility was infamous for being a worse prison than Guantanamo Bay.  Inmates at Bagram received even less rights than those held in Cuba, and the inhumane practices received far less attention, allowing them to continue much longer and more insidiously.  The facility was renovated earlier this year to accommodate an increase in troops.  The renovation brought with it promises of openness with regards to its operation and fair treatment of inmates.

Following reports of two younger inmates published in the Bagram black jail facing abuse and other mistreatment, there will sure be further scrutiny of the U.S. military practices in Afghanistan to ensure that the rights of prisoners are no longer violated.


For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – ‘Black jail’ at Bagram prison site – 29 November 2009

Mother Jones – The ‘Black Jail’ – 30 November 2009

The New York Times – Afghans Detail Detention in ‘Black Jail’ at U.S. Base – 29 November 2009