Factors affecting Syrian Female Minors
Germany cracks down on far-left internet platforms
By: Sara Adams
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Europe
BERLIN, Germany – The German government shut down a far-left anti-capitalist website on August 25th.
The crackdown on extremism comes several weeks after anti-capitalist groups stormed the G20 summit in Hamburg. In July, the groups clashed with police, ending in violence between the two parties.
At the summit, hundreds of anti-capitalist protestors descended on Hamburg. The protestors lit cars on fire and looted near where the world leaders were convening.
The police used water cannons and tear gas to disburse the protestors. The skirmish ended with 76 police officers injured. An unknown number of protestors were injured as well.
Germany decided to take down the websites they alleged had ties to the violence at the G20 summit. The main website, linksunten.indymedia.org, was said to have been used to organize the unauthorized protest in Hamburg.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters that the websites were taken offline because they were “sowing hate against different opinions and state officials.”
While there is a Constitutional right to freedom of expression and right to peaceably assemble in Germany, de Maiziere argues that the “alt-left” websites are outside the realm of constitutional protection.
Defining the online portal as an “association” rather than a media outlet is one way the websites are not protected.
As an association, Constitutional applications are less strict. A postwar statute criminalized inciting hatred against “segments of the population.” Since the websites are not considered media outlets, they run counter to the criminal codes.
According to authorities, officers searched the home of the websites operator. They seized laptops and minor weapons like knives and pipes.
Authorities have been grabbling with the rise of digital platforms for extremist views since the recent rise of the “alt-right” both in western Europe and elsewhere. Germany has already banned a far-right website, taking “Altermedia Deutschland” offline in January.
But this is one of the first reported aimed at “leftist” groups. One of the main reasons for such was the resonance of encouraging violence online. It was alleged that one of the websites shut down had instructions on building a Molotov cocktail, along with calling police officers “murderers” and “pigs.”
Spokesperson Ula Jelpke for German political party The Left, has called the decision an “illegitimate act of censorship.”
De Maiziere disagrees, saying that the websites “legitimize violence against police officers,” and that “this is absolutely unacceptable and incompatible with our liberal democratic order.”
For more information, please see:
The New York Times – Germany, in a First, Shuts Down Left-Wing Extremist Website – 25 August 2017
BBC News – Germany bans far-left protest website over G20 riots – 25 August 2017
Reuters – Germany Bans Far-Left Website After G20 Violence – 25 August 2017
Reuters – Dozens of police injured in G20 protests as Merkel seeks consensus – 6 July 2017
The Guardian – G20 protests: police fire water cannon into anti-capitalist rally – 6 July 2017
CNN – G20 protests: Police, demonstrators clash in Germany – 6 July 2017
Vehicular terror attack in Barcelona leaves Spain shaken
By: Sara Adams
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Europe
BARCELONA, Spain – It was yet another day of terror in the world on August 17th as a van rammed into tourists in Barcelona.
It was the deadliest terror attack in Spain since 2004, when nearly 200 people were killed in an attack on commuter trains in Madrid.
A van plowed into crowds walking on one of Barcelona’s most popular tourist areas, Las Ramblas. 13 people were dead while over 100 were left wounded by the attack.
South of Barcelona, another victim was hit by a second attacker. The victim died from the injuries she sustained in the attack.
Five of the attackers have been shot dead by Barcelona police. Four other suspects have been detained across the Catalan region in Spain.
The attack on Las Ramblas was set into motion when a house in the Spanish countryside was destroyed by a bomb on the previous night. Police suspected the house was part of a terror ring, and that it was used to make bombs. One person died in the explosion. Another was critically wounded.
While terror group ISIS has stated that the attackers were “soldiers of the Islamic State”, they have offered no proof of such.
People from 34 different countries have been reported among the victims. Of those, one 7-year-old boy from Australia remains missing. Australia’s prime minister Malcom Turnbull told the Tasmanian State Liberal Conference that attacks by vehicles are becoming the “new approach to terrorism.”
Indeed, this attack settles in as the sixth of its kind in the past year. Similar terror attacks were carried out in Nice, Berlin, London, and Stockholm all within the past thirteen months.
Vehicles, once considered safe, have become a mode of weaponry unexpected by experts.
One reason for this may be the fact that it is difficult to protect against attacks by vehicles. Automobiles are on every street, and people trust that drivers will follow the rules of the road. Any accidents are considered random, not targeted as an attack.
Turning vehicles into weapons may increase fear and distrust among individuals. Terror groups seek to instill fear into victims, and cars may be seen as a way to increase that fear.
“This kind of attack, using one of the most ordinary objects of daily life, could heighten that effect,” writes Amanda Taub for the New York Times.
Yet these attacks have brought people together, especially in Barcelona. People united on Las Ramblas shortly after the attacks to honor the victims.
“No tinc por!” crowds chanted in Catalan after a moment of silence. Translated, the chant states, “I’m not afraid!”
For more information, please see:
The New York Times – Van Hits Pedestrians in Deadly Barcelona Terror Attack – 17 August 2017
NBC News – Spain Terror: American Among 14 Killed in Van and Car Attacks – 18 August 2017
CNN – Deadly Barcelona attack is worst day of violence in Spain – 18 August 2017
BBC News – Barcelona and Cambrils attacks: ‘I’m not afraid’ – 18 August 2017
CNN – Spain attacks: Police hunt Barcelona driver, probe suspected bomb factory – 19 August 2017
Syria Deeply: The many battles against ISIS: Lebanese-Syrian border, Deir Ezzor and Raqqa
|
|
International Center for Transitional Justice: World Report August 2017 – Transitional Justice News and Analysis
ICTJ World Report
View this email in your web browser.
ICTJ World Report
August 2017
In Focus
“This Is Us”: White Supremacy in the United StatesIn the wake of Charlottesville, some took to Twitter to distance the United States from the white supremacist march using #ThisIsNotUs. But this is us, writes Virginie Ladisch, and white Americans have an obligation to educate themselves about the history and persistence of white supremacy in their country.
Subscribe
Forward to a Friend Do you know someone that may be interested in the ICTJ newsletter?
View Newsletter Archive
World Report
AfricaMillions of citizens voted in the presidentital election in Kenya amidst fears of a recurrence of voter-fraud and widespread violence that marked past elections. Opposition leader Raila Odinga claimed “massive” fraud following the reelection of Uhuru Kenyatta, leading to protests. At least five died in the aftermath. Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court ordered to review the case of Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Cote d’Ivoire who is being charged for crimes against humanity, to determine whether or not he should be released from detention while still on trial. A notorious warlord wanted for crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, surrendered to UN peacekeepers and was transferred to stand trial for his allegations. Prosecutors at the ICC have endorsed 121 witnesses, including some forced wives, in the trial of Dominic Ongwen, a former child soldier turned rebel commander accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda. An estimated 80,000 apartheid victims still have not benefited from the special reparations fund issued by the Department of Justice in South Africa through the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, and reported struggling financially with the minimal compensation awarded to them. The Minister of Federal Government in Sudan renewed its efforts to involve armed movements in national peace processes, and to reintegrate demobilized fighters into all states. The proposed genocide apology from Germany for colonial-era massacres committed in Namibia from 1904 to 1908 has been delayed, further impeding upon redress for the approximately 75,000 victims killed by German authorities. The United Nations announced that it was investigating mass graves found in a town in Mali, where various human rights abuses were also discovered by the UN mission in the country over competition for land control.
Americas Colombia’s transitional justice system received case files on 12,000 alleged military criminals and is in the process of verifying which cases qualify as war crimes. The country will institute a transitional justice tribunal and truth commission in the coming months following the selection of judges. The UN also removed more than 7,000 weapons from demobilization zones where former FARC guerillas handed their arms over under the peace deal. Governments in the Caribbean strengthened pressure on Europe to pay reparations for human rights violations committed during the transatlantic slave trade, and included Norway and Sweden in their list of countries to be held accountable. Nurses of the Canadian Association of Perinatal and Women’s Health in Canada are working to seek justice for the hundreds of Indigenous women victims who were forcibly sterilized in Canadian hospitals in the 1970s, and to raise awareness about health care discrimination against Indigenous women specifically. Ottawa also announced its first Indigenous court, which is meant to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s criminal justice system. In Argentina, four former federal judges in Argentina were sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s last dictatorship
AsiaThe International Commission of Jurists urged reform in Nepal’s transitional justice measures in a discussion paper focused on the inclusion of victims and human rights organizations. Likewise, the budget for rehabilitation allotted for more than seven hundred kamaiya families in the country reportedly failed to utilize 120 million of its rupees or reach just land compensation, but government officials are working on special programs to settle the freed communities. An International Crisis Group report revealed that Tamil speaking women in Sri Lanka are still seeking truth and justice for wartime human rights violations, and that little has been accomplished to reach reconciliation among communities. Aung San Suu Kyi encouraged national dialogue and the inclusion of the military in Myanmar’s move to civilian rule at the Forum on Myanmar Democratic Transition. Meanwhile in the country, women continue to struggle to have their voices heard in peace processes, and are building a rights movement to access full participation.
EuropeA court in Kosovo ruled to detain Agim Sahitaj for committing war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians in 1999. The proposed Albanian language law in Macedonia that came from the country’s 2001 Ohrid peace accord and would extend the use of Albanian throughout the region, is set to appear before parliament for adoption soon. The initial releases of the approximately 6,000 men and women held in the Omarska detention camp in Bosnia in 1992 was commemorated on the sixth of August, and victims and other civilians honored those who died under the command of the Bosnian Serb forces. Poland demanded compensation from Germany for World War II damages, claiming that the country has failed to take full political, moral, and financial responsibility.
MenaFollowing protests, Tunisia‘s parliament delayed voting on a bill that calls for amnesty for former public officials accused of corruption during the rule of president Ben Ali. President Michel Aoun of Lebanon visited the historic region of Chouf to celebrate the 16th anniversary of reconciliation between Christian and Druze communities in Mount Lebanon that facilitated co-existence following the country’s Civil War. German prosecutors arrested a 29-year-old man from Syria for alleged war crimes that he committed with the Islamic State after he joined in 2014.
Publications
Not Without Dignity: Views of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon on Displacement, Conditions of Return, and CoexistenceDiscussions about a future return of refugees and coexistence among groups currently at war in Syria must begin now, even in the face of ongoing violence and displacement.
Lessons in Truth-Seeking: International Experiences Informing United States InitiativesThis report disscusses the Greensboro Truth and Reonciliation Commission’s Final Report on the 1979 killings of five anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstrators. It focuses on a meeting of representatives from truth recovery efforts around the world to assess the Greensboro experience.
More Publications Upcoming Events
Negotiating Peace and Justice: ICTJ’s 2017 Intensive Course on Transitional Justice and Peace Processes Location: Barcelona, Spain View Details
22nd Workshop in Budapest: Practices of Memory and Knowledge Production Location: Budapest, Hungary View Details
More Events
Copyright 2011 International Center for Transitional Justice Unsubcribe from this newsletter.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to our mailing list.
ICTJ | 40 Fulton Street, Floor 20 | New York, NY USA 10038 | Tel: +1 917 637 3800
