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| ICTJ World Report July 2017 |
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Social media gives voice to creative expression in ways that news media could never convey. Photographers may capture destroyed buildings and bloody casualties but through an artist’s eyes you feel the story in a way that is truly personal. Art can be disturbing and healing both in its’ creation and through the experience of the viewer. Artist Moustafa Jacoub of Syria has a profound way of contrasting the humanitarian crises with the universal desire to dream and play.
Whatever your personal interpretation may be, the feelings are universal within each of us.
We experience earthly angst and sublime beauty with a backdrop of sun and stars as our planet floats through time.
We may be refugees from our place of origin, immigrants traveling across eternity, but there is a place within each of us that is home…
In that place we are all connected despite the circumstances of our personal lives.
Compassion is the thread that stitches the seams of our torn reality.
Rise for Syria is a powerful, citizen-driven initiative to alleviate suffering for those who have lost their homes and are traumatized by the war. Even the smallest amount of generosity will go a long way to helping people heal and rebuild their lives!
By: Brian Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar – Myanmar’s government stated that it will not allow members of the United Nations to enter the country to investigate potential human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims.
The United Nations Human Rights Council report which was prepared in February stated that thousands of civilians are getting killed and raped by Myanmar’s soldiers. Then in March, three legal experts and human rights advocates were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to lead the operation to investigate the alleged violations.
Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, denied the Council’s request to investigate in May and stated that it is not in keeping “with what is actually happening on the ground.” She further denied “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims and stated that “ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening.” The government has previously denied human rights violations by stating that it was “propaganda.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has been condemned for failing to protect more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. Historically, Myanmar has not recognized Rohingya Muslims as an ethnic group and treated them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya Muslim minority suffers from discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. In 2012, around 140,000 – mostly Rohingya – were forced to leave their homes.
Myanmar officials maintains that a domestic investigation is being conducted under the leadership of the former lieutenant general and Vice President, Myint Swe. He has stated that the United Nations fact-finding mission will not contribute to their current internal investigation.
For more information, please see:
AP – Myanmar to bar UN human rights investigators from entering – 30 June, 2017
By: Max Cohen
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CARACAS, Venezuela – On June 28th the Venezuelan Supreme Court, controlled by Maduro loyalists, froze the assets of Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz and have banned her from leaving the country. The United Nations expressed concern over this act, and urged the Venezuelan government to abide by the rule of law and allow for peaceful protests. Attorney General Diaz stood against Maduro’s government in March when the Supreme Court attempted to strip the opposition controlled Congress of its powers. She has also recently accused Maduro’s government of committing “state terrorism” based on the response of authorities to antigovernment protests. Her court hearing is currently scheduled for July 4th. Attorney General Diaz has also asked the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights for protection.
The Supreme Court of Venezuela has also attempted to strip Attorney General Diaz’s powers by giving Tarek William Saab, a Maduro loyalist and ombudsman, the ability to conduct criminal investigations. Diaz has rejected the ruling, claiming that it gives the power to investigate human rights abuses to the abusers themselves.
A day after this, Attorney General Diaz’s office officially charged Antonio Benavides, the former head of Venezuela’s National Guard, with human rights abuses after months of protests have left approximately 80 people dead. Ortega’s office has claimed that abuses by police are responsible for 23 of those deaths. Benavides was removed from his post last week, but since then he has been reassigned as head of Venezuela’s Capital District government. He was also one of seven individuals sanctioned in 2015 by then US President Barack Obama for human rights abuses.
Approximately one year ago, an American named Josh Holt was arrested in Venezuela on weapons charges. Although, because he hasn’t been given any preliminary hearings makes US officials doubt the reasons behind his detention. Holt had traveled to Venezuela to marry Thamara Candelo, a woman he had met online while practicing his Spanish. Currently, all that’s known is that he’s being held in a prison run by Venezuela’s intelligence police. Maduro has blamed the United States for the protests within his country, although whether this is the reasoning remains to be seen.
For more information, please see:
Santa Fe New Mexican – Utah man stuck in Venezuela jail – 30 June, 2017
The Atlantic – Venezuela’s Ex-Security Chief Charged With Human Rights Violations – 30 June, 2017
BBC – Venezuela crisis: Attorney general banned from leaving country – 29 June, 2017
FREDERICK K. COX INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTER Founder/Advisor |
War Crimes Prosecution Watch
Volume 12 – Issue 10 |
Editor-in-Chief James Prowse Technical Editor-in-Chief Managing Editors |
War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type “subscribe” in the subject line.
Opinions expressed in the articles herein represent the views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the War Crimes Prosecution Watch staff, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law or Public International Law & Policy Group.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Lake Chad Region — Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon
Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)
Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal
War Crimes Investigations in Burma
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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