I would like to draw your attention to the latest issue of our publication, R2P Monitor.
R2P Monitor is a bimonthly bulletin applying the Responsibility to Protect lens to populations at risk of mass atrocities around the world. Issue 29 looks at developments in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burundi. To read R2P Monitor please access the document via the following link: R2P Monitor, Issue 29.
Issue 29 also includes an insert regarding states that have endorsed the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians. For more information on the Kigali Principles, see: Peacekeeping and the Kigali Principles.
I hope you will find this edition a useful tool as we work together to prevent and halt mass atrocity crimes.
Duterte’s ‘War on Drugs’ Brings Dictatorship Methods Back to the PhilippinesIn less than two months since the inauguration of Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines some 1,900 people have been killed at the hands of the police and death squads for suspected drug dealing or drug addiction. These unlawful murders echo the pattern of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings that the country suffered under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
In South Africa, Education as Redress Has Seen Mixed ResultsCan education help right the wrongs of the past, especially when the majority of the population was affected by those wrongs? Teboho Moja examines that question in the context of South Africa, where efforts to reform a discriminatory educational system and redress its consequences have been met with mixed results.
Colombia’s Chance to Fulfill its Historic Obligations to the DisappearedThousands have disappeared during Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict. As the government and FARC agree to a new peace deal, they have agreed to the creation of a special unit that will search for, locate and identify the disappeared. What do victims expect from this new body?
The Case for Action on Transitional Justice and DisplacementAs many European countries were beginning to emerge from the depths of the financial problems caused by the 2008 global crash, a new crisis emerged threatening to envelop the continent: the displacement of huge numbers of people fleeing humanitarian disasters in the Middle East and Africa and a slew of related political, financial, and security problems.
Education and Transitional Justice: Opportunities and Challenges for PeacebuildingThis report, part of a joint research project by ICTJ and UNICEF on the intersections of education, transitional justice, and peacebuilding, explores how a transitional justice framework can help to identify educational deficits relating to the logic of past conflict and/or repression and inform the reconstruction of the education sector.
Bogota, Colombia—The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, acknowledged in a public statement on Thursday, the governments role in the assassination of leftist activists in the 1980s. The statement precedes the peace accord signing between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government.
President Santos confirms the involvement of the Colombian government in the killings of thousands. (Picture Courtesy of The Wire)
After the peace agreements of the 1980s between the government and the FARC, the FARC formed the Patriotic Union (UP) political party. The political party was very successful in the 1986 election. Right-wing paramilitary groups, with government backing, assassinated thousands of its members and leaders, including the president of the UP, Jaime Pardo. An estimated 5,000 people were killed. A moment in history the FARC continues pin point during the new peace accord.
President Santos stated, “the tragedy should never have happened, and we must recognize that the government didn’t take sufficient measures to impede and prevent the assassinations, attacks, and other violations even though there was evidence the persecution was taking place.” He spoke in front of 200 survivors and family members of the UP—some wore shirts saying “They can cut the flowers, but they can’t stop the birth of spring.”
Santos continued by stating, “I make the solemn commitment before you today to take all the necessary measures and to give all the guarantees to make sure that never again in Colombia will a political organization have to face what the UP suffered.” President Santos has promised the safety and the protection of the FARC through the process.
Similarly, the FARC on Monday released a statement apologizing for the various kidnappings they committed in order to sustain themselves as a group. The FARC kidnapped thousands for ransom, including members of the elite.
The conflict in Colombia will soon come to end after the peace accords are signed on the 26th of September. The people of Colombia will vote on October 2, deciding whether to accept the peace accords.
Introduction and Methodology
Since the Russian attacks began in Syria, SNHR has issued 16 different reports on incidents that involved bombing civil targets in opposition-held and ISIS-held areas. These attacks have caused casualties, destruction, and displacement that constitute war crimes.
We focused in some of the previous reports on major massacres in particular, and we will devote the 17th report to document the targeting of medical centers. This report is an update on a previous report that documents the targeting of medical centers particularly by Russian forces. The first report “The Grozny Holocaust in Aleppo”, published on 19 February 2016, documents the bombing of 27 medical centers.
