Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: R2P in Focus, Issue 1

Keeping mass atrocity prevention a priority for the next UN Secretary-General

UN Photo/Marco Castro

As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon approaches the end of his term, member states and civil society have campaigned for improved transparency in the selection process for the next Secretary-General. From 12 to 14 April the President of the General Assembly convened interactive dialogues with the nine candidates currently nominated for the position. Member states questioned the candidates on a wide range of global issues.

These dialogues presented an opportunity to encourage the candidates to ensure that R2P and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing remain a core priority of the UN. Spain and Mexico directly asked some candidates to explain how they would implement R2P in their work if elected. Four candidates, Dr. Igor Lukšić, Ms. Irina Bokova, Ms. Natalia Gherman and Dr. Srgjan Kerim, specifically mentioned R2P in their written statements and remarks.

During his term, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon worked to put “Human Rights up Front” in responding to grave violations of human rights. The next UN Secretary-General should continue efforts to keep mass atrocity prevention at the core of the UN’s mission. The next Secretary-General must emphasize the need for UN member states to consistently and comprehensively deliver on their commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

Global Centre Advocacy Highlights

Our Executive Director, Dr. Simon Adams, recently met with six of the candidates to convey how the next UN Secretary-General can prioritize implementation and operationalization of R2P and the prevention of mass atrocity crimes. For more information, see our story on Storify.

The Global Centre also co-signed a joint statement with Amnesty International, CIVICUS, FIDH, Human Rights Watch and the World Federalist Movement on priorities for a human rights agenda for the next Secretary-General. The Global Centre will continue to engage with candidates in the coming months.

Rounded Rectangle: View the Joint Statement

Sixth Annual Meeting of the Global Network of R2P Focal Points

The sixth annual meeting of the Global Network of R2P Focal Points will be held in Seoul from 20 to 22 June 2016. The government of the Republic of Korea is hosting the meeting in collaboration with the Global Centre. The focus of the meeting will be on practical implementation of R2P, including operational initiatives to strengthen national, regional and international capacities to prevent and halt mass atrocity crimes.

Syria Watch: ISIL’s Torture and Detention Centers “The Black Bottom”

ISIL’s Torture

SNHR issued ”The Black Bottom” report regarding ISIL’s torture and detention centers in Syria.
The report stated that ISIL had established secret or public detention centers in regions that are under its control to detain thousands of residents. Prisoners were incarcerated due to different accusations. Most of the times, criticizing ISIL’s oppressive policies was considered the main reason for arrests or abductions. Hence, the civil society and all popular movements were oppressed. To ISIL members or cadres, as long as people are abiding to their religious terms and not criticizing their ruling, then they can live peacefully under ISIL’s terms of living.
The report assured that ISIL has emerged due to decades of political conflicts and not just Islamic extremism. ISIL’s phenomena remain a complex one that cannot be limited to Jihadists or Salafists.
The report depended on SNHR daily documentation since 2011. They communicated with survivors from ISIL’s detention centers and with local residents and activists who live nearby those prisons. SNHR either met the eyewitnesses or residents or interviewed them via Skype or the phone.

SNHR team were not able to record all of ISIL’s detention centers or prisons, especially their secret ones. ISIL had resorted to secret jails after the international coalition commenced its airstrikes on Syria on 23 September 2014. They recorded the arrest of not less than 6318 individuals including 713 children and 647 women since ISIL was established on 9 April 2013 and up till 31 January 2016. They also estimated the enforced disappearance of more than 1188 individuals including 411 children and 87 women since 9 April 2014 and up till March 2016.The report was able to monitor 19 detention centers including some prisons, detailed as follows: Al Raqqa Governorate: 8 detention centers, Deir Al Zour Governorate: 6 detention centers, and Aleppo Governorate with 5 detention centers. While it estimated that ISIL has not less than 54 detention centers.

SNHR affirmed that ISIL had committed, beyond reasonable doubt, widespread violations against the international human rights law and the right of the people in the areas under its control, through arbitrary arrests, torture, and the application of the unjust provisions. Also, similar acts were made against the armed opposition groups, prisoners from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, and governmental forces. All those acts constitute war crimes under the International Humanitarian Law.
The report stated that ISIL exercised, within the detention centers of systematic torture, in the context of the large-scale in various areas controlled by them. The amount of crimes against humanity, and that some of the torture operations have ethnic and sectarian dimensions. Sometimes ISIL resorted to deforming the detainees’ bodies after execution orders.
The report recommended the international coalition forces that is led by the United State and the Russian forces to pay special attention to the detainees in ISIL prisons and all other different prisons and avoid committing the same mistakes that were made before, and to acquire information from SNHR’s report to protect the civilians who live under ISIL’s control

It also demanded the international community to provide all methods of support to Human Rights group in documenting the violations that are being committed by the extremist organization, and reveal their false allegations before the public opinion in Syria, and to build their capacity through substantial training and developing.
Finally, it indicated that the organization of ISIL was founded on 9 April 2013, two years and one month after the eruption of the popular protests that demanded political and economic reform. If the international community had supported popular protests, there would have been no existence to ISIL or Al Nussra Front, and that they cannot eliminate extremism and terrorism as long as political tyranny of the Assad regime exists.

ICTJ: World Report April 2016 – Transitional Justice News and Analysis

In Focus

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What is the Role of Truth Commissions in Peace Processes in Africa?What is the Role of Truth Commissions in Peace Processes in Africa?The African Union, the Kofi Annan Foundation and ICTJ opened a high-level conference examining the role of truth commissions in peace processes. The two-day conference, titled “Truth Commissions and Peace Processes in Africa,” has gathered senior staff from the African Union and member states as well as international and national experts to reflect on lessons learned from truth commissions that have emerged from peace processes in Africa and other continents.

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World Report

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AFRICAIn the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ICC approved the domestic trial of Congolese warlord Germain Katanga. In South Sudan, the UN has established a three-person commission to inquire into human rights abuses. Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested again for participating in an unlawful procession after being released from house arrest. In Mali, top military commander Souleymane Keita was arrested for his alleged role in the seizing of northern Mali in 2012. Burundi, plagued by violence and killings since April 2015, now welcomes UN police intervention. In Kenya, the ICC has abandoned its case against William Ruto, the country’s deputy president who was accused of orchestrating post-electoral violence in 2007.

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AMERICASIn Colombia, peace talks were announced between Colombia and the National Liberation Army guerrilla group. Colombian army general Henry Torres was arrested for his role in the killing of civilians ten years ago. In Argentina, U.S. President Barack Obama honored Dirty War victims and criticized the United States’ hesitancy to condemn the human rights abuses that occurred during Argentina’s dictatorship. An aboriginal community in Canada declared a state of emergency when five aboriginal children attempted to commit suicide in one night. In Mexico, a panel of international experts found that the government hampered the investigation into the 43 students who disappeared in the city of Iguala on September 26, 2014.

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ASIAIn Sri Lanka, the UN will support genuine consultations with victims and groups affected by the country’s conflict. In Nepal, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s demand of documents from the National Human Rights Commission sparked debate over the trustworthiness of the TRC. Meanwhile, questions persist around the CIEDP’s ability to deliver restorative justice. Nepalese conflict victims are demanding that transitional justice bodies act effectively to bring about justice. InMyanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed a new post “above the president” to solidify her power. Under her new government, many political prisoners were freed and two were jailed. In Indonesia, activistsurged the government to hold a truth and reconciliation process over massacres of 500,000 suspected communists during the 1960s.

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EUROPEIIn Serbia, Vojislav Seselj, a Serbian nationalist, was acquitted by the Hague Tribunal. The UN tribunal’s prosecutor will appeal the acquittal. Following Seselj’s acquittal & the sentencing of Radovan Karadžić last month, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic criticized the Hague tribunal for failing to punish war crimes in Kosovo. Meanwhile, Russian authorities are refusing to extraditeBosnia war crimes suspect Ratko Susnjar back to Bosnia and Herzegovina to face charges. A court inFrance has just ruled to extradite Radomir Susjnar, another Bosnian war criminal, back to Bosnia and Herzegovina to face prosecution.

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MENAUN-sponsored Syrian peace talks stalled as opposition negotiators delayed their participation in the formal process until officials representing President Bashar al-Assad agreed to discuss a transitional government, which they have so far refused to do. Meanwhile, peace talks aimed at ending civil war in Yemen failed to get off the ground as delegates representing the country’s Houthi rebels refused to attend. In Egypt, crackdowns on human rights defenders have escalated according to a report from a Cairo-based NGO. In Libya, the new U.N.-backed unity government will soon move into ministry buildings in Tripoli, despite the volatile security situation. On April 13, Lebanon commemorated the 41st anniversary of the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war. On this occasion, officials focused on the need to turn the page and emphasized the importance of reconciliation and the need to reinforce civil peace in order to guarantee non-recurrence of the war.

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Publications

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The Case for Action on Transitional Justice and DisplacementThis briefing paper calls on the international community to use the time and presence of refugees to help shape the outcomes of crises while they are ongoing.

Challenging the Conventional: Can Truth Commissions Strengthen Peace Processes?This joint report by ICTJ and the Kofi Annan Foundation explores common assumptions about why truth commissions are created in the wake of armed conflict and what factors make them more likely to succeed – or fail.

Syria Deeply Weekly Update: Women of Daraya: Help Us ‘Avoid Another Madaya’

WEEKLY UPDATE
April 23, 2016

Dear Readers,Welcome to the weekly Syria Deeply newsletter. We’ve rounded up the most important stories and developments about Syria and the Syrians in order to bring you valuable news and analysis.

Women of Daraya: Help Us ‘Avoid Another Madaya’

With their launch of an awareness campaign highlighting deteriorating health conditions in Daraya, a Damascus suburb under government siege for more than three years, a group of women hope to prevent yet another humanitarian disaster.

Syrian women carry a banner in Arabic that reads:” The women of Daraya want an end to the siege,” as they protest in Daraya on Monday, April 25, 2011. (AP Photo)

Women’s Advisory Board in Geneva Sparks Controversy

After being repeatedly accused of sidelining the role and demands of Syrian women at the negotiation table in Geneva, the U.N. established the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board to consult with special envoy Staffan de Mistura. But the board’s makeup has caused outrage in some sections of Syrian society.

Syrian women wait outside a bakery shop to buy bread in Maaret Misreen, near Idlib, on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

36 Mass Graves Uncovered in Deir Ezzor: Activists

Members of an underground activist network named “Deir Ezzor is Being Slaughtered Silently” have scoured government and ISIS-controlled territories across the oil-rich province and discovered 36 mass graves – allegedly the grisly work of extremist militants and government forces.

ISIS militants parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq, in June 2014. (AP Photo/File)

More Recent Stories to Look Out for at Syria Deeply:

Find our new reporting and analysis every weekday at www.syriadeeply.org.
You can reach our team with any comments or suggestions at info@newsdeeply.org.

Top image: A refugee from Syria, takes a picture of his family by the border fence near a makeshift migrant and refugee camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)