French National Assembly Approves Same-Sex Marriage Bill

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France – On Saturday, France’s National Assembly approved legislation that will allow gay couples to get married and adopt children. The Assembly approved the bill despite enormous protests that lured hundreds of thousands of people in Paris to oppose the new proposal.

Parisians show their support for the legalisation of gay marriage and LGBT parenting. (Photo Courtesy of RT)

President Françoise Hollande’s socialist party and their left-wing supporters supported the same-sex marriage provisions. Conversely, the UMP – the party of former President Nicholas Sarkozy – and many centrists MP opposed the bill.

However, despite opposition, deputies voted 249-97 in favor of redefining marriage as a contract between two people, rather than just between a man and a woman.

The same-sex bill celebrates one of France’s biggest social reforms since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira stated, “We are happy and proud to have taken this first step. We are going to establish the freedom for everyone to choose his or her partner for a future together.”

Christophe Barbier, editor of the influential L’Express weekly news magazine and a supporter of the law, said, “Marriage should be a simple contract between two individuals. Let’s make it available to all couples eager to make this contract to each other.”

However, those who opposed the legislation maintain that their movement is not homophobic. Rather, the legalization of gay adoption breaks down the traditional family, and the legislation that gives gay couples the right to adopt will remove the fundamental right of a child to have a mother and a father.

Spokesman for the anti camp called “manif pour tous,” Tugdual Derville, stated, “We must think of future generations. Not only of the desires of adults today.”

Protestors chant, “Une mère, un mari, un mariage” (One mother, one husband, one marriage).

UMP MP, Philippe Gosselin, believes the legislation is opening a gate of trends of which the French people do not approve. He states, “Today it is marriage and adoption. Tomorrow it will be medically assisted conception and surrogate mothers.”

Furthermore, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, argued that redefining marriage would “open the door to incest and polygamy.”

Other countries in Western Europe, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, already legalized same-sex marriage. However, France demonstrated the largest disapproval.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – France’s Parliament Approves Gay Marriage Article – 2 February 2013

Expatica – Gay Pride As France Lays Foundation For Same Sex Marriage – 2 February 2013

NBC News – Why Some In Supposedly Liberal France Are Up In Arms About Gay Marriage – 2 February 2013

RT – French National Assemble Approves Gay Marriage Law – 2 February 2013

Syria Revolution Digest: 31 January 2013

Random In Tandem!

Syrian Revolution Digest – January 31, 2013 

Some claim that dialogue will kill the revolution. Others assert that the armed struggle has already killed the revolution, but what’s really killing the revolution is failure to coordinate and to realize that a revolution, by its very nature, is a multi-track venture, involving politics and culture, as well as bullets.

 

Thursday January 31, 2013

 

Today’s Death Toll: 105 martyrs, including 4 children, 3 women and 3 deaths under torture: 58 in Damascus and Suburbs; 13 in Idlib; 12 in Aleppo; 12 in Homs; 4 in Daraa; 3 in Deir Ezzor; 1 in Quneitra; 1 in Hama; 1 Hasakeh (LCCs).

 

Points of Random Shelling: 337 points, including 15 points that were shelled by warplanes and helicopter gunships, 2 points using cluster bombs, 8 points with barrel bombs, 145 points using heavy caliber artillery where the most intensified were documented in Damascus Suburbs, 116 points were targeted with mortar and 57 points with rockets (LCCs).

 

Clashes: FSA rebels clashed with the regime forces in 145 locations. Sucessful operations included shooting down two warplanes in Damascus, in Harran Al-Awameed and the Dumair Airport. In Damascus Suburbs rebels also attacked regime checkpoints in Ain Tarma, shelled the military barrack located at the entrance of Yarmouk Camp, and targeted the Fakhoukh checkpoint located between the villages of Halboun and Wafra in the Qalamoun Region to the north (LCCs).

 

News

Syria warns of “surprise” response to Israel attack Damascus could take “a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes”, Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said a day after Israel struck against Syria.

Syria’s Confirmation of Strike May Add to Tension With Israel Most experts agree that Syria, Hezbollah and Israel each have strong reasons to avoid a new active conflict right now… But it is equally clear that Hezbollah — backed by Syria and Iran — wants desperately to upgrade its arsenal in hopes of changing the parameters for any future engagement with the powerful Israeli military, and that Israel is determined to stop it. And Hezbollah is perhaps even more anxious to gird itself for future challenges to its primacy in Lebanon, especially if a Sunni-led revolution triumphs next door in Syria.

Jordan Islamist sees clash with secular Syrian rebels Mohammed Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, said Islamist fighters with groups such as the Nusra Front, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization, had refused offers to join the rebel Free Syrian Army in return for pay and weapons. If Assad is overthrown, he told Reuters, the Free Syrian Army, or elements within it ideologically hostile to the Nusra Front, would immediately order Islamist groups to disarm. “Then there will be a confrontation between us and losses will rise, but I don’t want to pre-empt events,” he said.

Syrian opposition chief sets conditions for talks Khatib said via his Facebook page he was ready for dialogue with officials from Assad’s regime subject to conditions, including that “160,000 detainees” are released and that passports for exiled citizens be renewed in embassies abroad… Khatib said on his Facebook page that he rejected being subject to “intellectual terrorism” in putting forward the controversial proposal. “If anyone thinks that no Syrian wants to hear such ideas, he is deluded,” he added.

Syria mediator will not return to Damascus, guarded on talks “It is worthy of note,” Brahimi said of a statement by Syrian National Council leader Moaz al-Khatib that he was “ready for direct discussions” outside of Syria. But the UN-Arab League envoy said the reaction of the government and other opposition figures would be crucial.

 

Raw: Dutch student’s relief effort in Syria (Video)

Photos: An up-close account of death in Damascus

 

Special Reports

Kamal Allabwani: Can the Syrian Opposition Coalition be fixed?

Currently, members of the Coalition are unqualified for even the simplest political tasks; their experience and political culture are superficial. We must move toward a new government that will overcome the incompetency of this Coalition, and advance the revolution. We went to the previous Friends of Syria meeting in Marrakesh without a government and we will go to Paris without a government as well, despite the fact that we know that the international support is conditional upon building a political and civil administration. The compromises inherent in the Coalition have crippled it, and we have inflicted further losses on the revolution because of the process of formation and defects in its basic structure. Because we transferred the internal structure, or every mechanism of disruption, that the Syrian National Council suffered from to the Syrian Opposition Coalition, we have lowered the bar of achievement.

Syrian Spillover: Perspectives from Neighboring States

As the Assad regime continues its bloody campaign to remain in power, Washington Institute scholars assess the impact of current and potential spillover on Syria’s neighbors, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.

INSIGHT: Russia’s Many Interests in Syria

…the hopes that President Vladimir Putin will finally budge on his support for the Syrian regime are unwarranted. Russia is unlikely to change its position given that its interests in Syria are not only military and strategic, but also commercial and cultural.

Aid Groups in Syria Use Diverging Methods to Deliver Supplies

The United Nations says an international donor conference has raised about $500 million for humanitarian relief efforts inside war-ravaged Syria. Most of those funds are likely to go to aid agencies operating out of Damascus under official Syrian government supervision. But some relief workers say unofficial methods are better for reaching many Syrians in need of help.

Jennifer Rubin: Syrian slaughter: Numbers too large to conceive

A coincidence becomes a cruel joke in this case as “President Obama pledged an additional $155 million in humanitarian aid for Syria on Tuesday.” Really, the problem isn’t enough humanitarian aid? Don’t get me wrong — that is needed but what would be better, of course, would be some definitive U.S. action to stem the mass murder. Aid is for victims; U.S. action would be to prevent more victims.

How Israel’s air strike could help Syria

Though it’s unlikely that this changes anything dramatically, the strike allows Assad and company to, at least for the moment, emphasize a shared mission of “resistance and self-defense” against Israel. For Iran and Hezbollah, that’s likely a much more palatable reason to help Assad than is the true mission of saving his regime from the popular uprising that became a civil war. Any boost this gives to Assad’s alliances will likely be more about appearances than the underlying fundamentals of the conflict. The civil war is still bloody, costly, and overwhelmingly about fighting Syrian rebels, not Israeli air force jets. Still, in the ideologically charges Middle East, these things can matter.

Drowning in the flood: Foreign governments and agencies are failing Syria’s refugees

Agencies and host countries are struggling to cope. Most of the refugees are women and children. In Lebanon there are no official camps, so they lodge with families. Conditions in camps in Jordan and Iraq are grim. Earlier this year rainstorms and even snowy blizzards turned some camps into quagmires. Children died of cold. Some tents went up in flames as refugees stoked fires inside them to be warm. The plight of an estimated 2m Syrians displaced inside the country is even worse.

 

Who’s the Boss?

 

Speculations by some regime insiders, which they expressed on social media over the last 24 hours, assert that the Assad regime’s claim that a research facility was attacked by Israeli jets rather than a military convoy reveals that the regime in fact had no idea that Hezbollah operatives in Syria were arranging for transfer of sophisticated weaponry to their bases in Lebanon. If this is true, then, Syria is truly becoming a theater for operations by external forces of all kinds at this stage, and Assad, as I have argued earlier, is only a necessary but disposable placeholder at this stage. In the background, Iranian advisers must be busy setting up a new system designed to outlive regimefall and keep Iran’s relevant to the unfolding processes through the creation of a loyalist militias made up mostly of Alawite recruits.

 

A Political Solution?

 

I am all for a political solution at this stage, but those who call for such a solution then say that an arms embargo on both sides is necessary to enable it fail to understand the psyche of the combatants, especially those on Assad’s side. The reality is the real obstacle to serious talks in Syria is the regime itself, much more so than rebel intransigence or opposition incompetence. The Assad Camp still believe that events can be rolled back and that the regime under Assad leadership can and should survive. The idea of compromise is not an acceptable outcome for them, because they have long developed a belief that concessions, marginalization and defeat amount to the same thing. This mentality cannot be challenged until military realities on the ground have dramatically changed in favor of the rebels, including finding ways to neutralize Assad’s air superiority. Until this happens, no serious dialogue, hence no political solution, is possible.

 

Increased militarization at a time when opposition leader, Moaz Al-Khatib, has come out in favor of a conditional dialogue, might seem counterintuitive to some, but that’s only because their basic proposition about this conflict tend to be theoretical and fundamentally flawed. In fact, now that the international community has a credible partner in Moaz Al-Khatib, one who is willing to bravely go against the prevailing assumptions in his camp in order to seek resolution to the current crisis, the international community can now begin to seriously hedge its bets on the opposition. Facilitating a flow of weapons into the hands of moderate rebels will only enhance Moaz’s standing among them, allowing him to emerge as a leader with relevance on the ground, capable of delivering on promises when the time comes for transitioning beyond Assad rule.

 

Now more than ever, we have to think outside the usual box. Arab media report that Moaz Al-Khatib will be taking part on Friday in a meeting putting him together with American VP, Jo Biden, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and UN envoy Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

 

 Video Highlights

 

Despite the ongoing shelling of their town, members of the local town council of Daraya, Damascus Suburbs, held their first even press conference, and briefed attending journalists on the conditions in the town and the nature of ongoing clashes with the regimehttp://youtu.be/nz7D2gcLw-g Rebels vow to continue their resistance. Scenes from the ongoing clashes in Daraya: a sniper targets but misses a local photographer http://youtu.be/BZlNO4Uw3II Attacking the regime’s marauding tanks http://youtu.be/ph37HXg6gqw keeping them at the outskirts of the town http://youtu.be/v7z0VsWd8pI But more than 80 days of bombardment have taken their toll http://youtu.be/HDuTbiKKvjE

 

Elsewhere in Damascus City, local activists in Al-Qadam find a number of unidentified bodies belonging to people who seem to have been summarily executed by pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/VCRL3lT9W7o And the pounding continues http://youtu.be/duimowBab10 ,http://youtu.be/I13fz43fVcg , http://youtu.be/L7cPdTePhHU Homes catch on fire http://youtu.be/S02UmBodu54 The neighborhood of Midan is also targeted http://youtu.be/uvyBRSgCHCI Nearby town of Harasta, Eastern Ghoutah, witnesses intense clashes http://youtu.be/CIG83nJh4Jw ,http://youtu.be/ba1kK4Jbuhg

 

The attack on the town of Karnaz, Hama, continues http://youtu.be/7hv5zbE82D4 , http://youtu.be/fHClovDNtj8 , http://youtu.be/dm4MjvOEHCsRebels try to take down overflying warplanes http://youtu.be/jXuykqdU_-g

 

In Aleppo City, locals hold a mass funeral for the 80 victims of the Boustan Al-Qasr massacre http://youtu.be/fQc5oBZ92EI ,http://youtu.be/jKS2zBzwfH4

Human Rights Watch Releases Annual World Report

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

A couple of days ago, Human Rights Watch issued its twenty-third annual world report for 2013. A large portion of the six-hundred and sixty-five page report centered around the Arab Spring and its effects on the Middle East.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch hopes that the newly implemented governments will not fail their human rights obligations. (Photo Courtesy of the Daily Star Lebanon)

When the Arab Spring started, the initial hope was that the uprisings would lead to the beginning of legitimate democracies. Presently, in many states there is a fear that the ousting of the old authoritarian regimes will only lead to authoritarian regimes of different forms.

It is far too early to judge exactly what the spring has given birth to yet. The world must wait to see how these new governments will respect their citizens human rights. Appropriate efforts would include the installation of a professional police force, creation of independent courts, and the prudence of the majority not to abuse the rights of minority factions.

The report highlights the difficulty for these new governments to develop the necessary institutions for a successful democracy. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, stated that, “[t]he path ahead may be treacherous, but the alternative is to consign entire countries to a grim future of oppression.”

The report specifically looks at several countries in its exposé on human rights. A few of such countries include Egypt, Syria, and Libya.

Human Rights Watch analyzed the effect that Egypt’s new constitution has on the countries future. It praised its efforts to clearly terminate the practices of arbitrary detention and torture, but feared that far too many of its provisions pertaining to family, religion, and speech were vague. Such undisciplined drafting may allow for abuses against women and minority religious groups who should be protected under international law.

Over the past year, Syria has provided the perfect example for what may happen when sectarian factions cannot co-exist. Syria has been a hot bed for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and summary executions. The United Nations Security Council has referred the situation to the International Criminal Court but Russia and China have vetoed the referral.

Libya is a prime example of a government unprepared to govern itself after its abusive regime was ousted. Gaddafi intentionally insured that government institutions were weak so that no one could challenge his law. As a result, much of the country is ruled by militias and government who has no problem to detain dissidents and without any likelihood of a future trial.

A further common theme exists amongst most of these Middle Eastern countries. The overwhelming majority of these countries are ruled by Islamic powers. In such situations, it is not uncommon under conservative rule for women to be viewed as second class citizens. Many of these ruling powers consider expanding the rights of women as a western imposition opposed to a natural right codified through international law. Additionally, in these religious states, it is not uncommon for those who offend the religion to be treated improperly. Such countries claim to allow free speech, but do not practice what they preach. Countries that the report criticize for acting in the aforementioned ways include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Arab Spring uprisings took place because citizens were fed up with their governments’ treatment of its people. As Kenneth Roth declared, “[i]t turns out, in fact, the toppling of a dictator may have been the easy part. The difficult part is replacing that repressive regime with a rights-respecting democracy.” Hopefully a year from now the 24th annual Human Rights Watch World Report will show a stable Middle East that is routed in democracy and a concern for human rights.

For further information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – World Report 2013: Challenges for Rights After Arab Spring – 1 February 2013

Radio France International – Human Rights Watch Focuses on Arab Spring Fallout – 1 February 2013

Daily Star Lebanon – Arab Spring States Must Respect Rights: Human Rights Watch – 31 January 2013

United Press International – Human Rights Watch Issues Annual Report – 31 January 2013

DRC: The UN Denounces M23’s Human Rights Violations

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — The Movement of March 23 (M23) rebels have been fighting the DRC army since May in the country’s fertile but highly unstable North Kivu province.  The UN published a report late last year that accused the rebels of serious atrocities: rape, murder, human rights violations, and forced recruitment.  M23 has dismissed the allegations at “cruelly biased.”

M23 Rebel Leader Jean-Marie Runiga. (Photo Courtesy of In2EastAfrica)

In April 2012, the M23 rebels launched an offensive against the army after accusing President Joseph Kabila of reneging on the terms of a March 2009 peace agreement.  Now the M23 rebels state they wish to remove Kabila from office and liberate the entire Congo.  The M23 rebels engagement in the in the eastern province has the region back into war and displaced an estimated 500,000 people.

M23 released its response via a report on Wednesday.  The political leader of M23, Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, charged that the UN experts of harboring a “visceral hatred of M23.”  Runiga said the UN document “seems to us cruelly biased and hardly professional because it contains incompatible and incoherent elements.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that M23 receives significant support from Rwanda.  Moreover, HRW reported that “Rwandan military officials have planned and commanded M23 military operations; supplied weapons, ammunition, uniforms and other equipment; and recruited at least 600 young men and boys in Rwanda to join the rebellion.”

Likewise, according to research by HRW and the UN Group of Experts on Congo several hundred Rwandan army troops were sent to Congo to support the M23 in its military offensives.  In September, HRW accused the rebels of “war crimes committed on a large scale.”

In its Wednesday report, M23 rejected all the foregoing allegations.  The rebel leader, Runiga, calling the UN and the HRW reports “politicized” and “erroneous,” and the production of biased rapporteurs.

However, independent UN experts say the M23 insurgency receives cross-border support from Rwanda and Uganda.  Both governments strongly deny these allegations.

In December the UN sanctions committee blacklisted two key M23 leaders, Eric Badege and Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero on grounds the rebel group has been complicit in “killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement” of people in eastern Congo. They now face international travel bans and asset freezes.

M23 said they expect to sign a peace deal with the government by the end of February to end their ten-month revolt; however, Kinshasa said “capricious” demands from the rebels could cause delays.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – Congo-Kinshasa: How M23 Peace Deal was Missed – 1 February 2013

Global Post – DR Congo Rebels Dismiss “Biased” UN Rights Report – 31 January 2013

IOL News – DRC Rebels Dismiss UN Rights Report – 31 January 2013

Reuters – Congo’s M23 Rebels say Peace Deal Possible by end-February – 1 February 2013

Somali Rape Victim Charged Over Rape Report

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – On Tuesday, the Somali government prosecuted a woman who accused members of the army of raping her.

Somali journalists protest as they demand for the release of a colleague who wrote about women who were allegedly raped by Somali soldiers. (Photo courtesy of Human Rights Watch/Badri Media)

Since then, the United Nations and various international human rights groups have demanded that the charges against her be dropped.

Earlier this month, Al-Jazeera English published a story about government soldiers raping internally displaced women in Mogadishu camps. Several days after the publication, the Somali police’s Central Investigation Department (CID) in Mogadishu arrested the reporters involved in writing the story.

2 weeks later, a Mogadishu court charged one of the women interviewed for the Al-Jazeera report. She was charged of insulting the government on the basis of false evidence. According to the court’s decision, she fabricated the rape allegations against the Somali soldiers making her guilty of spreading false accusations. Doing so, she effectively “insulted and lowered the dignity of a National Institution,” said the court.

The woman’s husband was also charged and arrested. He was accused of helping his wife evade investigation and secure a profit for the rape allegation. The government claimed that he and his wife agreed to the Al-Jazeera interview, not only with the intention of discrediting the administration, but also of profiting from it.

After the couple’s arrest, the alleged rape victim recanted her story. She later admitted that all the accusations she made against the Somali security forces were “bogus”.

Her conviction sparked outrage among human rights advocacy groups. They believe that it will deter rape victims from coming forward in spite of recent efforts of trying to empower them.

“Allegations of rape should be met with objective investigations by the proper authorities, not detention for victims who come forward or arrest for journalists who report on such crimes,” insisted Zainab Hawa Bangura, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Fartuun Adan, a volunteer who runs a shelter for abused women in the country, expressed her concern and fear about the consequences of the woman’s prosecution. “Women are now asking me, ‘Who’s going to protect us?’ ” she told local newspapers. “They’re saying, ‘What are we supposed to do?’ ”

According to Daniel Bekele, the Africa director at Human Rights Watch, the case is “politically motivated”. “The police ‘investigation’ in this case was a politically motivated attempt to blame and silence those who report on the pervasive problem of sexual violence by Somali security forces,” he said. “Bringing charges against a woman who alleges rape makes a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities,” Bekele added.

 

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Somali journalist charged over rape report – 31 January 2013

Huffington Post – Somalia: Government Charges Woman Who Says She Was Raped By Security Forces – 31 January 2013

All Africa – Somalia: Somali Authorities Lay Charges Against Alleged Rape Victim and Journalist – 30 January 2013

The New York Times – Somalia Moves to Prosecute Woman Who Accused Soldiers of Rape – 30 January 2013