Envoy to Syria Calls for Temporary Ceasefire; Fears of Crisis Spillover Loom

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — On Wednesday, Joint UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi called on pro-Assad forces and rebel fighters to arrange for a ceasefire next week, in recognition of the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha, the day that marks the climax of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.  Brahimi believes that doing so would constitute a “microscopic step that would alleviate Syrian sorrow temporarily and provide the basis for a longer truce.”

While in Beirut on Wednesday, UN-Arab League Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that the crisis in Syria might spill over into the rest of the region. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

After admitting that solving the Syrian crisis is “a very, very difficult” process, Brahimi stated his belief that a ceasefire would have a small possibility of leading to permanent peace.  Rebel representatives assured him that they will recognize one if the government takes the first step.

“The Syrian people, on both sides, are burying some 100 people a day,”  he told assembled press after he finished speaking with Lebanese officials in Beirut.  “Can we not ask that this toll falls for this holiday? This will not be a happy holiday for the Syrians, but we should at least strive to make it less sad.”

Recent history shows that complications usually arise between the Syrian army and rebels in negotiating a short-term ceasefire.  Both sides have blatantly disregarded past truces to which they had verbally committed.  Syria has dismissed the current plan, saying that rebel forces lack the unified leadership necessary to sign the armistice.

Brahimi also mentioned that the Syrian conflict has the potential of spilling into the rest of Middle East, potentially setting off a massive powder keg of chaos.

“This crisis cannot remain confined within Syrian territory,” he said on Wednesday.  “Either it is solved, or it gets worse…and sets [the region] ablaze.”

Fears of a broader conflict stem from the fact that the Syrian conflict is a sectarian one, pitting Sunnis against Shi’ites.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was in Istanbul on Sunday for talks with Turkish leaders, warned that “the danger of a massive spillover is on the rise.  And that it is in nobody’s interest, including Russia’s.”

On Tuesday, Nabil El-Arabi, chief of the Arab League, gave his support to Brahimi’s truce proposal and asked for international support.  Turkey and Iran also voiced their support for the proposal.  Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolgu said that while Turkey supports a ceasefire, his country is skeptical about whether it would last without an international force in place to maintain it.

In a comment to a Turkish news agency, Davutolgu said “A ceasefire can be declared, but the international community would need to take certain measures for its sustainability.”

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — UN Envoy Warns of Syria Crisis Spillover — 17 October 2012

CBS News — UN Syria Envoy Calls on Assad to Start Truce — 17 October 2012

Reuters — Syria Envoy says Bloodshed Could Engulf Middle East — 17 October 2012

Khaleej Times — UN Envoy Urges Syria Truce as Conflict Enters 20th Month — 15 October 2012

Foxconn Admits to Employing 14 year-old Student Interns in China

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yesterday, the world’s largest contract electronic maker, Foxconn Technology Group, admitted to using student interns in its Chinese factory.  The Taiwanese company has been employing students as young as fourteen years old.

Foxconn workers following the series of suicides in 2010. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

According to The Guardian, Chinese labor rights activists have accused many big companies, including Foxconn, of using student internship programs as a veil for cheap labor.

On Tuesday, Foxconn shared that it found interns under the legal working age of sixteen at its factory in Yantai, located in the northeastern Shandong province.  Foxconn, however, did not reveal how many of underage interns there were.

“Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks,” stated the company.

In defending its internship program, Foxconn stated that workers make up only 2.7% of its staff in China.  Moreover, internships can be long- or short- term, with the average lasting three and a half months.

Foxconn stated that the company would work with the local government to forbid schools involved in the Yantai factory from the internship program.  However, if these schools demonstrated compliance with company policy and, most importantly, labor law then they would not be barred from the program.

“This is not only a violation of China’s labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions,” Foxconn shared.  “However, we recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action.”

According to The Telegraph, in order to differentiate student interns from others, Foxconn gave them special worker ID numbers. Nonetheless, they worked alongside adults including night shifts and overtime.

“I did transport work, helping them move goods,” said one fourteen years old using the alias Xiao Wang.  “Right now, the night shift is 7:40pm until the morning. Whenever the work is done is when you get off your shift.”

Moreover, when asked how many days these student interns do not work a month, the response was “[n]ot even one.”

In September of this year, a riot took place at Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan over living conditions inside the plant’s on-site dormitories for commuting workers.

Foxconn is Apple’s largest manufacturing partner and creates products for, among other companies, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.  However, the company stated that none of the under age interns were working on Apple products.

After a series of suicides in 2010 and reports of employment abuses, Foxconn and Apple were mandated to improve working conditions in the Chinese factories.

For further information, please see:

The Guardian – Foxconn used 14-year-old interns at its factory in China – 17 Oct. 2012

Los Angeles Times – Underage Foxconn interns working in China plant return to school – 17 Oct. 2012

The Telegraph – 14-year-olds employed on Foxconn factory production line – 17 Oct. 2012

Fate of 11 Prisoners Sentenced to Death on Drug-Related Charges Unknown; International Community Should Not Relent Pressure Calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran to Halt Executions

16 October 2012 – Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and Iran Human Rights Documentation Center join to express their continuing concern about the fate of Saeed Sedighi and ten other individuals who have been sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran on drug-related charges and whose executions were scheduled to be carried out last week.

While international pressure, including a statement from UN Special Rapporteurs calling for a halt to the executions, seems to have at least temporarily prevented the implementation of the death sentences, the current whereabouts of these prisoners are unknown.

On Wednesday, October 10, the World Day against the Death Penalty, reports surfaced that Saeed Sedighi, Abbas Namaki, Mohammad Ali Rabiei, Hamid Rabiei, Ali Darvish, and six other individuals would be executed at Evin prison the following day.  The announcement followed joint action by several NGOs on World Day against the Death Penalty calling on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and donor countries to cease funding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s anti-drug trafficking programs, which results inhundreds of executions of prisoners convicted on drug-related charges each year.

The executions were then postponed from Thursday, October 11 to Saturday, October 13 but due to efforts by NGOs to publicize the news of these executions, widespread media coverage of the executions including interviews with Sedighi’s mother and brother and timely international action from UN Special Rapporteurs, subsequent reports indicated that the executions were not carried out.

The efforts of NGOs, family members of the prisoners and the international community to bring attention to this issue should be commended.  While the imprisonment of political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience in Iran has previously been the focus of sustained international campaigns calling for their release, the campaign to halt the execution of the eleven prisoners marks the first time executions for drug-related offenses have been personalized, and that the profiles of the individuals involved has been elevated to a matter of significant international concern.

However the effort to halt the execution of these eleven prisoners is not over.  While it appears that the executions have at least temporarily been stayed, Majid Sedighi—the brother of Saeed Sedighi—who was just released after being detained last Thursday, October 11 for his interviews with Farsi media outlets that broadcast outside of Iran, indicates that the eleven prisoners, although not executed, are currently being held in Ward 7 of Evin prison.  No one has been in direct contact with the prisoners—family members have not been able to speak to their loved ones and lawyers have not had access.  With no official indication of the location and status of the eleven prisoners, they can be executed at any time.

In light of the above, Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center call on relevant UN bodies, including the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the international community to intervene to save the lives of these eleven prisoners. Although the temporary stay of the executions is encouraging, the fate of these prisoners is far from definite—and the international community should not waver in its focus in calling for the immediate halt of these executions and a moratorium on the death penalty in Iran.

For further information please contact:

Shadi Sadr
Executive Director of Justice for Iran
Email: shadi.sadr@justiceforiran.org

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
Spokesperson of Iran Human Rights
Email: mail@iranhr.net
Phone: +47 91742177

Gissou Nia
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Email: gnia@iranhrdc.org
Phone: +1 203 654 9342

ICTJ World Report – October 2012 Issue 17

ICTJ World Report

Peruvian President Guilty Of Death Squads Seeks Pardon

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – The family of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has requested a humanitarian pardon from his extended sentence due to health problems.

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori Seeking Medical Pardon. (Photo Courtesy of CNN)

His family has requested that his four concurrent sentences be commuted due to complications from mouth cancer and resulting lesions that may not have healed properly.

The former President led Peru from 1990-2000 and is credited with the dismantling of the terrorist group the Shining Path as well as reining in destabilizing hyperinflation. His administration is not without blemishes as his authoritative leadership included the operation of death squads that killed citizens and corruption. His third presidential candidacy election was constitutionally challenged and it was only by a large corruption scandal that ex-President Fujimori was finally brought down from power.

After being brought down, Fujimori fled to Japan, who refused to extradite him. Declared “morally unfit to govern” by the Peruvian congress, he returned to Chile in 2005 where he was placed under house arrest and extradited to Peru in 2007.

By 2009, special tribunals had convicted him and found him guilty of multiple human rights scandals and sentenced him for a number of charges. His largest sentence? 25 years for authorizing the operation of death squads that killed or disappeared numerous citizens.

Human Rights Watch has requested that the President of Peru take great care in determining whether or not to grant the medical pardon. While well within the wheel house of political powers weld by the President. The Peruvian Constitution requires that any pardons need to be in accordance with international treaties ratified by Peru. And international law dictates that the duty to investigate and punish perpetrators of human rights abuses cannot be undermined by pardons and immunities. Without extreme care, a pardon even for medical care could come off as contrary to human rights law and the international community.

While the request to pardon the former president is being analyzed by a commission “without any ‘politization’ and impartially” the former Health Minister, Luis Solari has raised concerns. Soalri claims that according to the medical certificates, Fujimori would not even qualify for such a pardon. One can be pardoned if they are at serious and imminent risk of losing life. Solari continues that Fujimori is not at risk of losing his life due to complications and his cancer is not in fact “terminal cancer.”

All in all the decision will come down to current President Ollanta Humala who was elected to the position over opponent and petitioner Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Alberto Fujimori.

 

For further information, please see:

El Comercio – Request For Pardon To Fujimori Is Analyzed With “No Politicization,” Said Justice Minister – 16 October 2012

El Comercio – “Fujimori Medical Certificates Are Not Accurate,” Said Former Minister Solari – 15 October 2012

Human Rights Watch – Peru: Humala Shouldn’t Give Fujimori Special Treatment – 11 October 2012

CNN – Family Seeks Pardon For Former Peruvian Leader – 10 October 2012