By Alexandra Sandacz Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
LONDON, United Kingdom – On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the European Union with the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for its dedication “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation” in Europe.
The European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. (Photo Courtesy of The New York Times)
More specifically, the Nobel committee chose the European Union because of its 60-year-long contribution “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.” The committed focused on the EU’s reconstruction after World War II and its ability to spread stability to communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel committee chairman, said, “The stabilizing part played by the European Union has helped to transform a once torn Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.”
However, some European citizens and groups reacted to the announcement with skepticism.
Martin Callanan, the leader of the Eurosceptic Conservatives and Reformist Party in the European Parliament, responded, “The Nobel committee is a little late for an April fool’s joke. Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified. Today it is downright out of touch.” He continues, “Presumably this prize is for the peace and harmony on the streets of Athens and Madrid.” Callanan references the recent violent backlash in Europe created by the EU-backed economic austerity programs.
Matthew Price, a BBC Europe correspondent, does not doubt that the EU’s achievements are well established, but he also commented that the committee “picked a strange time to highlight these achievements.” He believes that the eurozone crisis has made the EU look divided and fragile.
Conversely, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, regards the Nobel Peace Prize as a “personal incentive” to build on six decades of peace in Europe. “We must never forget that in order to keep this peace, democracy and freedom, we have to work hard over and over again,” she said.
Similarly, French President, Francois Hollande, believes that the EU needs to prove its worthiness of the award. He says, “we are honored, we are proud and at the same time we have our responsibilities before us.”
The prize, worth $1.2 million, will be presented in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2012.
By Madeline Schiesser Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
MOSCOW, Russia – On Wednesday, a Moscow City appeals court upheld the convictions of punk band Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and releasing their band mate Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30. Alekhina and Tolokonnikova’s convictions for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentences of two years in prison were maintained by the court. Samutsevich’s sentence was suspended because she was prevented from actual participation in the acts ruled hooliganism.
Samutsevich (L), Alekhina, and Tolokonnikova (R), sit inside the defendant’s glass box, colloquially called the “aquarium,” before their hearing on Wednesday. (Photo Courtesy of the Moscow Times)
The three women were arrested and charged after a protest on February 21 in which five members of Pussy Riot entered Moscow’s Russian Orthodox cathedral, snuck into a restricted area in front of the iconostasis, and for about a minute performed their song, “Virgin Mary, Get Putin Out” before they were removed by security. Two members of the band have fled the country.
Samutsevich, as her lawyer argued before the appeals court, did not have time to remove her guitar from its case before she was escorted out of the cathedral by guards, and therefore did not participate in the performance.
On August 17, after a trial in which the defense was permitted to call no witnesses, the prosecution did not question the defendants, and the defendant’s words were often objected to by the judge, according to The Guardian, Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court handed down its decision of guilty. Samutsevich, Alekhina, and Tolokonnikova were sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Outside of Russia, the imprisoned women have received much support, including being on the short list for the Sakharov Prize. According to the BBC however, within Russia 43% of those polled found the sentence to be too lenient.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted “It was right that they were arrested, and the court’s decision was right.”
During appeal, Samutsevich replaced her lawyer with Irina Khrunova, who once represented jailed former Russian oil businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khrunova argued that Samutsevich had committed only an “unfinished crime” or “inchoate crime” and therefore should receive a lighter sentence.
Alekhina and Tolokonnikova also pled for leniency on the grounds that each is the mother of a small child.
Although they maintain that their protest was political in nature, and were not motivated by religious hatred, the women have apologized if they offended anyone. “If we unintentionally offended any believers with our actions, we express our apologies,” Samutsevich said in court Wednesday.
This echoes Alyokhina’s assertion in August, “Dear believers, we didn’t want to offend you,” she said. “We went into the cathedral to issue a protest against the fusion of the spiritual and political elite of our country.”
Samutsevich’s release was met with excitement. She hugged her band mates, who smiled and tearfully said goodbye to her before she was led out the courtroom and quickly whisked away from the media.
Samutsevich will be on probation for two years, during which time she cannot change housing without notifying authorities, must report to authorities once a month, and cannot participate in any similar performances, or she will be sent to prison.
However, Samutsevich has vowed that she will not be silent: “Of course we are not finished, nor are we going to end our political protest.” She also claimed the verdict had been influenced by the president. “You can see the flaws of the judicial system in Russia. It depends very much on the opinion and the stance of the President.”
The appeals court took the unusual step of publically defending its decision. The court claimed that Alekhina and Tolokonnikova remained in prison because they are a threat to society, and Samutsevich was freed due to her “level of participation.”
Alekhina and Tolokonnikova’s lawyers will file supervisory appeals maintain a non-guilty plea in order to continue the appeal process. However, the women’s sentences are effective immediately. Their lawyers have also expressed plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Within ten days of receiving the judge’s written decision Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova will be moved to a yet undetermined prison to serve their sentences. Their lawyers moved to have the women serve their sentences where they have been since March so that their families could communicate with them; however authorities refused this request, according to RT. According to the Guardian, the two are likely to be separated.
By Margaret Janelle R. Hutchinson Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BOGOTÁ, Colombia – The ‘week of indignation’ is a movement, organized through social media, of various socially conscious groups to raise government awareness of how the armed conflicts have affected them and demand an active role in the upcoming peace talks.
Flyer promoting the ‘week of indignation’ where groups organized marches and protests throughout Colombia. (Photo Courtesy Estudiantes U de A)
Social organizations of Colombians have publicly supported the peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) that are set to begin in Olso, Norway next week. However, some of these groups are not content to sit idly by and allow the government to handle the negotiations; they are demanding their voices be heard.
According to groups such as Marcha Patriotica (Patriotic March), Congreso de los Pueblos, and Coalition of Social Movements and Organizations of Colombia (COMOSOC) the political and economic nature of the dialogues affects them directly and therefore they want a place at the table.
Among the many blogs who have promoted the demonstrations, the students of the University of Antioquia present the reasons to participate in this march and other activities as part of the week of indignation. They point out, among other reasons:
“The gradual deterioration of quality of life and the systematic loss of rights, guarantees and democratic freedoms are fundamental reasons to show our rejection and indignation against neoliberal policies and globalization implemented by imperialism, the Colombian ruling classes and the regime of [President] Juan Manuel Santos.
Outrage for the killing, displacement, threat and intimidation of union, social, indigenous and popular leaders. Also the criminalization of people who think differently and don’t agree with imposed policies.”
The marches and protests started on Monday October 4, 2012, and have affected 25 of Colombia’s 32 departments.
Today marches organized by left-wing movement the Patriotic March and other social sectors will take place simultaneously around the country. In Bogotá 116 popular organizations will congregate in different parts of the city and intend to converge in the capital city’s central Plaza Bolivar.
“The government has not heard the cry of social organizations … the government has refused these social and popular organizations a presence at the round table … where will civil society be represented?” said Carlos Lozano, spokesperson for the left-wing Patriotic March movement.
Across the internet there are postings by various groups promoting the week of indignation. Links to several of these postings are provided below.
CANBERRA, Australia — Aboriginal leaders called on the United Nations this week to deny Australia a seat on the Security Council because of the country’s record of treating indigenous Australians.
Michael Anderson of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra is calling on the United Nations to deny Australia’s bid for a seat on the Security Council. (Photo Courtesy of the National Indigenous Times)
Michael Anderson, the last surviving founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra 40 years ago, wrote a letter to UN ambassadors, urging them to reject Australia’s bid for council membership.
The move came on the heels of a new report on aboriginal relations that human rights lawyers called “concerning.”
In an interview with the New Lawyer, Stephen Keim, president of the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, said the government should “work with Aboriginal peoples in the (Northern Territories) to promote and build representative institutions that will allow self-determination through self-government.”
Keim said Australia needs to more closely follow the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According to Keim, UNDRIP gives native peoples the right of self-determination and the autonomy to achieve that through regulating their internal and local affairs.
But the report highlighted the diminished self-governance Aboriginals have, including the downfall of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the concentration of local government, and the proliferation of indigenous advisory committees that have ineffective decision-making authority.
The report also identified key areas of concern, including transparency, development in the Northern Territories, lack of long-term planning in Aboriginal towns, and marginalization of Aboriginals’ decision-making.
According to the New Lawyer, Keim said the report called attention to “the importance of culture as a social determinant of health, which, as outlined in the UNDRIP, protects the maintenance and practice of indigenous cultures.”
This all comes in the wake of Australia deciding last month to shelve the Act of Recognition, which, if passed next year, would have acknowledged the role of indigenous Australians in the country’s history. Now, the referendum will not be considered for at least three years.
A sunset clause on the act prevents the parliament from entirely neglecting the issue, however, said Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin.
But recent numbers indicated not many Australians knew about the proposed act. Macklin said a poll by Reconciliation Australia found fewer than 40 percent of the non-indigenous population knew or heard about the referendum.
“The Australian government agrees with the findings of the expert panel that it is important a referendum is held at a time when it has the most chance of success,” Macklin said.
But Press TV reported that the treatment of Aboriginals may be improving, albeit slightly.
In the Northern Territories, greater involvement to protect the indigenous population from discrimination, human rights violations, and other abuse has been a central theme. Since elections in August, government organizations have begun to cut down on racial stereotypes of Aboriginal Australians.
BAMAKO, Mali – On Wednesday, a top U.N. Human Rights official accused radical Islamist rebels in northern Mali of using intimidation, and money from ransoms and drug trafficking to maintain control over the region.
Fighters from Ansar Dine, one of the groups that has taken control of northern Mali. (Photo courtesy of The Telegraph)
Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic made these remarks at a news conference in the U.N. Headquarters in New York, following his recent visit to Mali. The Islamists benefitting from the black market revenues have been enforcing an extremist interpretation of Sharia (Muslim law) and restrictions particularly targeting women since they took over the region in March.
“They are buying loyalty. They have tremendous resources to buy loyalty because they are now having kickbacks from narco-traffickers in the region,” said Šimonovic. Mali is a transit corridor for cocaine and other drugs from South America to Europe.
“There is also substantial ransom money that is being controlled by them,” Šimonovic said. However, Šimonovic added that this did not translate to support from the civilian population as “the overwhelming majority of people in the north are not supportive of the rebels and dislike what is happening.”
Šimonovic enumerated a whole laundry list of human rights abuses in his report which included: “very drastic punishments,” the recruitment of child soldiers, public executions, amputations, mutilations, and enforced marriages that are actually a smokescreen for enforced prostitution, terming the whole situation as “very bad.”
Šimonovic emphasized that children are particularly vulnerable to enlistment as child soldiers. Often children are enlisted to plant improvised explosives, with their families being given $600 for enlistment, and then $400 a month in a country where over half the population lives on $1.25 a day. Many teachers have also fled, fearing the imposition of this strict interpretation Sharia, which means many children are also missing out on education.
With respect to women’s rights, Šimonovic said, “The number of enforced marriages is increasing, the price to buy a wife is less than $1,000. After getting out of their families, the women, once forcefully married, quite often are by their so-called husbands married to other men after a very short while, which is in fact then a smokescreen for enforced prostitution and rapes that are taking place,”
One displaced woman he interviewed in the northern town of Mopti said she could no longer return to her hometown of Gao, where she had been a merchant, because women are not allowed to work under the strict interpretation of Sharia.
“Everybody is banned from listening to music, from smoking, women have to be covered but the women are also targeted in the sense of restricting their ability to work,” Šimonovic said.
Šimonovic said that “These were appalling violations of human rights,”. “But they were largely ad hoc in nature.” However, since Islamic groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) took over the region, it witnessed human rights abuses of a “different character,” he noted.
The rebels captured the region in late March amid the chaos triggered by a military coup, and have since declared independence for the region they call ‘Azawad.’
