Citizens for Justice and Peace
Amnesty International release report on attacks on Human Rights Defenders
08-Dec-2017
Amnesty’s report, titled ‘Deadly but Preventable Attacks: Killings and Enforced Disappearances of Those who Defend Human Rights’ notes that since the Declaration on HRDs was adopted two decades ago, “human rights defenders across the globe have faced an onslaught of harassment, intimidation, ill-treatment, restrictions, unjust prosecution and detention – which continues to this day.” The report says…
Australian parliament passes marriage equality bill
08-Dec-2017
Australia’s parliament has passed a bill, almost unanimously, that will let two people marry, irrespective of their sex, the Guardian reported. On December 7, 2017, Australia’s House of Representatives passed a bill that was approved by the Australian Senate in the prior week. 61.6% of the respondents to a national postal survey voted for marriage…
Same-sex marriage legalized in Austria
07-Dec-2017
Austria’s Constitutional Court has ruled that same-sex couples can get married starting 2019, Politico reported. Since 2010, the option of a registered partnership has been available to same-sex couples. “The distinction between marriage and registered partnership cannot today be maintained without discriminating against same-sex couples,” the court wrote, contending that current constraints on marriage inherently discriminate…
UNHCR study finds increase in sexual violence against men, boys in Syrian crisis
07-Dec-2017
A study published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, suggests that sexual violence committed against men and boys in Syria could be more pervasive that was previously assumed. The study included several dozen informants and focus group discussions with 196 refugees in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. Those interviewed reported sexual violence such as rape, genital…
US homelessness increases for the first time since recession
06-Dec-2017
A federal study has found that the number of homeless people in the United States has increased this year for the first time since the Great Recession, The Guardian reported. On a single night this year, 553,742 people were homeless, 0.7% more than last year. African Americans comprise more than one-third of the homeless population.…
Humanitarian groups warn of dire conditions at Greek asylum centres
06-Dec-2017
Greek officials have indicated that the number have asylum seekers coming from Turkey to the Greek islands of Chios, Kos, Leros, Lesbos and Samos has quadrupled, and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said that the situation in the camps is “beyond desperate,” The Guardian reported. MSF’s project coordinator on Lesbos, Aria Danika, said “entire families…are…
UN official calls for “realistic” approach to migration
05-Dec-2017
Louise Arbour, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for International Migration, spoke at the stocktaking meeting on migration being held in Mexico. Arbour said the Global Compact for migration, which will be an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, presents “an opportunity to reorient the often-toxic narrative against migrants towards a more accurate narrative on migration that…
HRW reports on shoddy prosecution of ISIS suspects
05-Dec-2017
According to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, Iraq’s government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in their efforts to prosecute several thousand ISIS suspects, lack a “national strategy” to ensure that prosecutions of those who have committed the “worst abuses” take priority, or to levy charges that apply to the “broad range of crimes”…
SC asks Centre to look into Plight of Leprosy Patients
04-Dec-2017
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra has directed the Centre to respond within eight weeks to a PIL calling for the repeal of 119 Central and State laws that discriminate against those afflicted with leprosy, The Hindu reported. Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, which filed the PIL, said the laws discriminate against leprosy in five…
UN warns of “imminent catastrophe” in Yemen
04-Dec-2017
Several heads of UN agencies as well as other senior humanitarian officials issued a statement this weekend saying that Yemen’s cities are facing a major water shortage, with seven cities’ water networks lacking fuel and being dependent “on humanitarian organizations to fill in the gap,” ABC News reported. The statement noted that if the Saudi-led…