By Human Rights Watch
NEW YORK, Oct 10 2025 (IPS)

Egypt and Vietnam are on track to secure seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council despite being woefully unfit for membership. The UN General Assembly will elect members to the UN’s premier rights body in a noncompetitive vote on October 14, 2025.

These 2 countries are among 14 member states seeking three-year terms on the 47-nation Human Right Council starting in January 2026. Vietnam, currently a Council member, is seeking re-election.

“Noncompetitive UN votes permit abusive governments like Egypt and Vietnam to become Human Rights Council members, threatening to make a mockery of the Council,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “UN member states should stop handing Council seats on a silver platter to serial rights violators.”

Egypt, along with Angola, Mauritius, and South Africa are running for four African seats. India, Iraq, and Pakistan are joining Vietnam for the four Asian seats. For Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, and Ecuador are unopposed for two seats.

In the Western group, Italy and the United Kingdom are running for two available seats, while Estonia and Slovenia are candidates for two seats for Central and Eastern Europe.

General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights Council in 2006, urges states voting for members to “take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Council members are required to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” at home and abroad and to “fully cooperate with the Council.”

Candidates only need a simple majority in the secret-ballot vote in the 193-nation General Assembly to secure a seat on the Human Rights Council. That makes it highly unlikely that any of the candidates will not be elected. Nevertheless, UN member states should not cast votes for abusive governments that are demonstrably unqualified for Council membership.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has continued wholesale repression, systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists, and effectively criminalizing peaceful dissent. Government security forces have committed serious human rights abuses with near-absolute impunity. These include killing hundreds of largely peaceful protesters and widespread, systematic torture of detainees, which most likely amount to crimes against humanity.

The government also tries to prevent its own citizens from engaging with the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, and punishes those who engage with brutal reprisals. It ignores UN experts’ requests to visit the country.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam maintains a monopoly on political power and allows no challenge to its leadership. Basic rights are severely restricted, including freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion. Rights activists and bloggers face police intimidation, harassment, restricted movement, and arbitrary arrest and detention.

Mauritius and the UK, among the countries running. signed a treaty that recognizes Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos islands but fails to address the ongoing crimes against humanity against Chagossians and their right of return to all the islands.

The UK forcibly displaced the Chagossian people between 1965 and 1973 to allow the US to build a military base. Mauritius and the UK should comply with their international rights obligations, including Chagossians’ right of return and should provide an effective remedy and reparations.

Angolan President João Lourenço has pledged to protect human rights, though Angolan security forces have used excessive force against political activists and peaceful protesters. South Africa has taken strong stances for accountability on Palestine and other issues. It should be similarly robust with rights violations by Russia and China.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused access to UN experts. Modi’s party leaders and supporters repeatedly vilify and attack Muslims and Christians with impunity, while the authorities often punish those who protest this campaign of Hindu majoritarianism.

Pakistan should cease the use of draconian counterterrorism and sedition laws to intimidate peaceful critics, and repeal its blasphemy laws. The government should prosecute those responsible for incitement and attacks on minorities and marginalized communities.

In 2024, Iraq passed a law criminalizing same-sex relations and transgender expression. Violence and discrimination against LGBT people are rampant, for which no one is held to account. Iraqi authorities have increasingly repressed activists and journalists.

In Ecuador, the government has attacked judicial independence and security forces have committed serious human rights violations since President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” in January 2024.

In Chile, President Gabriel Boric’s administration has played a leading role in speaking out on human rights violations around the world. Human rights challenges, including racism and abuses against migrants, remain a problem in the country, however.

In the UK, the authorities should end their crackdown on freedom of assembly. Many peaceful protesters in support of Palestinians or action on climate change have been arrested and some imprisoned after demonstrating.

Italy should stop criminalizing and obstructing sea rescues and enabling Libyan forces to intercept migrants and refugees and take them back to Libya, where they face arbitrary detention and grave abuses. Italy also failed to comply with a 2025 International Criminal Court arrest warrant by sending a wanted suspect back to Libya instead of to The Hague.

The Human Rights Council has played a crucial role in investigating abuses in Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, and elsewhere. It recently established an investigation into serious crimes in Afghanistan by all parties—past and present —and extended its fact-finding mission for Sudan. Other countries and situations need scrutiny.

Council members should press for investigations of abuses by major powers, such as China’s crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang, and take up extrajudicial killings by the US of alleged narcotics traffickers on sea vessels.

For Council investigations to be credible, it needs financing. It is critical for countries to pay their assessed UN dues while boosting voluntary contributions. This will ensure that independent human rights investigations do not become casualties of the UN’s financial crisis resulting from the Trump administration halting virtually all payments to the UN and China and others paying late.

“The Human Rights Council has been able to save countless lives by carrying out numerous human rights investigations that deter governments and armed groups from committing abuses,” Charbonneau said. “All governments should recognize that it’s in their interests to promptly pay their UN dues so the rights Council can do its job.”

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Displaced people from Jabalia, Gaza, live in a destroyed building in downtown Gaza City. Demand action to end escalating Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Credit: UN News

By Human Rights Watch
NEW YORK, Sep 19 2025 (IPS)

World leaders gathering at the United Nations General Assembly from September 22-30, 2025, should commit to protecting the UN from powerful governments seeking to defund and undermine the organization’s capacity to promote human rights and international justice, Human Rights Watch said today.

On the eve of the General Assembly’s annual general debate, world leaders will hold a summit on the situation in Palestine, which French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are expected to preside over.

“Human rights and the UN itself are in the crosshairs of powerful governments to an unprecedented extent,” said Federico Borello, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch. “World leaders should pledge action to ensure the world body has the resources and political support it needs to carry out its lifesaving human rights and humanitarian work around the world – in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, and elsewhere people are in need.”

Governments should also take action to stop Israel’s escalating atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Human Rights Watch said. They should condemn and take steps to counter US sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, prominent Palestinian organizations, and a UN expert.

They should rally behind institutions like the ICC, which is combating impunity for war crimes and other atrocities in Myanmar, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere around the globe.

World leaders should use the September 22 Palestine conference to publicly commit to action aimed at ending decades of impunity for Israeli authorities’ violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against Palestinians. This summit, a response to the landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory, is a continuation of a high-level meeting in July.

That ICJ advisory opinion determined that Israel’s decades-long occupation is unlawful, breaches Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and is marked by serious abuses, including apartheid. At the September 22 conference, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and others have said they would recognize a Palestinian state.

However, those declarations risk being empty gestures unless states commit to concrete actions to stop Israel’s extermination of Palestinians and expansion of unlawful settlements.

Governments should suspend arms transfers to Israel, ban trade with illegal settlements, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes against Palestinians, including crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, Human Rights Watch said. States should also press Hamas and Palestinian armed groups to release all civilian hostages.

The UN is in the throes of an existential financial crisis, largely due to the United States’ refusal to pay its assessed contributions – which countries are obligated to pay – and its cancellation of virtually all US voluntary funding for myriad UN agencies and bodies.

This is undermining UN humanitarian work, as well as human rights investigations in Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and elsewhere.

The US is not alone in defaulting on its financial obligations to the UN. China, the UN’s second biggest contributor, has been delaying its payments to the organization’s regular budget and peacekeeping operations. Many other governments are also in arrears.

Wealthy governments in the European Union, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and others have followed the US decision to gut its foreign aid programs by further reducing their own foreign aid budgets, exacerbating the UN’s financial troubles.

Governments that care about human rights should pay their assessed contributions in full and on time and increase voluntary contributions to the UN, prioritizing programs that protect human rights and save lives.

In 2023, the US contributed nearly $13 billion in assessed and voluntary contributions to the UN. That figure has dropped to nearly zero this year after Trump ordered a “review” of US contributions to the UN. It remains unclear if, when, and to what extent the US might resume UN funding.

The UN leadership should seek ways to reduce costs while avoiding across-the-board cuts that would disproportionately impact human rights work, which is already chronically underfunded. As the UN leadership presses ahead with a package of cost-cutting proposals as part of its “UN80” initiative, it should ensure that independent investigations of human rights abuses have the necessary resources to continue.

“UN monitoring and investigations can deter abusive governments from committing atrocities against civilians,” said Borello. “Powerful governments seeking to undermine the UN’s human rights and humanitarian programs should be condemned, not emulated. The lives of millions of people around the world depend on it.”

Leaders should press for meaningful action to address dire crises in Sudan and Haiti. In Sudan, civilians are facing famine, sexual violence, and other atrocities. In Haiti, criminal groups are expanding their control, escalating killings and sexual violence, including gang rape, forcing millions into displacement and facing acute food insecurity.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has declined to endorse calls from human rights defenders and member states to deploy physical protection missions to Sudan and Haiti.

On February 6, Trump issued an executive order that authorizes asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officials and others supporting the court’s work. The US government has so far imposed sanctions on the court’s prosecutor, his two deputies, six judges, the UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese, as well as three leading Palestinian civil society organizations.

These sanctions are a blatant attack on the rule of law and the international justice system. They aim primarily to thwart the ICC’s ongoing Palestine investigation, including the court’s pending arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

UN member states should affirm their support for the ICC’s global mandate and civil society’s critical work, and call on the US government to cancel the sanctions program. Member states should also commit to concrete steps to protect the court from these sanctions, including through legislation like the EU Blocking Statute, which aims to shield European companies from the effects of extraterritorial sanctions.

Member states should further commit to international justice by implementing all of the ICJ’s advisory opinions, including the court’s July opinion calling climate change an existential threat to the planet and arguing that states’ failure to protect the climate triggers legal consequences.

Delegates should urge member states to press ahead with negotiations on an international treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity. The treaty will fill a gap in international law that contributes to impunity for egregious acts of murder, torture, enforced disappearance, sexual violence, and persecution, among others, inflicted on civilians around the world.

Horrific, systematic abuses the Taliban have continued committing against women and girls in Afghanistan since retaking power in 2021 exemplify why gender apartheid as a crime against humanity should be included in any eventual treaty on crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said.

“The UN and international human rights system are being put to the test,” said Borello. “To be on the right side of history, it’s crucial to push back against powerful governments trying to undermine international norms and demolish avenues for accountability.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/17/un-world-leaders-should-commit-to-human-rights-international-justice
https://www.hrw.org/topic/united-nations
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/north-africa/israel/palestine

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

Dreams amid the rubble: Gaza’s women speak of homes, loss and hungry children. Displaced people in Gaza are living among the ruins of destroyed buildings. Credit: UN News

By Human Rights Watch
NEW YORK, Jul 23 2025 (IPS)

United Nations member countries should use the ministerial-level conference on Palestine on July 28-29, 2025, to publicly commit to concrete actions aimed at ending decades of impunity for Israeli authorities’ violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against Palestinians, Human Rights Watch said today.

The High-Level Conference on the Two-State Solution and Peace in the Middle East, co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, was initially scheduled for June, but was postponed when Israel initiated a military operation against Iran.

The conference will now have two segments, the ministerial meeting on July 28-29 and a second segment to include heads of state and government ahead of the UN General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders in September.

“It’s essential for governments to address Israel’s grave abuses by committing to concrete, timebound measures, including targeted sanctions, arms embargoes, suspending preferential trade agreements, and a clear commitment to support the enforcement of all International Criminal Court arrest warrants,” said Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “More platitudes about a two-state solution and peace process will do nothing to advance the conference’s goals, nor to halt the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.”

The conference is a response to the landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory, which determined that Israel’s decades-long occupation is unlawful and breaches Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

The court found that Israel was responsible for apartheid and other serious abuses against the Palestinians, and reiterated that its settlements are illegal and should be dismantled. It also said the Palestinians were entitled to reparations.

A September 2024 UN General Assembly resolution endorsed the ICJ ruling and set a one-year deadline for Israel to end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).”

The conference is taking place in the context of ongoing hostilities in Israeli-occupied Gaza, including war crimes, the crimes against humanity of extermination and forced displacement, and acts of genocide.

These crimes are in contravention of three binding ICJ rulings in a genocide case brought by South Africa. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

States parties to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) have an obligation to “employ all tools reasonably at their disposal” to prevent genocide. That obligation is triggered when a state learns, or should normally have learned, of a serious risk that genocide may be committed.

That threshold of a serious risk of genocide was crossed long ago, Human Rights Watch said. This has been clear from the ICJ rulings ordering provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case. South Africa brought the case in response to Israeli forces’ systematic destruction of homes, apartment buildings, orchards and fields, schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation facilities in Gaza, as well as Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war.

Recently, some governments have taken long overdue steps that others should emulate. On July 16, 12 countries committed to concrete measures to “break the ties of complicity with Israel’s campaign of devastation in Palestine,” including preventing the transfer of arms to Israel.

The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Slovenia, and Norway have imposed targeted sanctions on two Israeli government ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The UK has suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and announced a review of the 2030 Road Map for UK-Israel bilateral relations.

The European Union recently found Israel in breach of the human rights clause of the bilateral EU-Israel Association Agreement, though EU governments remain divided on whether to suspend the agreement. Nine EU governments have asked the EU Commission to introduce a ban on trade and business with illegal settlements, while Irish authorities have proposed a unilateral ban.

Some governments have moved to join the many that recognize a Palestinian state, which is already a state party to key human rights and criminal law treaties, including the Rome Statute.

Much more is needed, though, to stop the Israeli authorities’ extermination, persecution, and apartheid against Palestinians.

At the conference, UN member governments should commit to concrete, time-bound steps to comply with their own obligations under international law, including the Genocide Convention, and to increase pressure on Israeli authorities to comply with theirs, including:

Suspending military assistance and arms sales to Israel.

Imposing targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against Israeli officials and others credibly implicated in ongoing serious violations.

Banning all trade and business with illegal settlements.

Suspending political, economic, and trade deals with Israel.

Publicly expressing support for the ICC, strongly condemning efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, and committing to support the execution of all its warrants.

Publicly supporting and fully funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians.

Addressing root causes, including by recognizing Israeli authorities’ crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.

Reconstituting the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid or creating a new version based on its model focused on Israel/Palestine and other contemporary situations for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of apartheid is being committed.

Pressing the Israeli government to recognize the right of Palestinians, including refugees, to return to their homes.

Supporting the creation of an international register of damages caused by unlawful Israeli action to persons in Israel and the OPT, to calculate reparations.

During the conference, the UN General Assembly should adopt a resolution that spells out these commitments with a clear timetable for their implementation. The assembly should periodically report on compliance with its commitments and hold public meetings on those reports. The conference should not be a one-off event.

The General Assembly has already proven it can take meaningful steps on Syria, Myanmar, Russia, and Israel/Palestine. The assembly has already called on states to restrict arms sales to Israel. But it can go further by endorsing a comprehensive, global arms embargo and regularly reporting on which governments continue to supply Israeli authorities with arms and munitions.

The UN Security Council should have taken such steps long ago but is paralyzed by the United States, which is complicit in Israel’s war crimes with its ongoing arms transfers and determined to ensure impunity for Israeli abuses. The US sanctions against ICC officials and the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the OPT, Francesca Albanese, are examples.

“This conference should demonstrate that governments have finally decided to get serious about human rights and international law when it comes to Israel and Palestine,” Stagno said. “Without clear action from governments, Israeli authorities will only continue to exterminate and expel Palestinians.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/07/22/un-end-impunity-for-israeli-crimes-against-palestinians
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/north-africa/israel/palestine

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
  

By Human Rights Watch
CONAKRY, Guinea, Oct 4 2018 (Human Rights Watch)

Guinea’s fast-growing bauxite mining industry is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Guineans, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Mining has destroyed ancestral farmlands, damaged water sources, and coated homes and trees in dust.

The 146-page report, “What Do We Get Out of It?: The Human Rights Impact of Bauxite Mining in Guinea,” focuses on two mining projects that were Guinea’s two largest bauxite producers in 2017: La Société Minière de Boké (SMB), a joint venture linked to the world’s largest aluminum producer, China Hongqiao Group, that has expanded extremely rapidly since it began in 2015; and la Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG), a decades-old company co-owned by multinationals Alcoa and Rio Tinto. Guinea’s government, which has transformed Guinea into the world’s third-largest exporter, should take immediate steps to better regulate companies and protect communities.

“Bauxite mining, unless properly regulated, threatens to destroy the way of life and livelihoods of dozens of communities at the front line of mining operations,” said Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Guinean government’s focus on growing the bauxite sector has too often taken precedence over the protection of the environment and human rights.”

Guinea has an abundance of natural resources, including the world’s largest bauxite reserves, but remains one of the world’s poorest countries. The demand for Guinean bauxite in global markets has increased in recent years as other countries, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, banned exports, in the latter case partly due to the industry’s environmental impact. Guinea is already the biggest exporter of bauxite to China, the world’s largest aluminum producer. And with several new mining projects preparing to begin exports, Guinea’s bauxite boom shows no sign of slowing down.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people in 30 mining-affected villages in the Boké region, the center of the bauxite boom, and conducted dozens of interviews with government officials, mining companies, civil society groups, environmental scientists, and public health experts.

A woman in Lansanayah, a village 750 meters from a bauxite mine owned by La Société Minière de Boké consortium. Credit: 2018 Ricci Shryock for Human Rights Watch

Dozens of farmers described how mining companies take advantage of the government’s failure to protect rural land rights to exploit ancestral farmlands without compensation to address the long-term value of land to the community. Since the passage of a 2011 mining code, the government has failed to pass regulations, required by the code, establishing compensation standards for land acquisition that could better protect farmers’ rights.

“They’ve expanded into our fields, the areas we depended on for food,” said a community leader from Boundou Waadé, a village surrounded by five CBG mines. “And now much of our fertile land has been taken from us.”

While the compensation companies do pay can be a short-term windfall, farmers rarely receive training from the government or mining companies on how to reinvest it. “I used the compensation money I got to send my two sons to Europe [via the North African migration route],” a father said. “But after they arrived in Libya I didn’t hear from them. I’m worried they are in prison or dead.”

Although women participate in farming, the bulk of compensation is paid to men in family or community leadership roles. “Our husbands just give us whatever they want, even if the products that came from this land were used by all of us,” said one woman. While at least some men get employment with mining companies to replace lost land, few jobs are open to women. Of the more than 7,600 people employed by SMB in September 2018, only 274 were women.

Scores of residents said that mining had reduced water levels and quality in local rivers, streams and wells, threatening the right to water of thousands of people. In several communities adjacent to SMB mines, damage to natural water sources meant villagers were forced to rely on SMB for long periods to bring them water in tankers. “Some days the water in the tankers is dirty,” said one community leader. “So we have to conserve the clean water we have and wait for the next delivery.”

Dozens of residents also said that the dust produced by the mining and transport of bauxite had blighted their lives, with red dust entering villages and homes and covering crops. And villagers, many of whom said they believe mining is already contributing to respiratory illnesses, worry about longer-term health impacts.

Guinea’s government told Human Rights Watch in a May 2018 letter that it only approves mining projects that demonstrate compliance with environmental and social standards and that the government, “utilizes fully its state power to ensure Guinean laws [relating to the mining sector] are respected and to oversee the activities of mining companies.”

But while the capacity of government institutions to oversee mining has improved in recent years, government institutions do not have the personnel, resources, and the political will to effectively oversee an ever-expanding list of projects. “We are a poor country, and so we need jobs for our young people, schools for our children,” said Seydou Barry Sidibé, secretary general of Guinea’s Environment Ministry. “So while some mining companies do not respect environmental and social norms, it’s not easy for us to suddenly close these companies down.”

In meetings with and letters to Human Rights Watch, mining companies pointed to their efforts to stimulate local development and mitigate the negative impacts of mining. SMB, in a September 2018 letter to Human Rights Watch, said that, “the respect of human rights forms the pillar of our values,” and provided a detailed response to the report’s factual findings. CBG also responded in detail to the report’s findings, underscoring that, since receiving a World Bank-linked loan in 2016, the company has done much to improve its environmental and social management.

As Guinea’s bauxite boom continues, the government’s capacity to oversee the mining industry and protect community members’ rights needs to keep pace, Human Rights Watch said. While the government wants to attract investment, it should also fine, suspend, or stop mining projects if companies egregiously or persistently flout the environmental, social and human protections enshrined in Guinean and international human rights law.

“Guinea’s bauxite sector is poised to expand even further in the coming years,” Wormington said. “If that is to be a blessing, and not a curse, the government needs to ensure that ordinary Guineans, particularly those living closest to mining operations, are the beneficiaries of mining’s rapid growth rather than its victims.”

“What Do We Get Out of It? The Human Rights Impact of Bauxite Mining in Guinea” is available at:
https://www.hrw.org/node/322822

A special feature, “’This is our land’” How Guinea’s Bauxite Boom Affects Human Rights is available at:
https://www.hrw.org/node/322921

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Guinea, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/africa/guinea

For more information, please contact:
In Conakry, Jim Wormington (English, French): +1-917-592-8738 or +224-620-45-12-12 (mobile); or worminj@hrw.org. Twitter: @jwormington

Excerpt:

By Human Rights Watch
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Mar 21 2018 (Human Rights Watch)

Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s speaker of parliament, should schedule a vote on a draft waste management law before parliamentary elections on May 6, 2018. The law has been stuck in parliament since 2012, but came before the joint committees of parliament in January, the final step before a vote by the full parliament.

Human Rights Watch has collected more than 12,000 signatures on a petition calling on parliament and cabinet to pass a national law and develop a strategy on waste management. Lebanon has made some progress on this issue in recent months, but passing a national law is a key step to ending the ongoing crisis.

Human Rights Watch found in a December 2017 report that open burning at more than 150 open dumps across Lebanon was risking the health and violating the human rights of nearby residents, leaving Lebanon in breach of its obligations under international law.

“Time is quickly running out for parliament to pass a waste management law,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Lebanon’s residents have made it clear that they expect their elected representatives to take immediate and decisive action to end the ongoing waste crisis.”

Lebanon has never had a national waste management law. Cabinet approved a draft law in 2012 which would create a Solid Waste Management Board headed by the Environment Ministry, responsible for the national-level decision-making and waste treatment. The law would also set clear lines of authority over waste management, ban open dumping and burning of waste, and set penalties for violations.

The draft law came before the joint committees of parliament in January and was sent back to parliament’s environmental committee for further amendments with a three-week deadline. A member of that committee told Human Rights Watch that the amendments were completed, but the speaker of parliament has not referred it back to the joint committees, the final step before scheduling a vote by the full parliament.

Despite a decades-long waste crisis, Lebanon has made some recent progress on this issue. In November 2017, the Environment Ministry sent letters to all municipalities in Lebanon, urging them to adopt sustainable waste management practices. In January, Cabinet passed a summary waste management plan, and the environment minister formed a committee on waste management, which includes a civil society representative. The ministry and committee are holding meetings with municipalities to discuss solid waste management options.

Human Rights Watch has urged Cabinet to build on the summary plan by developing a long-term strategy on waste management, outlining how Lebanon can comply with its international obligations to protect the right to a healthy environment.

In January, as part of a decision to expand two temporary coastal landfills, Cabinet approved a composting facility at one of the landfills. In February, the health minister ordered inspections of open dumps to identify violations such as open burning and held a news conference calling for an end to the open burning of waste and a health-conscious solution to the waste crisis. The ministry also created a mobile application to allow residents to report violations.

In February, Cabinet allocated US$20 million for the Environment Ministry to begin closing or rehabilitating the 941 open dumps across Lebanon. However, the decision focuses on Beirut and Mount Lebanon, some of the wealthiest areas in the country and the areas least affected by dangerous open burning.

Cabinet and the Environment Ministry should take immediate action to end open dumping and burning across the country, including in poorer areas in Lebanon’s South and Bekaa Valley, some of the areas most affected by open burning of waste.

The government’s lack of effective action to address the issue violates Lebanon’s obligations under international law, including the government’s duties to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health. The Environment Ministry appears to lack the necessary personnel and financial resources for effective environmental monitoring.

“Lebanon urgently needs a national law on waste management to end this crisis, yet this bill has sat in parliament since 2012,” Fakih said. “It would be inexcusable for parliamentarians to end their 9-year term without tackling this issue.”

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Lebanon, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/lebanon

Two women displaced by commercial farmers from land in Luombwa farm block walk more than 40 minutes each day to fetch water for their families. They said before displacement, water was readily accessible. I was six months pregnant when all this [eviction] was happening. Our previous place was good because the water source was near and I could use a bucket to get water and quickly go home, but here the water is so far, said Jane. Credit: Samer Muscati for Human Rights Watch

By Human Rights Watch
LUSAKA, Oct 25 2017 (Human Rights Watch)

The Zambian government is failing to protect the rights of rural residents displaced by large commercial farms in Serenje district, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Some commercial farmers have acquired thousands of hectares of land while ignoring legal provisions meant to protect the environment and ensure local communities are compensated if their land is taken. Some commercial farms have forcibly evicted residents whose families have farmed the land for generations.

The 101-page report, “Forced to Leave: Commercial Farming and Displacement in Zambia,” examines the impact of commercial farms on residents’ rights to health, housing, livelihood, food and water security, and education. It examines how women have been disproportionately affected and often excluded from negotiations with commercial farmers.

Based on more than 130 interviews with rural residents affected by commercial farming, the report examines the human rights record of six commercial farms that exemplify much larger failures of rights protection and governance. It also draws on interviews with government officials, commercial farmers, advocates, and lawyers.

“Families that have lived and farmed for generations on land now allocated to commercial farms are being displaced without due process or compensation,” said Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu, researcher on women and land at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Families have been left hungry and homeless.”

The Zambian government is promoting large-scale agricultural investments to diversify the economy and reduce rural poverty. But it has been so negligent in enforcing laws on land acquisition and regulating these ventures that some rural communities have suffered severe harm, Human Rights Watch said.

Many commercial farms operate on “farm blocks,” large swaths of land where the government has promised to build roads, irrigation, and other infrastructure to serve multiple farms. Laws and policies regulate how land can be converted from “customary” to “state” status, or otherwise acquired for farm blocks or other economic development projects.

Customary lands are administered by traditional leaders and state lands are under government authority. Government officials say all farm block land in Serenje district was long ago converted from customary to state control. Some advocates and traditional authorities say the processes were so faulty that the conversions should be considered void.

Commercial farms investing in Serenje district range in size from 150 hectares to more than 5,000 hectares of land. These ventures are headed up by a broad spectrum of investors, from corporations to family-run farms whose owners live on and work the land directly.

Zambian law gives government officials and investors specific responsibilities over these investments. Commercial farms need to consult affected communities, provide appropriate compensation, adhere to resettlement standards, assess environmental impacts, and comply with relevant laws.

Traditional leaders must also consult affected communities before agreeing to land transfers. Government officials should ensure that investment projects comply with the law.

But rural residents in Serenje district told Human Rights Watch that the reality was nothing like that. Many said no one informed them about the new commercial farms nor made any effort to protect their rights.

Some said farmers arriving to survey and measure the land was the first notification they had about commercial farms coming to their communities. Others had earlier warnings and, in some cases, a degree of consultation and compensation.

Residents displaced by commercial farms said they lost access to food, water, shelter, and schools. Many families had to move to areas with poor quality soil and could no longer grow sufficient food.

They were pushed further away from water sources, burdening women and girls in particular with spending far more time gathering water from distant streams. Many children had to drop out of school because their new homes were too far away and the new area did not have a school.

Ruth Mwitwa (left) and Gloria Kango were convicted of criminal trespass for being on land they have lived and farmed for decades, and now belongs to a commercial farmer. They were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and were detained with their breastfeeding children. Gloria was also four months pregnant during her detention. © 2017 Samer Muscati for Human Rights Watch

The government of Zambia has exercised exceedingly poor oversight and enforcement of legal requirements over commercial farms. It has failed to enforce laws and regulations that require farms to assess and mitigate the social and environmental impacts of their operations, and is not monitoring whether commercial farming ventures are complying with the law.

Dozens of residents forcibly evicted by one commercial farmer in 2013 have spent four years in tents or shoddy housing in a forest area where they have little access to water, and say they have been told not to cultivate crops.

Government officials provided the tents and paltry food assistance in the first year, but have largely ignored this community since then. The residents said they are stuck in limbo, with fading hopes that the government will resettle them onto new land.

“Rural residents in Serenje were blindsided by commercial agriculture,” said Patrick Musole, programmes manager at the Zambia Land Alliance, a group of organizations working for fair land policies and laws that take into account the interests of the poor. “Government officials and many commercial farmers charged ahead with large-scale farms on occupied rural lands, with zero respect for residents’ human rights.”

Women in the displaced communities have suffered distinctive and disproportionate harmful impacts due to their social roles and status, and had the least opportunity to negotiate and assert their rights.

Women described enormous struggles to sustain their families after losing safe water for drinking and household use, access to fertile land for cultivating food crops, and hunting or foraging grounds. Some complained about a lack of nutritious meals because they could no longer grow sufficient food.

International standards establish that business enterprises, including commercial farms, have a responsibility to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remedy human rights abuses linked to their operations.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights protects the right to a healthy environment. International and regional human rights law also prohibits forced evictions, and recognizes the rights to food, water, education, and health.

Zambia has ratified human rights treaties and adopted laws and policies that ought to protect rural residents and guide the process of resettlement and compensation.

But commercial farmers in Serenje district told Human Rights Watch that they receive conflicting information from government authorities on their legal obligations toward residents, and government officials admitted that the situation in Serenje has been poorly handled.

One commercial farm examined by Human Rights Watch took a different approach, relocating one family and deciding to implement a “livelihood improvement plan” for dozens of other families remaining on the land but impacted by the farm’s operations.

It had a better record of consultations and efforts to remedy problems for residents. But even that farm would benefit from greater government oversight.

Human Rights Watch called on the Zambian government to safeguard the rights of rural residents in commercial farming areas and rigorously enforce all relevant laws and policies, including on resettlement and compensation.

It also called for government agencies to have adequate staffing, resources, and training to enforce laws and monitor the activities of commercial farms, and improve transparency. Human Rights Watch recommended that the government adopt a long-awaited customary land administration bill and update its national land policy.

“The government needs to take dramatic and rapid action to ramp up enforcement of its own laws and regulations,” said Nnoko-Mewanu. “They need to stop forced evictions, and ensure that displaced families are able to secure a remedy for human rights abuses.”

Excerpt:

Seleka MPC fighters at a roadblock in Bojomo, Ouham province, with a desk they removed from the local school. © 2017 Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch

By Human Rights Watch
Mar 23 2017 (Human Rights Watch)

Soldiers camping out in schools and breaking up desks for firewood is common in parts of the Central African Republic.  According to a United Nations report from November, 20 percent of the country’s schools are not operational, many because of misuse by armed groups. Some students were forced out of school four years ago, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels cut a bloody swath through the country and seized the capital. Thousands more children stopped going to school in the ensuing years, as Christian-animist anti-balaka fighters ousted the Seleka, torching whole Muslim communities and displacing more than 860,000 people. Many of these children may never resume their studies, despite hopes kindled when a new government took over a year ago. Researcher Lewis Mudge talks to Amy Braunschweiger about his latest research and what a lost generation could mean for the future of one of the world’s poorest countries.

What did you find through your research about the state of the country’s schools?

We found armed groups living at schools and right next to schools. In some cases fighters are just meters away, and for all intents and purposes, occupying it. And in two cases, UN peacekeepers were in schools. We did much of our research in in Central African Republic, where it’s mostly the Seleka occupying towns and looting and occupying schools. But anti-balaka fighters and other groups have repeatedly done so as well.

A 15-year-old girl from Nana-Grébizi province, who has not attended school since 2013. “I want to be a teacher because they are important for the community and because they are respected,” she told Human Rights Watch. “But now, I don’t know what I can do, I just stay at home all day.”
© 2017 Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch

Their very presence was keeping students away from the school. Kids can’t study when soldiers are sleeping there. Students and their parents were afraid there could be fighting by the school, or that fighters would assault students on their way to class.

When I asked the fighters why they were in the schools, or why they may occupy them again, they’d say because the schools have good concrete floors, metal roofs, and they’re the best buildings in town.

So armed groups damaged schools?

Seleka groups left the schools in bad shape. Both the Seleka and anti-balaka would burn desks and chairs as firewood to cook. Now, there’s no place for students to sit. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. These schools can have up to 150 kids in one room, and they need to write on something. The groups burn textbooks. These are rural schools, and a textbook is really valuable. In a crisis, communities store books in the school to safeguard them, and the fighters would destroy them.

And you found UN peacekeepers in schools?

We found two schools occupied by UN troops. They had set up their camps and tents under the blackboard. It was surprising, because the UN put out a directive saying don’t occupy schools. So our findings demonstrated a disconnect between orders given in the capital and troops in the field. When I asked them why they were in the schools, it was the same as the Seleka: “It’s a good building.” The good news is that, when we reported it to the UN, they acted immediately. UN command was very shocked and not happy. The forces quickly vacated both schools.

United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan using a school building in Mourouba, Ouaka province, as their base in violation of UN guidelines and regulations. The forces left the school in January 2017 after Human Rights Watch informed UN authorities.
© 2017 Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch

 

What kind of stories did you hear from the people you interviewed?

We talked with a lot of school-age kids. I asked each one what they wanted to be and why school is important. They’re all farming now, and none of them want to be farmers. They want to be teachers or doctors or engineers. That was quite startling. There’s almost this sense of acceptance that they aren’t going back to school, that they can’t make up this time. They’d lost 2 or 3 years, and this is it. Their thoughts were, I’m going to be a farmer now. The one chance I had for myself and my family is gone now.

I met a dad who said school taught him how to read and do math and that allowed him to start a little business. He spoke French – the language business is conducted in there. Along with farming, he has a shop in the village, selling soap, oil, salt, pens, and other goods. And he thinks it’s a shame his kids won’t have that. Because his kids won’t have schooling, he worries they may not have enough money to send his grandkids to school.

The ability to read, write and do math makes a huge difference. Schools also give kids a basic level of French. The center of in Central African Republic literally has no state services. There’s a hospital in main towns, but that’s it, and if you can get there good for you, if you can’t then you are on your own. They’re some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The ability to get some education would be a huge step up.

Were there schools that were open but students couldn’t attend?

Yes, and those were the students who seemed the most affected. They stopped going to school because of fighters who harassed or threatened students. One woman said she was sending her two kids to school past fighters who had killed her husband, and that traumatized her. Understandably.

We were at a school with fighters right next to it, and they’d fire their guns into the air all the time, just to test them. The students said it was terrifying. The village had been attacked and taken over, and they associated the shooting with the fighting. It’s 9 a.m., they’re trying to study, and a fighter a few yards away is pulling off a few rounds on his Kalashnikov. “When that happens, we all just dive to the floor,” they said. It must be very, very difficult to concentrate on school.

Did you speak with any teachers?

There was a teacher in the southwest, at a school previously occupied by anti-balaka. Last year a fighter stabbed this teacher in the head when he tried to stop the fighter from burning a school desk. There were 300 anti-balaka fighters occupying the school then, and I asked why he tried to stop the fighter. The teacher said it was one of the last desks. And he’d had enough. He wanted some vestige of the school left to be able to restart it. I was stuck by his courage. He laughed, acknowledging it wasn’t the smartest thing. He showed me his scars. The soldier’s commanders apologized to the teacher, which surprised me. They probably realized the fighter – who was never punished – went too far.

You had to meet with the Seleka for this report. What was that like?

We’ve been talking to them for years. And it’s the same-old excuses to justify their presence. First, they deny it. And then you say, yes you are there in the schools, I’ve seen it. Then, they insist they’re there to protect communities from another armed group.

What they’re doing is working to control roads to profit from trade, whether it’s illicit minerals, or normal buying and selling. You see it openly. In one town there’s one road, the road where the school is. And the Seleka have the roadblock there. So as they’re saying there’re here to protect people, you can literally watch a shakedown, with fighters holding up a guy on a motorcycle at gunpoint and taking his money.

Did you feel unsafe doing this research?

Yes. Central African Republic is one of the most dangerous countries for NGO workers. And there’s this inherent risk when you’re in an armed group’s territory and researching what they’re doing. Coupled with the fact that they’re unprofessional fighters, to say the least. There are a lot of kids in the ranks. That adds a layer and dimension to risk analysis.

But on the other hand, we know these groups well. We always operate openly in the sense that we let them know we’re there.

The main risks are on the roads. We are very, very aware of where we’re going and what group is in control. And we’re always in touch with group leaders. We spend a lot of time in the bush, calling leaders, telling them where we are. That way, if we get stopped by some men from a certain group, we can say, “Your guy knows we’re here. We can call him now.” You have to know the state of the roads – we couldn’t do this research in the rainy season.

We also plan a lot before the trip, develop protocols and have daily check-ins to stay safe.

You’ve worked a lot in Central African Republic. How did researching schools stack up against the rest?

In terms of human rights abuses, there’s a difference between committing a massacre and occupying a school. A massacre is worse. But if there’s ever going to be a real peace or stability, it’s critical to get schools running. With tens of thousands of kids out of school, it makes you concerned about the future of the country. Even if the education system is poor. By now, we’re almost looking at a lost generation in certain parts of the country. I worry about how that might affect the future prospects for peace. Unemployment is everywhere. It’s very cheap to get guns. You can see how easy it is for armed groups to recruit people when schools aren’t operating.

But if parents can send their kids to school, their children may have some prospects.

By Human Rights Watch
HARARE, Jan 24 2017 (Human Rights Watch)

Widows in Zimbabwe are routinely evicted from their homes and land, and their property is stolen by in-laws when their husbands die, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government of Zimbabwe should urgently take steps to protect widows from this practice.

The 52-page report, “‘You Will Get Nothing,’ Violations of Property and Inheritance Rights of Widows in Zimbabwe,” found that in-laws often tell women shortly after the deaths of their husbands that the relatives intend to take over the homes and lands or other property where the husband and wife had lived for decades. One widow quoted her brother-in-law’s words to her after her husband’s funeral, in front of the family that had gathered: “He said in my face, ‘You are rubbish and you will get nothing. I am taking everything.’”

“The impact of property grabbing on widows is devastating,” said Bethany Brown, a researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Women whose property was taken from them spoke of homelessness, destitution, and loss of livelihoods.”

Based on interviews with 59 widows in all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe between May and October 2016, this report documents the human rights vulnerabilities and abuses that widows in Zimbabwe face.

In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution that provides for equal rights for women, including for inheritance and property. In practice, however, existing laws only apply to widows in officially registered marriages. Estimates are that most marriages in Zimbabwe are conducted under customary law and are not registered, so, in effect, these laws afford no protection from property-grabbing relatives.

Many widows described how they face insurmountable obstacles defending their property or taking legal steps to reclaim it. Fending off relatives while mourning their husbands and selling off productive assets like cattle to afford court fees and transportation were just some of the challenges. Once in court, widows said they were at a disadvantage without an official record of their marriage if it was a customary union. Courts look to the in-laws – the very people who stand to gain – to confirm the marriage, putting widows at the mercy of their husband’s family.

Nearly all of the widows interviewed for the report who successfully challenged efforts by in-laws to take over their property had benefited from legal services offered by organizations like the Legal Resources Foundation, and Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, Zimbabwe.

Older widows described feeling that the loss of their homes and the fields they had worked on with their husbands was catastrophic, as they had no time or energy to rebuild a lifetime of work. Many struggled to support themselves when their main source of livelihood, their land, had been taken from them.

Human Rights Watch conducted this research as part of an effort to map the vulnerabilities of older people to human rights abuses. With the rapid growth of older populations worldwide, there is a growing need to understand how discrimination, ageism, neglect, and abuse affect older people and what steps governments should take to protect their rights. By 2050, an estimated two billion people – almost a quarter of the world’s population – will be over age 60. The majority will be women. Widows face varying challenges in different countries and cultural settings. Property grabbing can be common in the Southern Africa region, and many older women have few other economic options. Widows of all ages are at risk of property grabbing and its grave harmful impacts.

Some of those interviewed said their in-laws simply forced them out of their homes immediately after their husbands died. Others said their in-laws threatened, physically intimidated, and insulted them to make them leave. In some cases, distant relatives of the deceased showed up years later and took over their property.

Many women did not know that they had a right to the property they held with their spouses. Others said they were wary of jeopardizing relationships with in-laws with whom they had shared their lives for many years, and who they had hoped would support them and their children.

According to the 2012 census, Zimbabwe is home to about 587,000 widows, and most women 60 and over are widowed. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that at least 70 percent of women in rural areas are in unregistered customary unions and are living under customary law.

“The government should take immediate steps to register all marriages, including customary unions, reform its marriage laws, and raise awareness of the property rights of widows,” said Brown. “That would help protect thousands of women each year against the injustice of being summarily thrown out of their homes when they become widows.”

Excerpt: