US : Send Guantanamo’s Yemenis Home | Human Rights Watch
▻http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/07/us-send-guantanamo-s-yemenis-home
– The US should expedite the return of Yemeni detainees cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Barack Obama. Human Rights Watch released a video showing the plight of families of Yemeni detainees. All Guantanamo detainees should be returned or resettled, or charged and prosecuted in US federal courts.
US : Stop Blocking Palestinian Rights | Human Rights Watch
▻http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/05/us-stop-blocking-palestinian-rights
D’après #Samantha_Power, décourager #Israël de commettre des #crimes_de_guerre et des #crimes_contre_l’humanité aurait, je cite, "des effets dévastateurs sur le « processus de paix »...
J’apprends aussi que Abbas ne peut traîner Israël devant la CPI parce qu’il n’a pas signé le Statut de Rome de ladite CPI, de peur, dit HRW, que des Palestiniens puissent aussi y être traînés (!?- il me semble que les menaces US doivent jouer un bien plus grand rôle)
On April 2, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, testified in front of Congress, that in response to the “new Palestinian actions” that the “solemn commitment” by the US to “stand with Israel,” “extends to our firm opposition to any and all unilateral [Palestinian] actions in the international arena.”
According to Power’s testimony to a congressional subcommitteeon April 2, the US has “a monthly meeting with the Israelis” to coordinate responses to possible Palestinian actions at the UN, which the US is concerned could upset peace negotiations. Power said that the US had been “fighting on every front” before peace negotiations restarted in 2013 to prevent such Palestinian actions. Discussing US legislation that bars US funding from UN agencies that accept Palestine as a member, Power noted, “The spirit behind the legislation is to deter Palestinian action [at the UN], that is what we do all the time and that is what we will continue to do.”
The US may also fear that the Palestinian moves are only a first step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC). But Abbas did not sign the Rome Statute of the ICC, which would allow the court to have jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in Palestine or by Palestinians.
Power, in her remarks, said that the US is “absolutely adamant” that Palestine should not join the ICC because it “really poses a profound threat to Israel” and would be “devastating to the peace process.”
In either case, the US is mistaken to oppose a step that might lead to greater respect for rights, which could help create a better environment for peace negotiations, Human Rights Watch said.
“The US should stop allowing its separate concerns to stand in the way of a step that could enhance Palestinian authorities’ and armed groups’ respect for basic rights,” Stork said. “The US made the wrong decision to oppose greater rights protections.”
On April 1, the day Abbas signed the accession instruments for the treaties, Israel reissued tenders for the construction of 708 settlement housing units in the Israeli settlement of Gilo, while Israeli forces demolished 32 Palestinian-owned homes and other structures in the occupied West Bank, forcibly displacing 60 people, according to data collected by Ir Amim, an Israeli civil society group, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Under the Geneva Conventions and the ICC statute, settlement construction and the deliberate forcible transfer of civilians from their homes and communities in occupied territory are war crimes.
Israel has ratified core human rights treaties but officially claims that its rights obligations do not extend to Palestinians in the territory it occupies, where it says the laws of armed conflict apply exclusively. UN rights bodies have completely rejected this argument on the basis that an occupying power’s human rights obligations extend to people living under its effective control. Israel additionally claims, also in the face of nearly universal rejection, that the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits transferring its civilian population into occupied territory, does not apply to its settlements in the West Bank.
Greece – A Historic Conviction But Not There Yet
Last Friday was no ordinary day for victims of racist attacks in Greece. An Athens court sentenced a 20-year-old man to fourteen years and three months in prison for a series of attacks on Pakistani men in September 2012.
Without a doubt, this was a historic conviction and a landmark in the fight against the alarming phenomenon of racist violence in Greece. But the successful outcome is not all good news.
The prosecutor did not argue formally that the crimes were motivated by racism. Although racist motivation was introduced in 2008 as an aggravating circumstance in the commission of a crime, the provision has been applied only one known time – at a misdemeanor court in November 2013 – in the nearly six years since its introduction.
A critical problem with Greek law is that it provides that racist motivation may only be addressed in the sentencing phase, rather than during the trial in determining guilt, making police and prosecutors less likely to investigate potential bias elements of a crime from the outset. Victims’ lawyers are not allowed to speak during the sentencing phase, so how and whether the court considers mitigating and aggravating circumstances lies in the hands of the prosecutor.
Prosecutors and the courts often choose other aggravating circumstances, or not argue them at all if the guilty verdict carries a significant sentence. In this case, the accused was found guilty of numerous charges, including grievous bodily harm and simple complicity in attempted murder, with the latter conviction alone resulting in a ten-year prison term. At the same time, the court rightly upheld the mitigating circumstance of post-adolescent age because of the accused’s young age.
But this often means hate crimes are not recognized and counted as such. Racist and xenophobic violence is intended to send a hateful message. It’s the prosecutor’s role to send an equally powerful counter-message by arguing the racist motivation in a crime during the sentencing, and for the Court to apply it. In this case, the prosecutor and the court missed an opportunity to send this important message for which the victims have been waiting for so long.
▻http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/01/dispatches-greece-historic-conviction-not-there-yet
#Grèce #racisme #impunité #accusation #violence_raciste #extrême-droite #extrême_droite #néo-nazis