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World Humanitarian Day: A Call for Creative Action

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, World Law on August 19, 2024 at 7:55 AM

By René Wadlow

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has designated August 19 each year as “World Humanitarian Day” to pay tribute to aid workers in humanitarian service in difficult and often dangerous conditions. August 19 was designated in memory of the August 19, 2003 bombing of the UN office building in Baghdad, Iraq, in which Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and at the time Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, was killed along with 21 UN staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured. The exact circumstances of the attack are not known, and why UN security around the building was not tighter is still not clear. A truck with explosives was able to drive next to the building and then blew itself up.

Sergio Vieira de Mello had spent his UN career in humanitarian efforts, often with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and at other times as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General. As a Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) representative to the UN in Geneva and active on human rights issues, I knew him during his short 2002-2003 tenure as High Commissioner for Human Rights. Many of us had high hopes that his dynamism, relative youth (he was 54), and wide experience in conflict resolution efforts would provide new possibilities for human rights efforts. His death along with the death of others who had been Geneva-based was a stark reminder of the risks that exist for all engaged in humanitarian and conflict resolution work.

Sergio Vieira de Mello (C) UN Photo/Patrick Bertshmann

The laws of war, now more often called humanitarian law, have two wings. One wing, dealing with the treatment of medical personnel in armed conflicts, the military wounded, prisoners of war and the protection of civilians is set out in the Geneva (Red Cross) Conventions. The second wing, often called the Hague Conventions, limits or bans outright the use of certain categories of weapons. These efforts began at the Hague in 1900 and have continued with the recent limitations on land mines, cluster weapons and certain chemical weapons. The Association of World Citizens was one of the NGOs leading the campaign against cluster weapons.

The current situation concerning refugees and internally-displaced persons can also be considered as part of humanitarian law. To prevent and alleviate suffering, to protect life and health, and to ensure respect for the human person, these are the core values of humanitarian law which we strongly reaffirm on World Humanitarian Day.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Village Bank Founder Becomes Interim Leader of Bangladesh

In Asia, Being a World Citizen, Current Events, Democracy, Human Rights, NGOs, Social Rights, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Women's Rights on August 12, 2024 at 1:00 PM

By René Wadlow

Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the microcredit banking system in Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank (which translates as “Village Bank”), was sworn in as the interim leader of the Bangladesh government on August 8, 2024. The former leader, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and then fled to India, driven out by the protests first of students and then by other sectors of the population during which some 400 persons were killed by the military and the police. Muhammed Yunus has called for calm and an end to uncontrolled violence often directed against the minority Hindu population.

Muhammad Yunus is an economist. Now 84 years old, he is retired from teaching, originally at the University of Chittagong, the port city of Bangladesh. As an economist, he was quickly aware of rural poverty in many parts of the country and the unrest of the tribal minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracks. He developed the concept of the Grameen Bank, small loans, especially to women, in order to improve their trading efforts. Much of what is called “the informal sector” – marginal to the more developed economy – are the efforts of market women and women small producers. With small loans which must be repaid before a new loan is possible, women are able to have more security and can expand their business.

Prof. Muhammad Yunus at the University of Salford, UK, on May 18, 2013
(C) University of Salford Press Service

The Grameen Bank approach spread to nearly all areas of Bangladesh and then to other countries, especially in Africa. The success of the Grameen Bank approach has lifted many from the cycle of poverty and instability. In recognition of the impact of the Grameen Banks, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006.

Muhammad Yunus has formed an interim government of 16 persons, mostly drawn from civil society organizations, including two, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, both 26 years old, who were leaders of the student movements which overthrew Sheikh Hasina who had been in power for 15 years – whose government had become increasingly authoritarian. Muhammad Yunus has promised that elections will be held shortly but that calm must be restored first. He faces difficult tasks, but he is a fresh mind outside the narrow political milieu. We must wish him well in his vital efforts.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

رابطة مواطني العالم تدعو السلطات العراقية لسحب مشروع قانونها الذي يسمح بزواج الفتيات بعمر 9 سنوات

In Being a World Citizen, Children's Rights, Current Events, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, United Nations, Women's Rights, World Law on August 11, 2024 at 1:37 PM

مواطنو العالم يطالبون السلطات العراقية بسحب مشروع قانونها الذي يسمح بزواج الفتيات بعمر 9 سنوات

The AWC Calls on the Authorities of Iraq to Withdraw Their Draft Law Allowing the Marriage of 9-Year-Old Girls

In Being a World Citizen, Children's Rights, Current Events, Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, United Nations, Women's Rights, World Law on August 11, 2024 at 11:55 AM

WORLD CITIZENS CALL ON THE AUTHORITIES OF IRAQ TO WITHDRAW THEIR DRAFT LAW ALLOWING THE MARRIAGE OF 9-YEAR-OLD GIRLS

The AWC is alarmed to hear that a draft law under consideration in Iraq may make it legal for a man to marry a girl as young as nine.

We hear many individuals and civil society groups in the country have rightly spoken out about the said draft law.

We firmly believe the Iraqi authorities should by no means make it the law of the land.

For seventy years, Iraqi law has considered the “full age” for marriage, in the very words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to be eighteen. That is consistent with the Convention on the Rights of Child under whose Article 1 “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years”.

Lowering the marriageable age for girls to nine would send a disastrous signal for girls in Iraq and, in a broader manner, throughout the entire Arab and Muslim world and, ultimately, throughout the entire world, beyond the borders of states, cultures, languages, religions, ethnic groups or of any other nature. It would mean the end of the very notion of child abuse.

Since the draft law would make it possible for a man to marry a young girl but not, conversely, for a woman to marry a young boy – and, even then, it would only be equally condemnable – the draft law also sends a discriminatory message toward women, signifying that a female life is of lesser value.

The AWC condemns in the strongest terms any legislative attempt, whether in Iraq or anywhere else for this purpose, to turn a child into a person’s property, let alone their sexual object of pleasure.

We hereby call on the Iraqi Government and Parliament to immediately withdraw the draft bill and ensure that Iraqi law remains steadily consistent with UN human rights standards.

Sudan Conflict Grows Worse as UN Security Council Appeals Fall on Deaf Ears

In Africa, Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Refugees, Spirituality, Sudan, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, War Crimes on June 17, 2024 at 6:00 AM

By René Wadlow

On June 13, 2024, the United Nations (UN) Security Council called for an end to the siege on El Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur Province of Sudan. The Council requested all parties to enable lifesaving aid to enter the city of El Fasher, the center of the most vicious fighting. The brutality of the fighting makes it impossible for aid workers to enter the city.

The civil war has gone on since April 2023 between the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan, known by his battle name of Hemedti, and the Sudanese Armed Forces led by General Abdul Fattah al-Burham. The fighting has led to some 15,000 persons being killed and 8 million displaced. The agriculture in the country is disorganized, and many people face acute hunger and, in some areas, famine.

Each of the two generals has created local militias which rob, torture, rape, and create conditions of disorder. Many of the militias use child soldiers in violation of UN treaties on the protection of children. Each of the two generals has opened the door to foreign fighters. There are Russian mercenaries which had been under the control of the Russian Wagner Group who had been fighting in Mali, Chad, Niger, and the Central African Republic. There are Ukrainian mercenaries who have come to fight the Russians.

It is difficult to understand the intensity of the current divisions represented by the two generals who had once been allies. The current divisions do not follow earlier fault lines in Sudan.

(C) Cable News Network

On behalf of the Association of World Citizens (AWC), I had been the first to raise in the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2004 the violent conditions in Darfur, Sudan, having been informed by a member of the UN Secretariat who was leaving the country and who could not speak out for himself. The violent conditions in Darfur were largely based on ethnic divisions linked to lifestyle differences between settled agriculturalists and cattle herders. There were also aspects of political divisions at the national level.

We kept in close contact with the Sudanese Mission to the UN in Geneva. Thus, the AWC was invited to be observers in the referendum which led to the creation of the State of South Sudan. The World Citizens had sent a team of observers.

Today, the suffering is real. Enlightened action is necessary. The conflictual situation requires close cooperation among humanitarian and peace nongovernmental organizations to see what is possible.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

For a historic background on Darfur, see Julie Flint and Alex de Wall, Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (London: Zed Books, 2005).

Afghanistan: The Birds Will Not Fly

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa, Solidarity, United Nations, Women's Rights, World Law on June 5, 2024 at 6:30 PM

By René Wadlow

The founder of the Baha’i faith Baha’u’llah wrote,

“The world of humanity is possessed of two wings, the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.”

It is likely that the Taliban leaders of Afghanistan have not read Baha’i texts. In fact, when the Taliban were first in power from 1996-2001 and again now from August 2021, they have arrested, tortured and summarily executed members of minority religions such as the Hazara population who are Shia and members of Sufi orders.

However, it is against women and girls in general that the Taliban have systematically implemented restrictive policies and practices that deny women and girls their human rights. Over 50 repressive edicts and decrees address women and girls to limit employment possibilities and access to education and health care. Protests have been suppressed. Women’s rights activists have faced targeted killings, enforced disappearances, incommunicado detention, and other forms of harassment. In March 2024 the Taliban authorities announced that they will revive public stoning and flogging women to death on charges of adultery.

(C) VOA & Associated Press

Earlier Afghan governments had signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and so the current government is theoretically still bound by its provisions. However, the CEDAW has no enforcement possibilities, and it is probably unknown to most Afghan citizens.

It is not clear what outside pressure can be brought on the Afghan government to modify its policies toward women and girls. The governments of China and Russia seem to have developed closer relations with the Taliban authorities. However, it is unlikely that the Chinese or Russian government will raise human rights violations. Thus, we must see what influence nongovernmental organizations can have. It is clear that economic and social development is clearly hindered by current Taliban policies and practices. Without equality, the birds will not fly.

Prof. René Wadlow is the President of the Association of World Citizens.

International Criminal Court: Upholding International Humanitarian Law

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, International Justice, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, War Crimes, World Law on May 21, 2024 at 6:00 AM

By René Wadlow

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), on May 20, 2024 announced that he had formally applied for arrest warrants for leaders of the Israeli government and the political and military leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for war crimes and crimes against humanity as set out in the Rome Statute which created the ICC. The Israeli leaders are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevi. The Hamas leaders are Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas since 2017, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, the Commander-in-Chief of the Al-Assam Brigades – the military arm of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau based in Doha, Qatar.

The Israelis are accused of violations of international humanitarian law including starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians. The Hamas leaders are said to be individually criminally responsible for the killing of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 and the taking of hostages.

(C) International Criminal Court

Karim Khan stated in an interview at the time of the announcement of the arrest warrants, “We must collectively demonstrate that international humanitarian law, the foundational baseline for human conduct during conflict, applies to all individuals and applies equally across the situations addressed by my Office and the Court. This is how we will prove, tangibly, that the lives of all human beings have equal value.”

The application for arrest warrants is the first step. The warrants must be approved by a panel of ICC judges which oversee such decisions. Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, but Palestine accepted its jurisdiction in 2015. The legal aspect of the next steps is complicated and need to be followed closely.

The Association of World Citizens has stressed that all elements of international humanitarian law must be safeguarded and charges of war crimes investigated.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Start to Dangerous Regression of Liberty in Georgia: A Situation to Watch Closely

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Democracy, Europe, Human Rights, NGOs, Solidarity, The former Soviet Union, Track II, World Law on May 16, 2024 at 7:00 PM

By René Wadlow

Despite strong protests from Georgian Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and street protests for three weeks in the capital Tbilisi, the Georgian Parliament adopted on May 14, 2024 the controversial law on “foreign influence”. The vote was 84 in favor and 30 opposed. The law is likely to be vetoed by the Georgian President, Salomé Zourabichvili, a former French diplomat, but there are probably enough favorable votes in the Parliament to override the veto.

The law is very close to a similar law of 2012 in the Russian Federation used to hinder NGOs often considered to be “enemy agents” voicing opposition to the government. The law obliges NGOs and media to publish all financing from foreign governments, foundations, and individuals if it amounts to 20 or more percent of the funds of the organization. The law has been strongly opposed by officials of the European Union and the United States. Georgia has a candidate status for joining the European Union.

(C) Euronews

The former Prime Minister and leader of the Georgian Dream Party in power for the last 12 years, Bidzina Ivanichvili, has attacked those opposed to the law as “people without a country” – a term used in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. He has been playing with a fear among some in power in Georgia that NGOs with foreign funding could create a “color revolution” to overthrow the government as was done elsewhere.

In the days prior to the vote, there was strong government pressure against journalists and NGO representatives, some being beaten and many threatened by telephone calls. As Citizens of the World concerned with the role of NGOs and freedom of the press, we need to watch developments in Georgia closely.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

Rafah, Gaza Strip: A Human Catastrophe in the Making

In Being a World Citizen, Conflict Resolution, Current Events, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Middle East & North Africa, NGOs, Solidarity, The Search for Peace, Track II, United Nations, World Law on May 9, 2024 at 5:00 PM

By René Wadlow

“I am disturbed and distressed by the renewed military activity in Rafah by the Israeli Defense Forces. Make no mistake – a full-scale assault on Rafah would be a human catastrophe,”

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on May 7, 2024. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, some 78,000 have suffered injuries, and nearly 2 million have been internally displaced. The number is rising as the ground invasion of Rafah begins.

(C) UN Geneva on Instagram

The UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs have painted a grim picture of the disproportionate level of suffering experienced by girls and especially pregnant women in Gaza. “The treatment of pregnant and lactating women continues to be appalling with the direct bombardment of hospitals and the deliberate denial of access to health care facilities by Israeli snipers, combined with the lack of beds and medical resources placing an estimated 50,000 pregnant Palestinian women and 20,000 newborn babies at unimaginable risk.”

Many of these military actions are in direct violation of International Humanitarian Law as set out in the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 and the Protocol Additional adopted in 1977. In order to meet new situations, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has evolved to cover not only international armed conflicts but also internal armed conflicts. IHL prohibits the indiscriminate killing of civilians, the holding of hostages, and the destruction of medical and educational infrastructure.

The Association of World Citizens stresses the importance of IHL as a vital part of world law that will replace unilateral actions by States based on narrow domestic political considerations. The standards of IHL require political will if they are to function effectively. Thus, nongovernmental action on the Gaza Strip armed conflict is urgently needed.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.

The Uprooted

In Being a World Citizen, Current Events, Europe, Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Middle East & North Africa, Migration, NGOs, Refugees, Solidarity, The former Soviet Union, The Search for Peace, UKRAINE, United Nations, World Law on April 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM

By René Wadlow

Increasing numbers of people in countries around the world have been forced from their homes by armed conflicts and systematic violations of human rights. Those who cross internationally recognized borders are considered refugees and are relatively protected by the refugee conventions signed by most states. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol give the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees an international legal basis to ensure the protection of refugees.

However, those who are displaced within a country as is the case currently for many in the Gaza Strip and in Ukraine are not protected by the international refugee conventions. Thus, displacement within a State poses a challenge to develop international norms and ways to address the consequences of displacement and the possibility to reintegrate their homes, though in the case of Gaza many of the homes have been destroyed.

Refugees from Ukraine arrive in Poland (C) European Union

Armed conflicts within States often reflect a crisis of identity within the State. This can occur when a State becomes monopolized by a dominant group to the exclusion or marginalization of other groups. There is a need to provide protection and assistance to the uprooted. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has been able to act in some cases as has been true also for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which is mandated to protect civilians in war zones. The obligation to assist populations in immediate danger of starvation is largely recognized, and the UN World Food Program has been able to act. In some cases, nongovernmental humanitarian agencies have been able to be active. However, each situation requires new negotiations and results differ.

Thus, what is essential is that there be predictable responses in situations of internal displacement and that attention be paid not only to material assistance but also to the human rights of those displaced. To be effective, strategies to address mass displacement need to be broad and comprehensive. There is a need for political initiatives that seek to resolve the conflicts as the consequences often involve neighboring countries. Efforts must engage local groups, national institutions, and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) to prevent situations that lead to persons being uprooted. As the representatives of NGOs, we have an opportunity to discuss with other NGOs the most appropriate next steps for action.

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.