January 24 – Amnesty International
Human rights in Iran
According to the human rights organization, Amnesty International, Iran detained 7,000 protesters and dissidents in 2018 alone. They include students, journalists, environmental activists, factory workers, lawyers, women’s rights activists fighting against forced wearing of headscarves, minority rights activists, human rights activists, and trade unionists protesting against the deepening economic crisis. Many of them were sentenced to long prison terms, flogging, and some died under suspicious circumstances. Amnesty is appealing to the UK Government to properly respond to the attacks on human rights defenders around the world, including in Iran.[1]
Full report from Amnesty International
February 6 – NATO
Macedonia becomes NATO member
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) signs an accession agreement with Macedonia, making it the 30th member of this intergovernmental military alliance. This could happen only after Greece approved Macedonia’s new name, Republic of North Macedonia. Before Macedonia becomes officially a member, however, each NATO member will have to ratify the accession agreement.[2]
March 7 – International Criminal Court (ICC)
Crimes against humanity in Syria
Twenty-eight Syrians, who were forced to flee Syria to Jordan as a result of the ongoing civil war, file lawsuits with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The lawsuit calls on the ICC to investigate the crimes against humanity committed since 2011 when the civil war has begun. Because Syria does not recognize the International Court and does not fall under its jurisdiction, the lawsuits were filed in Jordan, which is party to the ICC. The evidence includes testimonies from Syrian refugees who describe their experiences of bombings and torture.[3]
Effectiveness and legitimacy issues of the ICC (video: 02:35 min)
April 25 – Amnesty International
War in Syria
Human rights organization Amnesty International issues an investigative report about the impact of the US-led coalition’s military campaign on the civilians in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Between June and October 2017, the coalition that includes the U.S., UK, and France, launched thousands of air and artillery strikes to oust the Islamic State (IS) from its self-designated capital in Raqqa. The report states that the Coalition claimed it had taken all necessary measures to spare civilians and admitted killing 159 civilians; however, Amnesty says that four months of relentless and reckless bombardment of Raqqa reduced the city’s homes, businesses and infrastructure to rubble, killing and injuring thousands of civilians. The report also states that such conduct violates the principles of distinction and proportionality – fundamental requirements of international humanitarian law. Disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks are war crimes.[4]
Report: War in Raqqa: Rhetoric versus Reality
June 24 – UNHCHR
Former IS fighters
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on foreign governments to take responsibility and claim former Islamic State (IS) fighters and their families who are their citizens but are stuck in overcrowded squalid camps in Syria and Iraq since the collapse of the last IS strongholds. The UN organization highlights particularly the plight of the children in these camps.[5] According to a study prepared by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR), 41,490 international citizens from 80 countries became affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, a quarter of which were women and children. Only about 20 percent of them have returned to their home countries, or are in repatriation processes to do so. Many countries are unwilling to allow repatriation and to recognize the children of IS members born in Syria and Iraq as citizens, despite their parents having nationality.[6]
Background: Infamous for its brutality and terror, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), so-called ‘caliphate, has been described as a hybrid terrorist organization and conventional army, a religious, millenarian group, an insurgency, and a pseudo-state, amongst others. Its propaganda reached a wide global audience like no other terrorist organization in history. At its peak in late 2014, the group controlled over 38,610 square miles of land and the 11 million residents therein. By 2017, the IS lost its territories, with many of its fighters and their families stuck in camps.[7]
The Rise and fall of the Islamic State
Has IS been defeated?
July 10 – United Nations
Detention centers in Xinjiang province
The ambassadors of 22 mostly Western countries (including Britain, Canada and Japan) sign a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council urging China to stop arbitrary detentions of ethnic Uighurs who are Muslim and other minorities in its northwest Xinjiang province. They cite reports by China scholars and human rights groups of “large-scale places of detention, as well as widespread surveillance and restrictions, particularly targeting Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang”.[8] These reports estimate that more than a million people have been forced into these re-education camps.
(July 12): In a rebuke to the critical letter, ambassadors of 37 states from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America jointly sign a letter to the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council praising China in its contributions to the international peace by fighting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in Xinjiang. The larger number of signatories supporting China shows Beijing’s growing global influence.[9]
Inside China’s ‘thought transformation’ camps
October 11 – Nobel Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. He has been recognized for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation. In 2018, he signed a peace deal with neighboring Eritrea after the war between the two countries that lasted from 1998 to 2000 followed by the 20-year-long military impasse. He has also been involved in peace processes in other African countries, including helping to broker an agreement between Sudan’s military leaders and civilian opposition after months of protests. At home, he freed thousands of jailed opposition activists and allowed exiled dissidents to return home. He also increased the participation of women in government by appointing several to prominent positions.[10]
More about Abiy Ahmed
All Nobel Peace Prize winners
November 5 – United Nations
The Paris Agreement
The United States begins the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement by sending a notice of intent to the United Nations. The process will be complete in November 2020. The Trump Administration says that the deal puts an “unfair economic burden” on the U.S. The decision of the U.S. withdrawal – one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – draws condemnation from other countries, as well as American environmentalists, politicians, and business leaders. In response, hundreds of local governments, businesses and organizations in the U.S. have joined the We Are Still In movement and have pledged to cut emissions and move to renewable energy.[11]
Background: Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to combat climate change and to accelerate the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. The United States entered the agreement on 4 November 2016.[12] As of 2019, 197 countries have become parties to the Convention.[13] The Paris accord commits the signatory countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise.
Climate change: How 1.5C degrees of global warming could change the world (video, 02:21 min)
November 11 – United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)
Protests in Iraq
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) is urging the government of Iraq to stop violence against anti-government protesters and introduce meaningful reforms. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been protesting across the country since October 1 during which security forces killed at least 319 people. People demand more jobs, an end to corruption, and better public services. The UN Mission calls on the Iraqi government and politicians to immediately release all peaceful demonstrators detained recently and prosecute those responsible for the excessive use of force. They also call on Iraq to fulfill the promise to pass electoral reform and hold early elections.[14] The Iraqi economy has slowed down from 13.1 percent in 2016 to -2.1 percent in 2017 with unemployment at 16 percent.[15]
December 11 – International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Genocide inquiry
A West African country, The Gambia, on behalf of dozens of other Muslim countries, brings Myanmar to the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) calling for it to stop the genocide of its Rohingya minority and on the United Nations to protect this minority from further persecutions. The claims of atrocities against the Rohingya include systematic mass murder, rape and burning their villages to the ground. Myanmar’s leader and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi defends her country and the military against these allegations, arguing that the country is tackling extremist Rohingya militants who attack government security posts.
To rule that Myanmar is guilty of genocide, the ICJ has to prove that the country acted with intent to destroy the minority population. But even then, it has no power to enforce the ruling; however, the guilty verdict could lead to sanctions and have economic consequences.[16]
Aung San Suu Kyi: The democracy icon who fell from grace
How a genocide was investigated