War Crimes in Iraq; Dinner with a Demagogue; Afghanistan Revisited: HRW Daily Brief
Plus: Trump's deportation plans to criminalize migrants; Obama on a last mission on behalf of Europe's refugees; prosecuted in Saudi Arabia for human rights activism; jailed & beaten in Sudan for reporting on protests; Internet freedom waning worldwide and foreign media under pressure in Congo...
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The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement today calling for an end to United States police use of excessive force in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The report notes the arrest and detention of over 400 people since the protests began, as well as the use of teargas, rubber bullets, and compression grenades to disperse protesters.
2015 saw a surge in hate crimes, according to a new report by the FBI. A look inside those numbers reflect a growth in assaults against Muslim Americans and mosques, at a rate not seen since the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. The number of hate crimes reported following the US Presidential election is also spiking.
What are likely to be incendiary weapons attacks have hit a health center in Homs, Syria, killing at least six and wounding dozens.
From earlier today: The mutilation of corpses of dead Islamic State (ISIS) fighters and the execution of at least one surrendered ISIS combatant in the Iraqi town of Qayyarah do not bode well for the looming battle inside Mosul, Human Rights Watch said today. The Iraqi government should hold its forces accountable if it hopes to claim the moral upper hand in its fight against ISIS, the organization said.
US President-elect Donald Trump’s intention to deport or “incarcerate” up to 3 million people puts the US on course of massive human rights violations. The move will most likely criminalize migrants, as did mass deportations under the Obama administration, and long-time residents are prone to be caught up in the net.
On his final visit to Europe as president, Barack Obama will appeal to the importance of European unity and advocate additional debt relief for Greece, the primary entry point for Middle East migrants and asylum seekers, the Washington Post reports. Mismanagement and lack of coordination among EU governments contributed to a political and humanitarian crisis in 2015, and it's time for resettlement policies that protect people rather than expose them to deplorable and potentially dangerous conditions.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor says she has a “reasonable basis to believe” American soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Fatou Bensouda thus signaled that a full investigation of a range of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan was likely. The ICC move would mark the first time that a formal ICC investigation scrutinizes U.S. actions.