Bosnia's Second-Class 'Others': Daily Brief
Tanzania pressures Burundian refugees to leave; good news from New York; rights defender imprisoned in Algeria; Central African Republic's militia leaders to be tried by the ICC; potential legal responsibility of European arms companies in Yemen's war; Yemen's new Riyadh agreement ignores rights abuses; and US state of Ohio proposes extreme abortion ban.
Did you know that, by law, Jews are not permitted to be head of state in Bosnia? They are labelled as “others.” The same is true for Roma. In fact, some 400,000 Bosnians, 12% of the population, cannot run for president or parliament because of their religion, ethnicity, or where they live.
A court in Russia has found 11 people responsible for a devastating 2017 suicide bombing on the St. Petersburg city metro, handing down sentences ranging from 19 years to life imprisonment. The long-awaited judgement, however, is clouded by allegations that authorities trumped-up evidence against those convicted. Some defendants alleged torture.
Iraq's Prime Minister Adil Abd Al-Mahdi promised in a letter to Human Rights Watch that security forces would no longer use live ammunition against protesters, before announcing his own resignation on November 29. But killings and abductions of protesters have continued.
Multinational corporations, some of the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world— 69 of the richest 100 entities in the world are corporations, not countries—have often escaped accountability when their operations have hurt workers, the surrounding communities, or the environment. Read this article by HRW's Komala Ramachandra and Juliane Kippenberg.
The Afghanistan papers – 2,000 pages of confidential United States government documents about US policy – are unsurprising for those who have followed Afghanistan since 2001 (and earlier), and who know how routinely US officials lied about progress in the war?
The Myanmar genocide hearings in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the role of Aung San Suu Kyi have gotten a lot of well-deserved attention this week.
And a government minister in Finland has caused a scandal by holding an Instagram poll on whether Finnish citizens should be abandoned in Syria...