Myanmar Coup Leaders "Belong Behind Bars": Daily Brief
Dozens of protesters killed in Myanmar; searching for hope after a decade of war and atrocities in Syria; new attack on rights in the UK; undeserved Commonwealth praise for Bangladesh leader; sanctions needed against Cambodia's "Dirty Dozen"; comment on historic verdict at International Criminal Court; and finally, a future we want to avoid...
The security services in Myanmar have killed dozens of pro-democracy protesters over the weekend, as calls for targeted sanctions against the generals and against companies controlled by the army are becoming stronger and stronger.
If you read anything today on the 10-years of war and near-total impunity for crimes against humanity in Syria, it should be this thread by Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Will the UK Parliament stop an awful new law that attacks fundamental rights of citizens in the country? It should. The bill, which would restrict the right to protest, is receiving greater attention after police at the weekend roughly broke up a peaceful vigil in memory of Sarah Everard, who was found murdered last week. A police officer has been charged with her murder.
What is the Commonwealth thinking when it applauds Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Covid leadership as “compassionate” and “inspiring”? Her government has used the pandemic as a pretext for censorship and repression of any criticism of its response.
As Hun Sen’s crackdown in Cambodia intensifies, so should the European Union's response. EU foreign ministers should finally follow up on their 2018 conclusions and adopt long overdue sanctions against Cambodia’s worst generals.
Last month, the International Criminal Court found Dominic Ongwen, known as one of the Lord's Resistance Army’s most ruthless commanders, guilty of 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including 19 counts specific to 11 charges of sexual and gender-based crimes. Read this new comment by HRW's Nisha Varia.
And finally, a dystopian twitter thread shows us a future we want to avoid - and we can avoid it if governments act now...