What Matters Most on the Poland-Belarus Border: Daily Brief
Accounts of human suffering at the Poland and Belarus border; sponsors of China's Winter Olympics should promote rights; COP26 final day; Hong Kong harshly sentences peaceful protester; and Russia's move to liquidate prominent rights organization.
The humanitarian crisis unfolding at the border between Belarus and Poland, where hundreds, if not thousands, of people are trapped in inhuman conditions, deserves a humane and mature response from the European Union and its member states. Regretfully, the EU is focusing on militarization of its external border and criticism of the ugly tactics used by Belarus, while women, men, and children are now facing acute suffering. There have been at least eight documented deaths already. How many more are to come? To prevent further deaths and distress, Poland should ensure humanitarian access to border areas and halt unlawful pushbacks of migrants to Belarus. For its part, Belarus should immediately end its abuses against migrants.
The 2022 Olympics Winter Games will happen in Beijing, China, where the government is responsible for crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, repression in Hong Kong, attacking media freedom, and deploying mass surveillance. As in 2008, it is expected that Chinese authorities will fail to meet the rights-related commitments they made to be able to host the Olympics. The Olympic sponsors have now an opportunity to change things: they should publicly call on the Olympic system they are paying for to stand up for human rights and put an end to rampant abuses in China.
The COP26 summit begins its final scheduled day today, and it's unlikely that the Paris Agreement's objective to keep temperature rising below 1.5C will be met. States have pledged to make efforts to preserve forests and phase out fossil fuels; however, the impact of these will depend on how comprehensive and ambitious they are on the COP26 deal, and on what concrete steps governments take to fulfil their commitments.
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man to five years and nine months in prison for shouting slogans advocating for Hong Kong independence. The National Security Law, imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing since June 2020, has led to this trial and the harsh sentence imposed on this peaceful protester, demonstrating that the authorities are using it to curtail free expression and possibly to shut down the pro-democracy movement.
Russia crossed another line in using its repressive legislation on “foreign agents” to restrict space for civic activity and penalize critics: it has now moved to shut down Memorial, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent rights organizations. This adds to the soaring numbers of individuals and organizations designated as “foreign agents” over the last months, highlighting the need for Russia's authorities to repeal this legislation and end their crackdown on independent groups and activists.