• Weapons sales to abusive regimes remain a stain on Macron’s diplomatic record; 
  • Rather than addressing sexual assault allegations IOC announces dinner plans with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai; 
  • EU should ban use of spyware produced by NSO Group; 
  • Civil society organizations call for independent investigation into abuses in Yemen; 
  • Thousands of Syrian refugee children remain blocked from school in Lebanon; 
  • And: Pioneering humane assistance for people with mental disabilities in Canada. 
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When visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, French President Emmanuel Macron should be speaking out against human rights abuses, not selling weapons to abusive regimes. According to media reports, the main purpose of Macron’s visit to the UAE today is to finalize the sale of dozens of French fighter jets - despite the UAE’s prominent role in atrocity-ridden military operations in Yemen. Next, Macron will go to Saudi Arabia, which France has stubbornly continued to export arms to in defiance of UN experts and despite the country’s disastrous human rights record. These arms sales and France’s protection of dubious military partnerships in the name of counterterrorism and at the cost of human rights will remain a stain on Macron's diplomatic record. 

While the Women’s Tennis Association has announced that it will pull all tournaments from China and Hong Kong after weeks of increasing concern and calls for information on the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed it has dinner plans with Peng in January - yet again failing to address the seriousness of the situation. Peng, who had stated on social media that she had been sexually assaulted and forced into a sexual relationship with Zhang Gaoli, one of the Chinese Communist Party’s former top officials and leader of a State Council working group overseeing Beijing 2022 Olympic preparations, has not been heard of publicly since then. The IOC, however, has apparently been able to have a second close call with the athlete, a statement published yesterday and in which the organization declares to have taken “a very human and person-centred approach to her situation” revealed. Instead of reiterating rhetoric that is eerily similar to Beijing’s, the IOC should  stop collaborating with Chinese authorities and act publicly on Peng’s behalf. 

There is overwhelming evidence that Pegasus spyware, which turns an infected phone into a portable surveillance tool, has been used by abusive governments to clamp down on human rights defenders and perceived critics. The European Union should adopt targeted sanctions against NSO Group, the Israel-based company that produces the spyware and ban any use of its technologies, 86 human rights groups and independent experts said today in a letter to the EU foreign policy chief and foreign ministers of EU states. 

For years, the warring parties to the conflict in Yemen have carried out widespread and systematic abuses with impunity, conducting scores of unlawful airstrikes and missile attacks that have killed and injured civilians and destroyed or damaged homes, hospitals, schools, markets, and other civilian infrastructure. This criminal conduct by the Saudi and UAE-led coalition and their Houthi opponents has not only claimed many thousands of civilian lives but also caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. In light of the failure of the UN Human Rights Council in October to renew the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts (GEE), which for more than four years had investigated and reported on rights abuses and other violations of international law by all parties to the Yemen conflict, a coalition of more than 60 civil society organizations has now urged the United Nations General Assembly to establish an independent investigative body that would collect and preserve evidence for possible future criminal prosecution. Failing to do so would not only be a vote for impunity in Yemen, it would be tantamount to a green light to commit further abuses and war crimes, the organizations said. 

Almost one in three of the 660,000 school-age Syrian refugee children Lebanon hosts have never been to school, and almost 60 percent were not enrolled in school in recent years. A decade after the Syrian conflict began, discriminatory rules that only allow refugee children to enroll for spaces unfilled by Lebanese children continue to undermined their right to education. Blocked by policies that require certified educational records, legal residency in Lebanon, and other official documents that many Syrians cannot obtain, many of these children end up working in the streets. Tardy Education Ministry decisions mean that yet again many Syrian children may be unable to register for the next school year by the December 4 deadline. If Lebanon’s new government wants to prevent a lost generation, it needs to stop creating bottlenecks and demanding unobtainable paperwork from refugee children who want to go to school.

Almost 30 years ago, in 1992, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed December 3 the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This year the theme is “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world.” Approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population live with some form of disability; 80 per cent live in developing countries. People with disabilities have been among the populations most affected by Covid-19 and are particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis, while people with mental health conditions in addition face stigma, prejudice, and attitudinal barriers. Often, police rather than support services respond to a mental health crisis, which erodes trust and does not help the person in crisis regain control for themselves. A pioneer in providing more suitable, humane and safe responses has been the  Gerstein Crisis Centre in Toronto. Now, the city itself is leading the way in developing new responses. A pilot program which is set to start in January will be replacing “wellness checks” by police with assistance provided by mental health staff, harm reduction workers, people trained in de-escalation, and peers with lived experience.

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