​​​​​​​Russian Attacks Leave Hundreds Dead: Daily Brief

Reports of attacks on civilians multiply in Ukraine: in the first 11 days of the war, in Kharkiv, more than 450 civilians were reportedly killed or injured, as a result of Russian airstrikes and artillery shelling of populated areas, damaging civilian buildings, schools, and shops. In the city of Mykolaiv three separate attacks researched by Human Rights Watch injured several civilians and damaged homes, businesses, and vehicles, with one attack killing nine civilians. In both cities, Human Rights Watch identified Russian use of cluster munitions and explosive weapons, in apparent indiscriminate attacks, which violates international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime. In Kharkiv, many people are leaving the city, and those who remain have endured intermittent heat, as well as shortages of food, water, and essential medicines. Russian forces should stop using cluster munitions and end these clearly indiscriminate attacks. Listen to Human Rights Watch’s executive director Ken Roth talk about the international response to the war crimes in Ukraine in our Twitter Space.

While the world focuses on the Russia-Ukraine war, in Afghanistan , since January, roughly 13,000 newborns have died from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases, 95 percent of the population does not have enough to eat, and 3.5 million children need nutritional support. The UN, called it a “food insecurity and malnutrition crisis of unparalleled proportions.” Besides humanitarian aid, which many countries have sent, at this stage Afghanistan also urgently needs a functioning banking system to address the crisis, as restrictions on Afghanistan’s Central Bank are still making large transactions or withdrawals impossible. Without ensuring that funds are being used for legitimate humanitarian and commercial purposes, it will be impossible to ease the crisis and help Afghanistan’s most vulnerable children.

Kasym-Jomart Tokaev, Kazakhstan’s president, promoted a “New Kazakhstan” in a recent policy speech but failed to address how the government will remedy the grave human rights violations during protests and violence in January of this year. Given the authorities’ history of failure to carry out effective investigations into serious abuses, the government needs to commit to establishing an independent hybrid body involving national and international experts that will investigate the deaths of 230 people and other abuses.

In addition to Myanmar’s junta’s systematic and pervasive abuses, that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, there have been increasing reports of Myanmar military airstrikes and use of heavy weapons causing civilian loss of life and property. The United Nations Human Rights Council, meeting on March 21st, should adopt a strategy for accountability in Myanmar to end abuses by the military junta. Strong possible actions against the military include measures to prevent the transfer of weapons to Myanmar, stop all revenues from oil, gas, timber, and gems that help finance the junta’s abuses, targeted economic sanctions against individuals implicated in abuses and military interests, and a UN Security Council to referral to the International Criminal Court.

Last week, Guatemala’s Congress almost passed a bill that would have restricted the already limited reproductive rights for women and girls in the country. The bill was eventually shelved, but the country still lags well behind the rest of the region in recognizing women’s rights and protecting their reproductive health, making women and girls pay a high price on their health and sexual education.

In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed an intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 related products. European Union, United States, South Africa, and India at the World Trade Organization are now negotiating on a text that significantly narrows the scope and potential impact of the proposal. More efforts are needed to ensure negotiations at the WTO actually end up expanding access to lifesaving medicines, testing kits, and vaccines. The pandemic is not over yet, and a comprehensive waiver is as important as ever.