The government tried to take away their rights, but the people protested – and won.

For weeks, Polish students and activists have regularly gathered in front of Warsaw’s Presidential Palace and across the country. They were calling on President Andrzej Duda to veto a controversial bill that attempted to further force the ruling party’s extreme ideology on schools.

The bill was cooked up in the cauldron of Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek. He is known in Poland for his discriminatory comments and efforts to reshape the school curriculum in line with his arch-conservative agenda.

If signed by the president, the legislation would have authorized government superintendents to decide what extracurricular or educational activities can occur on school grounds. Superficially, that may sound harmless, but it could have had severe consequences.

Poland’s running party has repeatedly attempted to limit scientifically accurate, rights-based sex education, and target those providing it.

The ultra-conservative government has long had a warped view of sex and sex education. They seem to think sex was invented in the 1960s or something – you know the type. In any case, their ideology is completely at odds with international and regional standards.

That’s meant independent, nongovernmental organizations are virtually the only ones providing honest, rational education about sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, reproductive health, and healthy relationships in Poland.

Classes like these were the target of the ruling party and Education Minister Czarnek. How dare anyone teach science to our children!

This was actually his second attempt to get such legislation passed. President Duda vetoed the first one in March 2022.

On December 15, President Duda announced that he would veto the second bill due to public opposition.

It’s a win for the protesters and a win for Poland.

Most of all, it’s win for young Polish people, who will have a better chance to learn about the reality of the world they are living in. As is their right.

Sometimes, the fight for rights is in the streets, with banners flying and people chanting, boldly demanding change in the face of an oppressive government.

Sometimes, it’s in inconspicuous meetings of a committee.

Join me now in the weeds of UN budget allocations… It may sound boring, but it’s important – trust me.

As you may know, the UN has a number of teams of independent experts who investigate serious international abuses in various places: Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Venezuela, and more… These are sometimes called, with language that pains me, “human rights mechanisms.” 

These teams obviously need money to do their work, and somewhere in the bureaucracy, funds have to be approved. Welcome to the UN General Assembly’s Fifth Committee.

Now, the Fifth Committee’s job is simply to allocate resources to UN activities. It is NOT supposed to be deciding which activities deserve them. That’s the job of legislative bodies like the UN Human Rights Council or General Assembly.

But the Fifth Committee is politicized. Governments try to interfere there to limit or defund UN human rights teams.

For example, the Ethiopian government, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, is targeting funding for the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia at the Fifth Committee.

Russia has also repeatedly tried to defund investigations of its ally, Syria, just as China has done for Myanmar.

The US and some EU countries have been at the same nasty game, joining Israel last year to try to defund the Commission of Inquiry on Israel and Palestine.

This all needs to stop.

And the UN budgetary approval process badly needs an overhaul.

Why do abuses and atrocities keep happening in South Sudan?

Mostly because perpetrators keep getting away with abuses and atrocities.

Last week marked the anniversary of South Sudan’s descent into a brutal civil war. The conflict started as a political dispute, then took ethnic undertones with civilians being targeted on the basis of ethnicity and perceived political allegiance.

Nearly 400,000 people have died.

All parties have committed serious abuses amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A 2018 peace deal led to the formation of a unity government drawn from belligerent forces, but fighting continues, as do wartime abuses.

That deal, based on a 2015 effort, envisioned the establishment of an African-Union-led Hybrid Court for South Sudan to address the conflict-related crimes.

The South Sudanese government dragged its feet, then announced in January 2021 that it had approved the establishment of the court, but since then… Not much.

It’s time for the African Union to set up the court.

If perpetrators are not held responsible for their crimes, those crimes will keep happening.

(compiled by Alice Autin)

• Iranian officials use detainees’ private social media accounts to incriminate them (CNN) 
• Israel deports Salah Hammouri, Palestinian lawyer, to France (BBC) 
• Tunisia: Record low election turnout leaves questions over President Saied's legitimacy (Middle East Eye) 
• Russia drone targets ‘critical infrastructure’ in Kyiv (AP) 

Well, the World Cup in Qatar is over, but if the authorities there thought international attention on their human rights abuses would end, too, then they thought wrong. We have a Twitter Space audio discussion today, live at 09h00 ET (15h00 CET), and recorded afterwards at the same link.