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The Kenyan government has insisted that the UN close Dadaab refugee camp - the largest in Africa - or it will do so itself. The statement comes in the wake of an attack by masked gunmen on Garissa University on 2 April which left 148 people dead.
The attack was claimed by Al Shabaab Islamist militants as retribution for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight the group alongside other African Union peacekeepers. The Kenyan government says its decision is based on protecting national security, accusing fighters of hiding out in the refugee complex.
Dadaab houses between 350,000 and 600,000 refugees, 58 percent of whom are children. Many have been living there for years or were born there, and have never been to Somalia.
Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Karin de Gruijl, urged Kenyan authorities to reconsider their decision, explaining that forcing refugees back to Somalia would have severe consequences, and would breach Kenya’s obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law. The 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, which Kenya ratified in 1966, stipulates that countries must not forcibly repatriate refugees to countries where they may be at risk.
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The abduction of 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria, last April attracted the world's attention to the brutality of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency. One year on, the news remains bleak. Boko Haram still holds 219 of the schoolgirls and hundreds of other abducted women and girls, many of whom have been forced to convert to Islam and “marry” their captors. And just last month, media outlets reported that Boko Haram fighters abducted more than 400 women and children in the northern town of Damasak. UN officials have warned the Security Council of the group’s violence and brutality, outlining reports of the abduction, abuse, recruitment, maiming and killing of children.
A new report by UNICEF further reveals that at least 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in the northeast between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defence groups. According to the report, children are also being used within the ranks of Boko Haram as combatants, cooks, porters and look-outs. In addition, more than 300 schools have been damaged or destroyed and at least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren killed since 2014.
At least five million people have been affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, including 1.7 million children, while more than 1.1 million people have been internally displaced.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned of the long-term consequences of the protracted crisis, saying that no child has been vaccinated since the conflict began.
Meanwhile, in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, 82 schools have closed, leaving 25,000 children without access to education. This year's high school graduates are facing another challenge - their graduation certificates are not recognised. Children receiving certificates within territories eluding the control of the Ukrainian government cannot submit documents to universities in that country or elsewhere. The only way to finish school with a document that will be recognised is through distance learning or an “externship” in conflict-free parts of Ukraine.
Children also face a gauntlet of physical risks. At least 109 children are reported to have been injured and 42 killed by landmines and unexploded ordnance in Donetsk and Luhansk since March last year, according to UNICEF. This is in spite of the fact that Ukraine is a signatory to the 1999 Mine Ban Treaty which prohibits the production, stockpiling and use of antipersonnel landmines.
Since 1 April, Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria has been the scene of intense fighting between a number of armed groups, including elements of Islamic State (IS), rendering it virtually impossible for civilians to leave.
Amnesty International reports that at least 18 civilians, including a 12-year-old girl and a humanitarian aid worker, have been killed in Yarmouk during the first week of April.
Thousands more are at risk as Syrian government forces have intensified their shelling and aerial bombardment of the camp in response to the IS takeover of the area. “Shelling and dropping barrel bombs on a populated civilian area is a war crime”, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director.
The residents of the camp have already suffered for nearly two years under a brutal government siege imposed in July 2013, leading to a devastating humanitarian crisis. By March 2014, at least 194 people in the camp had died, mostly as a result of starvation and a lack of medical care.
Among Yarmouk's 18,000 besieged residents are 3,500 children, who have been reliant on intermittent distributions of food and other assistance from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In some areas, interruptions of humanitarian operations have left thousands of people without aid for months.
Despite the escalation in fighting, both Syrian government forces and IS fighters have refused to allow any medical or humanitarian aid into the camp, leaving dozens of injured people without access to crucial medical and other life-saving assistance.
The human rights situation in Yemen has been deteriorating rapidly since the country formed a new government in November 2014 aimed at ending a period of political turbulence and bringing about a full transition towards democracy.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 540 people have been killed and some 1,700 wounded since 19 March. At least 74 children have been killed and 44 injured, according to UNICEF.
Amnesty International reported that on 26 March alone, at least six children under the age of 10 were among 25 people killed in Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes in the capital Sana’a.
More than 100,000 people have left their homes because of the conflict, which UNICEF says has disrupted water supplies in parts of southern Yemen, resulting in sewage overflowing in some areas, heightening the risk of disease. All warring sides are said to be recruiting teenage boys to fight in their ranks.
Since the Houthis, a Shia rebel group from northern Yemen - widely believed to attract support from Iran - took over the capital, Sanaa, in January, rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran for power and influence in the Middle East has resurfaced. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced an end to its month-long bombing operation in Yemen but strikes have continued.
Talks concerning the advance of fully autonomous weapons, also known as "killer robots", opened on Monday in Geneva. Such weapons - which do not yet exist - would be able to choose and fire on targets of their own accord, without any human intervention.
Speaking at the meeting on the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), Nobel Peace Laureate Ms. Jody Williams rejected the notion that autonomous weapons systems are “inevitable”, stating: “this is a decision that we as human beings can make. It is a decision that we must make. We must not cede the power of life and death over other human beings to autonomous machines of our own design. It is not too late.”
A representative from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots said: “Replacing human troops with machines could make the decision to go to war easier, which would shift the burden of armed conflict further onto civilians. The use of fully autonomous weapons would create an accountability gap as there is no clarity on who would be legally responsible for a robot’s actions: the commander, programmer, manufacturer, or robot itself? Without accountability, these parties would have less incentive to ensure robots did not endanger civilians and victims would be left unsatisfied that someone was punished for the harm they experienced.”
Read more about the moral and legal issues related to fully autonomous weapons and how a ban could be achieved.
A suicide attack in the eastern city of Khost, which killed 16 people and injured at least 40, including four children, has been condemned “in the strongest terms” by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The suicide bomber detonated his explosive device among a group of civilians participating in a peaceful demonstration against corruption, according to reports.
The bombing is the latest in a series of targeted attacks in Afghanistan which made 2014 the deadliest for civilians, according to a UNAMA report released in February. Last year, a total of 3,699 civilians were killed and 6,849 injured – the highest number of civilian casualties recorded in a single year since the UN started keeping track in 2007.
In Colombia, children aged 12 to 15 are being forced by members of non-state armed groups and criminal gangs to serve as sex workers in mining areas, said the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG), Zainab Hawa Bangura, following a four-day mission to the country last month.
These children are often referred to as “packages” to service mining operations, and are replaced by “new packages” when they become “too used” or “too sick”.
Her interviews with women and girls, mostly in the department of Choco, brought to the fore their demand for sexual violence to be acknowledged by all parties involved in the conflict, and to ensure such crimes will never be repeated.
The SRSG noted clear links between armed groups, illegal mining, narco-trafficking and sexual violence, highlighting that sexual violence must be understood in the context of the conflict and addressed as such.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) formally became a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday 1 April. International justice activists hailed the occasion as an opportunity to secure accountability after years of conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.
Joining the court is part of a broader effort by the Palestinians to put international pressure on Israel, and comes at a time when the chances of resuming negotiations on Palestinian statehood are seen as slim in light of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent election victory and tough campaign rhetoric.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, but the country’s military and civilian leaders could now face charges if they are believed to have committed crimes on Palestinian territory.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said on Monday that the PA leadership was working to speed up the process of filing charges against Israel with the ICC.
Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) released a report this week, Operation Protective Edge: A War Waged on Gaza's Children, detailing the high price paid by children during Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer. Operation Protective Edge, which lasted 50 days between July 8 and August 26, claimed the lives of 2,220 Palestinians, including at least 1,492 civilians, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). DCIP independently verified the deaths of 547 Palestinian children among the killed in Gaza, 535 of them as a direct result of Israeli attacks. Download the report.
Local and international human rights groups have called for South Sudan to sign the Rome Statute and join the ICC. But Minister of Justice, Paulino Wanawilla Unago, has said that joining the ICC is not an obligation and that any offences punishable under the Rome Statute can be punished under South Sudanese law. However, perpetrators of acts committed during the ongoing civil war in which tens of thousands have been killed and nearly two million have fled their homes have not been brought to justice. Last month, the UN Human Rights Council questioned representatives from the country about its failure to prosecute anyone involved during a discussion on the Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in South Sudan and recommendations on technical assistance and capacity-building measures.
The ICC’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda said in a statement last week that the Court is unable to open an inquiry into the alleged crimes committed by Islamic State (IS) because neither Syria nor Iraq is a member of the court and the UN Security Council has not requested an investigation. The prosecutor can only investigate and prosecute crimes committed on the territory or by the nationals of States that have joined the ICC statute or which have otherwise accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC through an ad hoc declaration to that effect.
“Crimes of unspeakable cruelty have been reported, such as mass executions, sexual slavery, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, torture, mutilation, enlistment and forced recruitment of children and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, not to mention the wanton destruction of cultural property,” the statement said. “The commission of the crime of genocide has also been alleged.”
Last month, a UN report suggested that IS may have committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in its attacks against ethnic and religious groups in Iraq. The report highlights a spectrum of rights violations, including killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery, forced religious conversions and the conscription of children. Witnesses described rapes of girls as young as six and nine years old and a scene where IS members sat laughing as two teenage girls were raped in the next room. Boys between the ages of eight and 15 also described being separated from their mothers, transported to locations in Iraq and Syria and forced to convert to Islam.
The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) voted Wednesday to create a Special Criminal Court to hold accountable those responsible for atrocities committed during recent unrest in the country which has left thousands dead and many more displaced. The new judicial entity will be made up of 14 judges from CAR and 13 from other countries.
Since March 2013, when mainly Muslim Séléka rebels seized control of the majority Christian country, thousands of people have been killed in religious fighting, and about a million people have been displaced from their homes. The Séléka withdrew to the north-east last year, after international pressure and violence by mainly Christian anti-balaka militias.
As the US finalises the framework for a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme and removes Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, we reflect on the effects of sanctions imposed on both countries.
Western sanctions on Iran have led the country’s economy to shrink by a fifth since 2010. Several rounds of sanctions have targeted Iran's key energy and financial sectors. UN sanctions include a ban on the supply of heavy weaponry and nuclear-related technology to Iran, a block on arms exports and an asset freeze on key individuals and companies. The US sanctions prohibit almost all trade with Iran, making some exceptions only for activity "intended to benefit the Iranian people".
In the wake of the sanctions, prices of fruit and sugar, among other staples, have soared – in some cases showing three- and four-fold increases. Iran's Haemophilia Society recently blamed the sanctions for jeopardising thousands of children's lives due to a lack of proper drugs.
But human rights activists expressed caution over the agreement. “Iran’s negotiating partners must confront any attempt at wholesale repression inside the country that may follow this agreement,” said Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “Otherwise they will not only be colluding in the denial of the basic rights of the Iranian people, they will also be undermining the nuclear accord and setting the stage for yet more instability in a region already choked with strife.”
Meanwhile, ending a decades-long standstill in US-Cuba relations this month, US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro met for substantive talks in Panama City for the first time in more than 50 years.
The US has imposed commercial, economic and financial sanctions on Cuba since 1959.
The UN General Assembly has repeatedly called for an end to the US embargo. In October 2014, 188 of the 192 member countries voted for a resolution condemning the policy.
The embargo prohibits the import into the US of all goods of Cuban origin and all goods imported from or through Cuba. It further bans Americans from travelling to the country or spending money there as tourists and limits the amount of money individuals can send to family living in Cuba.
While the embargo was meant to promote democratic reforms and support the opposition by targeting the economy, this did not have the desired effect. The American Association for World Health has documented the effect of the sanctions on the right to health, with the embargo contributing to malnutrition affecting women and children in particular, poor water quality, lack of access to medicines and medical supplies. UNICEF reported in 2008 that Cuba was unable to import nutritional products destined for schools, hospitals and day care centres. This is believed to be a contributing factor in the high prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia which in 2007 affected 37.5 percent of children under three years old.
Amnesty International also reported on the impact of the embargo on economic, social and cultural rights in 2009. Read the full report.
Could these developments mark a new era of international relations and children’s rights issues? We’ll be monitoring progress.
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