In Myanmar, women targeted by human trafficking in Kachin

In Myanmar, women targeted by human trafficking in Kachin
SU MYAT MON | FRONTIER
11.12.17
SU MYAT MON | FRONTIER

Women’s groups in Myanmar's Kachin State say understaffed police with inadequate resources are hampering investigations into human trafficking and contributing to a crime wave in Myitkyina, in which women are often the targets. Since the conflict between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) and Kachin Independence Army resumed in 2011, bringing to an end...

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Opinion
Gambia: Truth Commission to Uncover Jammeh Abuses, says HRW
Gambia: Truth Commission to Uncover Jammeh Abuses, says HRW
12.12.17
Human Rights Watch

Gambia’s truth commission bill, to be debated on December 13, 2017, is an important opportunity to shed light on human rights violations committed during the rule of former President Yahya Jammeh, Human Rights Watch said today. The National Assembly should amend the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission bill to prohibit amnesties for those responsible for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rape, or torture, in accordance with international law and practice. “Gambia will greatly benefit from a truth-telling process that shines light on Jammeh’s abuses,” said Jim...

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Analysis
Justice leaves a bitter taste in the Balkans
Justice leaves a bitter taste in the Balkans
27.11.17
Pierre Hazan, JusticeInfo editorial advisor and professor at Neuchâtel University

This December 21, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will close its doors. Never have so many crimes provoked so much investigative work. Never has a war been so documented, examined and analysed by judicial authorities since the Second World War. Now it is time to analyse the record of this first international criminal tribunal, its successes and failures. This is indispensable, if only to learn lessons for the future of international justice.  What is most striking is the huge gap between judicial truth and the way it resonates in the societies most...

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Resources
Herceg-Bosna, bloody separatist bid of Bosnian Croats
27.11.17
AFP

Six leaders of a self-proclaimed statelet for Bosnian Croats, declared during the Balkan country's bloody 1990s conflict, hear a verdict Wednesday from UN judges on their appeal against war crimes convictions. Here are details about their breakaway "republic", which they eventually hoped to merge with neighbouring Croatia: - War breaks out - When war broke out in Bosnia in 1992 as Yugoslavia fell apart, the country's Catholic Croats fought alongside Bosniak Muslims against Orthodox Serbs in the ethnically diverse country. But the nationalist leaders of ethnic Croats, who made up about 17 percent of Bosnia's population of 4.4 million, gradually became more open about their desire to...

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Archives
Burundi: The Rights Defender Nestor Nibitanga Detained, says HRW
13.12.17
Human Rights Watch

Authorities in Burundi have been holding a human rights activist since November 21, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately release the activist, Nestor Nibitanga, or charge him with a credible offense. The police accused Nibitanga, via twitter, of “threatening state security.” Nibitanga was arrested at his home in Gitega province and taken to the headquarters of the national intelligence service (Service national de renseignement, SNR), in Bujumbura, the capital. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented numerous cases of torture of detainees there. He was held incommunicado, without charge and without access to his family or a lawyer...

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By Region

Africa
Dozen DR Congo child rapists handed life sentences
Dozen DR Congo child rapists handed life sentences
13.12.17
AFP

A dozen militiamen in eastern DR Congo were jailed for life Wednesday for raping about 40 children, including a baby, in what was judged a crime against humanity. The defendants were said to belong to a militia group called "Djeshi ya Yesu" -- meaning "Army of Jesus" in Swahili -- led by South Kivu provincial lawmaker Frederic Batumike. The children, ranging from babies aged just eight months to a 12-year-old girl, were kidnapped and raped between 2013 and 2016. A large crowd gathered in the area before Batumike and the 11 others were convicted by the military tribunal and "sentenced to life in prison for the crime against humanity by rape and murder". The verdict was delivered in a packed courtroom, concluding a trial that began...

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Americas
Guatemala: Courts Jeopardizing Fight Against Impunity, according to HRW
13.11.17
Human Rights Watch

 The remarkable progress Guatemala has made in prosecuting corruption and abuse could be reversed if the country’s highest courts don’t stop the egregious delays that are keeping powerful defendants from going to trial, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 56-page report, “Running Out the Clock: How Guatemala’s Judiciary Could Doom the Fight against Impunity,” documents a pattern of repeated and unjustifiable delays in criminal cases brought by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the Guatemalan Attorney General’s Office. “The fight against impunity in Guatemala has reached a critical moment,” said Daniel Wilkinson, managing director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch. “After...

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Middle-East
Yemen situation worsening faster than we can respond, says ICRC chief
Yemen situation worsening faster than we can respond, says ICRC chief
07.12.17
Frédéric Burnand, correspondent in Geneva

The violent death of former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh following his implicit offer to make peace with Saudi Arabia, risks fuelling the proxy war in Yemen between Riyadh and Teheran, according to some analysts, while some now see a possible end to the conflict. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, as ICRC President Peter Maurer explains. Last Saturday, 48 hours before he was killed by his former allies – Houthi rebels supported by Iran --, Ali Abdallah Saleh had said he was ready to "turn the page” with Saudi Arabia. That was immediately welcomed by the Saudi-led  military coalition that has been fighting the Houthi-Saleh alliance since 2015. With no sign...

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Europe
Was the destruction of Old Mostar Bridge a war crime?
Was the destruction of Old Mostar Bridge a war crime?
11.12.17
Pierre Hazan, JusticeInfo editorial advisor and professor at Neuchâtel University

To what extent does the destruction of an architectural masterpiece constitute a war crime if that masterpiece is also used for military purposes? What, too, if the destruction of such a monument, like the Old Mostar Bridge, causes psychological and physical harm to a civilian population now under siege? How should military objectives, damage to cultural heritage, psychological and physical harm be weighed together? That was the headache posed by the last judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  The ICTY’s last judgment on November 29 will be remembered for the televised live suicide of Slobodan Praljak, one of the six accused, as the sentence was being read out. But another aspect of this...

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