NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 22 (IPS) – Among East Africa’s dozens of pastoral tribes, major conflicts have erupted repeatedly, largely over land and water disputes.
Generational trauma and anger have built to create tensions and grievances that carry emotional weight even hundreds of years later.
Among some African tribes, warriors returning home from fighting are frequently greeted by women singing. And it is reported that some tribes have no name for an enemy tribe in their language; they simply substitute the word enemy.
These same people could tell you how many of their tribe had been killed by the other tribe, how much capital was stolen, and the exact day each event happened dating back as many as 60 years.
Such cultural and linguistic practices continually reinforce and perpetuate a lingering notion of otherness and violence. And they underline a key point: Each person involved and affected by conflict can contribute to its resolution and peacebuilding.
Founded in 2009 in the aftermath of Kenya’s disputed elections of 2007-2008, Shalom-SCCRR is a non-governmental organization created to help mitigate conflicts in eastern Africa. To date, the organization has initiated about 1,000 interventions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda, among other countries.
Today, we confront religious ideological radicalization, extremism and conflict in both urban and rural environments and along the entire Kenyan coast. And the only answer to it is to truly empower local people.
SCCRR is committed to transforming conflict into social development and reconciliation, reflecting a belief that violence is fundamentally based on inadequately met human needs.
The aim of our team goes beyond the absence of physical violence to a deep-rooted positive peace where all parties are committed to each other’s well-being, uprooting the causes – not just addressing the symptoms – of conflict by creating transformative grassroot networks.
Trust in SCCRR is fostered in large part by our long term – 5 to 10 year – commitments to building local capacity for negotiation, mediation, and joint problem solving, and by involving community members who can then themselves build their own architectures of peace.
Our staff have, at minimum, masters level university qualifications. These highly-educated peacebuilding practitioners train local politicians and other key thought leaders – chiefs, elders, religious, education, women’s groups, youth and other community influencers.
SCCRR’s approach to reconciliation is based on four pillars:
Ending violence
Truth, with each side listening to the other, sharing perceptions on their conflicts
Justice, which requires truthful people genuinely open to objective consideration. Sadly, conflict has a very robust, resilient memory, frequently distorted by erroneous historical narratives and mendacious media reporting
Mercy: Without which, a negative situation will be entrenched forever in endless cycle
We also advocate on behalf of communities with governments to develop and upgrade institutions to meet, for example, medical, legal or education needs (particularly interethnic or interfaith schools, and education equality).
Over the years, SCCRR has successfully trained over 28,000 community leaders in conflict transformation skills, leading to over 600 local community development projects, to the benefit of over 200,000 school aged children and many others.
While SCCRR can provide bricks and mortar, communities must provide the site, water, and labor, for example. And it is essential to success that a community owns a project themselves.
In recent times, women have made up 60% of the main beneficiaries of SCCRR interventions.
Extreme, systemic, inter-ethnic conflict has left countless people killed, injured or displaced, and debilitated many communities in eastern Africa.
And it is impossible to promote sustained development in places where humanitarian institutions are periodically destroyed or incapacitated. That is why conflict transformation is fundamental to social development and reconciliation.
Rather than seeking new places to live, communities need practical tools for self-sustainability that empower them to thrive where they are.
And as the world grapples with a global migration crisis, the success of SCCRR’s work takes on heightened significance, offering helpful insights and a template for action.
*Rev. Dr. Patrick Devine is International Chairman and Founder of the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (Shalom-SCCRR). In 2013, he received the International Caring Award, whose previous recipients include the Dalai Lama, Bill Clinton, and Mother Teresa.
Displayed for all visitors to see, the tiny charcoal coloured block of Moon rock spent three decades in storage and made its re-appearance after a rigorous security process.
To Anne Soiberg-Friedkin, who works in facilities management at UN Headquarters, having a piece of the Moon reflects the immense feats of humanity.
“It’s so significant, it should be on display,” she told UN News. “It’s one of the newest gifts on display, even though it was given to us many many moons ago.”
A symbol of mankind’s potential
The first successful Moon mission, led by the US space agency, NASA, returned with about one tonne of lunar rocks, which were shared across the world with nations and scientific institutions. A priceless insight into planetary science, experts have dated samples to about four billion years ago.
The UN’s foray into outer space matters began in the 1950s. By 1992, it had established the Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), mandated to ensure its peaceful use for the benefit of all.
Amid the ongoing cold war, the UN welcomed United States astronauts freshly returned from their Moon walk with a ceremony in August 1969.
“I’m sure the flight of Apollo 11 brought to us a renewed realization of what we, as members of the human race, can accomplish on this planet with our resources and technology if we are prepared to combine our efforts and work together for the benefit of all mankind,” said then UN Secretary-General U Thant.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong echoed that message while addressing the crowd gathered at UN Headquarters.
“I can tell that you share with us the hope that we citizens of Earth, who can solve the problems of leaving Earth, can also solve the problems of staying on it,” Mr. Armstrong said.
The Moon is not for sale
However, the Moon rock “gifts” are really just a loan, as it is illegal to own a piece of the celestial body, Ms. Soiberg-Friedkin explained.
The rules were set out in the General Assembly-adopted Outer Space Treaty, which entered into force in 1967. The instrument declared that no one can own outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. That is why security for a piece of it is so important.
NASA’s guidelines were at the forefront, when it came to getting the Moon rock back on display. It took four years of planning ahead of its reappearance on UN Day on 24 October 2023, Ms. Soiberg-Friedkin said.
To prevent theft or damage to the invaluable rocks, stringent rules offered three choices: provide 24-hour security officer tours; a security officer alongside a locked and secure display unit; or installing a camera, the selected option.
The PVBLIC Foundation sponsored a camera for round-the-clock monitoring, Ms. Soiberg-Friedkin designed a bespoke case the UN Carpentry Shop built and an appropriate location was determined: the starting point of official UN tours.
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
The Moon rock was first displayed at UN Headquarters in 1970.
The gifts that keep on giving
Aside from the Moon rock, 193 Member States, individuals and institutions have kept up an official and unofficial gift giving tradition since the UN was founded in 1945. Its collection features such scientific terrestrial innovations as replicas of the first Russian Sputnik, which traversed the Earth’s orbit in 1957, and of a barjil, an ancient air conditioner that has been used to cool indoor temperatures in the Middle East and Asia for 3,000 years.
More recent gifts also dot the campus, including a set of modern chairs in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber, donated by Sweden. The North Delegates Lounge showcases China’s massive Great Wall tapestry that took 26 technicians one full year to weave. Switzerland fitted out the iconic GA-0200 anteroom behind the General Assembly Hall podium for hosting Heads of State awaiting their time to address the world body, and Qatar plushily furnished the East Lounge.
Throughout UN Headquarters in New York, more than 240 official gifts are on display alongside many more donated to the Organization. Ask a UN tour guide to tell you more or check out the UN’s gift registry here.
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
US astronauts and representatives present UN Secretary-General U Thant with a piece of lunar rock and the UN flag that accompanied astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Jr. and Michael Collins on their journey to the Moon in 1969. (file)
Selvan is heading out on his motorcycle to buy groceries from a nearby shop in the city of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, but the direct sunlight disturbs him, making it hard to concentrate, blurring his vision as his panic grows: he is back on a sinking ship packed with more than 300 other people, pounded by relentless waves, struggling to control his body.
Steering his motorcycle through traffic, Selvan, 47, struggles for breath, hits the brake and snaps back to reality. The momentary relapse of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not a new experience for him.
In November 2022, he was one of 303 Sri Lankan migrants, including dozens of women and children, stranded on a sinking vessel in the waters between the Philippines and Viet Nam for 28 days before being rescued. Many others report having similar experiences.
Thanks to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its partners, Selvan and many others chose a safe, voluntary passage back to Sri Lanka, where they are currently benefiting from the UN agency’s ongoing efforts to address the root causes of why they risked their lives on that perilous lifechanging journey.
Achieve and sustain income growth of the poorest 40 per cent of the global population
Empower and promote social, economic and political inclusion
Ensure equal opportunities by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices
Improve regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions
Facilitate orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the largest increase in inequalities between countries in three decades.
Financial crisis sparks dangerous rumours
“The economic crisis took a toll on all of our lives,” said Selvan, a former well-respected warden at a well-known national college who spent his spare time rearing animals on a farm. “Even livestock farming became difficult when there was a ban on all imports, including fertilizers. My earnings as a public sector worker were not enough to survive.”
Amid the crippling crisis, rumours flew around town of a large ship waiting offshore en route to Canada, he said.
“I am a father of four and, as the sole breadwinner of the family, the responsibility for their wellbeing rests squarely on my shoulders,” he said. “Call it desperation, but I saw this as the sole lifeline to escape these financial hardships and get a job. I needed to find a way for my kids to continue their education.”
Selvan chased the swirling townwide whispers. Tracking down an agent facilitating the journey, who demanded a hefty sum of $4,000, he staked everything on this endeavour, selling his house and his wife’s jewellery and leaving his permanent job, all in hope of a brighter future for his children.
Many businesses, especially microenterprises like Ankita’s shop, were severely impacted by the financial crisis in Sri Lanka.
False promises
The rumour spread. In another town about 50 km away, Ankita and her husband sold her small tailoring shop after languishing for months without customers. Using her house as collateral, she paid an agent $7,000 for them to stake a claim onboard a ship towards a better future.
“We had no choice but to believe them” – Ankita recalls dealing with smugglers
“We had no choice but to believe them,” she said, describing how the agent had arranged for travel to Myanmar, took away their passports to “process visas” and told them to wait in a small hotel room for months.
“The visa never came and neither did our passports,” she said.
Finally, the day of departure arrived. Instead of the promised “large ship”, a fragile boat awaited them which set sail overcrowded with passengers including 22 women and 14 children.
‘Everyone feared for their lives’
On the second day of the journey, seawater started seeping into the boat, so the crew members fled in an emergency raft, promising to return with a new vessel; they never did.
“When the boat crew didn’t return for days, we found ourselves stranded in the middle of nowhere,” Ankita said. “We were surviving on small packages of rations that we had brought for the journey.”
Hunger gnawed at them throughout the days at sea, but the main problem was thirst. So, they collected rainwater in rusty buckets to drink, she said.
“Everyone feared for their lives and regretted setting foot on board,” Ankita said, adding that 28 days would pass before a Japanese vessel responded to their distress signals.
Reduce all forms of violence and related death rates
End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence against children
Promote rule of law at national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice
Reduce illicit financial and arms flows, and combat organized crime
Reduce corruption and bribery
Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions
Strengthen relevant institutions to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime
More than 108.4 million people had been forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, over 2.5 times the number reported a decade ago.
Multinational rescue mission
The rescue mission was a joint effort, including Sri Lanka’s Navy and the regional Singapore-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres.
Upon the migrants’ safe arrival in Vung Tao, Viet Nam, IOM deployed a protection team. Partnering with the Government and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Hanoi to provide such immediate assistance as food, medical aid and emergency shelter, the UN migration agency worked with authorities to help with the migrants’ voluntary return, said Sarat Dash, mission chief of IOM Sri Lanka and Maldives.
“We coordinated closely with Sri Lankan and Vietnamese authorities for the issuance of temporary travel documents, as the smugglers had confiscated the migrants’ passports,” he said.
The voluntary return occurred in two batches, with IOM facilitating medical check-ups and travel arrangements from Viet Nam back to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and onwards to Jaffna.
“When IOM informed us of an opportunity to go back home, I accepted it in a heartbeat,” Selvan said. “But, as the day drew near, I experienced a mix of emotions knowing the country’s precarious financial situation and the fact that I had pawned all my life-long savings and house. It was my family’s encouragement that reaffirmed my conviction to go back and start afresh.”
A proud farm owner, Selvan struggled to sustain his livestock during the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
Rebuilding their lives
Selvan’s struggle8s were far from over. Most of the returning migrants found themselves jobless and saddled with debt.
“It wasn’t the scornful mocking from community members that bothered me; rather, it was not being able to get my job back, to which I had dedicated over 20 years,” he said, adding that he now works full-time on his farm, paying monthly instalments to clear his debts. “However, without a decent job and stable income, it leaves us with mere pennies to make ends meet.”
The UN migration agency in Sri Lanka currently provides reintegration support and works with States and local authorities to provide basic psychosocial counselling, skills training opportunities and facilitate referral support, ensuring longer-term solutions for rescued migrants.
IOM supported the voluntary return and reintegration of the Sri Lankan people rescued following 28 days adrift at sea.
Turning tides towards safe migration
“The economic situation in the country remains fragile and volatile,” Mr. Dash said. “As these rumours gain traction, there is an urgent need for international cooperation to expand pathways for safe, orderly and regular migration, providing practical alternatives that could more effectively dissuade potential migrants from embarking on such perilous journeys.”
While those who have returned insist they would never make the journey again, rumours of a new ship to Canada waiting offshore persist, with brokers lurking in the shadows and preying on people’s socioeconomic vulnerabilities.
Selvan has words of warning.
“Conduct thorough research, and always go through professional consulates,” he said. “My message to all aspiring migrants is never opt for irregular channels in your migration journey, and never blindly trust the rumours you hear.”
Learn more about IOM and its ongoing efforts to help migrants here.
Leaders from the 120-member bloc met amid deep division globally, including rising geopolitical tensions, climate catastrophe, widespread poverty and raging conflict in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza.
Danger and constraints
“Following the abhorrent Hamas attacks on 7 October, the wholesale destruction of Gaza and the number of civilian casualties in such a short period are totally unprecedented during my mandate,” the Secretary-General said, noting that the UN has also been affected as 152 staff have been killed.
Although humanitarians are doing their best to deliver aid, they face constant bombardments and daily dangers, amid enormous constraints posed by damaged roads, communication blackouts and access denials.
Meanwhile, disease and hunger are deepening, he said.
He said people are dying not only from bombs and bullets, but from lack of food and clean water, hospitals without power and medicine, and gruelling journeys to ever-smaller slivers of land to escape the fighting.
Prevent conflict spillover
“This must stop. I will not relent in my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” Mr. Guterres said.
“And we must do all we can to prevent spillover of this conflict across the region — in the West Bank, across the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon, and in Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea.”
He added that refusal to accept the two-State solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.
“This would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; exacerbate polarization; and embolden extremists everywhere,” he said.
NAM leadership
The NAM was established in the midst of the Cold War, when leaders of newly independent countries sought a neutral stance and avoided joining either of the two major power blocs, headed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Mr. Guterres said the “swirl of uncertainty and instability” in the world today offers new opportunities for countries and the organization to lead the way towards deeper cooperation and shared global affluence – the theme of the summit.
As global affluence depends on peace which requires institutions that reflect today’s world, he pointed to the need to reform bodies such as the UN Security Council which is “paralyzed by geopolitical divisions that block effective solutions.”
Recalling that the NAM has long highlighted the issue, he said the UN Summit of the Future in September offers a unique opportunity to consider reforms and promote ideas to rebuild trust and strengthen multilateral collaboration.
Sustainable development
Meanwhile, countries are moving backwards in achieving sustainable development, another requirement for peace. People are going hungry and communities lack access to basics such as healthcare, clean water, proper sanitation and education.
Mr. Guterres repeated his call for reforming the “outdated, unjust and unfair global financial system” so that all countries benefit, and urged governments to invest in education, health, nutrition and social protection systems.
Last September, world leaders meeting at the UN demonstrated support for both a $500 billion annual stimulus package to boost sustainable development and his call to reform the global financial system.
At the COP28 conference two months later, countries operationalized the long-awaited Loss and Damage Fund to support nations that are most vulnerable to climate change. However, contributions so far have been limited, and developed countries have not fulfilled many of their longstanding commitments on climate finance, he said.
The Secretary-General urged the NAM to hold leaders to keep these promises this year.
Lacandona, the great Mayan jungle that extends through the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, is home to natural wealth and indigenous peoples’ settlements that are once again threatened by the probable reactivation of abandoned oil wells. Image: Ceiba
by Emilio Godoy (mexico city)
Inter Press Service
MEXICO CITY, Jan 19 (IPS) – The Lacandona jungle in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas is home to 769 species of butterflies, 573 species of trees, 464 species of birds, 114 species of mammals, 119 species of amphibians and reptiles, and several abandoned oil wells.
The oil wells have been a source of concern for the communities of the great Mayan jungle and environmental organizations since the 1970s, when oil prospecting began in the area and gradually left at least five wells inactive, whether plugged or not.
Now, Mexico’s policy of increasing oil production, promoted by the federal government, is reviving the threat of reactivating oil industry activity in the jungle ecosystem of some 500,000 hectares located in the east of the state, which has lost 70 percent of its forest in recent decades due to deforestation.
A resident of the Benemérito de las Américas municipality, some 1,100 kilometers south of Mexico City, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told IPS that a Mexican oil services company has contacted some members of the ejidos – communities on formerly public land granted to farm individually or cooperatively – trying to buy land around the inactive wells.
“They say they are offering work. We are concerned that they are trying to restart oil exploration, because it is a natural area that could be damaged and already has problems,” he said.
Adjacent to Benemérito de las Américas, which has 23,603 inhabitants according to the latest records, the area where the inactive wells are located is within the 18,348 square kilometers of the protected Lacandona Jungle Region.
It is one of the seven reserves of the ecosystem that the Mexican government decreed in 2016 and where oil activity in its subsoil is banned.
Between 1903 and 2014, the state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) drilled five wells in the Lacandona jungle, inhabited by some 200,000 people, according to the autonomous governmental National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), in charge of allocating hydrocarbon lots and approving oil and gas exploration plans. At least two of these deposits are now closed, according to the CNH.
The Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, in the Lacandona jungle in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, faces the threat of oil exploration, which would add to phenomena such as deforestation, drought and forest fires that have occurred in recent years. Image: Semarnat
The Lacantun well is located between a small group of houses and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (RBMA), the most megadiverse in the country, part of Lacandona and near the border with Guatemala. The CNH estimates the well’s proven oil reserves at 15.42 million barrels and gas reserves at 2.62 million cubic feet.
Chole, Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Lacandon Indians inhabit the jungle.
Other inactive deposits in the Benemérito de las Américas area are Cantil-101 and Bonampak-1, whose reserves are unknown.
In the rural areas of the municipality, the local population grows corn, beans and coffee and manages ecotourism sites. But violence has driven people out of Chiapas communities, as has been the case for weeks in the southern mountainous areas of the state due to border disputes and illegal business between criminal groups.
In addition, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), an indigenous organization that staged an uprising on Jan. 1, 1994 against the marginalization and poverty suffered by the native communities, is still present in the region.
Chiapas, where oil was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, is among the five main territories in terms of production of crude oil and gas in this Latin American country, with 10 hydrocarbon blocks in the northern strip of the state.
In November, Mexico extracted 1.64 million barrels of oil and 4.9 billion cubic feet of gas daily. The country currently ranks 20th in the world in terms of proven oil reserves and 41st in gas.
Historically, local communities have suffered water, soil and air pollution from Pemex operations.
As of November, there were 6,933 operational wells in the country, while Pemex has sealed 122 of the wells drilled since 2019, although none in Chiapas, according to a public information request filed by IPS.
Since taking office in December 2018, leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has strengthened Pemex and the also state-owned Federal Electricity Commission by promoting the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, to the detriment of renewable energy.
The state of Chiapas is home to hydroelectric power plants, mining projects, hydrocarbon exploitation blocks and a section of the Mayan Train, the most emblematic megaproject of the current Mexican government. Image: Center for Zoque Language and Culture AC
Territory under siege
The RBMA is one of Mexico’s 225 natural protected areas (NPAs) and its 331,000 hectares are home to 20 percent of the country’s plant species, 30 percent of its birds, 27 percent of its mammals and 17 percent of its freshwater fish.
Like all of the Lacandona rainforest, the RBMA faces deforestation, the expansion of cattle ranching, wildlife trafficking, drought, and forest fires.
Fermín Ledesma, an academic at the public Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, said possible oil exploration could aggravate existing social and environmental conflicts in the state, in addition to growing criminal violence and the historical absence of the State.
“The situation is always complex, due to legal loopholes that do not delimit the jungle, the natural protected areas are not delimited, it has been a historical mess. The search for oil has always been there,” he told IPS from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas.
The researcher said “it is a very complex area, with a 50-year agrarian conflict between indigenous peoples, often generated by the government itself, which created an overlapping of plans and lands.”
Ledesma pointed to a contradiction between the idea of PNAs that are depopulated in order to protect them and the historical presence of native peoples.
From 2001 to 2022, Chiapas lost 748,000 hectares of tree cover, equivalent to a 15 percent decrease since 2000, one of the largest sites of deforestation in Mexico, according to the international monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. In 2022 alone, 26,800 hectares of natural forest disappeared.
In addition, this state, one of the most impoverished in the country, has suffered from the presence of mining, the construction of three hydroelectric plants and, now, the Mayan Train, the Mexican government’s most emblematic megaproject inaugurated on Dec. 15, one of the seven sections of which runs through the north of the state.
But there are also stories of local resistance against oil production. In 2017, Zoque indigenous people prevented the auction of two blocks on some 84,000 hectares in nine municipalities that sought to obtain 437.8 million barrels of crude oil equivalent.
The anonymous source expressed hope for a repeat of that victory and highlighted the argument of conducting an indigenous consultation prior to the projects, free of pressure and with the fullest possible information. “With that we can stop the wells, as occurred in 2017. We are not going to let them move forward,” he said.
Ledesma the researcher questioned the argument of local development driven by natural resource extraction and territorial degradation as a pretext.
“They say it’s the only way to do it, but that’s not true. It leaves a trail of environmental damage, damage to human health, present and future damage. It is much easier for the population to accept compensation or give up the land, because they see it is degraded. A narrative is created that they live in an impoverished area and therefore they have to relocate. This has happened in other areas,” he said.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jan 18 (IPS) – Guatemala’s new president, Bernardo Arévalo, was expected to be sworn in on 14 January at 2pm –the 14th at 14:00, as people repeated in anticipation for months. It was a momentous event – but it wasn’t guaranteed to happen.
One year earlier, Arévalo – co-founder of the progressive Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement), a political party born out of widespread 2015 anti-corruption protests – was largely unknown, freshly selected as his party’s presidential candidate. He wasn’t on the radar of opinion polls. A long chain of unlikely events later, he’s become the first Guatemalan president in living memory who doesn’t belong to the self-serving elites who Guatemalans call ‘the corrupt pact’, which he has credibly promised to dismantle.
The fear this caused among corrupt elite that has long ruled Guatemala was reflected in a series of attempts to try to stop Arévalo’s inauguration. The huge and sustained citizen mobilisation that came in response can largely be credited with keeping alive the spark of democracy in Guatemala.
Last-minute delays
All the Guatemalan Congress needed to do on the morning of 14 February was certify its newly elected members so the body could swear in the new president. But this routine administrative procedure was dragged on for many hours. The Indigenous movement, at the forefront of the months-long protests that had successfully kept at bay successive attempts to reverse the election results, called on Indigenous communities throughout Guatemala to remain on the alert.
In the late afternoon the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, surrounded by members of numerous foreign delegations, read a declaration calling on Congress to hand over power, ‘as required by the Constitution’, to the president-elect. This signalled that the world was watching.
As tensions mounted, Semilla reached an agreement for one of its representatives to be elected as president of Congress. This allowed the certification process to resume, and Arévalo was finally sworn in shortly after midnight. Night-long celebrations followed.
A coup attempt in stages
Arévalo’s election was unexpected. He only made it into the 20 August runoff because several other contenders not to the elite’s liking had been disqualified ahead of the first round. His candidacy wasn’t blocked because he scored so poorly in the polls. People’s expectations were extremely low, and first place went to invalid votes.
But once Arévalo entered the runoff, his rise was unstoppable. Death threats soon poured in, and an assassination plot involving state and non-state forces came to light days before the runoff.
As soon as the first-round results were announced, nine parties submitted complaints about supposed ‘irregularities’ that had gone undetected by all international observers. Their supporters converged outside the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) calling for a rerun.
The Constitutional Court instead ordered a recount and instructed the TSE to suspend official certification until complaints were resolved. Following the recount, the TSE eventually endorsed the results two weeks later.
But meanwhile, Attorney General Consuelo Porras Argueta, an official under US sanctions for corruption, launched an investigation into Semilla for alleged irregularities in its registration process and had its offices raided. She also ordered two raids on TSE offices, and when the TSE officially announced Arévalo as one of the runoff contenders, she ordered Semilla’s suspension. The Constitutional Court however blocked this order and the runoff ran its course. Arévalo took 58 per cent of the vote, compared to 37.2 per cent for the pro-establishment candidate.
Efforts to stop Arévalo’s inauguration began immediately, with yet another attempt by the Public Prosecutor to have Semilla suspended. The Constitutional Court continued to receive and reject legal challenges until the day of the inauguration.
For 100 days, two different visions of Guatemala wrestled with each other: people eager for change protested nonstop while corrupt forces linked to organised crime strove to preserve their privileges at any cost.
Democracy on life support
Guatemala has long been classified as a ‘hybrid regime‘ with a mix of democratic and authoritarian traits. Under outgoing president Alejandro Giammattei, civic freedoms steadily deteriorated. State institutions grew even weaker, ransacked by predatory elites and coopted by organised crime.
One of the last acts of Giammattei’s predecessor and ally, Jimmy Morales, was to end the work of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Charged with supporting and strengthening state institutions to investigate and prosecute serious crimes, CICIG helped file over 120 cases in the Guatemalan justice system and its joint investigations with the Attorney General’s Office led to over 400 convictions.
Under Giammattei, the Attorney General’s Office dismantled all anti-corruption efforts and criminalised those in the legal profession who’d worked alongside CICIG. Impunity flourished. Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index found evidence of strong influence by organised crime over politics and politicians, with some crime bosses seeking and securing office.
It’s no wonder that Guatemalans’ trust in state institutions hit rock bottom. According to the latest Latinobarómetro report, in 2021 satisfaction with the performance of democracy stood at a meagre 25 per cent.
Challenges ahead
Arévalo came to the presidency on a credible anti-corruption platform. But dismantling dense webs of complicity, rooting out entrenched corruption and rebuilding state institutions are no easy tasks.
Among the many challenges is a highly fragmented Congress in which 16 parties are represented, with Semilla on only 23 out of 160 seats. A large majority of Congress remains on the payroll of the interests Arévalo has promised to take on, along with most of the justice system. The 14 January events made clear that the ‘corrupt pact’ will do anything it can to stop Arévalo.
Arévalo’s to-do list is long, ranging from reducing political spending and improving social services to reversing laws that criminalise protest and establishing an effective protection mechanism for human rights defenders. At the top is forcing the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras, the highest official presiding over a judicial network set up to ensure the impunity of the ‘corrupt pact’.
Arévalo can’t remove the Attorney General unilaterally, and so will have to negotiate her departure. This will be a key early test of the hope invested in him to keep democracy alive. Many more are sure to come.
The ancient village of Kbaal Romeas has been flooded. Credit: Kris Janssens / IPS
by Kris Janssens (ratanakiri province, cambodia)
Inter Press Service
RATANAKIRI PROVINCE, Cambodia, Jan 18 (IPS) – “What on earth are you going to do in Tropeang Krohom?” The driver of the minivan turns his head and gives me a puzzled look. Few passengers want to be dropped off in a settlement between two provincial towns.
Tropeang Krohom or ‘Red Pond’ is located at a junction of the main road. The name refers to the typical blood-red earth in this province of Ratanakiri.
From this point, a motorcyclist will take me to his village. It is a ride of more than two hours, along bumpy and unpaved roads, with large trails of dust behind passing trucks. The leaves of the grayish-green trees are covered with a thick layer of the same red sand.
Stretched out valleys
Everyone is en route to somewhere. Some are packed lightly, others carry cartloads of vegetables, cassava or sugar cane stalks, to be transported from the field to the market. A street vendor travels from one village to another on his motorbike, loaded with small items for sale such as soap, candy, or soft drinks.
About 1 percent of the total population of 17 million inhabitants live in this area. This province mainly consists of villages, each populated by 60-something families, spread across vast valleys. I go to Kbaal Romeas (literally ‘head of the rhinoceros’) next to Srepok, a tributary of the Mekong.
Cambodia’s northeast is home to more than 20 ethnic groups or Indigenous People. They each have their own story and particular customs, from death cults to love huts, and they have specific languages, although nowadays rarely used.
Young people prefer switching to Khmer, the language of the largest Cambodian ethnicity, which is slowly wiping out the others.
In this province, the clash between tradition and development became painfully clear in 2017, when a huge dam was built at the confluence of the Srepok and the Sesan rivers in Ratanakiri’s west. The power plant turned an inhabited area of ??34,000 hectares into a huge water reservoir. Thousands of residents had to be relocated to a place with newly built houses and expansion options. But about 50 ‘Pounong’ families refuse to leave.
At first, they used small boats to row over the flooded village road. Later, the typical shaded areas under the stilt houses slowly filled with water.
Tompoun children want to show me the ghost forest, but they are still afraid. Credit: Kris Janssens / IPS
Stubborn resistance
Today, the villagers live a little further away, still within rowing distance of the old spot. Ironically, this area close to a hydroelectric power station is not connected to the grid. People here don’t want to pay for electricity from that ‘doomed’ dam anyway. A Cambodian NGO supporting the stubborn resistance is providing solar panels to power night lights and to charge mobile phones.
“I have been to the new village a few times to visit a sick relative, but I will never live there,” says Poo, 64. He shows me his rice field, which has just been harvested. “This land is my identity,” he adds. I know a few Cambodian words for “tradition” or “origin,” but this man uses them all in one sentence.
According to many ethnic traditions, bodies are not cremated as in the Buddhist culture, but buried. This also goes for Pounong people, who believe that the spirits of the deceased are still wandering around the burial site. This is the main reason why the community doesn’t want to leave.
The cemetery of Kbaal Romeas is completely flooded and can no longer be visited. To find out more about this death cult, I travel to other villages in northeastern Cambodia, closer to Laos and Vietnam. The current borders between the three countries of former Indochina were established by the French in the 1950s, but these minority groups have been living here much longer.
In the Tompoun village of Katai, about 20 kilometers in a straight line to the Vietnamese border, I ask a young woman to take me to the ‘prey khmaoch’ or ghost forest. She refuses. Once bodies are ritually buried, they are left to nature. Living souls shouldn’t interfere any more, she says.
Five children are willing to guide me if I promise we will stay together as a group. I see two boys holding hands, one of them whispers he’s quite afraid. Once in the forest, the only sounds we hear come from the dry leaves under our feet and from cawing crows high up in the trees.
Suddenly, the first grave appears in front of us. It is a wooden construction with decorations and a stone stating the date of death and a picture of a woman with a typical pipe in her mouth. Other small wooden graves, scattered around the trees, are in an advanced stage of decay. This place is macabre and peaceful at the same time.
Water buffalo
The burial tradition also exists in the Charai community. Leejapheuy, 68, sits on a bench in the sand under a canvas, in the middle of his village, Loom. A retired soldier who has lived in this village all his life, he has that confident attitude of someone who’s seen it all.
It turns out he is the sculptor who makes the wooden animistic guards, protecting the spirits. In the death forest, I see a statue of a man holding a gun and a sculpted elephant. As the story goes, a water buffalo is to be slaughtered for every burial, but more and more families are abandoning this practice because the animal can easily cost a few hundred dollars.
The journey continues along winding dirt roads and narrow bridges, crisscrossing the rough landscape, which turns into one big mud puddle during the rainy season.
Along the way, we see workers on cassava plantations. 12-year-old Seth comes from Kandal province, more than 500 kilometers south, next to the capital city Phnom Penh. He says he is only here for the harvest and will return to school in his hometown afterward. “This is also a reason why traditional cultures disappear,” says Mana, 37, my motorcyclist. Seasonal laborers and temporary residents do not follow the ancient customs.
The landscape changes and we pass miles of rubber plantations, recognizable by the black bowl on every tree trunk. “Ten years ago these roads were much narrower,” Mana recalls. “But these rubber companies have signed large land concessions and want to be able to drive their big trucks deep into the forest.”
Original inhabitants retreating
Around noon we arrive in Ta Veng, another village with elementary wooden houses on sandy soil. A few neighbors are crouched on the ground around a fire bowl with glowing charcoal. The lunch consists of home-harvested vegetables with sifted rice. Dogs come running towards us, barking at the top of their lungs. Pigs roam freely. Barefoot children shout from afar that visitors have arrived.
We are welcomed by Makara, who has married into this Prouw community. He limps a bit (“an anomaly from my childhood”), but that doesn’t stop him from showing us around the village. He finds traditional culture interesting, but he thinks there is also an important practical aspect.
“Monks in the Buddhist pagoda carry out cremations for free,” says Makara, “while funerals do cost a bit.” He also notices that more and more Khmer immigrants buy land and plantations in this area. “The original inhabitants are moving deeper into the forest.”
Love hut
On the way back we pass several Kreung villages. This community is known for its ‘love huts’, small private houses where daughters of marriageable age receive boyfriends. The tradition arose because it is difficult to ‘date’ in a remote village.
“In my time, I had three lovers in a hut like that before I met my current husband,” says Semapohean, 60, laughing. “And yes, the boys were allowed to sleep over. One or two nights before I’d send them away.” Here, it was girls who got to choose their favorite candidates. The custom is notable in a country where marriages are not necessarily arranged, but often require family approval.
But today the love huts no longer exist. “Every now and then we build one to show to tourists, but nowadays people use their phones to meet each other”. In addition, families now live in larger houses, where the children have a separate room and therefore sufficient privacy. Semapohean doesn’t seem to mind that much.
Sookanjerai, 52, is more pessimistic. “This new generation is too lazy to continue the tradition,” he says. Young people do not necessarily want to leave the area, but they lose interest in the specific customs. Sookanjerai has little hope for the future “In a few years from now everyone will have become Khmer and our ethnicities will be gone.”
A family displaced by prolonged drought in Ethiopia now live in a makeshift tent in Mogadishu, Somalia. June 2023. Credit: IOM/Muse Mohammed
Opinion by Sudip Ranjan Basu – Chen Wang – Monica Das (bangkok, thailand)
Inter Press Service
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 17 (IPS) – As the world is still gearing up to welcome 2024, let us find a moment to reflect on some of the key trends of the past year and pursue now to embrace the path towards hope and promise for everyone, everywhere.
Deepening global inequalities are having enormous socio-economic implications across countries. Increasing income and social disparities are spreading around regions. Growing intensities of climate induced natural disasters, the uneven speed of post-pandemic recoveries, and cost-of-living crises from conflicts and geopolitical tensions are exacerbating inequalities and poverty traps globally.
The changing distribution of economic benefits vis-à-vis the rising prices of food and fuel are causing social unrest and protests. Citizens are voicing their frustration not only in the streets of capitals but through exponential engagement on social media platforms.
With the intensification of various external shocks, and the lack of economic opportunities for accelerating growth and productivity surges, multidimensional poverty indices are on rise. The inequality-poverty nexus is contributing to a new form of uncertainty for disadvantaged households.
A family displaced by prolonged drought in Ethiopia now live in a makeshift tent in Mogadishu, Somalia. June 2023. Credit: IOM/Muse Mohammed
Intensifying course of climate change
Intensifying hazards caused by climate change, such as floods, tropical cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and earthquakes, have impacted agricultural outputs and industrial sectors, especially through decreasing productivity growth and falling real wages. The widening gap between rich and poor in rural and urban areas has also been linked to extreme weather events due to the increasing frequency of natural disasters.
These inequalities are further aggravating extreme poverty, creating the vicious nexus of climate-disaster-inequalities among vulnerable groups.
Evidence from around the world indicates that climate change is likely to impact more severely on vulnerable groups and coastal communities, because they are more exposed to the uncertainties of weather patterns. Lack of adaptive capacity are often constraining the ability of these communities to build resilience and cope with the severity of these environmental shocks.
Widespread incidence of climate migration from low- to high-latitude areas and social mobility are increasingly impacting the social fabric of small island developing States and other developing economies.
With the exodus of young and skilled labour force, transfers of income and the wealth gap will further worsen inequalities in communities, raising concerns of greater socio-economic uncertainties.
From Fiji to Ethiopia, Bangladesh to Brazil, the exacerbation of inequalities due to climate change has been impacting socio-economic prosperity. Growth uncertainties are causing extreme poverty to increase, while causing hardship and hunger for households in rural areas.
Varying scales of COVID-19 pandemic
Socio-economic polarization has been on the rise since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to differentiated impacts of national lockdowns, pandemic restrictions and vaccination measures have had adverse impacts on the existing inequalities and multidimensional poverty indices.
As economic development stagnation persists, rural areas have seen rising impacts of extreme poverty and income divergence across households, leading to new episodes of income divergence within countries.
The post-COVID 19 recoveries are uneven. Rising levels of unemployment and stagnating real wages remain major indicators of corresponding economic growth deceleration. The differentiated policy measures to stabilize labour market distortions, social protection systems and sectoral productivity surges have not always achieved the desired outcomes in developing countries.
According to the labour force surveys in various countries, the majority of workers have been engaged in less paid work due to lack of dynamism in the labour market. Evidence suggests that the changes in work style and availability of types of jobs as well as their skills and profiles aggravate the income disparity within urban centres.
From several Latin American to African countries, the pandemic-induced policy measures have differently elevated the risk of vulnerability for the manual labor force. Similarly, the studies have shown that young, low-income and self-employed workers including women with limited education, have suffered greater job losses and earnings reductions than other groups in the workforce in the UK, USA, China and India, among others.
Changing forms of conflicts
Conflicts also go beyond borders, causing immeasurable human suffering on the global scale. With the volatility and uncertainties around supply chains, food and fuel prices spiral. Cost-of-living crisis spreads around countries as governments lose fiscal space for developmental expenditure, while debt burden mounts.
Conflicts cause people to lose hope and opportunities from East to West, North to Southern countries. With the lack of rule of law and property rights, households and communities fall into poverty traps, changing the face of socio-economic disparity.
As these conflicts are prolonged, countries often fail to overcome the existing structural constraints, maintain production streams, and improve lackluster infrastructure. A higher risk of falling into poverty traps and increasing scale of disparities is then the inevitable outcome. The polarization fears and lack of trust are now a reality.
Looking ahead
Today, as we look back at 2023, there is no doubt that in the end, common aspirations and outlooks remain our best hope to chart a new course to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. Evidence of successful policy coherence will provide valuable opportunities for policymakers to unite their priorities and lay the foundations for breakthroughs.
Sudip Ranjan Basu is Deputy Head and Senior Economic Affairs Officer; Chen Wang is Professor, Institute of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China; Monica Das is Associate Professor, Economics Department, Skidmore College, New York
Two years after the major attacks by non-state armed groups, a considerable number of forcibly displaced people have returned to Palma. Credit: UNHCR
by Kevin Humphrey (johannesburg)
Inter Press Service
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 17 (IPS) – There is cautious optimism regarding the conflict that has been raging in northern Mozambique, largely in the province of Cabo Delgado, since 2017. There are encouraging indications that the Islamic State (IS)-driven insurgency has significantly decreased thanks to the deployment of the Mozambique Defense Armed Forces (FADM), Southern African Development Community (SAMIM) forces, and a contingent of Rwandan troops (RSF).
Leleti Maluleki, a researcher at Good Governance Africa, told IPS: “With regards to the current state of the conflict, people are slowly moving back or returning to their villages and communities. It’s a sign of progress being made by the troops, and we hope it’s a sign of peace.”
There had been a decrease in the number of attacks by insurgents.
“That’s a good thing as well, but it does not mean that the insurgency is over. We need to remember that there were stories of insurgents infiltrating the communities, so they are still among the people; they might have radicalized certain individuals, and they might have recruited some citizens. But we are seeing fewer and fewer attacks on a daily basis.”
The insurgency has claimed over 4,000 lives and displaced 946,000since it started. According to a report from the United Nations Security Council published in February 2023, the number of IS fighters in the field has decreased from a peak of 2,500 (prior to SAMIM and the RSF joining the fight) to roughly 280.
Last year, Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General of the Office of Counter-Terrorism, said in August 2023 that counter-terrorism initiatives in Egypt, Mozambique, and Yemen had significantly limited the insurgents ability to conduct operations.
He warned, though, that “force alone cannot lead to changes in the conditions conducive to terrorism,” noting that it can fuel more violence and aggravate grievances exploited by terrorists.
At the same meeting, Domingos Estêvão Fernandes, Deputy Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the UN, pointed to the rising spread of terrorism in Africa, where fatalities linked to Al-Qaeda and Da’esh reached more than 22,000 over the past year—representing a 48 percent increase over 2022.
Fernandes it was important to address poverty, inequality, social exclusion, and discrimination based on religion and culture to address insurgency and recognize the risk of the misuse of emerging technologies.
He pointed to the achievements of the deployment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission in Mozambique.
Amanzi Amade Bacar is a fisherman who has fled and returned several times from and to his house in Bagala, Mozambique. The 39-year-old husband and father hopes to return to his home and his original livelihood. Credit: UNHCR
“We must ensure predictable, flexible, and sustained funding for African Union peacekeeping operations,” Fernandes said, adding that government agencies and defense and security forces must partner with local communities to provide early warning systems.
Maluleki added that a new challenge is the insurgent’s use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a tactic that works when the insurgents numbers are dwindling, which means decreasing the likelihood of insurgents getting up close to security forces. The use of these causes panic among civilians, which leads to further destabilization of the region regarding displaced persons and refugees.
When security forces reportedly killed Ibn Omar, the purported IS leader, and two of his followers, the anti-insurgency campaign also gained momentum. Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, recently made an announcement to this effect.
In terms of the future, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state at a summit in July 2023 laid plans for SADC forces to begin to leave northern Mozambique by December 15, 2024, and to complete the withdrawal by July 15, 2025. It was also noted that for this to happen, there was an urgent need for Mozambique’s defense forces to be capacitated to a degree where the removal of SADC troops would not compromise the gains of the past few years. Training and other help coming from the European Union and the United States to beef up the Mozambican forces were also mentioned at the summit.
Two years after the major attacks by non-state armed groups, a considerable number of forcibly displaced people have returned to Palma. Credit: UNHCR
Since the beginning of the insurgency, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that one million people had been displaced in the region. More recently, the International Organization for Migrants (IOM) reported that in September and October 2023, about 8,000 Cabo Delgado residents had become displaced.
“When it comes to the issue of displaced individuals, a lot of people lost their homes and ran away for safety. People displaced by the conflict went to neighboring, safer communities. Host communities are faced with overcrowding, and basic services are under severe pressure so the security situation needs to improve so that more people can return to their villages and relieve the burden on these host communities,” said Maluleki
This increase in displaced persons occurred in the run-up to local government elections in the area and also when the €20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, put on hold due to the conflict in the region, was being considered for being given the go-ahead. Fortunately, the October 11, 2023, municipal elections in Mocimboa da Praia went ahead, with four political parties taking part.
Nyusi has said it is safe to restart the Cabo Delgado liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that was halted in April 2021 after rebel attacks on civilians.
“The working environment and security in northern Mozambique make it possible for TotalEnergies to resume its activities at any time,” Nyusi said. TotalEnergies confirmed it was working on restarting the project.
There are, however, still concerns, especially for the civilian population.
“The deployment of troops was primarily in two districts, and this is concerning because these are the districts where the government has its own interests because they are where the LNG project is. Only two of the five or six districts that the insurgents heavily targeted have received adequate security. All districts affected by the conflict need to be secured so that we can reach a true level of peace and stability and address the root causes of the conflict,” said Maluleki.
Transforming food systems is key to solving food insecurity on the African continent. A powerful and unified effort is needed to ensure food systems are transformed to be robust enough to support the population. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, Jan 16 (IPS) – As hunger and food insecurity deepen, Africa is confronting an unprecedented food crisis. Estimates show that nearly 282 million people on the continent, or 20 percent of the population, are undernourished. Numerous challenges across the African continent threaten the race to achieve food security; research and innovative strategies are urgently needed to transform current systems as they are inadequate to address the food crisis.
Transforming food systems is key. A powerful and unified effort is needed to equip food systems to advance human and planetary health to their full potential. This was the message as CGIAR entered a new era under the leadership of Dr Ismahane Elouafi, the Executive Managing Director. Named one of the most influential Africans of 2023, she continues to stress the need to use science and innovation to unlock Africa’s potential to meet its food needs.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, the CGIAR’s newly appointed Executive Managing Director. Credit: FAO
During her inaugural field visit to an IITA center in Ibadan, Nigeria, alongside Dr Simeon Ehui, IITA’s Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Continental Africa, she oversaw extensive discussions on transforming food systems and leveraging science and technology.
“At COP28 in Dubai, UAE, there was high-level recognition and a wonderful spotlight on science and innovation. CGIAR has an opportunity to represent science and innovation at large, representing the whole community at large. We can cut down poverty and stop malnutrition, and we have the tools—we just need to bring them to the farmers,” she said.
CGIAR continues to create linkages between agricultural and tech stakeholders, emphasizing digital innovation for agricultural development. CGIAR-IITA explores leveraging ICTs to tackle agricultural challenges, boost productivity, ensure sustainability, and enhance food security, featuring presentations, discussions, workshops, and networking across sectors.
There was a significant focus on the CGIAR TAAT model as a tool to use technology to address Africa’s worsening food crisis. TAAT Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is a key flagship programme of the African Development Bank’s Feed Africa strategy for 2016 to 2025.
“We have the technology, and all hands are on deck to ensure that no one sleeps hungry. There are severe food insecurities on the continent today, deepening rural poverty and malnutrition. We have the capacity to achieve food security,” Ehui emphasized.
IITA’s Dr Kenton Dashiell spoke about TAAT in the context of strategic discussions around policy and government engagement. Emphasizing the need for the government, private sector, and other key stakeholders to create effective and efficient food systems transformation paths. As a major continent-wide initiative designed to boost agricultural productivity across the continent by rapidly delivering proven technologies to millions of farmers, TAAT can deliver a food-secure continent.
Elouafi stressed the need to ensure that technology is in the hands of farmers. in line with TAAT, which aims to double crop, livestock, and fish productivity by expanding access to productivity-increasing technologies to more than 40 million smallholder farmers across Africa by 2025. In addition, TAAT seeks to generate an additional 120 million metric tons.
IITA’s Bernard Vanlauwe spoke about sustainable intensification with the aim of increasing production and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers are increasingly dealing with higher temperatures and shorter rainy seasons, affecting the production of staple foods such as maize. Further stressing the need for improved crop varieties to meet Africa’s pressing food insecurities.
Elouafi stressed that the needs are great, in particular, eliminating extreme poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, turning Africa into a net food exporter, and positioning Africa at the top of the agricultural value chains. She emphasized the need to leverage progress made thus far, building on the commitments of Dakar 1, the 1st Summit of the World’s Regions on Food Security held in Dakar in January 2010, where representatives and associations of regional governments from the five continents noted that the commitments made at the World Food Summit in 2002 had had little effect and that the food crisis had only worsened.
Elouafi said the UN Food System Summit in 2021 and the 2023 Dakar 2 Summit, with an emphasis on building sustainable food systems and aligning government resources, development partners, and private sector financing to unleash Africa’s food production potential, were important meetings to build on. The commitments made at these high-level meetings had already created a pathway towards ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition and transforming food systems to meet the most pressing food needs today.
It is estimated that Africa’s agricultural output could increase from USD 280 billion per year to USD 1 trillion by 2030. The visit and ensuing discussions highlighted how investing in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, and climate-smart agricultural systems, with private sector investments, government support, and resources from multinational financial institutions, all along the food value chain, can help turn Africa into a breadbasket for the world. Private sector actors will be particularly urged to commit to the development of critical value chains.
Gender inclusion remains an important non-technological innovative measure enhancing export performance. Women in developing countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have long been involved in the agriculture and textile sector. Credit: Obaidul Arif/IPS
Opinion by Quratulain Fatima (islamabad)
Inter Press Service
ISLAMABAD, Jan 15 (IPS) – The World Economic Forum is hosting world leaders in Davos from January 15-19 2024. One of the key themes for the forum this year is “Creating Growth and Jobs for a New Era” with a focus on creating economic gender parity.
The World Economic Forum states that “The potential gains from closing economic gender gaps could unlock a “gender dividend” of $172 trillion for the global economy while closing the gender investment gap could add $3 trillion to assets under management in the US alone.” World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that eliminating gender discrimination would lead to a 40% increase in productivity.
Trade has remained a significant contributor towards increasing the economic stature of countries. Historically the trade has been observed through the gender neutral lens by practitioners and researchers.
Trade openness has been shown to have a positive impact on employment, wages, and very importantly the overall export performance of the country. Several studies have shown that both technological and non-technological innovations improve a country’s export performance. Gender inclusion remains an important non-technological innovative measure enhancing export performance.
Women in developing countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have long been involved in the agriculture and textile sector.
Recently women’s participation in the ICT and service industry has also gained momentum in developing countries. It is, however, important to note that South Asia remains second lowest at 63.4% out of eight regions at the gender parity index 2023. Although its position improved by 1.1 percent from the year 2022 attributed to rising scores in countries like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh; there is much to be done.
Women entrepreneurs are a very small portion of the export profile for developing countries. In a country like the United States that remains Pakistan’s biggest trade partner in textiles and related goods share of women exporters from Pakistan is minimal.
Trade development authority in Pakistan and Trade promotion bodies in developing countries have focused on improving women entrepreneurs’ participation in international trade through training and resources.
However, women’s participation in the trade shows even in the traditionally established Textile and Apparel sector that provide major access to industry buyers in the USA remains negligible for countries like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh; all of which are very well established and reputed in the USA market hence lowered entry barriers for women.
Less visibility of women entrepreneurs in the export sectors especially for developing countries tied to the fact that women and men have unequal access to education, productive resources, transport, networks, and other resources that impact economic activity.
This in turn affects women’s ability to capture trade-related opportunities. General trade barriers such as deficient infrastructure and tiresome regulatory and documentation requirements also impact women more than men.
Evidence also suggests that women entrepreneurs are concentrated in relatively less profitable sectors and even in profitable sectors they lag behind men-owned businesses.
Women-led businesses also lack resources to expand into international markets and when they do they have relatively smaller trade volumes and higher trade costs making businesses less able to sustain losses in the short term. This chain translates into limited mobility to trade and has been one of the reasons that woman-led businesses got impacted worse during post COVID-19 crisis.
Several steps can be taken at the domestic and international markets to help women entrepreneurs reach their maximum potential in exportable sectors in trade.
Gender provisions in the trade policy and trade agreements are one of the most important steps. The WTO Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic 2017 endorsed by 127 countries is seen as important towards women’s economic participation in the economies and international trade.
Some regional and bilateral trade agreements like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and USMCA (United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement) are now actively adding gender language and provisions. Canada has been a pioneer in including gender chapters in its trade agreements, such as the one with the European Union (CETA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
These chapters typically address topics like equal access to economic opportunities, fair treatment in the workplace, and support for women entrepreneurs. These examples can be emulated widely in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements further translating into gender provisions in the trade policy at the local level.
Enhancing the role of women in export sectors where women’s presence is already established can be very helpful. In the case of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, women are involved in farming and livestock management.
Facilitations for easy access to training, credit, and improved participation opportunities in agricultural extension services can encourage women’s participation in international trade. Both financial institutions and the private sector should be engaged in this agenda. Private –Public partnerships to ensure investment in export-oriented sectors to strengthen women-led small and medium-sized businesses need prioritization.
Women who have access to technology are more likely to participate in international trade. Access to technology gives women the opportunity to sidestep issues of restriction of mobility and overcome cultural barriers while providing equal opportunities to connect with consumers and buyers of their businesses. Studies have shown that access to phones and the Internet has improved incomes and economic opportunities for women in Pakistan, India, Bolivia, Egypt, and Kenya among others.
Country trade missions at embassies and consulates abroad must ensure that women are included in awareness webinars/ seminars conducted by trade offices of their countries abroad. These trade offices are also central facilitation centers for connecting exporters with buyers and managing Trade show participation. Increasing participation in trade shows, trade delegations and awareness of the importing country regulations/requirements will enhance women exporters’ opportunities to find business abroad.
The world needs to pay more attention to women’s inclusion in trade. Trade has been shown not only to reduce the economy but also the gender gap. The world needs equitable and inclusive prosperity through gender-inclusive steps on the economic and social front alike.
Flight Lieutenant Quratulain Fatima is a policy practitioner currently working as a Trade Diplomat for Pakistan on the West Coast USA. She has extensively worked in rural and conflict-ridden areas of Pakistan with a focus on gender-inclusive development and conflict prevention. She is a 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellow. Follow her on Twitter, @moodee_q.
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Jan 15 (IPS) – Have you heard the one about the U.S. government wanting a “rules-based international order”?
It’s grimly laughable, but the nation’s media outlets routinely take such claims seriously and credulously. Overall, the default assumption is that top officials in Washington are reluctant to go to war, and do so only as a last resort.
The framing was typical when the New York Times just printed this sentence at the top of the front page: “The United States and a handful of its allies on Thursday carried out military strikes against more than a dozen targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, U.S. officials said, in an expansion of the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration had sought to avoid for three months.”
So, from the outset, the coverage portrayed the U.S.-led attack as a reluctant action — taken after exploring all peaceful options had failed — rather than an aggressive act in violation of international law.
On Thursday, President Biden issued a statement that sounded righteous enough, saying “these strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
He did not mention that the Houthi attacks have been in response to Israel’s murderous siege of Gaza. In the words of CNN, they “could be intended to inflict economic pain on Israel’s allies in the hope they will pressure it to cease its bombardment of the enclave.”
In fact, as Common Dreams reported, Houthi forces “began launching missiles and drones toward Israel and attacking shipping traffic in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s Gaza onslaught.” And as Trita Parsi at the Quincy Institute pointed out, “the Houthis have declared that they will stop” attacking ships in the Red Sea “if Israel stops” its mass killing in Gaza.
But that would require genuine diplomacy — not the kind of solution that appeals to President Biden or Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The duo has been enmeshed for decades, with lofty rhetoric masking the tacit precept that might makes right. (The approach was implicit midway through 2002, when then-Senator Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s hearings that promoted support for the U.S. to invade Iraq; at the time, Blinken was the committee’s chief of staff.)
Now, in charge of the State Department, Blinken is fond of touting the need for a “rules-based international order.” During a 2022 speech in Washington, he proclaimed the necessity “to manage relations between states, to prevent conflict, to uphold the rights of all people.” Two months ago, he declared that G7 nations were united for “a rules-based international order.”
But for more than three months, Blinken has provided a continuous stream of facile rhetoric to support the ongoing methodical killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Days ago, behind a podium at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, he defended that country despite abundant evidence of genocidal warfare, claiming that “the charge of genocide is meritless.”
The Houthis are avowedly in solidarity with Palestinian people, while the U.S. government continues to massively arm the Israeli military that is massacring civilians and systematically destroying Gaza.
Blinken is so immersed in Orwellian messaging that — several weeks into the slaughter — he tweeted that the United States and its G7 partners “stand united in our condemnation of Russia’s war in Ukraine, in support of Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law, and in maintaining a rules-based international order.”
There’s nothing unusual about extreme doublethink being foisted on the public by the people running U.S. foreign policy. What they perpetrate is a good fit for the description of doublethink in George Orwell’s novel 1984: “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it . . .”
After news broke about the attack on Yemen, a number of Democrats and Republicans in the House quickly spoke up against Biden’s end-run around Congress, flagrantly violating the Constitution by going to war on his own say-so.
Some of the comments were laudably clear, but perhaps none more so than a statement by candidate Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2020: “A president should never take this nation to war without the informed consent of the American people.”
Like that disposable platitude, all the Orwellian nonsense coming from the top of the U.S. government about seeking a “rules-based international order” is nothing more than a brazen PR scam.
The vast quantity of official smoke-blowing now underway cannot hide the reality that the United States government is the most powerful and dangerous outlaw nation in the world.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of many books including War Made Easy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in 2023 by The New Press.
In conflict zones across the world, UN humanitarian workers work under extreme conditions, but it is hard to exaggerate the risks they are facing in Gaza, where hospitals, schools, and refugee camps are not immune to the threats of bombardment.
Evacuation orders continue to be issued, pushing more people south in fear for their safety. Many roads are becoming impassable as more informal sites continue to spring up. In addition, the cold winter season, with strong winds and torrential rains, is adding another layer of challenges to UN convoys carrying supplies to the people in need.
The UN is leading aid efforts in Gaza, working closely with all humanitarian partners, including international and national NGOs.
Keeping track of the aid
The UN aid coordination office (OCHA) is tasked with ensuring that the flurry of response efforts is as efficient as possible, avoiding duplication, and accurately prioritizing aid delivery according to needs.
The situation is catastrophic: food and water are in short supply and nearly non-existent in northern Gaza, and the few remaining health centres in the Strip are overwhelmed with patients. Aid is available, but convoys face excessive delays at Israeli checkpoints, agreed routes that are impossible to navigate because of the bombings, and repeated access denials by Israeli authorities. As a result, only a fraction of planned aid deliveries is getting through.
Thousands of people are sheltering in UNRWA schools in Gaza after fleeing their homes.
Shelters under fire
UNRWA, one of the oldest and largest of the UN agencies, was set up seven decades ago, to provide relief for Palestine refugees. In Gaza, UNRWA operates schools, runs relief and social programmes, and healthcare services.
The crisis has severely affected all of UNRWA’s operations in the Strip: as of 10 January, some 1.7 million people were sheltering in, or nearby, 155 UNRWA facilities, which are “far exceeding their intended capacity” and have been targeted by bombardments: the agency says that their installations have received more than 60 direct hits, with at least 319 displaced people killed in the agency’s shelters and more than 1,135 injured since 7 October. In addition, more than 140 UNRWA colleagues are known to have been killed to date.
Medical supplies organized by WHO are unloaded in a warehouse in Gaza.
‘High-risk” missions
Since October, UN teams have undertaken high risk missions to deliver supplies, visiting badly damaged health facilities overflowing with patients, with extremely limited resources: In Gaza City, there are no fully operational hospitals remaining.
In recent days, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has insisted that the agency, along with its partners, is “completely ready” to deliver assistance, but has been sorely hampered by access issues and ongoing hostilities: on 10 January, the head of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, stated that 6 planned missions to northern Gaza have been cancelled since 26 December.
Reproductive health kits are delivered to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
Giving birth in a warzone
UNFPA is recognized as the sole provider of family planning in Gaza, and coordinates between service providers to harmonize family planning services. The four-day humanitarian pause in late November 2023 allowed life-saving reproductive health kits from the UN reproductive and maternal health agency (UNFPA) to be brought into Gaza.
Since then, the delivery of UNFPA aid has been extremely limited, but UNFPA has continued to take part in high-risk missions with other agencies and has committed to continue doing everything possible to bring much needed aid into the occupied territory.
Cash, clothing, and child protection
Even before the crisis that erupted in October, almost a third of Palestinians were living in poverty, unable to afford enough food, clothing or housing. The UN Children’s agency, UNICEF, provides invaluable support for young people, from early childhood to adolescence, in areas such as education, health, child protection, and sanitation.
Since the conflict, an estimated 10,000 children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and ground operations, according to NGO Save The Children.
The agency has managed to provide thousands of litres of fuel, allowing public and private water wells and desalination plants to produce clean water; drinkable water; winter clothing; vaccines; and cash assistance. However, this amount of fuel is just a drop in the ocean, in comparison to the needs.
On 9 January, a UNICEF cash-for-work pilot project was launched in northern Gaza, where 100 workers will be paid to support the cleaning of solid waste and sanitation for the next three months.
A young girl from Gaza City recovers from the amputation of part of her arm following a missile strike on her home.
2.2 million in food crisis
Some 2.2 million people in Gaza are in crisis, or worse, levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
WFP has managed to provide emergency food and cash assistance to over 856,700 people across Gaza and the West Bank since the beginning of the conflict, but describes humanitarian operations as being “on the brink of collapse”, and has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the opening of all border crossings, and the resumption of commercial cargo to provide relief and put an end to the suffering.
UN Entities in Palestine
In all, 23 UN agencies, funds, and programmes are present in Palestine, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Palestine comprises all heads of UN agencies operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
As well the entities mentioned above, many major agencies are represented in the oPt, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Women, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and UNESCO.
You can find the full list of UN entities in Palestine here.
A moment of the march as it passes through Punjab. Led by women, the march was an unprecedented protest in Pakistan. Credit: Baloch Yakjehti Committee
by Karlos Zurutuza (rome)
Inter Press Service
ROME, Jan 12 (IPS) – “We are the mothers, daughters and sisters of the missing and murdered Baloch. We are thousands.” Mahrang Baloch, a 28-year-old doctor from Pakistan’s Balochistan province, is blunt when introducing herself and the rest of a group protesting in central Islamabad.
“We are asking for an end to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. We also demand the elimination of private militias,” the young woman explains in a phone conversation with IPS.
Baloch and the group arrived after a march that started in Balochistan last November. Nested in the country’s southeast and sharing borders with both Afghanistan and Iran, it’s the largest and most sparsely populated province in Pakistan, enduring the highest rates of illiteracy and infant mortality. It’s also the one most affected by violence.
Mahrang Baloch stresses that the trigger for the protest was the murder of a young Baloch man last November while he was in police custody. Following a two-week sit-in, the group decided to take the protest beyond the local province, embarking on a march to the Pakistani capital.
Clad in colourful traditional Baloch costumes and bearing portraits of their missing relatives, they received the warmth and support of tens of thousands along the way. However, the march was eventually blocked at the gates of Pakistan’s capital on December 20.
It was then that a police cordon permanently cut off their path on the outskirts of the city. The protesters refused to disband, so security forces responded with sticks, water jets and made hundreds of arrests.
Many women were dragged onto buses that took them back to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan – 900 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. The rest set up a protest camp in front of the National Press Club, in downtown Islamabad.
After spending several hours in police custody, Baloch was eventually released. “We have carried the mutilated bodies of our loved ones. Several generations of us have seen much worse,” the young woman stresses.
She claims to be “mentally prepared” for the possibility of joining the long list of missing persons herself. “We have reached a point where neither forced disappearances nor murders can stop us,” adds the activist.
Mahrang Baloch during a speech in the centre of Islamabad. This young doctor has become a symbol for people who have been so retaliated against. Credit: Credit: Baloch Yakjehti Committee
Mutilated and in ditches
Divided by the borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Balochistan is the land of the Baloch, a nation of 15-20 million with a distinct language and culture. After the British withdrawal from India, they declared a state of their own in 1947, even before Pakistan did. Seven months later, however, Balochistan would be forcefully annexed by Islamabad.
Violence has been rife ever since.
In a report released on January 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Pakistani security forces of committing “serious human rights violations which include arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions.”
In November 2021, Amnesty International published a report, titled “Living Ghosts,” calling on Islamabad “to end policies of enforced disappearances as well as secret and arbitrary detentions.”
Baloch human rights organization Voice for Baloch Missing Persons(VBMP) points to more than 7,000 missing people in the last two decades.
It was exactly for that reason that Mahrang Baloch was first imprisoned at 13, when she was protesting the disappearance of her father, Gaffar Lango, in 2006 in Quetta. After his release, Lango would be kidnapped again three years later. His body was found savagely mutilated in a ditch in 2011.
Next on the list was her brother Nasir, who was abducted in 2018. “That was a turning point for me. It was clear that no one was safe, that it could happen to anyone,” recalls the activist.
This square-jawed woman has become one of the drivers of change that the traditionally conservative Baloch society is undergoing through civil platforms such as the Baluche Unity Committee (BYC). They launched this protest.
From a less visible position, Saeeda Baloch, a 45-year-old Baloch woman who works for an NGO she prefers not to disclose, has devoted herself to raising funds to offer food and shelter to the participants. Her reasons are powerful.
“My husband was shot to death in 2011 when he was working collecting information about the disappeared and the killed. Moreover, his brother and my nephew have been missing since 2021,” Baloch explains to IPS by phone from Quetta.
He says the initiative has been highly successful “despite the violence they had to face in Islamabad.”
“Women have taken to the streets, many of them spending sub-zero nights with their babies. I can’t think of a more eloquent image of the determination of our people,” says the activist.
The group arrives at the entrance of Islamabad. The march was blocked on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital. Credit: Baloch Yakjehti Committee
Solidarity
It was not the first time that Baloch men and women marched to the capital of Pakistan to protest over enforced disappearances. In October 2013, an initiative that started in the permanent protest camp of Quetta turned into a foot march to Islamabad.
It was led by a 72-year-old man known as Mama Qadeer. His son’s body was recovered 800 kilometres from Quetta, where he had been kidnapped. He had two gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the head, cigarette burns on his back, a broken hand and torture marks all over his body.
The figures of the so-called Great March for the Disappeared were as impressive as they were terrifying: 2,800 kilometres in 106 days during which 103 new unidentified bodies appeared in three mass graves.
“What differentiates both protests is the great participation of women in the last one and, above all, its leadership,” Kiyya Baloch, a Norway-based journalist and analyst of the Baloch issue explains to IPS by phone.
“This last march has already become a movement. Other than gathering great support in Balochistan, the Baloch who live in the province of Punjab, historically more silent, have also mobilized for the first time,” the expert emphasises.
The expert also highlights the support received from sectors of Pakistan’s also neglected Pashtun minority, as well as from international personalities including activists Malala Yousafzai and Gretha Thunberg, and the writer Mohamed Hanif.
The renowned British-Pakistani novelist made public that he had returned an award he had received in 2018. “I cannot accept this recognition from a State that kidnaps and tortures its Baloch citizens,” Hanif posted on his X account (formerly Twitter).
So far, the Pakistani government has turned a deaf ear.
In a televised appearance in January, Pakistani Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar referred to the protesters as “relatives of the terrorists” before adding that “anyone who supports the protest or writes about it should join the guerrilla.”
A protester makes graffiti in a Baloch town. The participants have had to reconcile activism and family for weeks. Credit: Baloch Yakjehti Committee
“Enemies of humanity”
At 80 years old, Makah Marri set foot in the capital of Pakistan for the first time in her life in the heat of the protest. She does not even speak Urdu – the country’s national language – but she is a well-known face at the numerous protests for the missing held in Balochistan.
She misses her son, Shahnawaz Marri. She has not heard from him since he was taken away in 2012. “What the relatives of the disappeared suffer is daily mental torture,” Marri recalls over the phone to IPS from Islamabad.
The images of the old woman, lifting the photo of her son above her head or being treated on the floor after fainting, have gone viral on social media. Today, she takes advantage of the conversation with the press to ask the rest of the world for “attention and support” for their cause.
The “enemies of humanity,” she emphasizes, not only took away her son, but also the father of her grandchildren.
A view of the International Court of Justice where South Africa has launched a case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Credit: UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek. Courtesy of the ICJ.
by Cecilia Russell (johannesburg)
Inter Press Service
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 12 (IPS) – Israel disputed both South Africa’s jurisdiction and the provisional measures that it demanded the International Court of Justice impose on the State of Israel to prevent genocide.
Israel’s co-agent, Tal Becker, said in his opening address that Jewish people’s experience of the Holocaust meant that it was among “among the first states to ratify the Genocide Convention, without reservation, and to incorporate its provisions in its domestic legislation. For some, the promise of ‘never again for all people’ is a slogan. For Israel, it is the highest moral obligation.”
He then accused the South African government of bringing a fundamentally flawed case, which would in effect deny the country’s right to defend itself.
“The applicant has now sought to invoke this term (genocide) in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it did not start and did not want. A war in which Israel is defending itself against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations whose brutality knows no bounds.”
Giving details of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which he said was “the largest calculated mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust,” he accused South Africa of trying to “weaponize the term genocide against Israel,” delegitimizing the country and its right to defend itself.
“What proceeded under the cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel? Was the wholesale massacre, mutilation, rape, and abduction of as many citizens as the terrorists could find before Israel’s forces repelled them openly, displaying elation. They tortured children in front of parents and parents in front of children. Burned people, including infants alive, systematically raped and mutilated scores of women, men, and children. All told, some 1200 people were butchered that day, more than 5500 names, and some 240 hostages abducted, including infants, entire families, persons with disabilities, and Holocaust survivors, some of whom have since been executed, many of whom have been tortured, sexually abused, and stabbed in captivity.”
Becker said the applicant is essentially asking the court to substitute the “lens of armed conflict between a state and a lawless terrorist organization with the lens of a so-called genocide of a state against a civilian population” and that Israel’s action against Hamas was legitimate defense of the country.
Members of the Delegation of Israel Credit: UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek. Courtesy of the ICJ.
Professor Malcolm Shaw argued that the applicants right to approach the court was premature as there was no dispute between the countries.
He argued that Israel had responded to the applicant on December 27, 2023, “in good faith,” and had attempted to hand deliver notes, but the South African Department of International Relations rejected them because it was a public holiday and instructed them to try again on January 2, 2024.
However, before the notes could be delivered, South Africa launched the court application on December 29, 2023.
Shaw also said statements relied on by South Africa to show intent to commit genocide were not grounded in the policy frameworks of Israel.
He argued that the Prime Minister, during ministerial committees, issued directives “time and again” on methods to prevent a humanitarian disaster, which included looking at solutions to ensure a supply of water, food, and medicine and the construction of field hospitals.
“The remarks or actions of a soldier do not and cannot reflect policy,” Shaw told the court, saying it’s response included statements from, for example, the Minister of Defense on October 29, which made it clear that the country was fighting Hamas and not the people of Gaza, and from the President declaring that the country was operating militarily according to international law.
These decisions show that Israel lacked “genocidal intent” and said its actions were contrary to the South African argument inherent in the rights of any state to defend itself, which is “embedded in customary international law and enshrined in the UN Charter.”
Galit Raguan, Director of the International Justice Division, Ministry of Justice of the State of Israel, told the court that it was “astounding that in yesterday’s hearing, Hamas was mentioned only in passing and only in reference to the October 7 massacre in Israel. Listening to the presentation by the applicant, it was as if Israel were operating in Gaza against no armed adversary. But the same Hamas that carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel is the governing authority in Gaza. And the same Hamas has built a military strategy founded on embedding its assets and operatives among the civilian population.”
She said urban warfare will always result in tragic deaths, harm, and damage.
Using the example of the blast at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which was blamed on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), it was in fact independently confirmed as the result of a failed launch from within Gaza.
“South Africa does not consider the sheer extent to which Hamas uses ostensibly civilian structures for military purposes. Houses, schools, mosques, facilities, and shelters are all abused for military purposes by Hamas, including as rocket launching sites. Hundreds of kilometers of tunnels dug by Hamas under populated areas in Gaza often cause structures above to collapse,” she told the court.
Raguan also disputed South Africa’s version of Israel’s efforts to mitigate civilian harm.
“Here, the applicant tells not just a partial story but a false one. For example, the application presents Israel’s call to civilians to evacuate areas of intensive hostilities ‘as an act calculated to bring about its physical destruction.’ This is a particularly egregious allegation that is completely disconnected from the governing legal framework of international humanitarian law.”
Instead of 24 hours, as South Africa alleges, “the IDF urged civilians to evacuate to southern Gaza for over three weeks before it started its ground operation. Three weeks that provided Hamas with advanced knowledge of where and when the IDF would be operating.”
Raguan asked the court: “Would Israel work continuously with international organizations and states, even reaching out to them on its own initiative, to find solutions to these challenges if it were seeking to destroy the population? Israel’s efforts to mitigate the ravages of this war on civilians are the very opposite of the intent to destroy them.”
Dr Omri Sender elaborated on the humanitarian efforts, saying that more aid was reaching Gaza than before the war.
“The accurate average number for trucks specifically carrying food is 70 trucks a day before the war and 109 trucks a day over the last two weeks… Access to water has also been a priority. As with food supplies, there is no restriction on the amount of water that may enter Gaza. Israel continues to supply its own water to Gaza through two pipelines.”
Christopher Staker, a British barrister representing Israel, questioned whether “provisional measures require a state to refrain from exercising a plausible right to defend itself.”
The court, he argued, needed to take into account that Hamas was considered a terrorist organization by Israel and other countries, and secondly, it committed a large-scale terrorist attack on Israeli territory, so the country had a right to defend itself. The country was also taking steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation.
Staker also argued that the provisional measures would not constrain Hamas.
“This would deprive Israel of the ability to contend with this security threat against it. More rockets could be fired into its territory, more of its citizens could be taken hostage, raped, and tortured, and further atrocities could be conducted from across the Gaza border.”
The court’s president, Judge Joan Donoghue, closed proceedings and said the decision of the court would be communicated as soon as possible.
LONDON, Jan 12 (IPS) – Bangladesh just held an election. But it was far from an exercise in democracy.
Sheikh Hasina won her fourth consecutive term, and fifth overall, as prime minister in the general election held on 7 January. The result was never in doubt, with the main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), boycotting the vote over the ruling Awami League’s refusal to let a caretaker government oversee the election. This practice, abolished by the Awami League government in 2011, was, the BNP asserted, the only way to ensure a free and fair vote.
The BNP’s boycott was far from the only issue. A blatant campaign of pre-election intimidation saw government critics, activists and protesters subjected to threats, violence and arrests.
At the government’s urging, court cases against opposition members were accelerated so they’d be locked away before the election, resulting in a reported 800-plus convictions between September and December 2023. It’s alleged that torture and ill-treatment were used against opposition activists to force confessions. There have been reports of deaths in police custody.
Police banned protests, and when a rare mass opposition protest went ahead on 28 October police used rubber bullets, teargas and stun grenades. Following the protest, thousands more opposition supporters were detained on fabricated charges. As well as violence from the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – an elite unit notorious for excessive and lethal force – and other elements of the police force, opposition supporters faced attacks by Awami League supporters. Journalists have also been smeared, attacked and harassed, including when covering protests.
??Bangladesh: @CIVICUSalliance and other rights groups condemn the disproportionate use of force by police around the opposition rally in Dhaka. We call on the authorities to end the crackdown on protests & ensure perpetrators are held accountable https://t.co/1FZfgcdJzRpic.twitter.com/ouhNHBdVZ6
— CIVICUS (@CIVICUSalliance) November 1, 2023
As a direct result of the ruling party’s pre-election crackdown, in December 2023 Bangladesh’s civic space rating was downgraded to closed by the CIVICUS Monitor, the collaborative research project that tracks the health of civic space in every country. This places Bangladesh among the world’s worst human rights offenders, including China, Iran and Russia.
Civil society’s concerns were echoed in November 2023 by UN human rights experts who expressed alarm at political violence, arrests, mass detention, judicial harassment, excessive force and internet restrictions.
All-out assault
Such is the severity of the closure of Bangladesh’s civic space that many of the strongest dissenting voices now come from those in exile. But even speaking out from outside Bangladesh doesn’t ensure safety. As a way of putting pressure on exiled activists, the authorities are harassing their families.
Activists aren’t safe even at the UN. A civil society discussion in the wings of the UN Human Rights Council in November was disrupted by government supporters, with Adilur Rahman Khan, a leader of the Bangladeshi human rights organisation Odhikar, subjected to verbal attacks.
Khan is currently on bail while appealing against a two-year jail sentence imposed on him and another Odhikar leader in retaliation for their work to document extrajudicial killings. Following the session in Geneva, Khan was further vilified in online news sites and accused of presenting false information.
Others are coming under attack. Hasina and her government have made much of their economic record, with Bangladesh now one of the world’s biggest garment producers. But that success is largely based on low wages. Like many countries, Bangladesh is currently experiencing high inflation, and garment workers’ recent efforts to improve their situation have been met with repression.
Workers protested in October and November 2023 after a government-appointed panel raised the minimum wage for garment sector workers to a far lower level than they’d demanded. Up to 25,000 people took part in protests, forcing at least 100 factories to close. They were met with police violence. At least two people were killed and many more were injured.
Seemingly no one is safe. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank that has enabled millions to access small loans, was recently convicted of labour law offences in a trial his supporters denounced as politically motivated. Yunus has long been a target for criticism and threats from the ruling party.
Democracy in name only
The quality of Bangladesh’s elections has dramatically declined since the Awami League returned to power in the last reasonably free and fair election in 2008. Each election since has been characterised by serious irregularities and pre-voting crackdowns as the incumbents have done everything they could to hold onto power.
But this time, while the Awami League victory was as huge as ever, turnout was down. It was almost half its 2018 level, at only 41.8 per cent, and even that figure may be inflated. The lack of participation reflected a widespread understanding that the Awami League’s victory was a foregone conclusion: many Awami League supporters didn’t feel they needed to vote, and many opposition backers had no one to vote for.
People knew that many supposedly independent candidates were in reality Awami League supporters running as a pseudo-opposition to offer some appearance of electoral competition. The party that came second is also allied with the ruling party. All electoral credibility and legitimacy are now strained past breaking point.
The government has faced predictably no pressure to abide by democratic rules from key allies such as China and India, although the once-supportive US government has shifted its position in recent years, imposing sanctions on some RAB leaders and threatening to withhold visas for Bangladeshis deemed to have undermined the electoral process.
If the economic situation deteriorates further, discontent is sure to grow, and with other spaces blocked, protests and their violent repression will surely follow. International partners must urge the Bangladeshi government to find a way to avoid this. More violence and intensifying authoritarianism can’t be the way forward. Instead Bangladesh should be urged to start the journey back towards democracy.
Surviving the flood at Ahoada in Rivers state Nigeria. Credit: Wikicommons
Opinion by Omer Javed, Dan Beeton (washington dc)
Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON DC, Jan 12 (IPS) – The world faces the existential threat of a climate change crisis, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the outcome of the latest UN climate summit, COP28 — hosted as it was by the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies, and filled with a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists — is not going to do much to change that.
Even calls to “phase-out” fossil fuels were met with foot-dragging from the COP28 president and Saudi Arabian delegates. Meanwhile, highlighting the gravity of the challenge at hand, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) pointed out that the last decade (2011–2020) was the warmest on record. Along with the COVID pandemic, this likely contributed to an increase in absolute poverty over the same period.
A key question that COP28 was supposed to tackle is how low- and middle-income countries will be able to pay for climate crisis response and adaptation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been thrust into a key role in this regard, but it should not escape criticism for its own climate hypocrisy.
For the Fund to truly begin to join the fight against the climate crisis, it must first end its pointless, unfair, and damaging surcharge policy. The Biden administration could ensure that the Fund instead plays a crucial role in responding to climate challenges by supporting a major new issuance of IMF reserve assets.
Currently, the IMF’s solution is to offer more debt to already severely debt-burdened countries. An October paper from the United Nations Development Programme Global Policy Network noted: “At least 54 developing economies are suffering from severe debt problems,” of which 28 are among “the world’s top-50 most climate vulnerable countries.”
And more than 70 percent of climate finance for these countries has been in the form of loans, as a recent letter from 141 civil society groups points out.
Moreover, a Development Finance International-led report notes the lopsided spending priorities being forced on developing countries, many of which are highly vulnerable to climate change. Among these, “debt service is 12.5 times higher than the amount spent on climate adaptation,” a number projected to “rise to 13.2 times” in the next year.
Contributions to the “loss and damage” climate fund have also been far from satisfactory. Reports note that the US, the EU, and other rich countries have failed to meet their pledges to provide $100 billion per year.
Meanwhile, high-level UN officials estimate that these countries will actually need to spend about $1 trillion per year on climate response by 2025, and about $2.4 trillion per year by 2030.
These countries face debt distress partly because the IMF demands they follow overly broad austerity policies as conditions to receive the loans. This is an avoidable problem, considering that the IMF possesses a ready and appropriate alternative: Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), a reserve asset intended to be issued during times of crisis.
The Fund last allocated $650 billion worth of SDRs in August 2021, in response to the COVID pandemic. But now even countries battered by the climate crisis, such as Pakistan, a third of which was flooded in 2022, are being pushed to take on more debt while the US Treasury Department refuses to green-light a new major SDRs issuance.
This points to the root of the problem: the governance structures of the IMF and World Bank. The US by itself has a veto over decisions, and in practice can control most of what the IMF does, because other high-income countries — mostly in Europe — almost always line up with the United States, giving high-income countries 60 percent of voting power, thereby leaving most of the world without a voice at the IMF.
Critics point out that most of the 2021 SDRs went to rich countries, since they provided the most to the IMF’s resources (their membership quotas); while efforts to rechannel those SDRs have also been wanting both in terms of speed and quantity.
Worse, the IMF’s rechanneling mechanisms turn the SDRs — an international reserve asset that countries receive without any debt or conditions attached — into loans, with conditions attached.
The IMF is contributing to the global debt crisis in other ways. It continues to levy surcharges, essentially, “junk fees” added onto its non-concessional lending. Writing for Eurodad, Daniel Munevar highlighted how climate crisis-ravaged Pakistan faced surcharges of $122 million in 2023, and another $69 million in 2024.
A country that faced catastrophic flooding in 2022, that is one of the most vulnerable to climate change, and that was simultaneously facing possible default, should not be forced to pay surcharges. Moreover, many countries in similar circumstances, such as Armenia, Jordan, and even war-torn Ukraine, also face surcharges.
A recent CEPR report noted, “The IMF will charge over $2 billion per year in surcharges through 2025,” which is unnecessary and counterproductive, given the already constrained fiscal space of developing countries.
Time is quickly running out. The IMF must be brought into the twenty-first century if it is to play a constructive role in ending the climate crisis. The IMF should end its punitive, unnecessary, and counterproductive surcharge policy. And there must be a new major allocation of SDRs to enable developing countries to better deal with debt distress and meet their goals for climate-resilient spending.
This will require leadership by President Biden, since the US is the largest contributor to IMF resources and has the greatest say in IMF decisions. The COP meetings could even be used for timing a yearly release of climate-related SDR allocations to highly climate-vulnerable countries, as suggested under Barbados’s “Bridgetown Initiative.”
These steps would at least show that the Fund is addressing the climate crisis with the leadership and seriousness required.
Omer Javed holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at the International Monetary Fund. His contact on ‘X’ (formerly ‘Twitter’) is @omerjaved7.
Dan Beeton is the International Communications Director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research (cepr.net) in Washington, DC. He Tweets at @Dan_Beeton.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands.
by Diana Buttu (toronto, canada)
Inter Press Service
TORONTO, Canada, Jan 11 (IPS) – The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) published the following Q&A with human rights attorney and political analyst Diana Buttu on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice ICJ). The court is scheduled to hold hearings on the petition January 11-12.
She is a former advisor to Palestinian Authority President and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Question: What is the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and how does it differ from the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
Diana Buttu: The International Court of Justice is part of the United Nations system and deals with legal disputes between states. The International Criminal Court, which Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of, deals with claims against individuals. Israel signed onto the UN Genocide Convention, as did South Africa. Therefore, the ICJ has the jurisdiction to deal with the petition being brought by South Africa.
Q: Why is South Africa filing the petition before the ICJ? What is being requested?
DB: Any country that is a signatory to the Genocide Convention can file a petition to the ICJ. They do not need to be directly affected. That said, it is very powerful that South Africa, a country that lived under a racist apartheid regime, is making a claim against the apartheid regime of Israel.
Diana Buttu
South Africa is seeking an expedited hearing and is hoping that the ICJ will issue a ruling calling upon Israel to immediately halt all military attacks and allow food and other humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza. To that end, South Africa has requested that the ICJ should order Israel “to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza, to cease the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group, to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to genocide, and to rescind related policies and practices, including regarding the restriction on aid and the issuing of evacuation directives.”
Q: What exactly is South Africa alleging?
DB: South Africa alleges that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, where 2.3 million Palestinians, half of them children, are trapped with nowhere to escape to. Since October 7, Israel has been carrying out a massive military assault by land, air and sea, on Gaza, which is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Israel’s assault is one of the most destructive and deadly bombing campaigns in history, killing more than 1 percent of the population of Gaza up to this point. At the same time, Israel has cut off food, water, and medical supplies, as part of a deliberate attempt to starve the population.
Israel has also driven nearly the entire population out of their homes in an act of ethnic cleansing, particularly in the north of Gaza. So far, Israel has destroyed or damaged 355,000 homes (approximately 60% of all homes in Gaza); displaced 1.9 million Palestinians (85% of the total population) and has left all of Gaza without food, clean water or sanitation.
Israel’s military has also targeted hospitals and other health care facilities in Gaza as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign. According to South Africa’s petition, “Israel has bombed, shelled and besieged Gaza’s hospitals, with only 13 out of 36 hospitals partially functional, and no fully functioning hospital left in North Gaza. Contagious and epidemic diseases are rife amongst the displaced Palestinian population, with experts warning of the risk of meningitis, cholera and other outbreaks. The entire population in Gaza is at imminent risk of famine…”
According to South Africa’s petition, Israel is:
Engaged in the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, a large proportion of them women and children —who are estimated to account for around 70% of the more than 21,110 fatalities. According to reports, Israeli soldiers have also summarily executed civilians;
Deliberately causing starvation and dehydration amongst Palestinians in Gaza by cutting of supplies of food, water, and electricity, and the destruction of bakeries, mills, agricultural lands and other methods of food production and sustenance;
Causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza, including through maiming, psychological trauma, and inhuman and degrading treatment;
Forcibly displacing – ethnic cleansing – around 85% of Palestinians in Gaza so far — including children, the elderly, and the sick and wounded — as well as causing the large scale destruction of Palestinian homes, cities, towns, refugee camps, and entire regions in Gaza, precluding the return of a significant proportion of Palestinians to their homes;
Destroying Palestinian life and society in Gaza, through the destruction of Gaza’s universities, schools, cultural centers, courts, public buildings and records, libraries, churches, mosques, roads, infrastructure, utilities and other facilities necessary to the sustained life of Palestinians in Gaza as a group, alongside the killing of entire family groups — erasing entire oral histories in Gaza — and the killing of prominent and distinguished members of society;
Imposing measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in Gaza, through the reproductive violence inflicted on Palestinian women, newborn babies, infants, and children;
Failing to provide for or to ensure the provision for the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza, including those medical needs created by other genocidal acts causing serious bodily harm, including through directly attacking hospitals, ambulances and other healthcare facilities in Gaza, killing doctors, medics and nurses, including the most qualified medics in Gaza, and destroying and disabling Gaza’s medical system; and
Failing to provide and restricting the provision of adequate shelter, clothes, hygiene or sanitation to Palestinians in Gaza, including the 1.9 million internally displaced people, compelled by Israel’s actions to live in dangerous situations of squalor, alongside the routine targeting and destruction of places of shelter and the killing and wounding of those seeking safety, including women, children, the disabled and the elderly.
Q: What is necessary to establish that genocide is taking place?
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Based on this, two elements are required: the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group and the act of doing so. In the petition, South Africa lays out both elements by highlighting numerous statements demonstrating the intent to commit genocide on the part of senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, the President of Israel, the Minister of Defense, the National Security Minister, the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Heritage, the Minister of Agriculture and the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. The petition also highlights the alarm bells raised by a number of UN experts warning that Palestinians are at risk of genocide. It also highlights the many acts that Israel has carried out since October 7 to meet those elements above.
Q: What will happen if the ICJ finds that Israel is committing genocide?
DB: At this stage, what is being sought is a provisional order asking that Israel cease its attacks against Palestinians in Gaza. For a provisional order, it is not necessary to prove that Israel is committing genocide; but rather that the acts complained of fall within the Genocide Convention.
That said, if after hearing the full case the court finds that Israel is committing genocide, this obligates not only Israel but also countries around the world to act to stop genocide. First, according to the ICJ, every UN member state must undertake to comply with a decision of the ICJ in any case to which it is a party. If they do not comply, the other party may go to the UN Security Council which may take measures to give effect to the judgment.
Beyond that, however, the crime of genocide does not just bind the party committing genocide but binds third party states too, whether or not they have ratified the Genocide Convention. What this means is that ALL states are bound and therefore must take measures to stop the genocide as well as measures not to aid Israel in committing genocide. This, of course, can take different forms including by imposing an arms embargo on Israel, boycotting and sanctioning Israel, and prosecuting war criminals.
For more information, contact Chris at [email protected] or (202) 903-3271.
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC makes her arguments as the Israeli legal team listen intently. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS
by Cecilia Russell (johannesburg)
Inter Press Service
JOHANNESBurg, Jan 11 (IPS) – Far from the mayhem, destruction, and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the South African government argued in the International Court of Justice in the Hague that it had an obligation and a right to bring a case to halt a genocide by the Israeli government and its military.
The top legal team, composed of both South African and international human rights lawyers, spent over two and a half hours arguing that it had an obligation as a signatory to the Genocide Convention to bring this case and that the court had an obligation to accede to the provisional measures included in the application, which include an immediate suspension of its military operations against Gaza and the prevention of acts of genocide against Palestinian people.
Professor Vaughan Lowe KC summarized the arguments heard throughout the day succinctly, saying:
“South Africa believes that the publicly available evidence of the scale of the destruction resulting from the bombardment of Gaza and the deliberate restriction of food, water, medicines, or electricity available to the population of Gaza demonstrates that the Government of Israel, not Jewish people or Israeli citizens, the government of Israel, and its military are intent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza as a group and are doing nothing to prevent or punish the actions of others who support that aim.
“And I repeat, the point is not simply that Israel is acting disproportionately. The point is that the prohibition on genocide is an absolute, peremptory rule of law. Nothing can ever justify genocide,” he told the court.
“This is not a moment for the court to sit back and be silent.”
The preceding arguments included the reasons the court should act—and act urgently.
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC argued that if the bombardment continued, there would be irreparable harm to the Palestinian people, where entire multigenerational families would be obliterated.
She referred to what she termed a “terrible new acronym” that emerged from the Israeli action.
“WCNSF—wounded child, no surviving family.”
Ghralaigh argued there was no merit in the argument of Israel that it was not responsible for the humanitarian crisis; she told the court that humanitarian workers stretching as far back as the Killing Fields of Cambodia had not seen a humanitarian crisis so utterly unprecedented that they had “not the words to describe it.”
She also accused the international community of erring in their duty to prevent genocide.
“Now, notwithstanding the genocide conventions and recognition of the need to rid the world of the odious scourge of genocide, the international community has repeatedly failed. It failed the people of Rwanda. It had failed the Bosnian people and the Rohingya, prompting this court to take action,” Ghralaigh argued, saying it failed again by ignoring the early warnings and the grave risk of genocide to the Palestinian people.
“The international community continues to fail the Palestinian people, despite the overt, dehumanizing genocidal rhetoric by Israeli government and military officials, matched by the Israeli army’s actions on the ground—despite the horror of the genocide against the Palestinian people being live streamed from Gaza to our mobile phones, computers, and television screens—the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time.”
Professor Max Du Plessis argued that South Africa had jurisdiction to bring this matter to court. Quoting the court’s findings in the case filed by The Gambia against Myanmar in 2019, he said: “All the States’ parties to the Genocide Convention have a common interest in ensuring that acts of genocide are prevented.”
This court action should not have come as a surprise. Professor John Dugard explained that the South African application followed a long series of diplomatic efforts to express concern about the Israeli action in Palestine.
“South Africa has a long history of close relations with Israel. For this reason, it did not bring the dispute immediately to the attention of the court. It was harder as Israel responded to the terrible atrocities committed against his people on the 7th of October with an attack on Gaza that resulted in the indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, most of whom were women and children,” Dugard told the court. “The South African government repeatedly voiced its concerns in the Security Council and in public statements that Israel’s actions had become genocidal.”
Adila Hassim, an attorney, gave a detailed account of the effects of the bombardment on the civilian population when she informed the court that Israeli forces had killed 23,210 Palestinians during the continuous attacks over the previous three months, with 70% of them thought to be women and children. Some 7,000 Palestinians are still missing, presumed dead under the rubble.
“Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing, wherever they go. They are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches, and as they try to find food and water for their families. They have been killed if they failed to evacuate in the places to which they have fled, and even while they attempted to flee along Israeli-declared safe routes,” Hassim said.
Showing photographs of mass graves, she told the court: “More than 1,800 Palestinian families in Gaza have lost multiple family members, and hundreds of multi-generational families have been wiped out with no remaining survivors. Mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and cousins are often all killed together. This killing is nothing short of the destruction of Palestinian life. It is inflicted deliberately. No one is spared. Not even newborn babies.”
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said the genocidal rhetoric was nurtured at the highest level of the state.
“There is an extraordinary feature in this case that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public address when he declared war on Gaza, where he warned of an unprecedented price to be paid by the enemy.
On October 28, Ngcukayitobi said Netanyahu referred to the people of Gaza as the Amalekites, a biblical reference to the retaliatory destruction of a people, men and women, children and infants with their cattle and sheep, camels, and donkeys, considered the enemies of the Israelites.
The language of genocide had not stopped there, as the Palestinian people were often referred to as “human animals.”
Other high-level politicians also made comments that confirmed the country’s genocide intent.
Israel’s Energy and Infrastructure Minister, MK Israel Katz, called for the denial of water and fuel: “As this is what will happen to a people of children: kill us and slaughter us.”
Ngcukaitobi said there was no ambiguity. “It means to create conditions of death for the Palestinian people in Gaza to die a slow death because of starvation and dehydration, or to die quickly because of a bomb attack or snipers.”
South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the court this was brought in the spirit of Nelson Mandela’s humanity, and the country unequivocally condemned the targeting of civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in the taking of hostages on October 7, 2023.
Vusi Madonsela, SA Ambassador to the Netherlands, read the provisional measures that the South African government requests the court consider, including responding to the application as a matter of urgency. Among others, these include:
that military operations are immediately ceased;
that the State of Israel take reasonable measures within its power to prevent genocide, including desisting from actions that could bring about physical destruction;
rescind orders of restrictions and prohibitions to prevent forced displacement and ensure access to humanitarian assistance, including access to adequate fuel, shelter, clothes, hygiene, sanitation and medical supplies;
avoid public incitement;
ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts and
submit a report to the court on all measures taken to give effect to the order.
Social media has become a lifeline for many women and girls in Afghanistan but not all can afford it. Credit: Learning Together
Inter Press Service
Jan 10 (IPS) – The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasonsThe prevalence of social media usage among Afghan women and girls has surged since the Taliban assumed control of the country in August 2021. Faced with restrictions confining them to their homes, many women find solace in the messaging app WhatsApp.
The Taliban’s prohibitions on women attending school, university, and work have spurred an increased reliance on WhatsApp for maintaining connections with friends, sharing thoughts and information, engaging in discussions, and even participating in foreign language online classes and accessing online libraries.
Farhat Obeidi, 23, lives with his parents and two brothers in Kabul. She was a fourth-year psychology student at Kabul University when she was banned from attending university by the Taliban.
“After we were banned from university, I couldn’t meet my friends anymore. I kept in touch with my friends through WhatsApp. We created groups, and our professors shared all the course materials with us through these groups. Even our friends who could not afford to have smartphones were in contact with us using the cell phones of their families, and they were able to take part in our online study groups”, Farhat says.
Farhat says that the use of social media has helped in reducing the pressures and psychological problems caused by the unemployment of women and girls. Since the apps have no time and place restrictions, the women can stay connected also with friends and relatives who have immigrated. Using the app is safe and messaging is possible even when the internet connection is poor.
Nilab Noori, a resident of Kabul, says that the easiest way to be in touch with a large number of friends and colleagues at the same time is to create groups on messaging app.
“Although virtual communication can never be as effective as being present in the community, school and university, this method has helped women and girls to communicate with each other.”
Power outages in Afghanistan prevent young people who study online from continuing their education. Another obstacle is the high price of the internet connection or its poor quality.
“Since the majority of women have lost their jobs and income, and most Afghan families live below the poverty line, women can hardly afford the internet access”, Nilab says.
Tamna Alkozi had to quit her online studies, because she could not afford the fast internet connection. She used to study at Coventry University of England online via Zoom.
At the same time, Tamna was working as a volunteer in one of the non-governmental organizations. Her task was to run online educational programs related to the mental health of adolescents and young people. The organization paid for her internet usage.
“After finishing my work, I couldn’t continue my studies because the Zoom program requires a fast internet connection which I couldn’t afford”, Tamna says.
Sara (pseudonym) was a first-year student of a fine arts faculty who was banned from going to university.
“Our professors left Afghanistan after the political changes and opened an online class for us from abroad. I had one online class a week, but I could not participate because I did not have internet access”, Sara says.
The lack of security in cyberspace causes concern among women, especially activists. Those who live inside Afghanistan cannot express their opposition to the Taliban group even through social media because it will cause their account to be shut down and even get them arrested.
Marina (pseudonym) is a journalist who works online under a pseudonym. “I used to share my reports with the media through WhatsApp, but my number was blocked and my account was deleted”, Marina says.
When she asked the telecommunications company why her number was blocked, they told her that they had received an order from the Taliban, and they could not activate the number again.
Marina says that several women’s rights activists who are imprisoned by the Taliban have been traced and arrested through social media. She says the Taliban is violating people’s privacy by checking people’s personal mobile phones and WhatsApp messages at checkpoints.
Internet connections are in high demand in Afghanistan, but the content remains tightly controlled under the influence of the Taliban. Credit: Learning Together
Sexualized online abuse and hate speech targeting women in Afghanistan has significantly increased. Afghan Witness, an open-source project run by the non-profit Center for Information Resilience, collected and analyzed over 78,000 posts written in Dari and Pashto — two local Afghan languages — directed at almost 100 accounts of politically active Afghan women between June-December 2021 and the same period of 2022.
The number of abusive posts tripled during that time. Afghan Witness said it found the online abuse was “overwhelmingly sexualized,” with over 60% of the posts in 2022 containing terms such as “whore” or “prostitute.”
Some politically active women have decided to deactivate their social media accounts.
Despite these challenges, the use of social media has seen significant growth in Afghanistan. A recent survey indicates that over nine million of the 40 million Afghan population use the internet and engage with at least one social media platform. The majority of young Afghans prefer Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok.
