Displaying items by tag: human rights

The European Court of Justice has rejected a crucial EU-US data sharing deal that could have serious ramifications for the relationship between Europe and Britain. Thejudges rejected the Privacy Shield agreement between the bloc and the USA. The tool is used by thousands of firms to protect Europeans’ personal data when it is transferred across the Atlantic. The agreement prompted complaints amid privacy concerns about the United States’ surveillance watchdogs. As part of the post-Brexit future relationship talks, the two sides want to establish an agreement to enable smooth flows of data after the transition period expires in December. The UK has fully rearranged the EU’s procedures into national law, but has a controversial track record in mass surveillance. In 2018 a European court ruled the UK had breached human rights protections in its mass surveillance programmes.

The Centre for Global Policy (CGP) has called on European governments to intervene urgently on behalf of 750 children of EU member states citizenship who are held in IS detention camps in Syria. CGP’s latest report said that urgent intervention and support was needed. The report, entitled ‘The children of IS detainees - Europe's dilemma’, was based on research that focused on two camps in northeast Syria where 70,000 women and children are being detained. At least 12,000 of the detainees are foreign nationals. While public opinion in EU member states is strongly opposed to repatriating IS members and affiliates, the report emphasised, ‘Leaving them in these camps will not keep anyone safe’.

Three women, charged with 'inciting prostitution' for not wearing veils, have been sentenced to 42 years in prison between them. Now, with Covid-19 cases confirmed in prisons across Iran, they are in more danger than ever. Monireh, Yasaman and Mojgan have done nothing wrong; thousands are calling on the head of the judiciary to release them immediately. As an act of peaceful protest, the unveiled women handed out flowers to female passengers on a Tehran metro train. They were filmed sharing their hopes for Iranian women on International Women’s Day. Days after the video went viral on social media, they were charged with sham offences including ‘inciting prostitution’ for promoting unveiling. Prisoners in Iran are at particular risk because they are unable to take the same social distancing and hygiene measures as those outside prison to protect themselves.

More than five years of conflict have left Yemenis hanging on by a thread, their economy in tatters, and their institutions facing near-collapse. The UN chief told a virtual pledging conference they needed to demonstrate solidarity with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable in Yemen. Pray for UN workers to receive the funding to meet people’s needs in this staggering humanitarian crisis. Across the globe Covid-19 has halted economic activity and threatens social wellbeing. UNESCO says it is now coping with millions in extreme poverty. Pray for the UN to make wise decisions as it addresses the pandemic and mobilises the resources needed for a proactive recovery. In Africa it is addressing the ‘appalling impact’ of Covid-19 on minorities; the virus has a ‘disproportionate impact’ on racial and ethnic minorities, including people of African descent. Pray for human rights to be at the centre of coronavirus response.

On 12 February the Equalities and Human Rights Commission launched a legal challenge against Matt Hancock, secretary of state for health and social care, over the repeated failure to move people with learning disabilities and autism into appropriate accommodation. It stated, ‘We have long-standing concerns about the rights of more than 2,000 people with learning disabilities and autism being detained in secure hospitals, often far away from home and for many years. We have sent a pre-action letter to Mr Hancock, arguing that his department has breached the European Convention of Human Rights by failing to meet the targets set in tts Transforming Care and Building the Right Support programmes. These targets include moving patients from inappropriate in-patient care to community-based settings, and reducing the reliance on in-patient care for people with learning disabilities and autism.’

The US Senate has passed a Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act (see ) that aims to protect the human rights and autonomy and freedoms of Hong Kong. This bill sends a message of hope to many pro-democracy protesters. China warned it could take ‘firm counter-measures’ if Washington continues to show support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters. We need to pray that more nations in the free world will also send a clear message to Beijing that they stand with Hong Kong in their struggle for democracy. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s first election since the protests began saw a turnout of 71% as people stood up to defend their freedoms against an increasingly aggressive Beijing. Their votes resulted in seventeen of the eighteen district councils now being controlled by pro-democracy councillors. However, China’s state media outlets are either making no reference at all to election results or claiming ‘tampering’ had taken place.

In 2018 Rami Kamil, a prominent human rights activist, joined a UN fact-finding visit to investigate the situation of members of the Coptic community who had been displaced from their homes following sectarian incidents. On 23 November he was arrested: the police refused to allow him to change his clothes, carry his medications, or speak to a lawyer. They confiscated his laptop, mobile phone, camera, and books, and took him to an unknown location, where he underwent intensive physical and psychological interrogation. He later appeared before the state security prosecution without legal representation, and was given fifteen days’ pre-trial detention. He was accused of joining a terrorist organisation, receiving foreign funding, disturbing public order, inciting the public against the state, and using social media to provoke tensions between Muslims and Christians.

Chow, a university student, fell from the third floor of a car park while fleeing tear gas and suffered a significant brain injury as a result. A third-year journalism student, surnamed Tang, was arrested on 2 November when covering protests in Taikoo Shing. His university’s student union said that when he was arrested, he was wearing his press card and journalists’ association membership card, and had not taken part in any of the frontline protest activities. Pray for police to respect the rights of student reporters and ensure their safety when they are performing their duties. Also, the university has asked the police commissioner for full details about a qualified St John Ambulance first aider student who suffered serious burn injuries after being hit by a tear-gas canister while performing his duties. Students and alumni are demanding that the universities condemn police violence as they handle anti-government protests.

Human Rights Watch reported on 4 November that important social reforms enacted under Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman have been accompanied by deepening repression and abusive practices meant to silence dissidents and critics. The 62-page report documents ongoing arbitrary and abusive practices by Saudi authorities targeting dissidents and activists since mid-2017 and a total lack of accountability for those responsible for abuses. Despite landmark reforms for Saudi women and youth, ongoing abuses demonstrate that the rule of law remains weak and can be undermined at will by political leadership. The authorities have locked away many leading reformist thinkers and activists. HRW said that detaining citizens for peaceful criticism of the government’s policies or human rights advocacy is not new in Saudi Arabia, but what has made the post-2017 arrest waves notable is the sheer number and range of people targeted over a short period, and new repressive practices.

China is killing religious and ethnic minorities and harvesting their organs, UN Human Rights Council told.

Lawyers for independent China Tribunal say UN member states have ‘legal obligation’ to act.

The Chinese government is harvesting and selling organs from persecuted religious and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale, the UN Human Rights Council has been told.

Speaking at the council’s headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, lawyer Hamid Sabi presented the findings of the China Tribunal, an independent tribunal on allegations of forced organ harvesting.

Mr Sabi told the council that UN member states have a “legal obligation” to act after the tribunal’s final report in June found that “the commission of crimes against humanity against the Falun Gong and Uighur [minorities] had been proved beyond reasonable doubt”.

The China Tribunal was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. It concluded that there was clear evidence China had been extracting organs from, and thereby killing, members of the Falun Gong spiritual group for at least 20 years, and that the practice was ongoing today.

Detainees were “killed to order - cut open while still alive for their kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, cornea and skin to be removed and turned into commodities for sale”, the tribunal’s final judgement said. 

The tribunal said there was also possible evidence, though in less volume, of forced organ harvesting in detainees from the Uighur Muslim minority, as well as Tibetans and some Christian sects.

China’s campaign of detention and “re-education” of more than a million Uighurs in the northwestern Xinjiang province has gained significant international attention and condemnation. The tribunal found evidence they were “being used as a bank of organs” and subjected to regular medical testing.

China has repeatedly denied the use of unethical organ transplant practices, and said that it stopped using the organs from executed prisoners in 2015. In a statement earlier this year, it accused the London-based China Tribunal of perpetuating “rumours”.

But Sir Geoffrey said the evidence collated by the tribunal meant the international community “can no longer avoid what it is inconvenient for them to admit”.

The organ transplant industry is estimated to earn China more than $1bn (£801.4m) a year, according to the tribunal. Sir Geoffrey called on the International Transplant Society and national medical associations dealing with transplant surgery to “face up to what is revealed in the China Tribunal judgment and act”.

The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (Etac), which initiated the China Tribunal, said it expects a private members bill to stop unethical organ tourism will be tabled in the UK parliament in October. Etac is hoping its findings will prompt the Human Rights Council to open up a UN Commission of Inquiry into forced organ harvesting in China, said Susie Hughes, the organisation’s executive director.

Adam Withnall Asia Editor - Independent

More at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-religious-ethnic-minorities-uighur-muslim-harvest-organs-un-human-rights-a9117911.html

Pray: that the international community will take a stand against this shocking and inhumane treatment of minority groups.

Pray: for the ‘re-education projects’ to be closed and for the human rights of all people across China to be restored and respected.

Pray: Lets pray continually, for the church in China, that despite persecution, it will grow stronger. (Matt 5:10)