Saudi asylum seeker flying from Bangkok to Canada: Thai official

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2019

Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at the
Thai capital's main airport (AFP Photo/Handout)

Bangkok (AFP) - An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family seeking asylum in Australia will fly to Canada late Friday, the head of Thai immigration police said, in a surprise twist to a saga partly played out over Twitter.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was granted refugee status by the UN days ago after arriving in Bangkok over the weekend and amassing a large Twitter following as she made desperate pleas for help from the airport.

Australia was assessing a request to resettle her but hours after the young woman tweeted that she had "some good news and some bad news" earlier Friday Thai authorities said she was set to board a flight to Canada instead.

"She will fly at 11:15 pm tonight (1615 GMT)," Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told AFP.

The woman's social media-driven fight for freedom was watched closely around the world after she arrived in Bangkok via Kuwait and barricaded herself in a hotel room posting live updates about her status.

Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at the Thai 

capital's main airport (AFP Photo/Handout)

She quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers with a #SaveRahaf hashtag that went viral and saw her delivered into the hands of the UN refugee agency in lightning speed compared to other asylum cases.

Rahaf said she was subjected to physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her family in Saudi Arabia and was once locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair.

Rights groups also say she was at risk for renouncing Islam.

Her father travelled to Thailand and denied mistreating her but she refused to see him during his trip.

Rahaf's quest also prompted online vitriol and death threats that made her deactivate her Twitter account after posting her last update.

#UPDATE A young Saudi woman who caused an international sensation as she sought asylum abroad while in Bangkok arrived in Toronto Saturday where she was welcomed with open arms https://t.co/1sL4emOLmJ #RahafMohammed pic.twitter.com/oSu0JYXCDL

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 12, 2019

Related Article:

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UN votes to send war crimes probe to Gaza

Yahoo – AFP, Nina LARSON, 18 May 2018

Delegates gather for a special session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights
Council which voted to send a team of war crimes investigators to probe the
deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

The UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.

The UN's top human rights body voted through a resolution calling on the council to "urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry" -- the UN rights council's highest-level of investigation.

Only two of the council's 47 members, the United States and Australia, voted against the resolution, while 29 voted in favour and 14 abstained, including Britain, Switzerland and Germany.

The text said the team should investigate all alleged violations and abuses... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018, ... including those that may amount to war crimes."

The special UN session comes after six weeks of mass protests and clashes along the Gaza border with Palestinian refugees demanding the right to return to their former homes inside what is now Israel.

The violence has claimed more than 100 Gazan lives, with 60 Palestinians killed and thousands injured in a single day of protests that coincided with Monday's move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein at 

a special session of the UN Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war 

crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

'Horrific events'

Opening the special session earlier Friday, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein slammed the "wholly disproportionate" use of force by Israeli troops and backed the call for an international probe.

"Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week," he said.

But Zeid insisted that many of those injured and killed on Monday "were completely unarmed, (and) were shot in the back, in the chest, in the head and limbs with live ammunition", he said, saying there was "little evidence of any (Israeli) attempt to minimise casualties".

He said, "some of the demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots to throw stones, flew burning kites into Israel and attempted to use wire-cutters against the two fences between Gaza and Israel."

But he added: "these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force."

Israel has justified its actions, arguing it was necessary to stop mass infiltrations from the blockaded Palestinian enclave which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement.

Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aviva Raz Shechter, meanwhile slammed what she called a "shameful" and "biased" resolution.

"Hamas is the aggressor. Hamas is the one committing war crimes," she said, insisting that with Friday's resolution, the Human Rights Council "has reached a new height of hypocrisy".

"This resolution is void of any sense, and deserves nothing less than being torn apart."

Israel's Ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter gestures during a special session of the 

United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war 

crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

US representative Theodore Allegra also lamented the council's "biased focus on Israel", charging that the resolution had a "one-sided focus, without any call for investigation of Hamas".

Delegates gather for a special session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

Israel's Ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter gestures during a special session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces

US representative Theodore Allegra gestures during a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council which voted to send a team of war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.

Former Dutch Prime Minister Rudd Lubbers dies

Deutsche Welle, 14 February 2018

Ruud Lubbers, the Netherlands' longest serving prime minister, has died aged 78. Lubbers also headed the UN refugee agency on a symbolic $1 salary, and, in 1991, hosted the EU's formative Maastricht summit.

Former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers in B/W (picture alliance/ANP/V. Kuypers)

Lubbers, a conservative who argued for "more markets, less government" and a closer European Union, passed away on Wednesday in his home city of Rotterdam, the Dutch government announced. No cause of death was given.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands had "lost a statesman with huge stature" and went on to praise Lubbers for his commitment to Europe and as a "world citizen" who was "intelligent and wise."

"He knew how to find a solution to every problem," Rutte added.

Lubbers, a Christian Democrat from a Rotterdam engineering and machinery family, who studied economics and then headed an employers' federation, formed his first government in 1982 with the liberal VVD party, on a pledge to cut back the Dutch welfare state.

His slogan "more markets, less government" prompted conflict with trade unions but earned him a reputation for the "Dutch model" of spurring the economy to create more jobs.

Key role at Maastricht

In his third consecutive term, he formed a grand coalition with center-left Social Democrats in 1989, and played a key role in late 1991 when the Netherlands hosted an EU summit that formulated the bloc's Maastricht Treaty focused on political integration.

The accord, signed in early 1992, also laid the groundwork for the shared euro currency.

When he stepped down in the Dutch election year 1994, he had become the Netherland's longest-serving prime minister.

His 12 years in office had included his persuading parliament to accept the deployment of NATO European missiles in the Netherlands and ambitious conservation projects across the densely populated low-lying nation.

WWF and then UNHCR

After stints in academia, bids for top jobs at the European Commission and NATO, and criticism of Germany's then-chancellor, Helmut Kohl, Lubbers went on to serve as president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2000, before becoming the head of the UNHCR refugee agency in 2001.

Bombing of Afghanistan wrong

A month after the 9/11 airline hijacker attacks on New York and Washington, Ludders rejected US bombardment of largely Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

He told Germany's Die Zeit newspaper in October 2001 that less US military action, not more, combined with aid agency assistance, would minimize the "danger of a conflagration."

As UNHCR commissioner he had urged the United States: "no revenge, no disproportionate reprisal attacks that will inevitably cause larger refugee flows and human suffering."

Resignation

His UNHCR post was extended in 2003 but in 2005 he was forced to step down over sexual harassment allegations, which he rejected as defamatory.

In latter years, when the Netherlands had difficulties forming coalition governments, Queen Beatrix reportedly called in Lubbers as adviser and intermediary.

Dutch broadcaster NOS said Lubbers had long suffered from an unspecified illness.

ipj/kms (AFP, AP, Reuters, Munzinger-Archive)

North Korea: A case for the International Criminal Court?

The UN's Human Rights Committee has approved a resolution calling for North Korea to be brought before the International Criminal Court on charges of human rights violations.

Deutsche Welle, 19 Nov 2014

Will North Korea be held legally responsible for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity by International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague? This Tuesday November 18, the UN General Assembly's Human Rights Committee approved a resolution jointly submitted by the European Union and Japan. 111 countries voted in favour, 55 abstained and just 19 voted against. However it is still up to the UN Security Council to bring a case against the leadership of the internationally isolated country.

For its part, Pyongyang denies all accusations, saying they are all part of a United States-led conspiracy. In an effort to prevent the Security Council from examining its human rights situation, the regime went on a diplomatic offensive, attempting to show it was open to communicating and working with the UN – although only under certain conditions. Cuba even suggested any references to the ICC be deleted from the resolution text.

Pyongyang has also turned to Russia for support, with one of Kim Jong Un's most senior confidants travelling to Moscow earlier this week. Agency reports say talks are planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Security Council hurdle

The reason for the sudden push by the international community against North Korea's leadership was a report from a special UN Commission. Published earlier this year, it described in detail how the prison camp system was hidden away from the rest of the world, allowing them to systematically torture, rape and execute people.

It's believed up to 120,000 people could
 be currently held in North Korean prison
camps

But although the UN's Human Rights Committee has decided in favor of referring the case to the ICC, doesn't mean it will be taken up by The Hague, as only the UN Security Council has the jurisdiction to do so. Add to that, sitting on the Security Council as permanent members are Russia and North Korea's most important ally China, both of whom vetoed the resolution.

North Korea's cautious dialogue

The vote at the Human Rights Committee comes just weeks after the UN's special investigator on North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, appeared at the United Nations, calling for the North Korean regime to be held legally responsible for human rights violations. The threat of such an investigation has already put pressure on Pyongyang, with a meeting being held in New York between Darusman and a four-member delegation from North Korea, the first such meeting since the position of UN special investigator into North Korea was launched ten years ago. Darusman told DW that previous requests to talk with North Korean representatives on the issue had been rejected.

He regards the recent developments with cautious optimism. "They show the gradually increasing willingness of North Korea to hold talks with the international community", he says. The conversation itself, as described by Darusman, was an "honest discussion." The North Korean side had even provided him with the opportunity to visit the country, though only under special conditions: for instance, all efforts to prosecute North Korea before the ICC must stop. Under the circumstances, a visit to UN circles is considered unlikely.

Hundreds of pages of shocking reports

Like Marzuki Darusman, Michael Kirby has yet to visit North Korea personally. Originally from Australia, Kirby headed the three-member UN commission tasked with preparing a comprehensive report on the human rights situation in North Korea, in particular on the situation in the notorious criminal and prison camps. Over a period of several months, the team interviewed 300 eye witnesses, refugees, survivors and defectors, who had previously worked for the North Korean government. Since no UN representatives can enter North Korea and assess the situation for themselves, the report is based solely on this testimony. No one knows exactly how many people are imprisoned in the camps, although according to recent UN estimates that number could be as high as around 120,000. North Korean authorities, however, steadfastly deny the existence of any such camps.

In February 2014, the UN Commission presented its report: a several hundred page document of horror, which gives an insight into the extent of human rights violations in North Korea. "A woman told us, for example, that she was forced to hold her baby upside down in a bucket of water until the child drowned," Michael Kirby told DW at the time. He believes that there are still missing pieces of the puzzle regarding the human rights situation in the country, even after the Commission's extensive investigation. "But I think our picture is fairly complete. And certainly we have collected enough evidence to show that human rights violations and crimes against humanity have taken place in North Korea and still are."

That is why he and Marzuki Darusman are now calling for "targeted sanctions" against the regime.

Related Article:

UN human rights committee votes to send North Korea to the ICC

Sri Lanka says will refuse entry to UN war crimes investigators

Yahoo – AFP, Amal Jayasinghe, 19 Aug 2014

File picture shows Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the southwestern
 town of Beruwala, about 58 kms from capital Colombo, on June 18, 2014
(AFP Photo/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lanka will not grant visas to UN investigators probing war crimes allegedly committed during the island's decades-long separatist conflict, President Mahinda Rajapakse said Tuesday.

Sri Lanka has refused to accept the authority of the UN Human Rights Council, which voted in March to investigate allegations that the military killed 40,000 civilians in the final months of the separatist war, which ended in 2009.

But it is the first time that Rajapakse has said UN investigators will not be allowed into the country, effectively barring them from face-to-face access to Sri Lankans wanting to testify.

"We will not allow them into the country," said Rajapakse, who is under international pressure to cooperate with the UN-mandated investigation.

Rajapakse said however that his government was cooperating with all other UN agencies.

"We are saying that we do not accept it (the probe). We are against it," he told Colombo-based foreign correspondents at his official residence.

"But when it comes to other UN agencies, we are always ready to fully cooperate and fully engage with them," he said.

Leaders urge cooperation

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other leaders have urged Colombo to cooperate with the UNHRC after ending a prolonged separatist war that pitted ethnic minority Tamil rebels and the largely Sinhalese army in a drawn out ethnic conflict.

Outgoing UN rights chief Navi Pillay earlier this month suggested that her investigators looking into allegations of mass killings may not have to travel to Sri Lanka at all.

She said there was a "wealth of information" outside the country.

Her remarks prompted allegations from Sri Lanka's foreign ministry that her investigation was on a "preconceived trajectory" and that her "prejudice and lack of objectivity" were unfortunate.

Colombo insists that its troops did not commit war crimes while crushing the Tamil Tiger rebel movement at the end of a conflict which stretched for more than three decades and claimed more than 100,000 lives.

Pillay, who visited Sri Lanka last year, has previously accused Rajapakse's government of becoming authoritarian, and warned that rights defenders and journalists were at risk in the country even after the end of the war.

The government conceded a degree of ground last month when it asked a panel already investigating missing persons to expand its work and investigate actions of both troops and Tamil rebels.

Rajapakse said Tuesday that he was naming two more foreign experts -- an Indian and a Pakistani -- to join three other international legal experts already on a panel of advisors helping the presidential Commission of Inquiry.

Rajapakse said he was willing to give "even two more years" to the commission to complete its work. The commission said it was probing 19,471 cases of missing persons as of Tuesday and completed hearings only in respect of 939 cases.

The president on Tuesday added Indian rights activist Avdhash Kaushal and Pakistani lawyer Ahmer Bilal Soofi to join British lawyers Desmond de Silva and Geoffrey Nice and US law professor David Crane, all former UN war crimes prosecutors.

The president denied that the foreigners were named as part of a whitewash and insisted that the government was serious about investigating rights abuses.

"We appointed these foreign experts because the commission itself asked for it. They (the commission) thought it would be helpful if we had these experts to advise them," Rajapakse said.

In a government decree published last month, Rajapakse said the commission would investigate the military's "adherence to or neglect... of laws of armed conflict and international humanitarian law".

The commission is the latest investigation initiated by Colombo. Experts and activists have said earlier attempts amounted to a whitewash.

Sri Lanka's president said that only Sri Lankan authorities
could investigate allegations of war crimes

Related Article:

Sri Lanka visa ban won't stop UN inquiry - Navi Pillay

War in Gaza: Self-defense or war crime?

How far can Israel go in its offensive against Hamas rockets in the Gaza Strip? International legal experts are divided over where the right to self-defense ends and when the use of force becomes disproportionate.

Deutsche Welle, 24 July 2014

The war in Gaza is not just about military and political goals. In the face of the mounting death toll, questions of proportionality and international law have been raised. When and to what extent can Israel defend itself against rocket attacks launched by Hamas? Is the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel a grave violation of human rights?

The UN Human Rights Council believes so. On Wednesday (23.07.2014), the body sharply condemned the military offensive in Gaza and called for an investigation into whether or not Israel has committed war crimes.

But Israeli UN Ambassador Eviatar Manor has rejected these accusations. Every state has the right to defend itself, Manor said, and Israel is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties. The diplomat accused Hamas of committing war crimes.

Israel's right to self-defense

Experts disagree on the legality of the war, which has killed 700 Palestinians and 34 Israelis. According to Hans-Joachim Heintze, an international law expert at Ruhr University in Bochum, Israel has the right to respond to rocket fire from Hamas.

"It's indisputable that Israel can defend itself militarily against such attacks," Heintze told DW.

Under Article 51 of the UN Charter, states do not need permission to exercise the use of force if it's done in self-defense. But Israel should have consulted the UN Security Council after the fighting began, according to Heintze.

'War against the civilian population'

But Norman Paech, a law professor and former Bundestag representative for the Left party, believes that Israel has violated international humanitarian law.

"This war is very clearly a war against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip," Paech told DW.

The Israeli offensive has taken a
heavy toll on Palestinian civilians

"In a region like the Gaza Strip, which is so densely populated, the type of warfare that Israel is practicing is forbidden," he said.

Paech does not deny that Israel has a right to defend itself against rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The "Iron Dome" system has proven itself to be very effective at protecting Israelis, he said.

"The Israeli government can launch targeted operations against launch pads," Paech told DW. But he believes that Israel's attacks against areas populated by civilians have been completely disproportional.

Heintze also emphasizes proportionality, saying that it's important to examine if and to what extent civilians are harmed. Israel warns the civilian population before it launches strikes, according to Heintze. But in the densely populated Gaza Strip, it's very difficult to weigh what's proportional.

Hamas war crimes?

It's also difficult to judge whether the strategy of Hamas is compatible with international law. The Islamist group operates out of residential areas.

According to Israeli UN ambassador Manor, Hamas fires rockets from Palestinian schools, hospitals and apartment buildings. If Israel attacks rocket launchers in those locations, civilian casualties are hardly avoidable, he said. This implies that Hamas is willfully risking the lives of Palestinian civilians.

International law has a much clearer position on Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli cities. While the Palestinians also have a right to self-defense, Hamas must protect the civilian population, according to Paech.

"That's why one has to say that these rocket attacks, which rain down so arbitrarily and uncontrolled on civilian areas, are not permitted under international law," he said.

Question of accountability

It's unclear whether either side will ever have to justify its actions before an international tribunal. According to Heintze, both state and non-state actors such as Hamas must answer for war crimes. But national courts have jurisdiction first.

"In Israel, military actions have already been brought before the courts," said Heintze.

Israeli cities have come under
fire from Hamas rockets

International tribunals wouldn't have any responsibility, because neither Israel nor Hamas have recognized their jurisdiction. According to Paech, the UN Security Council can initiate a case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague against a state that has not signed the treaty.

But Heintze says that there's another way. War crimes can be investigated in other states, when suspects are on their territory. That's why war criminals from the former Yugoslavia have been tried and convicted in Germany.

But it's unlikely that a case from the current Mideast war will end up in a German court, according to the international legal experts.

"Theoretically it could happen, but whether it's likely is another question," Heintze said.

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UN: More than 50 million people forced to flee from violence

The number of people who have been forced to flee their homes by conflict and crisis has climbed to 50 million for the first time since WWII, the United Nations has reported. Half of those forced to flee are children.

Deutsche Welle, 20 June 2014

In an annual trends report, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Friday that the total number of forcibly displaced people had topped 51.2 million by the end of the 2013, an increase of 6 million from the previous year.

"We are really facing a quantum leap, an enormous increase of forced displacement in our world," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a news briefing.

This total includes 16.7 million refugees abroad, 33.3 million displaced internally and 1.2 million asylum seekers whose applications were pending.

The civil war in Syria was largely to blame for the increase, according to the report. Since March 2011, 2.5 million people have fled Syria, with a further 6.5 million people internally displaced.

"We are seeing here the immense costs of not ending war, of failing to resolve or prevent conflict," Guterres said. "We see the Security Council paralyzed in many crucial crises around the world."

The report also cited new crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ukraine and Iraq that have forced more people from their homes.

Overall, the biggest refugee populations under UNHCR responsibility came from Afghanistan, Syrian and Somalia, who together form over half the global total.

Refugees flee to developing world

The report also said the majority of refugees have found shelter in developing countries. The world's top refugee hosts were Pakistan, Iran and Lebanon.

"Usually in the debate in the developed world, there is this idea that refugees are all fleeing north and that the objective is not exactly to find protection but to find a better life," he said. "The truth is that 86 percent of the world's refugees live in the developing world," he added.

Meanwhile, out of the more than 1 million people who submitted asylum applications, the majority in developed countries, Germany was the largest single recipient. Germany has also pledged to resettle more than 25,500 Syrians.

Underlining the stark nature of the international conflicts, a record 25,300 unaccompanied children lodged asylum applications in 77 countries in 2013.

"We see a growing number of unaccompanied minors on all routes. We see them in the Mediterranean routes, we see them in the Caribbean route, through Mexico to the United States, we see them in the Afghan route into Iran, into Turkey, into Europe," Guterres said. "We see them everywhere."

hc/mkg (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Rare aid enters rebel-held areas in Syria's Aleppo

Yahoo – AFP, 9 April 2014

Members of the Syrian Red Crescent and United Nations High Commissioner

 for Refugees (UNHCR) arrive at the rebel controlled Garage al-Hajz checkpoint in

Aleppo, Syria, on April 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Baraa Al-Halabi)

Members of the Syrian Red Crescent and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) arrive at the rebel controlled Garage al-Hajz checkpoint in Aleppo, Syria, on April 8, 2014

Damascus (AFP) - Syria's Red Crescent and the UN refugee agency have delivered aid to rebel-held areas of Aleppo city for the first time in 10 months, the Red Crescent said Wednesday.

"Yesterday at noon we and a UNHCR team were able to bring in aid from the Jisr al-Haj crossing," Red Crescent operations chief Khaled Erksoussi told AFP.

Members of the Syrian Red cross and Red

 Crescent cart aid to the rebel controlled Garage

 al-Hajz checkpoint in Aleppo, Syria, on 

April 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Baraa Al-Halabi)

The crossing lies between the government-held west of Aleppo and eastern parts of the city that rebels control.

"The operation took place after the implementation of a ceasefire between all the parties that was respected during the mission," said Erksoussi.

It was the first time aid had been brought in via the Jisr al-Haj crossing, with a delivery in June last year entering from the northeast of the city instead.

The goods, including food, blankets and health kits, were taken into the eastern neighbourhoods on carts pulled by workers because the crossing was to small to accomodate vehicles, said Erksoussi.

The items would be stored in warehouses in the eastern part of the city and distributed in stages.

The UN refugee agency called the mission a "rare and risky operation," adding its staff had observed a "dire humanitarian situation inside eastern Aleppo".

It described "an acute shortage of food, water, medicine and basic supplies".

"UNHCR last accessed the area in June, 2013 and no humanitarian aid has reached the population there since then," it added.

It said the aid had been delivered to the crossing in two trucks and then transported by 75 workers pulling carts "back and forth one and a half kilometres each way... in 270 trips."

Aleppo has been effectively divided into regime control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in the middle of 2012.

The government has made some advances on the outskirts of the eastern side of the city in a campaign that has included serial aid raids including with the use of explosive-packed barrel bombs.

Related Article:

Dutch priest who saw Syria as home shot dead in Homs

UN urges nations to take in 100,000 Syrian refugees

Google – AFP, 21 February 2014

Syrian refugees pictured in a refugee camp near the city of Marea, on the 

outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on February 19, 2014 

(Mohammed Al-Khatieb/AFP/File, Mohammed Al-Khatieb)

Genève — The UN refugee agency on Friday urged countries outside the Middle East to open their doors to 100,000 Syrians who need to find a haven outside their conflict-hit region.

The call from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees follows an earlier appeal to developed countries to grant a new home to 30,000 of the most vulnerable Syrians driven from their country.

With no sign of an end to the brutal three-year conflict between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces, tens of thousands more will need help in the near future, it said.

"UNHCR anticipates that in the coming years, there will be increasing numbers of vulnerable Syrian refugees who will be in need of resettlement, relocation, or other forms of humanitarian admission," said spokesman Dan McNorton.

"We appeal to the international community to continue providing longer-term solutions for Syrian refugees who are most urgently in need," he told reporters.

The agency said it aimed to find a haven for the 100,000 new refugees during 2015 and 2016.

But it is still working to place the initial 30,000 before the end of this year.

Twenty countries have so offered more than 18,800 slots for resettlement or a long-term temporary permit.

Germany has done the most to shoulder the load, agreeing to take in 10,000 on a federal programme and 1,500 under schemes in individual states.

Canada has pledged 1,300, Sweden 1,200, Norway 1,000, and countries including Australia, Austria, Finland and France have agreed to take in 500 each.

UNHCR said it was likely to reach the total of 30,000 thanks to an open-ended number of slots proposed by the United States, already the world's top destination for refugee resettlement.

The figures are a shadow of the number of Syrian refugees in the Middle East.

All told, there are some 2.4 million Syrians spread across the region.

According to UNCHR figures, there are some 932,000 in Lebanon, 613,000 in Turkey, 574,000 in Jordan, 223,000 in Iraq, and 134,000 in Egypt.

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China, Russia return to UN Rights Council

Google – AFP, 12 November 2013 

A general view of a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council

on February 25, 2013 in Geneva (AFP/File, Fabrice Coffrini)

UNITED NATIONS (United States) — China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba won seats on the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, despite fierce criticism of their records from rights campaigners.

The UN General Assembly elected 14 seats on the 47-member council which is taking on increased diplomatic importance because of the Syria war and other conflicts.

The council, which will start work on January 1, will be one of the most polarized since it was created in 2006.

France and Britain returned to the Geneva-based body.

South Africa, Vietnam, Algeria, Morocco, Namibia, Maldives, Macedonia and Mexico also secured three year terms.

"With the return of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, human rights defenders will have their work cut out for them at the Human Rights Council next year," said Peggy Hicks, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.

"States truly committed to advancing human rights will need to redouble their efforts on key issues, such as accountability in Sri Lanka, grave abuses in Central African Republic and the ongoing crisis in Syria," she added.

Most of the seats were decided in advance as regional groups put forward the exact number of candidates for the seats allocated to their region.

Only two regions were contested. For two Latin America seats, Cuba won 148 votes, beating Mexico's 145 and 139 for Uruguay.

South Sudan, the world's newest nation, failed in its bid to get one of four seats for Africa. It got just 89 votes, the lowest of any nation in the vote.

South Africa was the leading nation from the region with 169 votes, ahead of Algeria on 164, Morocco on 163 and Namibia on 150.

The Asia-Pacific region was one of the most closely watched, because of China's influence.

The Asian superpower was beaten by Vietnam which secured 184 votes against 176 for China, 164 for Maldives and 140 for Saudi Arabia.

In the vote for two Eastern European seats, Macedonia secured 177 votes ahead of Russia with 176.

In the Western European election, France, with 174 votes, and Britain, with 171, won a new term unopposed.

Rights groups such as HRW and UN Watch strongly condemned the presence of countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba in the runup to the vote.

Algeria, China, and Russia ? each have 10 or more unfulfilled requests for visits by UN rights investigators, according to HRW. Saudi Arabia and Vietnam each have seven outstanding requests.

But many experts say the increasingly aggressive campaigning for seats shows the rights council's increasing importance.

"Since its inception, the Human Rights Council has included a lot of repressive regimes. A few years ago nobody would have taken much notice of these elections," said Richard Gowan, a director of New York University's Center for International Cooperation.

"But the Council has been unusually active during the Arab Spring and passed a series of resolutions condemning the Syrian regime while the Security Council has been paralyzed by Russia and China," he added.

He said Russia, China, Cuba and Vietnam could use their seats on the Human Rights Council to oppose further resolutions attacking Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

Saudi Arabia "will want to bash Syria even harder" at the council.

Hicks said that as no country has a veto on Human Rights Council resolutions "a hard-working majority can still achieve concrete results" in Geneva.

Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States remain permanent members of the Security Council and can veto any resolution. Russia and China have vetoed three resolutions on the Syria conflict.