Naypyidaw, Mar 16,2021: Twenty people died and over 60 injured in Myanmar on Monday as security forces cracked down on unceasing anti-coup demonstrations across the country, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
The deaths were confirmed in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay, Bago, Monywa and others, Sputnik reported, citing the statement of AAPP.
According to the watchdog, a total of 183 people have died in clashes with the security forces as of Monday.
“As of confirmed AAPP documentation 20 civilians have already been shot and further confirmation of the fallen heroes across Burma is continuing. AAPP has also documented the killing of ordinary people not even participating in the protests,” AAPP said in the statement.
Meanwhile, the number of arrested is said to exceed 2,100 people, which is the number of those who have been officially charged, meaning the actual number of arrested is may be much larger, according to the AAPP.
The watchdog also updated its death toll for Sunday, from 38 to 74 fatalities.
On February 1, Myanmar’s military overthrew the civilian government and declared a year-long state of emergency. The military arrested State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint over electoral fraud, and later on charges of violating COVID-19 restrictions.
Mass protests against the military rule continue for already the sixth week in Myanmar. Over 70 per cent of government employees have now joined the civil disobedience movement.
Tensions between the protesters and the police appear to be rising as officers turn to more brutal tactics. Aside from tear gas and water cannons, the police began using combat weapons in late February.
Washington [US], February 25,2021: President Joe Biden aims to secure a seat for the United States on the United Nations Human Rights Council almost three years after the Trump administration left the world body, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Wednesday.
“Biden is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our diplomatic leadership, and one that is centered on the defence of democracy and the protection of human rights,” Blinken said in a statement.
“Today, the administration took an important step in that direction by announcing the US intent to seek election to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council starting in January 2022,” Blinken said.
While recognising the challenges faced at the Council, Blinken said, “We acknowledge challenges at the Council as well, including unacceptable bias against Israel and membership rules that allow countries with atrocious human rights records to occupy seats they do not merit. However, improving the Council and advancing its critical work is best done with a seat at the table.”
Blinken added that rejoining the council and working with allies would “ensure that this important body lives up to its purpose.”
“We seek to return to the Human Rights Council to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and partners to ensure that this important body lives up to its purpose. We do so with determination to listen, learn, and work toward a world in which human rights are universally respected,” he further said.
Earlier this month, Joe Biden had ordered the State Department to immediately re-engage with the Human Rights Council as an observer.
France must stop the “inhumane treatment” of children of jihadists stranded in Syria who are not being allowed to come to the country, its rights ombudsman said Wednesday, warning that Paris was flouting its UN obligations.
The statement by France’s Human Rights Defender Jacques Toubon came as controversy intensifies over the reluctance of French authorities to take in the children of French citizens affiliated with Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
“The French state needs to adopt effective measures allowing the halt to the inhumane and degrading treatment of children and their mothers and put an end to the violations of the rights of the child,” Toubon said.
He alleged violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which France is a signatory.
The human rights defender leads an independent state institution set up in 2011 and enshrined in the constitution to defend people whose rights have been violated.
Toubon had been asked to give an opinion on the issue by the lawyers of several families with French citizens held in Syria and Iraq.
According to the French foreign ministry, some 450 French citizens linked to IS are either detained by Kurdish forces in northern Syria or being held in refugee camps.
But France is reluctant to bring back foreign fighters or their families after suffering a wave of deadly jihadist attacks that have killed more than 250 people since 2015.
It has said it would consider requests for their return, but only on a case-by-case basis. Since March it has repatriated five orphans and a three-year-old girl whose mother was sentenced to life in prison in Iraq.
In April, France’s State Council, which rules on the constitutionality of policies and laws, rejected several requests to intervene, saying it was a French diplomatic matter outside the council’s jurisdiction.
“Finally a national authority has condemned France and urged it to respect its international and European obligations,” said lawyer Marie Dose, who represents several of the affected families, after Toubon’s statement.
Lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, who represented families who sought the opinion, welcomed the recognition “of the extreme seriousness of the violation of fundamental rights”.
“We expect that the French authorities will organise the repatriation (of the children) as soon as possible,” they said in a statement.
The grandparents of two children stranded with their French jihadist mother at a camp in Kurdish-held Syria filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights earlier this month over France’s refusal to allow them home.