DRA (Germany), Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine), Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland), AEC (France), PAX (The Netherlands), Drukarnia (Ukraine), Luhansk Human Rights Center “Alternativa” (Ukraine), Memorial Deutschland e.V. (Germany) would like to invite you to an online event on 22 February 2022 from 10.00 – 12.00 CET to receive security updates from civil society working in eastern Ukraine and together identify how the EU civil society could support Ukraine and amplify its voice in the European Union.
The summer of 2021 saw record low levels of rainfall and a sharp decline in water flow into the Euphrates and other rivers in northeast Syria. In a new report entitled, ‘We fear more war, we fear more drought’, PAX has conducted dozens of interviews with pastoralists, farmers, and local authorities, combining this with satellite analysis and humanitarian data. The findings clearly outline the risks for fragmentation among the poorest communities as access to water becomes more difficult and failed harvest creates more socio-economic concerns. While many reports have addressed how this impacts agricultural communities, little attention is given to the thousands of pastoralists roaming over Syrian pastures. Often the poorest of the poor, herders are heavily hit by lack of rain, which has impacted vegetation growth and access to water for their flocks of sheep.
Colombian coal mining company Prodeco, a subsidiary of the Swiss multinational Glencore, has finally released the results of its 2019 due diligence investigation into the human rights impacts of its operations in Cesar, Colombia, a region that has been severely affected by the armed conflict and is currently experiencing a new wave of violence by illegal armed groups.
According to PAX, any solution to the looming Russian attack on Ukraine has to be centred around the Ukrainian people. The political and public debate on the situation in Ukraine is now focused primarily on geopolitics. More attention should be given to the interests, wishes and concerns of the Ukrainian people.
From August-October 2021, a field study was conducted in the context of human security considerations in the anticipated reclassification of the Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in Malakal, South Sudan.
On Sunday January 23, residents of Ouagadougou woke to the rumbling sound of gunfire in several military barracks of the capital of Burkina Faso. The day before, citizens had taken to the streets to express their discontentment with the government of the social democrat President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. Confusion still reigned while people were attending Sunday morning’s Church ceremony, but gradually news trickled in that mutinying soldiers had taken up arms to decry the impoverished state of the national army.
Turkish Drones Join Ethiopia’s war, Satellite Imagery Confirms For months rumors have been circulating that Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 armed drones are being deployed by the Ethiopian government in their fight against the Tigray Defence Forces, an armed resistance group that took up weapons in 2020. In December 2021, the New York Times quoted anonymous Western […]
The past year has brought many challenges for the people of South Sudan, especially for women and youth. Violence continues to ravage the country, bringing loss of life, displacement, and despair. In a Christmas message the Ecumenical Network on South Sudan (ENSS), Europe and North America Hub, calls for nonviolence and a just peace and for leaders to implement the revitalized peace agreement.
A humble voice of justice for victims of toxic remnants of war With great sadness we learned of the passing of Dr. Jawad Al Ali, an Iraqi oncologist who worked in the Basra Teaching Hospital and has been a leading voice in the long-standing debate over the use of depleted uranium munitions (DU) during the […]
Earlier this year UN rapporteurs reported on the use of autonomous weapons in Libya. The weapon in question is the Kargu, a small drone with an explosive charge that can operate as a group in a swarm. Normally, these weapons are controlled remotely by a soldier, but the UN report states that the weapons were programmed to attack targets autonomously, without any contact needed between the soldier and the weapon. This raises questions about how meaningful human control was retained. Another concern is that the Kargu can be used with facial recognition against human targets. It shows that military technology is developing at a rapid pace and that international regulations must be put in place as soon as possible. There is a great danger of a new generation of autonomous weapons being deployed without clear rules on how they should be used, and where we draw the line of fundamentally unacceptable autonomous weapons.
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