• Record number of IDPs

    Jun 18

    The UN reports that the number of displaced people the world reached a record high of nearly 60 million people in 2014.

    UNHCR said that there was an increase in 8.3 million from the previous year. The ongoing war in Syria is seen as a major contributor. The authors of the report say their findings mean that one in every 122 people on the planet was either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.

    The report states that more than 15 conflicts have begun or recommenced, including three in the Middle East and eight in Africa.

    38.2 million of the total 59.5 million have been internally displaced in their own countries. 19.5 million of the total figure were refugees, half of these being children.

  • Arrests in Bosnia over war crimes

    Eight Bosnian Croats were arrested by police in Bosnia-Herzegovina on suspicion of having committed war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia in the early 90s, AP reported.

  • AU calls on UN to set date for Saharawi self-determination referendum

    The African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government,  called on the United Nations General Assembly to finalise a date for holding a referendum for self-determination of the Saharawi people in Western Sahara.

  • Belgian PM says Armenian killings ‘must be viewed as genocide’
    The Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel outlined his government’s recognition of the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide this week.
  • Former Kosovan PM detained over war crimes allegations

    The former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Minister Ramush Haradinaj has been detained in Slovenia, because of an investigation looking into war crimes, during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.

    He was blocked from boarding a flight at Ljubljana Airport, his party reported.

  • ADB commits to increase lending to India

    The President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Takehiko Nakao committed to increase lending to India over upcoming years on Tuesday.

    Speaking after a meeting with India’s Finance minister and Minister of Urban Development, Mr Nakao, said,

  • HRW slams regressive policy fueled by extremist Buddhists in Myanmar
    Myanmar’s long standing repressive policy toward the Rohingya Muslims was made clear in recent weeks said Human Rights Watch in a damning statement released on Tuesday.
  • UN calls for ban on peacekeeping for countries over child sex abuse

    UN has urged he ban of countries from peacekeeping duties, if their troops sexually abused children where they were deployed, after a recent scandal involving French troops.

    An internal review, commissioned before the latest scandal broke, recommended that the home countries of peacekeepers are identified annually and a six-month deadline for investigations are imposed on the countries.

    It also recommended that countries be obliged to disclose disciplinary action taken against soldiers, as well as governments' failure to report.

    At the moment, peacekeepers can only be prosecuted by their own state.

    The review panel's chairman, former president of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta stressed "immunity should not mean impunity".

    Sri Lankan troops were expelled from Haiti for sexually abusing children in 2007, with 111 soldiers and 3 officers were repatriated back to Sri Lanka after being part of UN mission in Haiti and were accused of a string of sexual assaults, including rape of children as young as 7 years old. No prosecutions or punishments have taken place.

  • EU sanctions on Russia to be extended

    Members of the European Union have agreed to extend economic sanctions on Russia by 6 months, due to its actions in the conflict in Ukraine.

    The sanctions, imposed in July 2014, will expire at the end of July this year, and are targeted at Russia's energy, defence and financial sectors.

  • Filipino separatists decommission arms as part of peace deal
    The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines handed over a batch of weapons to be decommissioned, marking the first step of a peace process agreement with the government.

    Seventy-five weapons will be decommissioned, as part of what MILF said is a gesture of their commitment to the peace deal, which will see the establishment of a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

    MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said the weapons, and the decommissioning of 145 fighters, however, was not a sign of surrender.

    "As I look at the faces of each of our 145 brothers here this morning, I see 145 stories of struggle, of pain, of hopelessness and even of death,” he said. “Yet I also see 145 stories of hope and faith that indeed peace is near and that all the sacrifices have been worth it."

    "I see not only their stories but my story as well and the stories of all the mujahideen that have given their lives, their intelligence, their talents to the struggle to protect the Bangsamoro people,” added Mr Ebrahim. “What we have today are not the stories of only 145 fighters. What we have today are the stories of the whole Bangsamoro: oppression, tyranny, and yes, liberation."

  • France arrests priest accused of involvement in Rwandan genocide
    French authorities have arrested a Rwandan priest on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

    The 61 year old man was arrested in Trappes, northern France, executing an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda’s prosecutor.
  • US commits $5 million to regional force to combat Boko-Haram militants

    The United States will provide $5 million in support of a regional military force tasked with combating Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants, a State Department official said on Tuesday.

  • Kenya wrongly detaining individuals based on ethnicity warns Human Rights Watch

    Kenyan security forces were too slow to respond to attacks on villages and beat Muslims and ethnic Somalis in police custody, found Human Rights Watch,

  • South Africa allows suspected war criminal al-Bashir to leave, despite court order

    Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has landed in Khartoum, unhindered by South African authorities, despite a high court order preventing his departure.

    Mr Bashir, prevented from leaving South Africa on Sunday due to the charges of war crimes and genocide he faces at the International Criminal Court.

  • German industry leaders support calls for asylum seeker employment

    German industry leaders have called for asylum seekers to be allowed to work, reports the Telegraph.

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