"I‘m sorry, but I tried"
Benedict Cumberbatch reading Stuart Capstick's letter to his children
"the hardest thing was living through a time where we could have turned this around, but most people carried on as if it didn't matter"
#ActOnClimate
Myanmar through the eyes of an 8 year old citizen. “Other Country: Police are coming there’s nothing to worry about. Our Country: Run, run, police are coming!”
#WhatsHapppeningInMyanmar
Bravo!
Message from 16-yr-old Jade, polar record holder: “skied back to the Pole again... to take this photo for all those men who commented 'Make me a sandwich' on my TEDX Talk. I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days & 600km to the South Pole & you can eat it xx”
#France
’s 19-year-old soccer star, Kylian
#Mbapp
é, is donating his entire
#WorldCup
winnings to a charity that provides free sports instruction for children with disabilities.
Respect!
In a massive blow to
#PressFreedom
& rigts in
#HongKong
, police arrest Jimmy Lai, pro-democracy publisher & critic of
#China
's leadership -& his sons- on charges of violating natl security law.
Wake up
#EU
; impose targeted sanctions. Press for UN inquiry.
#Ethiopia
""Our hospital is out of supplies," says a doctor at
#Tigray
’s largest one. After more than a year of war some 400,000 people are starving & millions more are running out of food. Drones & fighter jets, meanwhile, pound Tigrayans from the air."
The ruthless crackdown on peaceful dissent continues in
#HongKong
.
Expressions of concern are not enough. The
#EU
and its 27 member states should:
- impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for rights abuses, &
- work for the establishment of an int'l
#UN
inquiry.
Please follow the
@AuschwitzMuseum
We must learn from history, never forget, and act to prevent and halt atrocities today
The
#Holocaust
is a warning of what hatred, lies, ruthless propaganda, manipulation of fears, and abuse of power can lead to.
18 November 1943 | First prisoners arrived at a newly created Ebensee camp - part of the Mauthausen concentration camp system. Out of 27,278 male prisoners, some 8.200 lost their lives there.
The message from
#Myanmar
's democracy demonstrators is clear.
No more excuses for inaction.
When
#EU
Ministers meet on Monday, they should follow
#Canada
&
#US
, & impose targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military leaders & their companies.
@HRW
Q&A:
"The world has seen & witnessed the epic & heroic struggle of
#HongKong
people to defend democracy & freedom. They have endured, sustained by their commitment to justice & freedom ... The whole world is just standing by watching."
#UN
Northern
#Ethiopia
update:
"Humanitarian partners in
#Tigray
continue to downsize operations due to the depletion of supplies, fuel & cash"
"Zero therapeutic nutrition supplies in Tigray, incl for the treatment of children w severe acute malnutrition"
It's done;
#Hungary
's prime minister has seized unlimited power!
The
@EU_Commission
,
@vonderleyen
& other
#EU
states need to urgently step up & respond to these grossly disproportionate measures by
#Orban
who is using the
#COVID19
crisis to further undermine rights & democracy.
Hungarian Parliament passes bill that gives PM Orbán unlimited power & proclaims:
- State of emergency w/o time limit
- Rule by decree
- Parliament suspended
- No elections
- Spreading fake news + rumors: up to 5 yrs in prison
- Leaving quarantine: up to 8 yrs in prison
#COVID19
Devastating: "The largest referral hospital in
#Ethiopia
's
#Tigray
region has suspended its regular operations due to lack of medicines & power outages", its medical director tells the BBC.
The world shouldn't turn a blind eye as Tigrayans in
#Ethiopia
's Western
#Tigray
have faced ethnic cleansing
Numerous remain detained
Impunity for grave abuses continues
Those responsible for atrocity crimes must face justice
@AgnesCallamard
@KenRoth
👇
No, this is not Egypt, not Turkey, not Iran, not China ...
This is the
#UnitedStatesofAmerica
, 2020!
Deeply disturbing photo via
@MarthaRaddatz
June 2, Lincoln Memorial.
#Ethiopia
Govt says military won't cross into
#Tigray
for now.
The Govt should also provide immediate & unhindered access for humanitarian orgs to assist civilians.
And, allow independent
#UN
experts access to investigate atrocity crimes.
#EndImpunity
.
@Amnesty
@hrw
found that the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign & atrocity crimes against
#Tigrayan
civilians in
#Ethiopia
's Western
#Tigray
zone amount to crimes against humanity
Now criminal investigations shld follow
Those responsible shld face justice
"The girls didn't say anything. They were just crying and screaming"
#Sudan
's military denies the allegations, but a witness told
#BBC
about sexual assaults he saw on the day of the brutal crackdown.
Will
#EU
ministers finally support a
#UN
inquiry?
"If
#Ethiopia
does not address its past & present, it does not have a future"
Expressions of concern are not enough in face of the atrocities & civilian suffering in
#Tigray
Sustainable peace requires holding perpetrators of atrocity crimes accountable⚖️
Lack of consequences -no targeted sanctions, no accountability & justice- fuels further atrocities in
#Tigray
& elsewhere in
#Ethiopia
.
#EU
states should lead on call for a
@UN_HRC
special session & resolution establishing
#UN
investigative mechanism.
"They raped me one after the other .. I don’t know if they realized I was a person.”
Women and girls in
#Tigray
were targeted for rape and other sexual violence by fighting forces aligned to the
#Ethiopian
govt, Amnesty International says in new report.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, & you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate & rights defender
"Health workers in
#Tigray
told The New Humanitarian by phone that shortages are so acute they are using expired drugs to treat chronic conditions, while tens of thousands of patients with diabetes, cancer, and HIV haven’t been treated in months."
#UN
HR Chief is "alarmed by the multiple, deeply disturbing reports .. of civilian casualties & destruction of civilian objects resulting from [govt air force] airstrikes in
#Ethiopia
’s
#Tigray
region. At least 108 civilians have reportedly been killed .."
“2 of them raped me .. I lost consciousness & don’t know how many more raped me .. My children were w me .. They are 7 & 2 yrs old”
Children were forced to watch their mothers being raped
Joint
@amnesty
@hrw
report on atrocity crimes in
#Tigray
#Ethiopia
"We will erase you from this land. This land is ours. This is the last time a Tigrayan will live in the area."
In a new report,
@hrw
and
@amnesty
document abuses amounting to crimes against humanity & war crimes in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone.
Read:
“In
#Kharkiv
’s hospitals the faces of war are sculpted by flying glass & burning shrapnel. Women are adorned in stitches, their skin coloured in bruises & garish green disinfectant. Wounded children stare up from their beds, listless with pain & trauma”
Civilians are in urgent need of help, but humanitarian assistance to
#Ethiopia
's
#Tigray
region still isn't flowing,
@UN
says.
The "lack of information about the food security situation in hard-to-reach areas" shown in red 👇
"UNICEF strongly condemns the air strike in Mekelle, the capital city of the
#Tigray
Region,
#Ethiopia
. The strike hit a kindergarten, killing several children & injuring others. UNICEF calls on all parties to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities"
Consider this: If
#Yemen
was 100 people then:
- 80 need aid to survive.
- 60 have barely anything to eat.
- 58 have no access to clean water.
- 52 have no access to health care.
- 11 are severely malnourished.
But, Yemen is not 100 people. It is 27 million people!
@ICRC
Never underestimate or dismiss populists or “illiberal democracy” as trivial.
Never think “it cannot happen here”.
Stand up for the rule of law, human rights, and democracy.
Make a positive difference. It matters.
Pic via
@NBCNews
“Justice is all that is left to us.”
Maryam Alhallak's son was tortured to death in
#Assad
's prisons. But, the regime couldn't silence her.
Today, she works w
@ECCHRBerlin
in
#Germany
to bring
#Syria
war criminals to justice.
77yrs ago,
#SophieScholl
, her brother Hans & Christoph Probst of the
#WhiteRose
resistance group were killed by the Nazi regime
They spoke out when others stayed quite
Their
#courage
continues to inspire
It's our responsibility to remember, learn & ensure fascism never returns
Three amazing women who the
#Lukashenko
regime tries to silence through violence, persecution, imprisonment & exile.
But the voices for democracy, rights & justice in
#Belarus
are loud, powerful & persistent.
And, regime officials will be held accountable for their crimes.
Looking at this photo for the first time, I realized I had hope. Now the whole world knows the names of these three women: Marya Kalesnikava, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Veranika Tsepkala, for they are the ones creating a new democratic Belarus.
“The idea behind this human chain is to show an image of a
#Lebanon
which, from north to south, rejects any sectarian affiliation. There is no political demand today, we only want to send a message by simply holding hands under the Lebanese flag.”
“Social distancing is a privilege. There is a hashtag trending:
#StayHome
. They can’t do that. They don’t have a home to stay in.”
More than 70 million internally displaced and
#refugees
in crowded camps, await the arrival of the
#coronavirus
pandemic.
#EU
decries drone strikes hitting Mekelle "endanger, once again, the very fragile hope for peace in
#Ethiopia
. The blockade of humanitarian aid since the renewed fighting adds to the already huge serious&costly toll on civilian life, economy & development"
The land of hunger
First TV reporting from inside
#Tigray
since
#Ethiopia
's govt imposed a ruthless siege shows the devastating effect on civilians.
"No electricity, no powdered milk, no petrol for the ambulances .. hospitals are devoid of everything"
📢"Thousands of ethnic
#Tigrayans
have been held without trial in makeshift prisons" by
#Ethiopia
's govt.
Held in horrendous & overcrowded conditions, "at least 17 people have died"
Some "9,000 remain in detention."
⚖️
#EndImpunity
#NewZealand
's PM, Jacinda Ardern, appoints Nanaia Mahuta as the country's first Indigenous female foreign minister.
The incoming parliament looks set to be one of the most diverse in the world. Almost half of the country's lawmakers will be women.
👏👏👏
I am a proud member of gorgeous little Maarifa's foster family, and I will continue to be until she returns to the wild.
Please follow
@DSWT
and support their amazing work too.
Just as she would in the wild, Maarifa likes walk in front of her mother (in this case, our keepers). While no one can replace the mother she lost, this little rhino now has an entire team dedicated to help her every step of the way. Join her foster family
#Ethiopia
's govt invokes the tired old "internal affairs" excuse & says it won't cooperate w/ independent
#UN
inquiry.
But, grave violations of int'l law -incl war crimes & crimes against humanity- are matters of int'l concern & perpetrators should face justice.
#JusticeMatters
#Ethiopia
: reiterates "it will not cooperate with the established mechanism imposed upon it against its consent" "This action by some in the Council is an attempt to find an alternative way of meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state." MoFA.
"
#Russia
and
#China
helped
#Ethiopia
to “delay” meetings of the
#UN
Security Council to discuss the declaration of famine in
#Tigray
, according to Mark Lowcock, the former under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator"
Please follow the
@AuschwitzMuseum
.
The history of
#Auschwitz
is a serious warning of what hatred, lies, ruthless propaganda, manipulation of fears, and abuse of power can lead to.
The tragedy of
#Auschwitz
shows only the painful end of a long process. It's essential to remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred slowly grew from human ideas, words, prejudice, through legal exclusion, to dehumanisation, violence and murder. It's a warning.
Appalling: Despite
#China
's "harshest policies, incl the crackdown on
#HongKong
& mass detentions & forced labor of Uighurs in
#Xinjiang
" the
#EU
-in its eagerness to conclude investment deal w/ Beijing- ignores grave, systemic & widespread rights abuses.
Sheer horror.
Mass graves are still being found over a month after
#Russia
's retreat from the
#Kyiv
region, underscoring the scale and gravity of atrocity crimes committed by
#Putin
’s forces in
#Ukraine
.
Gut-wrenching piece by
@ChristopherJM
Civilians in
#Ethiopia
's Western
#Tigray
Zone need protection.
In waves of atrocious abuses Tigrayans have been forcibly expelled from the region in large numbers.
Those responsible for grave violations should face justice.⚖️
Joint
@HRW
@Amnesty
report
"This is just the tip of the iceberg .. violence & rape is used now as a weapon of war by
#Russian
invaders"
Kateryna Cherepakha, of La Strada-
#Ukraine
, tells
#UN
SC that her org's emergency hotlines has received calls accusing Russian soldiers of rape.
Impunity for grave crimes in
#Ethiopia
’s armed conflict has fueled further atrocities and left communities at risk feeling abandoned.
The
@UN_HRC
should urgently establish an int'l, independent, investigative mechanism with a view to advance criminal justice and accountability.
On Friday, the
@UN_HRC
is convening a special session on the situation in
#Ethiopia
at the request of the EU, supported by 50 countries.
Time for the international community to stand up to its responsibilities
#Tigray
Thousands took to the streets across
#Poland
protesting the justice minister's stated intention to withdraw from the
#IstanbulConvention
which aims to prevent violence against women.
It's 2020 & the minister argues the convention is "harmful". Really?!?!
#Ethiopia
"No trucks carrying humanitarian supplies have been able to enter
#Tigray
since 15 Dec 2021. To recap, since 12 July 2021, only 1,338 trucks have entered Tigray, which is less than 12 per cent of the trucks we need to get in."
#UN
Spox
"We have reasonable grounds to believe that many of these acts amount to war crimes. We also have reasonable grounds to believe that the [
#Ethiopia
's] Fed Govt & its allies have committed
#CrimesAgainstHumanity
in
#Tigray
region. Some of these crimes are ongoing"
#UN
Commission
#HRC51
| Kaari Betty Murungi, chair of the Commission of Human Rights Experts on
#Ethiopia
, presented the panel's first report to the Human Rights Council, describing "horrific" acts of violence committed during the recent conflict there.
FULL STATEMENT▶️
“They kicked me, beat me w truncheons, w one blow over the head .. They demanded I admit it & tell them who was paying me. I said I didn’t know what they were talking about. For every response like that, I received another blow"
#Belarus
#torture
survivor
"Doctors at
#Tigray
’s main hospital are urging the
#Ethiopian
govt to allow supplies of insulin to be airlifted into the region, warning that their stocks will run out within a week and that patients with type 1 diabetes are “at serious risk of death”"
Finally!
#ASEAN
is excluding
#Myanmar
military leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing from upcoming
@ASEAN
summit.
Myanmar's military junta hasn't complied w/ 5 Point Consensus promises to
@Asean2021_BN
& brutal crackdown & grave rights crimes continue w/ impunity.
#AustraliaFires
"An estimated half billion mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed since the bushfires started in Sept, according to ecologists from the University of Sydney. The actual number is likely much higher."
#ClimateEmergency
#Australia
“Hunger in the besieged region of
#Tigray
is pushing people to .. desperate measures as [
#Ethiopia
] authorities are systematically blocking & confiscating remittances needed by millions of people .. [and] 6 million people denied access to their own money”
"The remains of hundreds of people are being deliberately destroyed in an organised campaign to dispose of evidence of ethnic cleansing in the west of
#Ethiopia
's
#Tigray
region, according to interviews with 15 eyewitnesses."
#JusticeMatters
"if I happen to fall out of a window, you can be sure I was pushed."
"If
#Germany
were to grant me asylum, it would not be viewed as a hostile act toward the US"
Edward
@Snowden
, asks for political asylum in
#Germany
.
Germany &
#Europe
should step up.
10 February 1944 | A transport of 1,015
#Jews
deported from
#Westerbork
in the occupied
#Netherlands
arrived at
#Auschwitz
. SS doctors sent 142 men & 73 women to the camp.
The remaining 800 people were murdered in gas chambers.
Eva & Liane Münzer (7 and 5) were among them.
"A genocide begins with the killing of one man – not for what he has done, but because of who he is. A campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education"
Kofi Annan
Jailed
#Belarus
leading opposition figure, Maria Kolesnikowa, will be honored for her struggle for democracy with the Baum Foundation’s 2021 Human Rights Prize.
The award is "a bow to her courage".
"Twin drone attacks hit a residential neighborhood" in Mekelle,
#Tigray
"killing 10 people & injuring others," says hospital official.
#Ethiopia
's govt did not comment on responsibility.
Impunity for atrocity crimes has paved the way for more violations.
Crackdown continues.
"Nearly 300 people were arrested by
#HongKong
police on Sunday as riot officers swooped on democracy protesters opposed to the postponement of local elections"
EU & others should push for
#UN
inquiry into abuses in
#China
& Hong Kong
"Democracy is more than just somebody getting a majority ... It's protection of minorities, press freedom, the right to demonstrate -democracy is independent courts" W/o these safeguards "democracy would no longer be complete"
#Germany
's Chancellor
#Merkel
“The jet came, we heard a blast, & then the victims started pouring in”
Dr. Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon who treated the wounded, said that 4 bodies had been brought to Ayder, & 3 others to the smaller Mekelle Hospital.
Via
@nytimes
#Tigray
#Ethipia
Please take a minute and think about this:
- Around 27 million children are out of school due to conflict.
- Over 50% of the world's
#refugees
are children.
- 1 in 6 children live in a conflict zone.
No child should lose their childhood to conflict.
Via
@ICRC
"remember a refugee is a person, not a statistic. A refugee is a parent trying to protect their child from rats in a stable. A refugee is a boy doodling a picture of an airplane, who wants to someday be a pilot, but now is selling vegetables on a busy road"
“A negotiated ceasefire, unfettered humanitarian access & full resumption of services in
#Tigray
, as well as accountability for atrocities committed by all parties, are a prerequisite to revive our partnership w
#Ethiopia
’s authorities”
#EU
High Rep