Bi-weekly News and Opinion Roundup - Aug. 18, 2022

Israel Shuts Down Palestinian Civil Society Groups as U.S. Continues to “Review” Unsubstantiated Allegations from Last Fall

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ratified the terrorism designations for three of the six groups designated last fall, and Israeli forces raided and closed the offices of all six organizations, as well as the headquarters of the Palestinian Health Work Committees (HWC), declaring them unlawful. Find Al Haq’s statement here. Find Defense for Children International - Palestine’s statement here. Find the Union of Palestinian Women Committees’ statement here. C&SN also responded, pressing the Biden administration to “treat this situation with the urgency it deserves and call on Israel to rescind the designations immediately.” Read our press release here. (Aug. 18).

Treating Frozen Reserves as Leverage, Biden Administration Continues to Fuel Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis

The Biden administration has reportedly ruled out releasing any of Afghanistan’s frozen assets to Afghanistan’s central bank following the U.S. strike on al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, according to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West. While a national security council spokesperson later told POLITICO that “There has been no change in our approach, which always was and remains focused on finding a way for the funds to benefit the Afghan people, while not benefitting the Taliban,” she stopped short of denying that the U.S. had suspended talks with the Taliban over the release of the frozen funds to the central bank. In response to these reports, C&SN’s Paul Carroll remarked that “Civil society—critical to any healthy society and a necessary check on those in power—cannot function when people cannot afford to buy food.” Read our press statement here. (Aug. 15).

Opportunity to Contribute to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism’s Global Gender Programme

UNOCT's Gender Unit is currently in the development phase of building out their Global Gender Programme and has developed a draft document in support of this effort. They are interested in incorporating civil society's input at this stage of the process. Please find the Global Gender Programme draft here. If you are interested in contributing, please send your input directly to Sara Negrão, Gender Adviser, Human Rights and Gender Section, UNOCT: negrao@un.org and Nataliya Pylypiv (she/her), Gender Affairs Officer, Human Rights and Gender Section, UNOCT: nataliya.pylypiv@un.org. The deadline for written submissions is Friday, 19 August. Please reach out to Sara and Nataliya directly before this date if you'd like to discuss feedback over a Zoom/call, and please share with fellow civil society organizations. (Aug. 19).

Afghanistan’s ‘Collapsed Economy’ Can’t Be Patched Up by Humanitarian Relief, Says the UN

The United Nations Development Programme has joined a chorus of economic experts and human rights advocates in arguing that Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis cannot be adequately addressed by aid efforts alone. CNBC reports. (Aug. 17).

Policymakers and Racial Justice Activists Came Together to Discuss Decolonising Aid. Here’s What Happened…

Heba Aly, CEO of the New Humanitarian, unpacks perspectives from a private event held by the New Humanitarian in February on decolonizing aid, portraying two schools of thought; one that sees decolonizing aid as addressing power imbalances, giving more agency to local actors, and changing mindsets, and another that believes the aid community should, among other things, “Stop considering this [its] money as aid and reframe [it] as overdue compensation for already rendered services.” Read the full story in the New Humanitarian. (Aug. 11).

What Amnesty Got Wrong in Ukraine and Why I Had to Resign

Amnesty International’s former Ukraine office director explains why she resigned from the organization following Amnesty’s report contending that Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians, arguing that “The fact that we were not properly consulted and included in the drafting of this report shows a total disregard to the principle of international solidarity proclaimed in Amnesty’s statute and the aim of amplifying local voices.” Read her view in the Washington Post. (Aug. 13).

Coalition Letter Calls for Transparency and Accountability in Biden Administration’s Counterterrorism Review

Twenty-six civil society organizations signed a letter to the Biden administration expressing concern over the expansion of military operations in Somalia and calling on the administration to take a transparent and inclusive approach to its review of U.S. counterterrorism policies. Specifically, it calls for meaningful consultation with civil society, the public release of a review that acknowledges the harm of past policies and overhauls those policies in order to align them with international law, the public disclosure of legal and policy rationales for ongoing operations in Somalia, steps to address past harm inflicted under U.S. counterterrorism policies, and the adoption of “a conflict-sensitive approach centered in human rights, peacebuilding, the rule of

law, and diplomacy.” Read the full letter here. (Aug. 10).

Statement on Publication of Press Release on Ukrainian Fighting Tactics

Amnesty International responded to critiques of its recent report on Ukrainian fighting tactics, saying that it “deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused,” but noting that “we fully stand by our findings.” The statement asserted that Amnesty is not holding Ukrainian forces responsible for Russia’s violations, but rather is working to ensure “that civilians’ lives and human rights are protected during conflict.” Read Amnesty’s full statement here. (Aug. 7).

It’s Time to Negotiate with ‘Terrorists’ in Somalia

Zuri Linetsky, a research fellow at the Eurasia Group Foundation, argues that the U.S. should roll back self-imposed barriers to diplomacy and negotiate with al-Shabab in Somalia rather than doubling down on failed counterterrorism policies that prioritize military strategies at the expense of diplomacy and peacebuilding. Read his take in Responsible Statecraft. (Aug. 8).

One Year After Taliban Takeover, Bay Area Afghans Reflect on the Humanitarian Crisis and the Struggle to Resettle

KQED’s Forum, a morning radio show, spoke with Bay Area-based Afghans and other experts about the economic and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, and the Biden administration’s decision to rule out releasing any of Afghanistan’s frozen funds to the Central Bank of Afghanistan in the near term. C&SN Director Paul Carroll called in and shared his view on the role of U.S. sanctions and the asset freeze in Afghanistan’s dire humanitarian crisis. Listen to the story here. (Aug. 15). 

International Economists Ask Biden to Release Afghan Central Bank Funds

Over 70 international economists called on the Biden administration to release Afghanistan’s frozen foreign reserves in order to address the country’s dire humanitarian crisis, writing that “The people of Afghanistan have been made to suffer doubly for a government they did not choose.” Read the full letter here, and Reuters’ reporting on the letter here. (Aug. 10).

Unfreeze Afghan Assets or More Hungry Children May Die

Some 1.1 million children in Afghanistan are experiencing severe acute malnutrition, putting them at risk of death. Kostas Moschochoritis, the Director General of INTERSOS, an independent humanitarian organization, urged “The US, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, and the UAE…” to “urgently find a pragmatic solution and release these funds, with a clearly defined international monitoring mechanism that would allow DAB access to a pre-defined amount of its reserves each month.” Read his take in the New Humanitarian. (Aug. 9).

29 Organizations Urge Passage of Amendment on Humanitarian Impact of Sanctions in this Year’s NDAA

C&SN joined 28 other organizations in urging the Senate to retain Rep. Chuy García’s amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in order to require humanitarian impact assessments of broad-based sanctions. Find the letter here. (Aug. 5).

Why the U.S. Should Not Designate Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

Delaney Simon and Michael Wahid Hanna of the International Crisis Group make the case against designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing that the designation would risk “narrowing space for diplomacy if and when the moment for peace talks arrives, driving up already dangerously high tensions and impeding multilateral efforts to address conflict situations and humanitarian crises around the world.” Read their analysis here. (Aug. 4).