Bi-weekly News and Opinion Roundup - Jan. 13, 2022
News from C&SN
C&SN summarizes the news surrounding the Dutch government’s decision to cut funding for the United Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian NGO that supports Palestinian farmers and organizes for Palestinian land rights. Read our summary here. (Jan. 13).

C&SN’s latest issue brief explains the Dutch government’s decision to end funding for UAWC. Failing to find organizational links between UAWC and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Dutch government instead cited alleged individual links in its decision to end funding, a decision that undermines the rights of privacy, association and expression. The brief also offers political context, as well as recommendations for donors. Read the full issue brief here. (Jan. 11).
Event
On Jan. 26-28, the Alliance for Peacebuilding is hosting its 10th annual PeaceCon, which will feature over 50 panel conversations, interactive workshops, and keynote addresses on a range of peacebuilding topics. Review the agenda and register here. (Jan. 26-28).
Featured Resources
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has released a report offering “a snapshot of overall sanctioning trends, an overview of the most heavily used country-specific and thematic sanctions programs, and the global distribution of sanctions designations during the first year of the Biden administration.” Read the full report here. (Jan. 13).

The Fourth Freedom Forum and the Sanctions and Security Research Project have released a report summarizing “the evidence on the effect on Venezuela’s economic and social conditions of economic sanctions and other actions of economic statecraft taken by the United States and its allies in response to the country’s political crisis.” Read the full report here. (January).
Humanitarian Aid
The Ethiopian government has lifted a five-month long suspension on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) humanitarian work in the country. The suspension was initially imposed in response to NRC’s advocacy around humanitarian needs and access. Read NRC’s statement here. (Jan. 5).

The New Humanitarian offers its take on the ten top humanitarian trends to watch in 2022, including The pandemic’s poverty and equality hangover — Social media’s hate problem; Afghanistan, Haiti, Myanmar — Political upheaval, humanitarian challenges — West v the rest: Asylum roadblocks creating border crises — Unprecedented hunger — Hired guns and their humanitarian costs — The hidden health risks of climate change — Ethiopia: Endless obstacles to aid — Latin America: Turbulent politics meets COVID fallout — and Yemen: All eyes on Marib. Read the full rundown on the New Humanitarian. (Dec. 29).
Human Rights
The Israeli government has shared a second dossier with European governments attempting to tie Palestinian civil society groups to terrorism. Like the first, it lacks evidence to support its claims, and has been widely rejected by European leaders. +972 Magazine reports. (Jan. 13).

On Dec. 25, the Russian government blocked the website of OVD-Info, a prominent Russian human rights group. Russia is also pushing social media platforms to block the group, which would effectively paralyze their work. Human Rights Watch reports. (Jan. 12).

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), a leading human rights group in Egypt, announced that it was shutting down, citing “a series of threats, violent attacks, and arrests by the National Security Agency as well as the looming deadline requiring all nongovernmental organizations to register under the associations law.” Human Rights Watch reports. (Jan. 12).

The Dutch government announced its decision to end funding for the United Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) following an external investigation, despite finding no evidence of organizational links between the UAWC and the PFLP. Read UAWC’s response to the decision here, and Al Jazeera’s reporting on the decision here. (Jan. 6).

The Palestinian Authority has summoned the Dutch envoy in order to object to the Dutch government’s decision to end funding for the UAWC. Al Jazeera reports. (Jan. 10).
Peacebuilding
Saferworld shares its approach to supporting peace through “programme accompaniment,” explaining how it’s been working with “national and international aid organisations working in complex conflict-affected countries like Syria, Lebanon, Uganda and South Sudan… to help organisations be conflict sensitive.” Learn more on Saferworld’s website. (Jan. 7).
Sanctions
George Lopez, the Hesburgh Professor of Peace Studies emeritus, at the Kroc Institute of the University of Notre Dame, explains how “coercive sanctions increasingly devastate the socio-economic rights of innocent civilians,” and argues that “the US does not need to accept that economic measures imposed to restore democracy and to punish political leaders for human rights violations, must also devastate citizens’ socioeconomic rights and wellbeing.” Read his take in InkStick Media. (Jan. 7).

Francisco Rodríguez, Director and founder of Oil for Venezuela, a nonprofit focused on addressing Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, offers his take on the Biden administration’s approach to Venezuela, and advocates for a pivot away from the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” approach that has been fueling the humanitarian crisis. Read his take in Just Security. (Jan. 5).

The Treasury Department issued new general licenses to enable a broader range of civil society activities in Afghanistan, but the U.S. policy of keeping almost $10 billion of Afghanistan’s central bank national reserves frozen outside of the country is fueling an economic crisis that threatens mass starvation, and U.S. sanctions continue to undermine financial access for civilians and civil society organizations operating in Afghanistan. Lee Fang reports for The Intercept. (Dec. 28).
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