Bi-weekly News and Opinion Roundup - June 23, 2022 |
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A position paper issued by the UN Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism offers an overview of the international legal framework regarding countering the financing of terrorism, and relevant legal obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law. Read C&SN’s overview here, and the position paper here. (June 16).
C&SN has updated a 2017 issue brief on financial access, highlighting the financial access issues faced by nonprofits, the impacts on their work, and solutions for addressing financial access challenges. Read the updated issue brief here. (June 15).
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A new report from Doctors Without Borders details scenes from a medical train transporting wounded civilians to safety. The report documents a pattern of indiscriminate attacks against civilians, demonstrating that “the rules of war – international humanitarian law – are being broken repeatedly and consistently.” Read the report here. (June 22).
A new report by the International Crisis Group calls on the government of Somalia to consider options for dialogue with Al-Shabaab, rather than continuing to rely on a failed military strategy that has left the nation in a state of war for fifteen years with little hope for a conclusion. Read the report here. (June 21).
A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) examines the interplay between climate change and conflict in Somalia, advocating for an integrated approach to both, and offering strategies for implementing one. Read the report here. (June 20).
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Fiona Terry, head of the ICRC’s Centre for Operational Research and Experience, explores the benefits of humanitarian neutrality in conflict, arguing that it “does not confer moral equivalence on perpetrators and their victims,” but rather “opens avenues to help the latter…” Read her analysis in Just Security. (June 21).
At a meeting organized by the Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC), experts discussed strategies for improving aid delivery in the midst of a growing number of humanitarian crises around the world, including better preparation for future crises, increasing funding, protecting aid workers, and giving local and international NGOs a “bigger role in the humanitarian space.” UN News reports. (June 21).
As a cross-border aid agreement that facilitates aid into northwestern Syria is set to expire, UN humanitarian leaders are calling on the members of the UN Security Council to renew the aid agreement, which “is critical for the lives and wellbeing of 4.1 million people trapped in the non-Government-controlled northwest of Syria.” The UN Refugee Agency reports. (June 16).
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Sheren Falah Saab, a journalist at Haaretz, shares perspectives from a generation of Palestinians that have grown up under siege in Gaza, a siege that has deprived them of the freedoms of movement and opportunity available in much of the world. Read their views and hers in Haaretz. (June 23).
UN experts are calling for independent investigations into state violence against civil society actors in Iran, including the arrests of teachers, labor organizers, lawyers, and human rights defenders for protesting the government’s handling of the dire economic situation in Iran (a crisis U.S. sanctions helped precipitate). UN News reports. (June 15).
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Azadeh Shahshahani, the Legal and Advocacy Director at Project South, and Assal Rad, a Senior Research Fellow at the National Iranian American Council, critique the use of broad-based sanctions on Iran and elsewhere as collective punishment and a violation of international law, arguing that “The situation in Iran exemplifies how the application of broad-based economic sanctions can cause massive harm to a state’s people and economy.” Read their analysis in Jadaliyya. (June 21).
Nations that depend on remittances from workers based in Russia are becoming collateral damage in the sanctions campaign targeting Russia for its war in Ukraine, with unemployment and poverty rates spiking. UN News reports. (June 15).
Roughly one thousand companies have voluntarily cut ties with Russia in the wake of U.S. and European sanctions, raising concerns within the Biden administration over the inflationary impact on the U.S. economy, as well as concerns that sanctions may lose some of their potential value as a negotiating tool if companies are perceived as unwilling to return to Russia if and when sanctions are lifted. Bloomberg reports. (June 14).
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