View previous stories
	With 333 million people facing acute food insecurity, WFP faces a 60 percent shortfall by WFP, New Humanitarian, agencies   With 333 million people facing acute food insecurity, WFP faces a 60 percent shortfall in funding to address urgent needs.   What WFP cuts mean for people in hunger crises around the world. (New Humanitarian)   Amid an unprecedented global hunger crisis fuelled by climate change and conflict, the World Food Programme’s bleak funding outlook has forced it to make deep cuts to the assistance it provides to many people experiencing acute hunger around the world.   “Today, WFP is facing a 60% funding shortfall,” a WFP spokesperson told The New Humanitarian via email on 13 December. “Nearly half of 86 WFP country operations have already implemented, or plan to shortly implement, significant reductions in the size and scope of life-saving food, cash and nutrition assistance programmes.”   Globally, more than 333 million people are facing acute food insecurity. The cuts to WFP programming could push 24 million more people into that category over the course of the next year, the UN agency estimated in September.   A series of often overlapping factors are driving the current global hunger crisis, including the effects of the climate crisis, conflict, disruptions to the global food supply chain caused by the war in Ukraine, sky-high inflation, and slow post-COVID-19 pandemic economic recoveries.   But hunger has deeper structural roots too. Food security systems in many colonised countries were weakened as communities were forced to grow export cash crops to suit the demands of colonial powers. In the post-colonial period, agricultural policies remained focused on exports at the expense of local needs, while global organisations pushed farmers to adopt industrial technologies that can erode food sovereignty. Hunger elimination was further undermined by the unequal trade system, by land-grabbing, and by the conditional lending practices of global financial institutions.   One of the world’s largest humanitarian agencies, WFP raised a record $14.1 billion last year – a substantial increase over the $8 billion it reported in 2019. But the funding hasn’t been able to keep pace with rising needs or the pace of inflation, which increased the agency’s procurement costs by 39% between 2019 and 2022.   For 2023, WFP says it needs $23.5 billion to fund its global operations but is projecting it will receive only $10 billion, a spokesperson told The New Humanitarian.   An expected, sector-wide “donor reset” could also see funding decrease significantly after years of growth, meaning the lean times at WFP – and their consequences for people facing hunger – may be here to stay for the foreseeable future.   A recent “Hunger Hotspots” report from WFP and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that acute food insecurity is likely to worsen in 18 hunger hotspots through April 2024, with highest concern of starvation in Burkina Faso, Mali, Palestine, South Sudan, and Sudan.   Over the course of the last several months, The New Humanitarian spoke to WFP staff and dozens of people in countries around the world who rely on the agency’s rations and cash assistance to better understand the impact of the cuts on those living on hunger’s edge.   Here’s a region-by-region breakdown:   Asia and the Pacific   Over half of the people in the world facing moderate to severe food insecurity reside in Asia and the Pacific, where the number of acutely food insecure people rose from 62.2 million in 2021 to more than 69.1 million by the end of 2022.   WFP’s cuts are having a particularly severe impact in countries where years-long crises are overlapping with disruptions to the global food supply chain, rising inflation, natural disasters, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis.   In Afghanistan, for example, the cuts have meant that WFP has been forced to choose “between the hungry and the starving”, Philippe Kropf, head of communications for the agency in the country, told The New Humanitarian during an aid distribution event in Kabul in September.   Kropf said some 15 million Afghans are currently facing some kind of hunger, but that WFP would only be able to reach three million of them as the country’s winter set in. The agency has had to drop 10 million Afghans from its assistance rolls in 2023.   There is “a new face of hunger” in Afghanistan, according to Kropf, one that is popping up in urban centres, where people were previously able to rely on blue and white collar salaries to feed their families.   Up to 900,000 jobs were lost in the country following the Western withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in August 2021.   Kropf said the new urban poor were among the first who lost assistance due to the WFP cutbacks. With its limited resources, the UN’s food agency has prioritised particularly vulnerable groups, such as widows, households headed by women, and children.   For those who continue to receive support, the monthly cash assistance amount WFP provides to households has also been cut from 5,000 afghanis (about $72) to 3,200 afghanis (about $46). That amount is intended to cover food costs for two weeks, rather than a full month. Because of the funding cuts, WFP is not able to provide even those still receiving aid a full monthly ration.   Razia, one woman at the distribution, who only provided her first name and was in her 30s, said she would use the money to try and feed her 11-person household. “Realistically, this will only buy us some flour and oil. That’s it,” she said.   Razia was grateful for the help she had received from WFP over the past four months, but said it just doesn’t go very far. “You try and try, but each month 3,000 afghanis will only really buy you a couple of items,” she said.   Kropf described Razia as one of the “fortunate ones” as her family is at least continuing to receive some assistance after the cuts.   The situation is also dire in Bangladesh, where around 900,000 Rohingya refugees who fled a campaign of genocidal violence by the military junta in neighbouring Myanmar are packed into sprawling tent settlements and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar.   WFP has had to cut the assistance it provides back to just $8 per month – or $0.27 per day – from $12 at the beginning of the year, which was already considered the bare minimum people needed to be able to survive.   Mohammed Zonaid, who has lived in Cox’s Bazar since 2016, told The New Humanitarian that 2023 has been the worst year for Rohingya there. Zonaid, who shares his shelter with eight other members of his family, said the drop in financial assistance has shrunk the diets of people in the camps.   When families were receiving $12 per person, they could buy rice, lentils, onions, salt, cooking oil, and eggs each month. Now, families can only afford rice, cooking oil, and salt, according to Zonaid. “We are 100% dependent on what WFP provides us,” he added.   Africa   Multiple regions on the African continent are experiencing food crises due to the same overlapping effects mentioned above, and due to the long-term disruption of traditional food security systems by external forces during the colonial and post-colonial periods.   According to a new regional food security analysis, nearly 50 million people will face hunger in West and Central Africa in mid-2024, an increase of 4% from the same period this year. Conflict is driving this high number, according to the analysis, with the nutritional situation particularly worrying in Burkina Faso and Mali, where military juntas are battling jihadist insurgents.   In East Africa, 65 million people are facing acute food insecurity. Drought and flood events in the Horn of Africa region are among the most recent proximate causes, with Somalia suffering over 40,000 excess deaths last year, half of which may have been children under five. In Ethiopia, the impact of the war fought primarily in the northern Tigray region continues to be felt, with recovery hampered by the aid freeze ordered by WFP and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) over allegations of large-scale food theft. Hunger rates have also soared in Sudan since conflict broke out in April between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).   In Chad, WFP is struggling to feed more than 540,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur who fled to the east of the country between April and November, escaping massacres and acts of alleged ethnic cleansing by the RSF. As RSF atrocities continue, that number will only increase, while WFP said that food aid to 1.4 million people, including many of the newly arrived refugees, will end in January because of a shortage of funds. The UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, reports that 5.7 million people in Chad are food insecure, with 2.1 million suffering from acute hunger.   In September, The New Humanitarian witnessed a delayed food distribution operation in Ourang camp, one of the hastily built refugee settlements near the border town of Adre, which opened in June to accommodate Sudanese refugees. Many of those in need failed to receive assistance. “The number of refugees was much higher than the [distribution] lists,” said a frustrated WFP official, who asked not to be named.   The operation’s start was postponed by several days as aid trucks struggled to navigate eastern Chad’s rough roads, increasing the anxiety of the 44,000 refugees in Ourang waiting for rations.   “We received some sorghum sometime after we arrived in Chad [in June], but nothing since,” said Um Zuhor Adam Osman, a 19-year-old from El Geneina, the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state. “It’s very difficult for us. Some people in the camp have received food, but we haven’t yet. The children eat only once a day.”   Malnutrition is widespread among the new arrivals. MSF supports a 250-bed paediatric ward in Adré hospital, which is always full.   “The kids were fine before. They never had to go to hospital when we were in Geneina,” said Zeinab Yacoub Arbab, a 29-year-old mother of two who lives with her family in the Ourang camp. “Everything was available there. But now we can’t feed them and ourselves properly. We left with nothing and don’t have money to buy food on the market. We are totally dependent on aid, and what we receive is not enough.”   In Uganda, WFP has had to cut the rations it provides to refugees several times since 2020. The country hosts more than 1.5 million refugees, one of the largest refugee populations in the world. The WFP cuts have led people to go hungry and contributed to factors pushing many families to return to their countries of origin, even when they are not stable or safe.   WFP introduced its latest cuts in July after rolling out a new system based on refugee vulnerability. Those considered most vulnerable now get 60% of what WFP calls basic survival rations; the moderately vulnerable get 30%; and the least vulnerable get nothing.   Refugees told The New Humanitarian that the successive cuts and new “prioritisation” system have left them struggling to meet basic needs, especially as changing weather patterns make it harder for them to farm around their settlements.   In Bidi Bidi, a large refugee camp in northwestern Uganda, Loy Mama said her family has been eating only one meal a day to make the meagre rations they receive as members of category two last as long as possible.   “This food is not enough for me and these children,” Mama told The New Humanitarian during a visit to Bidi Bidi in August. “I do not know how I will complete a month.”   Moses Nyang, a South Sudanese refugee in the Adjumani settlement, which is also in the northwest, said the prioritisation system has had a negative impact on community cohesion.   “It has set refugees against themselves,” said Nyang. “It compromises our peaceful co-existence. You are getting something; I am not getting something. What do you expect my attitude towards you to be?”   Middle East and North Africa   The Middle East relies heavily on food imports, exposing countries with food insecurity due to war and economic collapse to new fluctuations in global food prices due to the war in Ukraine and ongoing supply chain issues. Increasing heat waves and droughts make conditions even worse, with local farms producing less food and income.   An April World Bank report predicted that economies in the Middle East and North Africa would grow at a slower pace this year, with double-digit food inflation hitting poorer households and threatening food security.   "The report estimates that close to one out of five people living in developing countries in MENA is likely to be food insecure this year,” said Roberta Gatti, World Bank Chief Economist for the MENA region, in a statement released with the report. “Almost 8 million children under 5 years of age are among those who will be hungry. Food price inflation, even if it is temporary, can cause long-term and often irreversible damage.”   That’s not taking into account the war in Gaza, where 63% of people were estimated to be food insecure even before Israel began bombing and laying siege to the enclave in October – following the deadly attack and hostage-taking by the Palestinian political and militant group Hamas. A recent WFP assessment found that, with around 85% of the population forced to flee their homes, extremely limited and irregular aid access, and no commercial goods allowed in by Israel or Egypt, food consumption levels are “extremely alarming”.   People desperate for food have broken into UN warehouses; and at the end of a December ceasefire WFP warned that renewed fighting “will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population”.   Some of the countries in the region where WFP works have long-standing problems with food insecurity and poverty. Yemen, home to one of its largest interventions in the world, has been on the edge of famine more than once since its war began in 2015. As of the end of October, 13 million people in a country of around 29 million were receiving food assistance, although low funding meant “reduced rations equivalent to 41%” of the standard food basket.   In early December, WFP announced it was pausing its general food distributions in northern parts of the country controlled by Houthi rebels, due to limited funding and “the absence of an agreement with the authorities on a smaller programme that matches available resources to the neediest families”.   Even before these changes, WFP estimated that food insecurity – as of October – was down slightly from the previous year: 50% of households it surveyed in parts of the country controlled by the internationally recognised government were still unable to meet their minimum food needs – the number was 46% for households surveyed in parts of the country run by the Sana’a-based Houthis.   The situation is also growing increasingly dire in Syria, where conflict, economic collapse, the climate crisis, and the aftermath of earthquakes earlier this year are overlapping with global factors and severe aid underfunding to drive a hunger crisis. A WFP spokesperson told The New Humanitarian by email that 12.7 million people were projected to be food insecure across the country in 2024, with a further 2.6 million “at risk of falling into hunger”. The agency predicts a 29% increase in the number of severely food insecure people living in camps for internally displaced people in the country in 2024, as compared to this year.   Suhaib Abdou, 40, lives with his family of 14 in a camp for displaced people in Kafr Aruq, in the northern countryside of rebel-held Idlib province. Home for his wife, five sons, and seven daughters is a well-worn tent, six metres long and four metres wide, in which they have sectioned off a kitchen, a sitting room, and a space for sleeping.   The camp where they live is home to 295 families in total, and there are only 11 shared restroom blocks, or one block for every 27 families. Hunger and humanitarian needs have been rising for years in the rebel-held northwest, which is home to 4.5 million people; 2.9 million have been displaced at least once. The last few months have seen an increase in bombings by the Syrian government and its Russian allies, forcing even more people to flee their homes.   Abdou began receiving food aid after he had to flee his own home in the city of Saraqib in late 2019. His family currently receives one food basket from WFP every 60 days, down from once every 30 days in the past. He said the contents of the basket were reduced in the spring.   “We’re having one meal a day,” Abdou said. “When he can, my brother living abroad sends me some money to buy food for my kids.”   Without the extra cash, the family struggles to get enough to eat.   “If my brother doesn’t send me money, I’m not able to provide food for my kids,” he said. “There are kids who go to the trash containers to get food when their share is out, and they sometimes collect scraps to sell it so they can buy bread.”   Abdou said his family doesn’t eat fruit, vegetables, or meat because they can’t afford them. “If the amount is decreased again, you won’t find a camp that will agree to receive the aid as it’s not enough for anything,” he added.   Abdou spoke to The New Humanitarian before the WFP’s early December announcement that, starting in January 2024, it would be stopping its general food assistance programme in Syria altogether.   The WFP spokesperson said that low funding forced WFP to reduce the number of people who receive general food assistance from 5.5 to 3.2 million in July. That lower number “will no longer receive general food assistance from January 2024 onwards”, according to the spokesperson.   The total number of people who will still receive some sort of WFP aid in Syria is not clear, as some programmes – including those for earthquake survivors – will likely be ongoing. And general food aid could be restarted if new funding comes in but, for now, the spokesperson said that “discontinuation of general food assistance amid this situation is expected to have serious consequences on people who need it the most”.   Latin America and the Caribbean   Between 2021 and 2022, the prevalence of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean fell from 7% to 6.5% of the region’s population – or some 43.2 million people. But this bird’s-eye view masks a dramatic rise in hunger in the Caribbean and fails to capture that in some countries, such as Ecuador, overall hunger rates plateaued while the percentage of people slipping from moderately to severely food insecure increased.   In 2023, WFP only received funding to finance 37% of identified needs, reducing mostly its emergency response activities. Cuts have already affected four countries: Haiti, Ecuador, Honduras, and Colombia.   In Colombia, WFP’s funding has dropped by 30% to 40% this year, and in Ecuador by 50% for emergency response. Programmes targeting pregnant and lactating women and children under two in Ecuador have been suspended, while rations were reduced for others, and the duration of time the aid was provided for fell as well. In Honduras, WFP reached only about 50% of the targeted population. Among those who received assistance, 95% were children benefiting from school meals. Funding for other operations is extremely scarce.   In Haiti, where soaring gang violence has been both driving up needs and hampering aid work, funds for emergency response were almost exhausted by September, and operations in the country have only received 10% of the funding needed. Some 4.9 million people in Haiti – over 40% of the population – now face severe hunger. In July, WFP had to cut 100,000 people – 25% of emergency food assistance recipients – from its rolls due to dwindling funds. A total of 750,000 people who are in need of assistance have fallen through the cracks because of this lack of resources.   “It’s a very bad time to have to reduce the coverage of emergency programmes,” Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP country director in Haiti, told The New Humanitarian.   The New Humanitarian interviewed residents of the Saint-Aude Camp, a cramped settlement for internally displaced people in the heart of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where 115 people, including about 30 children, live in tiny, sweltering houses.   Although the camp was established after the 2010 earthquake, it is now receiving people fleeing gang violence in other parts of the capital.   Nickencia Sidney, a 23-year-old single mother, fled the Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince for the Saint-Aude Camp after gangs set her house on fire last July. Her two-year-old daughter, Naella Jean-Louis, is staying with friends while Sidney tries to find more permanent housing, and a reliable food source.   “It may happen that I eat once a day. It may happen that I don’t eat anything; I just stay like that,” Sidney told The New Humanitarian. “Sometimes, I have weakness and dizziness. When I stand up after sitting, I black out. When I’m out on the streets, my eyes hurt with the glare of the sun. Sometimes, I take to the streets, and I cannot walk because I feel so weak.”   In mid-September, by reprioritising funding, the WFP managed to finance 49,000 hot meals at 19 sites around the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area for seven days. People in Saint-Aude received one hot meal per day for a week. But Haitians who are living in camps often prefer to receive raw food because it lasts longer and gives them more flexibility to consume it or trade it for other items they need.   “I am very worried,” said Bauer, the WFP country director. “When there is an earthquake, you rebuild the country; when there is drought, you tell yourself that there will be an agricultural campaign and harvesting the year after. But now, we don't see the end of the problem.”   The ongoing El Nino climate pattern – which typically brings more extreme weather, including more severe storms and rainfall in some places and drought in others – is expected to exacerbate food insecurity around the world, including in Ecuador, which is also facing a surge in gang violence.   Hunger levels in the country have not yet risen, but the number of people who are severely food insecure rose from 6% to 7.5% in 2022, according to Crescenzo Rubinetti, head of WFP’s emergency preparedness and response team in the country.   “We are trying to prepare for [El Niño],” said Rubinetti. “​​But we had at the beginning of 2023 a high impact from heavy rain, with 100,000 people affected... There is no capacity in the country to respond to this kind of crisis.”   In Honduras, WFP estimates that about 2.8 million people are exposed to the climate crisis, but if donors do not pledge more funding, they won't receive any food assistance in case of emergency.   Meanwhile, in Colombia, WFP expects those affected by El Niño to reach 1.5 to 3.5 million. “When we look at what has been foreseen for El Nino, there is a serious concern,” said Carlo Scaramella, the WFP country director there. “At WFP, at the moment, we do not have the capacity to respond to these needs.”   WFP Colombia expects funding cuts to be less dramatic in 2024 but is still anticipating a 15% reduction across all its programmes. At the regional level, however, WFP expects funding shortages for emergency response to increase and cuts to affect additional countries from the dry corridor of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.   (Ali M. Latifi reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Harold Isaac reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Abd Almajed Alkarh reported from Idlib, Syria. Sophie Neiman reported from Kampala, Uganda. Patricia Huon reported from Adré, Chad. Additional reporting from Philip Kleinfeld, Paisley Dodds, and Annie Slemrod in London, UK; Daniela Mohor in Santiago, Chile; and Kristof Titeca in Antwerp, Belgium. The interactive map was produced by Marc Fehr, Sofia Kuan, and Namukabo Werungah. Edited by Tom Brady, Eric Reidy, and Andrew Gully).   http://www.wfp.org/stories/2023-pictures-ration-cuts-threaten-catastrophe-millions-facing-hunger http://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-9-november-2023 http://reliefweb.int/report/burkina-faso/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-november-2023-april-2024-outlook http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/en/   http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2023/12/13/wfp-aid-food-cuts-mean-people-hunger-crisis-around-world http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2024/01/08/why-these-10-humanitarian-crises-demand-your-attention-now http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2024/01/02/trends-driving-humanitarian-need-2024-and-what-do-about-them http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2024/01/03/editors-picks-stories-2024 http://www.care-international.org/resources/breaking-silence-ten-humanitarian-crises-didnt-make-headlines-2023 Visit the related web page
	States denying citizens the fundamental rights of political participation by UN News, OHCHR, HRW, agencies   Feb. 2024   UN Secretary-General underlines urgency of forging path towards Democratic Transition, Civilian Rule in Myanmar. (UN News)   The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:   Three years since the military overturned the democratically elected Government and arbitrarily detained its leaders on 1 February 2021, the crisis in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, with devastating impacts on civilians. On this sombre anniversary, the Secretary-General underscores the urgency of forging a path towards a democratic transition with a return to civilian rule.   The Secretary-General condemns all forms of violence and calls for the protection of civilians and cessation of hostilities. An inclusive solution to this crisis requires conditions that permit the people of Myanmar to exercise their human rights freely and peacefully. The military’s campaign of violence targeting civilians and political repression must end, and those responsible be held to account.   The Secretary-General also reiterates his concern regarding the military’s stated intention to move towards elections amid intensifying conflict and human rights violations across the country.   Some 18.6 million people in Myanmar — one third of the population — urgently need humanitarian support this year — compared to 1 million before the military takeover three years ago. Unimpeded humanitarian access is also required for the United Nations and its partners.   The Secretary-General calls for sustained international and regional attention and coherent collective action to support the people of Myanmar and remains committed to work with all stakeholders, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional actors, to help secure a sustainable and inclusive peace in Myanmar.   The Secretary-General stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their desire for an inclusive, peaceful and just society and stresses the need to ensure the protection of all communities, including the Rohingya, who are risking dangerous journeys in increasing numbers in search of safety, basic rights and dignity.   Jan. 2024 (OCHA)   There has been a serious escalation in the conflict in Myanmar. Fighting is occurring across multiple fronts, with a fragile ceasefire in northern Shan and heavy fighting now affecting most of Rakhine State.   Civilians are fleeing their homes at record levels, with 2.6 million people currently displaced nationwide, with many having been uprooted multiple times. Their coping capacities are now stretched to the limit.   More than 18 million people need humanitarian aid this year – up from 1 million people before the military takeover.   Humanitarian workers are trying to meet people’s needs wherever they can, reaching more than 3 million people with assistance nationwide last year. But it is not enough – humanitarian organizations need both greater access and a drastic improvement in funding to assist the most vulnerable people.   Sustained underfunding of both the humanitarian and development operations in Myanmar has led to significant unmet needs that are now cascading into 2024.   Humanitarian organizations are requesting US$994 million dollars to support the response in Myanmar in 2024. The situation demands immediate attention and increased international support to address both the humanitarian and development challenges facing the civilian population.   Jan. 2024   Myanmar: Human rights situation worsens - UN Office for Human Rights (OHCHR)   Three years after the military launched a coup, Myanmar’s ever deteriorating human rights crisis is now in freefall, with insufficient world attention paid to the misery and pain of its people, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said today.   “Amid all of the crises around the world, it is important no one is forgotten. The people of Myanmar have been suffering for too long. Since the end of October last year, their situation has deteriorated even further as a result of the long-established tactics of the military to target them,” he said ahead of the anniversary of the coup on 1 February.   “Pitched battles between the military and armed opposition groups have resulted in mass displacement and civilian casualties. As the military have suffered setback after setback on the battlefield, they have lashed out, launching waves of indiscriminate aerial bombardments and artillery strikes.”   Sources have verified that over 554 people have died since October. Overall for 2023, the number of civilians reportedly killed by the military rose to over 1,600, an increase of some 300 from the previous year. As of 26 January, credible sources had documented the arrest of nearly 26,000 people on political grounds – of whom 19,973 remain in detention, some reportedly subjected to torture and abuses, and with no hope of a fair trial. Over the last three years, some 1,576 individuals have died while being held by the military.   “Military tactics have consistently focused on the punishment of civilians who they view as supporting their enemies,” said Türk. “As a result, the military has routinely targeted civilians and protected objects under international humanitarian law, especially medical facilities and schools.   “Indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes underline the lack of measures to protect civilians on the ground, including disruption of basic communications that would help warn civilians in advance of fighting so they could get out of harm’s way.”   Communications and internet services in some 74 townships, including most of the 17 townships in Rakhine State, are experiencing partial, intermittent or total shutdowns.   Rakhine State has been particularly hard hit since fighting restarted there in November. Many communities, especially the Rohingya, were already suffering from the impacts of Cyclone Mocha and the military’s months-long limitation of humanitarian access and provision of assistance. There have now been several reports of Rohingya deaths and injuries amid the military’s shelling of Rohingya villages.   On Friday 26 January, fighting between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military reportedly left at least 12 Rohingya civilians dead and 30 others wounded in Hpon Nyo Leik village, where inhabitants are trapped between the two warring parties. The Arakan Army allegedly positioned its troops in and around this Rohingya village anticipating the military’s attacks. The military repeatedly shelled the village, destroying infrastructure.   Parties to armed conflicts must take constant care to spare the civilians and civilian objects, in the conduct of military operations, which includes taking feasible measures to protect the civilian population under their control against the effects of attack, the High Commissioner said.   Similarly, Rohingya refugees, trapped in dire humanitarian conditions in camps in Bangladesh and with no safe prospect of return, are again risking desperate and dangerous journeys by sea, finding few ports or communities in the region willing to accept or welcome them.   The international community must redouble efforts to hold the military accountable, the UN Human Rights Chief said, recalling the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice for Myanmar to take "all measures within its power" to protect the members of the Rohingya group from all future acts that may amount to genocide, and to take effective measures to ensure the preservation of evidence related to the alleged acts.   “This crisis will only be resolved by insisting on accountability for the military’s leadership, the release of political prisoners and the restoration of civilian rule,” Turk said.   "I urge all Member States to take appropriate measures to address this crisis, including to consider imposing further targeted sanctions on the military to constrain their ability to commit serious violations and disregard international law -- limiting access to weapons, jet fuel, and foreign currency.   “I commend the courage and resilience of Myanmar’s civil society and democratic movement, representing all ethnic communities, and urge their inclusion in any political process to restore democracy and respect for human rights in Myanmar.”   http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/secretary-general-underscores-urgency-forging-path-towards-democratic-transition-civilian-rule-myanmar http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1146112 http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2024-december-2023 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/myanmar-human-rights-situation-worsens-military-lashes-out-indiscriminately http://iimm.un.org/three-years-of-widespread-systematic-violence-in-myanmar-and-the-evidence-against-perpetrators-is-mounting/ http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/expert-voices-on-atrocity-prevention-episode-30-yanghee-lee/ http://reliefweb.int/country/mmr   Jan. 2024   Cambodia: New Prime Minister should open up Democratic Space - Human Rights Watch   The Phnom Penh Appeal Court on January 30, 2024, denied the Cambodian political opposition leader Kem Sokha’s request to review the terms of his home detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Sokha, 70, who was sentenced on March 3, 2023, to a 27-year term on a politically motivated treason conviction, must continue to seek the approval of the prosecutor’s office for his defense lawyers to visit him. The ruling was during the first of nine expected appeal hearings in his case.   “The appeals court’s failure to reconsider Kem Sokha’s unjust imprisonment shows that Cambodia’s new prime minister has done nothing to address the Cambodian judiciary’s lack of independence,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Cambodian authorities should promptly right this wrong by quashing Kem Sokha’s bogus conviction and immediately releasing him.”   Sokha’s defense team asked the appeals court to restore unrestricted access to counsel and revisit the conditions of supervision while the appeal of his conviction is pending. Sokha is currently confined to his house and not allowed to speak with anyone other than his family without prior court approval. Sokha’s lawyer raised several instances of interference with his right to consult his client that resulted from the court order requiring advance approval by the prosecutor’s office before defense counsel can meet Sokha. Sokha’s defense team also raised the issue of infringements on his family and associates’ right to privacy as well as having to suffer excessive inspections and surveillance during visits to Sokha’s home.   Sokha is the former president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which the ruling-party-controlled Supreme Court dissolved in 2017. Following his arrest after midnight on September 3, 2017, the authorities held Sokha for more than two years in pretrial detention in the remote Tboung Khmum provincial Correction Center III prison. Prison officials held him in isolation, denied him effective medical treatment, and refused access to all visitors other than his immediate family and his lawyers.   On June 5, 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a body of independent experts, declared Sokha’s pretrial detention “arbitrary” and “politically motivated,” and said that the Cambodian authorities should immediately release him. UN experts also stated that they “have strong grounds to believe that the treason charge against Mr. Sokha is politically motivated and forms part of a larger pattern of the misapplication of laws to target political opponents and critics of the Government,” and that the “entire process of Mr. Sokha’s arrest and detention has been tainted by irregularities, and clear neglect of international human rights law and Cambodian law.”   On February 12, 2020, the European Union announced its decision to partially withdraw tariff preferences granted to Cambodia under its Everything But Arms trade program “due to the serious and systematic violations of … human rights principles.” In March 2022, the EU passed a resolution calling for the international community to “apply pressure and take public actions to provide protection for activists and human rights defenders,” while also noting that the Sokha trial leaves “the politician stripped of fundamental rights of political participation.”   The EU again passed a resolution on Sokha’s case on March 14, 2023, following his treason conviction, stating that “the politically motivated charges against Kem Sokha are designed to eliminate one of the main opposition leaders; whereas Mr. Sokha has been subject to arbitrary detention, mistreatment in custody, and banned from any political activity since his arrest in 2017.”   Government prosecutors claimed without basis that Sokha was involved in a long-running scheme of foreign collusion to overthrow the government. Prosecutors also opened mass trials in 2021 against other political opposition members that continued into 2022. On June 14, 2022, 51 opposition politicians and activists were convicted in a mass trial on unsubstantiated charges of “incitement” and “conspiracy.” The court sentenced 12 defendants to 8 years in prison, and another 19 defendants to 6 years. Another 20 defendants received 5-year suspended sentences. Many of the defendants were tried in absentia, with 27 currently in exile.   The authorities have continued to wrongfully prosecute members of opposition political parties, Human Rights Watch said. In March 2023, a court sentenced the Cambodia National Heart Party co-founder Seam Pluk and 12 other members of the political opposition to prison terms on fabricated, politically motivated charges connected to gathering signatures on party registration documents. In March, the authorities arrested two former CNRP members for “insulting the monarchy” on Facebook.   In July, the National Election Committee fined and banned 18 opposition party members from holding elected office for 10 to 20 years after they were convicted in absentia for inciting voters to spoil their national election ballots. They included 6 former lawmakers from the dissolved CNRP and 11 activists.   In March and April 2023, Human Rights Watch interviewed four opposition party members who were assaulted in Phnom Penh. There were multiple similarities in the attacks carried out on the street by men in dark clothes and wrap-around motorcycle helmets on motorbikes using an extendable metal baton as a weapon. All the victims interviewed said they believe they were targeted because of their public participation in the activities of the opposition Candlelight Party.   “The persecution of Kem Sokha and other opposition members with impunity exposes the lack of independence of the Cambodian judiciary,” Robertson said. “Cambodia’s aid and trade partners should publicly condemn the injustices against Kem Sokha, and make it clear to Prime Minister Hun Manet that there will be no business as usual until Kem Sokha is freed.”   http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/30/cambodia-court-ruling-keeps-opposition-leader-custody   Jan. 2024   Thailand's popular Move Forward Party faces dissolution after losing bid to amend strict defamation laws. (ABC News)   Thailand's most popular political party could face dissolution after the country's Constitutional Court ruled its signature policy illegal.   The Move Forward Party won the most votes and seats at last year's election on a progressive platform, the centre of which was a proposal to amend the country's strict royal defamation laws.   The laws, known as Section 112, are some of the strictest of their kind in the world and carry penalties of up to 15 years in jail for criticising or insulting Thailand's monarchy.   Move Forward's proposed amendments included reduced sentences and a requirement that complaints must be filed by the royal household.   As it stands, anyone can file a complaint of lese majeste against anyone else and police are obliged to investigate – a situation Move Forward argues allows the law to be used for political purposes.   The Constitutional Court ruled the party's campaign to promise to amend the lese majeste law violated the constitution and was tantamount to an attempt to overthrow the entire political system in Thailand.   The court said the plan to amend Section 112 showed "an intent to separate the monarchy from the Thai nation, which is significantly dangerous to the security of the state".   While the verdict carries no penalty, it is expected to open the door to legal challenges that could seek to dissolve the party and ban its leaders – something Thailand's progressive parties have faced before.   Already, former senator Ruangkrai Leekitwattana has declared he will file a complaint with the Election Commission to seek dissolution. The member of the conservative Palang Pracharat Party filed similar petitions with the Election Commission last year but was previously rejected.   Mr Ruangkrai also filed the complaint with the Election Commission over former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat's ownership of shares in a media business, which was dismissed last week, allowing Mr Pita to be reinstated as a member of parliament.   Human Rights Watch has said that in a worst-case scenario, 44 Move Forward MPs who signed the proposal to amend Section 112, including Mr Pita, could face lifetime bans from politics.   Speaking at a press conference after the ruling, Mr Pita expressed disappointment.   "It's an opportunity lost, that we can use the parliament to find different views and an opportunity to find the consensus building for such an important and critical and fragile issue, that parliament would be the best place to do it, and we lost that opportunity today," he said. When asked what his message was to the millions of Thai voters who supported the party and its proposed change to Section 112, his message was simple.   "We've tried our best and we have a very true intention of finding the proportionality of law between the protection of the monarchy and the proportionality of freedom of speech in modern Thailand, so we've tried our best."   The Constitutional Court in 2020 ordered the dissolution of the Future Forward Party, the predecessor of Move Forward – sparking widescale youth-led protests openly criticising the monarchy.   Many of the protest leaders and participants have since faced lese majeste charges.   Last month, a Thai court sentenced a man to 50 years in jail for comments deemed to be defamatory to the monarchy – the highest-ever sentence handed down under the lese majeste law.   (The current Thai monarch has a personal wealth estimated at $40 billion dollars).   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/thailand-un-human-rights-chief-says-deeply-troubled-dissolution-move-forward http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/14/thailand-lawmaker-sentenced-insulting-monarchy http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/11/thailand-new-government-slow-protect-rights http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/trouble-in-paradise-7743/
	View more stories