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	UN envoys condemn Chinese ''re-education'' camps for minority communities in Xinjiang by HRW, Deutsche Welle, agencies   China is reportedly holding up to 1 million Uighurs in internment camps, described as "concentration camps" by rights groups. Diplomats rarely send open letters to the UN Human Rights Council to criticize a country's record.   Ambassadors of more than 20 countries have called on China to end its mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.   The countries that criticized China''s treatment of Uighur Muslims include Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.   The unusual letter, dated July 8, was sent to Coly Seck, president of the Human Rights Council, and Michelle Bachelet, the high commissioner for human rights at the Council.   The letter decried "large-scale places of detention, as well as widespread surveillance and restrictions, particularly targeting Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang."   "We call on China to uphold its national laws and international obligations and to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion or belief in Xinjiang and across China," read the letter.   "We call also on China to refrain from the arbitrary detention and restrictions on freedom of movement of Uighurs, and other Muslim and minority communities in Xinjiang."   Activists had sought a formal resolution at the Council, but some analysts say the move was the only available option to spotlight the Uighur plight at the forum. China was thought to have enough votes to stop any resolution, hence the unusual step of an open letter of criticism from diplomats instead.   In October last year, Chinese authorities in the far-northwestern region of Xinjiang revised legislation to permit the use of "education and training centers" to combat religious extremism.   Rights groups say that in practice the centers are internment camps in which as many as 1 million minority Muslims have been placed in the past few years.   The Chinese measures have raised concerns among Muslims in other parts of China that Beijing wants to implement the Sinicization model across the country.   China says the camps are "training centers" to equip people with employable skills to help combat Islamist extremism in Xinjiang province, still the site of frequent violence.   The Chinese government has for decades tried to suppress pro-independence movements among Xinjiang's Muslim community, spurred largely by frustration over the influx of migrants from China's Han majority.   Chinese authorities say that extremists in the region have ties to terror groups, but have given little evidence to support that claim.   http://www.dw.com/en/western-un-envoys-condemn-chinas-muslim-re-education-camps/a-49543438 http://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/17/un-chief-should-denounce-chinas-abuses-xinjiang http://bit.ly/2Mf3lrc http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/tell-the-world/11311228 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48825090 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/17/think-of-your-family-china-threatens-european-citizens-over-xinjiang-protests   * UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination China report Sep. 2018: http://bit.ly/2G1jdwz
	Ending Starvation Crimes by Wayne Jordash, Catriona Murdoch Global Rights Compliance, World Peace Foundation   The F word is back in use, famines have returned. In 2017 the UN identified four situations of acute food insecurity that threatened famine or breached that threshold, in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. In December 2018 famine was formally declared across regions of Yemen. Starvation is also being used as a weapon of war in Syria. We have also seen how food and humanitarian aid is being manipulated, obstructed and politicised in the Gaza Strip and in Venezuela.   Starvation Crimes, an umbrella term coined by Alex de Waal to encompass a range of (non-exhaustive) criminal conduct intended to deprive people of items necessary for sustaining human life are at the heart of the problem. Every instance of famine or acute food insecurity today is at its core man-made and this criminal and reckless behaviour is responsible for widespread and systematic death, injury and suffering worldwide.   As 2019 begins and the number of victims spirals into the millions, we must urgently address how we can strengthen our collective response to deter such conduct.   The current and collective scale of suffering and death as a result of these crimes is unprecedented in modern history: Yemen alone promises to be the most severe famine in living memory. Yet recognition of the deliberate nature of famine, attribution of fault and accountability remains elusive.   We at the start of a long road to criminalise starvation in a way that properly recognises the causes, identifies the culprits and correctly labels their crimes. Despite the birth of modern international criminal law over the last 25 years, there has been a dearth of prosecutions for starvation crimes.   As we have seen with all kinds of international crimes, the relevant conduct needs to move beyond the confines of the battlefield and the classroom and into the courtroom. Then the relevant law may be identified, clarified, codified and developed so that a belligerent warlord or a government supplying arms used to starve become fearful of its reach.   A significant barrier and indeed weakness of the crime of starvation under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its present form, is that it only applies in an international-armed conflict (IAC). This excludes nearly all of the current conflicts, including Syria, Yemen and South Sudan enduring mass starvation.   Given the international customary law clarity around its criminalisation in both conflict designations, as recently reflected in UNSC 2417, it is more than ripe for amendment. In April 2018, Switzerland proposed an amendment to article 8 of the Rome Statute on the 'Inclusion of starvation as a war crime in non-international armed conflicts (NIAC) into the Rome Statute. It has much to commend it.   Unfortunately, time was against the Swiss proposal and in October 2018, the amendment decision was postponed to the 18th Session of the ICCs Assembly of State Parties in 2019, to allow for a thorough discussion by the Working Group. There was no principled basis for omitting to include it in the Rome Statute from the outset. Given the escalating criminality in NIACs, there is now, more than ever, an urgent need to correct this mistake.   Filling this accountability gap will strengthen enforcement worldwide and will provide a platform for further global action. Many European countries appear receptive to these developments, including the Netherlands, who not only unanimously pushed through UNSC 2417, but matched words with deeds and altered their domestic legislation ahead of UNSC 2417's vote in May, to ensure that the crime of starvation may be prosecuted in both a NIAC and an IAC. At least eight other countries have already removed the arbitrary distinction that remains in the Rome Statute.   The ICC is a court of last resort. It is states that need to show leadership on the issue and ensure that their laws are fit for purpose and may be used to prosecute under universal jurisdiction principles and also to ensure accountability for their own citizens or corporations misbehaviour. The increasing use of universal jurisdiction across the globe, including Argentina's recent commencement of its investigation into the role of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in torture and war crimes in Yemen, shows that we should not assume the impunity of the powerful, especially where responsible states, civil society organizations and the public join hands to protect those in need.   Of course, starvation trials, whilst long overdue, are not a panacea. International and national justice is but one part of the journey. We must look more broadly at the full range of transitional justice tools, including truth, reparations, reform and guarantees of non-recurrence.   However, we must first deal with the misconceptions surrounding starvation that (conveniently) lapse into inertia and fatalism, painting starvation as a force majeure, or due to climate change, poverty or even legitimate military action. None of these excuses stand up to scrutiny or begin to address the unforgivable pain and suffering visited upon the innocent.   Our collective determination should be to make mass starvation unthinkable. We must aim to increase the likelihood that global leaders in a position to inflict or fail to prevent mass starvation, act to avoid it.   We need to work cooperatively to ensure that starvation is not viewed as an inevitable consequence of war and that those who intend it will be held up to public reproach and condemnation. For those leaders who refuse to alter course, they must pay the price. As 2019 begins we need to act now to ensure the millions of famine victims have a voice and some form of redress.   http://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/new-briefing-paper-movement-towards-accountability-for-starvation http://bit.ly/2X74SGm http://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/deputy-director-of-the-world-food-programme-brian-lander-on-the-re-emergence-of-famines-and-the-role-the-law-can-play-in-humanitarian-response http://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/ http://www.globalrightscompliance.com/en/projects/accounting-for-mass-starvation-testing-the-limits-of-the-law Visit the related web page
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