Rwanda: UN court jails ex-military leader, two others for life on genocide charges

A United Nations court today sentenced the alleged mastermind behind the 1994 massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda and two co-defendants to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In a trial that began nearly nine years ago, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, the highest authority over the Rwandan military in April 1994 when the genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists began, responsible for the killing of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and other leading officials.

The court, which sits in Arusha, Tanzania, found him equally guilty in connection with the killing of 10 Belgian peacekeepers by Rwandan soldiers, and responsible for the organized killings perpetrated by soldiers and militiamen in Kigali, the capital, and Gisenyi in the west of the tiny country between 6 and 9 April, 1994.

The ICTR found Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva guilty as commander of the elite Para Commando Battalion for the participation of his soldiers in killings at Kabeza, Nyanza Hill and the African and Mauritian Statistical and Economic Institute in Kigali.

Major Aloys Ntabakuze was found guilty in connection with the massacres at Mutende University, the targeted killings of civilians in Gisenyi prefecture, and for sending militiamen to Bisesero in Kibuye prefecture to kill displaced Tutsis in June 1994.

A fourth defendant, Brigadier-General Gratien Kabiligi, was acquitted and ordered released. The prosecution alleged that he participated in the distribution of weapons, meetings to plan genocide and a number of specific crimes but the court found that it was not proven that he had operational authority or targeted civilians.

All of the accused were acquitted of conspiring to commit genocide before 7 April, when the violence erupted following the death a day earlier of President Juvénal Habyarimana when his plane was shot down. A total of 242 witnesses were heard during the trial – 82 for the prosecution and 160 for the defence – during 408 days of active sessions.

In another case the ICTR sentenced Protais Zigiranyirazo, Mr. Habyarimana’s brother-in-law, to 20 years jail on charges of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity for “participating in a joint criminal enterprise with the common purpose of committing genocide and extermination of Tutsi at Kesho Hill as well as aiding and abetting genocide at the Kiyovu roadblock.”

But it acquitted the defendant, also known as “Mr. Z,” of conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and murder as a crime against humanity, declaring that the prosecution had failed to prove that he conspired with officials to plan or facilitate attacks on Tutsis or that he had criminal responsibility for alleged involvement in the Interahamwe militant Hutu group.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended the Tribunal for its continued efforts to complete its work while upholding due process and the rights of the accused.

“These judgments constitute a major step in the fight against the impunity of those responsible for the most serious crimes of international concern,” a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said. “The Secretary-General firmly believes that international justice is an essential component of peace and reconciliation.”

On International Day, UN officials call for protecting dignity and rights of migrants

Top United Nations officials are marking International Migrants Day by stressing the need to ensure the dignity and human rights of the more than 200 million people worldwide who cross borders to live and work, and who make a vital contribution to their societies.

“To save migrants from abuse, and allow them to contribute to development in their home and receiving countries, we must acknowledge them as human beings whose rights, like those of everyone else, must be protected,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in his message for the Day, observed annually on 18 December.

Mr. Ban noted that this year’s commemoration coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with its “visionary commitment to dignity and justice for everyone, everywhere, always.

“We can only fully give meaning to the Declaration if we recognize that regardless of an individual’s immigration status, fundamental human rights are non-negotiable and the treatment of migrants, regular and irregular alike, must always conform to international standards.”

Likewise, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed that all migrants everywhere have the right to dignity and justice, just like anyone else, and called on all States to adhere to the International Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families – the most comprehensive global framework on the issue.

“Migrants are still discriminated against in an unacceptable manner in almost all societies, and are usually subject to working conditions and pay far below the standards enjoyed by citizens. Migrants are consistently denied entitlements to social security or housing, and excluded from employment and other opportunities,” she said in her message.

“In short, it seems that States, while depending on their labour for a wide range of services, are still content to treat migrants as second class human beings,” she added.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres noted that international migration enables people to improve their lives, as well as fill gaps in labour markets and provide billions to developing countries through remittances.

However, migration also has a “darker side,” especially when people move because they are escaping intolerable conditions at home and they do not have the proper paperwork to enable them to migrate in a safe and legal manner, leading to abuse and exploitation.

The High Commissioner called on the world to “remember that all migrants, irrespective of their motivation for moving and their legal status, enjoy the protection of the core international human rights treaties.”

In an address to a panel held at UN Headquarters in New York to mark the Day, General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto stressed that the world’s 200 million migrants “must not only be protected, but given every opportunity to integrate themselves into the communities where they have settled and participate meaningfully in the economic, social and cultural lives of their adopted homes.

“We must ensure that their voices are heard at the national and international levels as well,” he added, in a message delivered on his behalf by Bolivia’s Ambassador and Assembly Vice-President, Hugo Siles Alvarado.

Two independent UN human rights experts are marking the Day by drawing special attention to the many children whose lives are affected by migration, particularly those who migrate on their own separated from parents and other adults taking care of them.

These children are at greater risk for trafficking and various forms of exploitation, and are often discriminated against and denied access to food, shelter, health and education services, according to a statement issued by the Chairperson of the Committee on Migrant Workers, Abdelhamid El Jamri, and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante.

They added that children of migrants who move with their parents to live in another country also face many obstacles, including social stigma and discrimination.

“We would like to hereby stress that each child of a migrant worker, irrespective of the migratory status of their parents, has the right of access to education and urgent medical care on the basis of equality of treatment with the nationals of the State concerned,” they stated.

Also on the occasion of the Day, the top UN envoy to Iraq has reiterated his concern over the situation of over 1,000 foreign workers, some of whom have already been repatriated, brought by international contractors to Iraq and kept without job guarantees in warehouses near Baghdad’s international airports, without minimum respect for international labour standards.

“I am deeply troubled about the plight of those stranded in difficult conditions – some of whom are living in cardboard boxes in freezing night-time temperatures – and whose expectations, as they have been promised, for decent jobs have so far been shattered,” said Staffan de Mistura.

He voiced his support for the steps already taken by those concerned and encouraged additional concrete measures to swiftly alleviate the plight of those affected. 

Israel’s detention of UN expert ‘unprecedented’ – rights chief

Israel’s refusal to allow a United Nations expert to transit to carry out his officially mandated functions in the occupied Palestinian territory, his detention and subsequent expulsion is “unprecedented and deeply regrettable,” the world body’s top human rights official said today.

“It is the responsibility of States to cooperate with the independent United Nations experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay added of the treatment accorded the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk. “That is an important principle.”

She said she was taking the matter up directly with the Israeli authorities, including possible breaches of UN privileges and immunities in the treatment and detention of Mr. Falk at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, where he was stopped at immigration shortly after arriving on Sunday on a mission at the invitation of the Palestinian Authority.

He was denied entry to Israel and was subsequently separated from the UN staff accompanying him, she added in a statement. His UN-issued mobile phone was confiscated, making further contact with the Organization impossible until after his deportation to the United States on Monday.

He was kept in a detention facility at the airport, where he spent the night in a small room with several other people who were being denied entry into Israel, Ms. Pillay said. In all, Mr. Falk spent more than 20 hours in the airport, before being deposited on a plane to Los Angeles.

Special Rapporteurs, who are independent, unpaid experts reporting to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, do not require a formal invitation by Israel to carry out official missions to the occupied Palestinian territory. The Israeli Government did not prevent Mr. Falk’s predecessors or other Special Rapporteurs from transiting on their way to the occupied Palestinian territory, which cannot be reached directly from overseas, she added.

The Israeli authorities were informed in writing on two occasions, on14 October and 3 December, that Mr. Falk intended to make his first official visit to the occupied Palestinian territory, but no written reply was received indicating that they would break with previous practice of permitting Special Rapporteurs to transit until an e-mail that was sent Saturday night to a staff member of the High Commissioner’s office in Geneva.

The staff member was not in a position to read this e-mail before leaving with Mr. Falk for the airport the following morning.

Ban urges UN rights council to rise above ''partisan posturing'' and review all States

The United Nations Human Rights Council marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a special session today, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling on it to rise above “partisan posturing and regional divides” and review the record of every State.

“We have come a long way since the Declaration''s adoption. But the reality is that we have not lived up to its vision – at least not yet,” Mr. Ban told the Council in Geneva. “Abject poverty, shameful discrimination and horrific violence continue to plague millions of people. As we mark this milestone, we must also acknowledge the savage inhumanity that too many people in our world must endure. There is no time to rest.

“This Council can have a tremendous impact. But you, its members, must rise above partisan posturing and regional divides. One way to do this is with continued vigilance in carrying out the Universal Periodic Review, which assesses the human rights records of all States. The Council must address human rights abuses wherever they occur.”

With children reading out articles of the Declaration in their national languages, Council President Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi said 60 years on, the text continued to be a living and relevant document for all, carrying its fundamental message to people everywhere in the world.

Noting that the Declaration was born following the utter devastation of the Second World War, Mr. Ban stressed that the General Assembly was still adding to the human rights edifice with such texts as the recently adopted Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the treaty against enforced disappearances and the covenant enshrining the rights of the disabled.

“The world did not adopt such an impressive list of human rights instruments just to put them on a shelf somewhere at the United Nations,” he said. “These should be living documents that can be wielded by experts who scrutinize country reports or assess individual complaints.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also stressed that the Declaration gave impulse to a wide and growing legal architecture as well as advocacy vehicles. Today, the principles it embodied had found an echo in the constitutions and laws of more than 90 countries, and dedicated international, regional and national mechanisms, including her Office and the Council, she said.

Mr. Ban praised the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media in helping to uphold human rights. “Courageous journalists have risked and lost their lives to report on threats against others. This anniversary is a milestone for them, too – a day on which to stress again the need for media to be free to do their job, and free of harassment, intimidation and worse,” he added.

Speaking to the press later, Mr. Ban said that it is necessary and desirable that the United States takes part as a member of the Human Rights Council. “I would expect and hope that the next Administration will seriously and positively consider my call on this matter.”

He also noted his recent conversations with President-elect Barack Obama and other US officials, saying that he expects the new Administration to be much more actively engaged with the UN on climate change, the anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and other issues on the world body''s agenda.

In his message to the commemorative meeting, UN International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia said the Declaration placed respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms squarely in the context of the fight against poverty and the promotion of social progress.

But its goals and aspirations still remained distant and unrealized for millions of working women and men worldwide, he stressed. The current economic turmoil required all the more a focus on ensuring respect for human rights.

In another message to the session, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said fatality figures for the occupied Palestinian territory had surely to make the world question its commitment to upholding the right to life, the most fundamental of all rights. More than 500 Palestinians had been killed this year as a result of the conflict and 11 Israelis had lost their lives this year, she noted.

The right to freedom of movement enshrined in the Universal Declaration also remained a distant hope for many Palestinians. With an estimated 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, the declaration that everyone had the right to liberty and security of person and that no one should be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment had a sad resonance today, she added.

In Gaza, more than half of the population now lived below the deep poverty line. This was a humanitarian crisis, but one that was deliberately imposed by political actors. Overarching all these rights was the right of self-determination, a right of which Palestinians had been deprived through 60 years of exile and dispossessions, she declared. The chasm between word and deed was a matter of puzzlement to many Palestinians.

“But this can be reversed and protection is the place to start,” she said. “Let us make the protection of Palestinian rights the byword of all our interventions. Let us make the vision of the signatories of the Universal Declaration a reality continued failure to do so is to our universal shame.”

In New York renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, a UN Messenger of Peace who will perform in a commemorative concert in the General Assembly on Monday with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra composed of Arab and Israeli youth, told a news conference that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could only be solved when each side accepted the rights of the other.

“And our very modest project of the West-Eastern Divan is precisely that. It is not a political project, it is a human project that brings together people that already have something in common,” he said, noting that the performers would be Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli and Syrian.