Human Rights

01 June 2023; MEMO: The League of Arab States has welcomed the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)'s decision to boycott products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Arab League also welcomed the ETUC's call for "regulatory measures" to prevent EU legal entities from importing or exporting products manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements in accordance with EU treaties and international law.

31 May 2023; MEMO: The city of Geneva has decided to ban a Palestinian exhibition that highlights the suffering of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, Israeli media reported yesterday.

According to Ynet News, this came following pressure from the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland and several pro-Israel organisations.

Secours Rouge Geneva, in collaboration with Samidoun Geneva, prepared for the exhibition, which should have lasted from 25-27 May.

29 May 2023; MEMO: Arab League called on Sunday for the international community to "take serious action and stop Israeli violations on Palestinian children, protect them and guarantee their safety."

This came in the remarks of Arab League's Assistant Secretary General and Head of Social Affairs Sector, Haifa abu Ghazaleh, made during the inauguration of a virtual conference on the flagrant violations on children during armed conflicts held on Sunday.

30 May 2023; MEMO: The US administration has demanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelves a controversial bill aimed at curbing the activities of civil society organisations, as a precondition to meet with US President Joe Biden, Israeli media outlets reported on Sunday.

29 May 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has frozen a controversial bill aimed at curbing the activities of non-profit civil and human rights organisations following significant criticism from the United States and prominent European countries.

28 May 2023; MEMO: Ten European countries have called on Israel to halt its policy of home demolitions and confiscation of Palestinian properties in the occupied West Bank, reports Anadolu Agency.

The call came in a joint statement issued by the consulates general of Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland and the Office of the European Union Representative to the West Bank and Gaza.

Tehran, IRNA – Assadollah Assadi, a former Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium on false charges, has returned home after five years.

The plane carrying Assadi landed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport on Friday evening local time, IRNA reported.

Earlier on the day, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani had said that the former diplomat had been released from prison and would return home after “five years of captivity.”

26 May 2023; AA: The US is witnessing an explosion of child labor violations as legislative overhauls in Republican-majority states seek to remove safeguards intended to prevent a return to what was seen during the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression.

Child labor itself is not a novel problem for the US, but data from the Department of Labor released earlier this year indicates an explosion in violations across the country.

25 May 2023; AA: George Floyd’s 2020 killing at the hands of a white police officer sparked protests across the US in the hopes of racial justice and an end to police brutality.

The viral image of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, pinned to the ground by an officer rekindled the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and abroad.

But three years after his death, the situation for the Black community in the US is no different, data suggests.

27 May 2023; MEMO: Reporters Without Borders has called on the Egyptian authorities to release Tawfik Ghanem, the former bureau chief of the Anadolu Agency office in Cairo, noting that he had begun his third year in detention without being brought to trial.