Human Rights

21 June 2020; MEMO: On 19 June, Brazil voted against a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution which demanded accountability for severe violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories. The resolution also called for the criminal prosecution of those found responsible for crimes and recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the territories.

WASHINGTON, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the United Nations Human Rights Council of hypocrisy after the organisation condemned racism and police brutality in the US following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

Pompeo said the 47-member forum’s unanimous resolution on Friday on policing and race was a new low for the Council and reaffirmed the US’ decision to withdraw from the organisation in 2018.

RAMALLAH/GAZA, June 20 (NNN-WAFA) – Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated on Friday, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, against the Israeli plan of annexing large parts of the West Bank lands.

Palestinian sources and eyewitnesses said, dozens of demonstrators joined a rally in the Jordan Valley area, which is threatened to be annexed by Israel, amid an intensive presence of the Israeli army.

Srinagar, Jun 19: Six Kashmiris were killed on Tuesday in an encounter with Indian security forces in Pulwama and Shopian dist of the Indian Administered Kashmir, Indian officials said.

19 June 2020; MEMO: The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq accused the Iraqi government and Shabak militia Thursday of torturing prisoners in jails in Nineveh governorate, Anadolu reports.

“Detainees in the government’s and militia’s prisons in Iraq are subjected to heinous crimes that go against human nature,” the association’s general secretariat said in a statement.

19 June 2020; MEMO: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday refuted an Israeli media report claiming that in 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin saved Israel from a potential UN Security Council resolution spearheaded by the administration of former US President Barack Obama that would have forced Israel to setup a Palestinian state based on the 1948 borders, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

Ayodhya, Jun 19 (PTI) Amid the Indo-China border standoff, the Ram Mandir trust has put on hold its plan to begin the construction of the temple in Ayodhya.

In an official communique, the trust said that the situation at the India-China border is serious and defending the country is most important.

The decision comes days after a violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh left 20 Indian Army personnel dead.

Hyderabad, Jun 18 (PTI) The Telangana High Court has asked why majority of the victims of alleged police excesses during the lockdown were from a particular community, even as it observed that the counter affidavit filed by police in one of the pleas on their high-handedness lacked all relevant details.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy,asked in its observations whether a minority community was targeted.

18 June 2020; MEMO: The Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and Prime Minister of the internationally- recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, has called on the United Nations to provide his government with “technical assistance” to gather evidence and document violations committed by militias affiliated with renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

18 June 2020; MEMO: The family of Egypt’s former President Mohamed Morsi founded a pro-democracy organisation in London in his honour, launching it yesterday, one year after he died in an Egyptian court.