Human Rights

The Australian immigration department has been desperately trying to repatriate traumatized Syrians seeking asylum in Australia detained in offshore detention centers, British daily the Guardian reported on Tuesday. Several emails it obtained under Australia’s freedom of information laws suggested that the Syrians detained had told immigration officials that they will be killed if they go back to Syria, but the …

Late on Wednesday night, Israeli police arrested 52 Palestinians in East Jerusalem for alleged rioting, taking the total number of such arrests to over 600 since early July. On Thursday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that more arrests are to be expected. “The majority of the incidents occurred in east Jerusalem against police officers who were on patrol; throwing …

On Thursday, five people were killed as Egyptian police tried to repress attempts made by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi to memorialize the first anniversary of the crackdown in Cairo. On August 14th, 2013, current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, then the Egyptian army chief, had removed Morsi, the first freely elected President in Egypt. After Morsi’s removal, security forces …

On Tuesday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the Israeli “war crimes” in Gaza and urged donors to meet and discuss financial reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave. The OIC, after its second meeting in three days, said that it had condemned Israeli “in the liveliest terms” during the meeting and called Israel “the occupying force, for war crimes it …

The United Nations on Monday said human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, Movie star George Clooney’s fiancé, is set to join other human rights experts and investigate the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The Lebanon-born British lawyer is one of three top human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council on a commission of inquiry to probe the aggression; the …

International rights group Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Jordan of forcibly deporting and refusing entry to Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria, and called it a defiance of Jordan’s international obligations. The New York-based group released its report in Amman, and said that Jordan has officially banned the entry of Palestinian refugees since January 2013 and since mid-2012 has forcibly deported …

On Thursday, Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the scale of civilian casualties during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza should not happen again. The head of the ICRC said that he was “deeply distressed and shocked to see the impact of violence on the civilian population”. Maurer visited the Palestinian enclave …

Fighters in Syria have held 54 children and women as hostage for a year, rights group Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, and urged that they should be freed. It also warned that holding civilians could amount to a war crime. The New York-based rights group said that the group of 54 was captured from the province of Latakia in …

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said that the UN is willing to help Gaza rebuild, but warned that it would be the last time they would offer their help. He opened a special meeting of the UN General Assembly by appealing for a more permanent ceasefire as the 72-hour truce deal between Hamas and Israel held …

The international community intensified its condemnation of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a strike close to a UN school harboring civilians killed 10 people and sparked worldwide outrage. As the Israeli military operation entered day 28 on Monday, the international community seems to be losing patience with Israel. Over 1,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza …