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https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58321935

This news relates to the existence of race discrimination in entertainment industry.
The report was commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media diversity on 25th august at Birmingham City University.
More than half of all actors from ethnic minorities have directly experienced racism in the workplace, a major new study has revealed.
The actor and comedian added: ”this report finally brings into the open what many of us have been talking about, and suffering in private.”

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More than half of all actors from ethnic minorities have directly experienced racism in the workplace, a major new study has revealed.

The UK survey of more than 1,300 actors found that 64% had experienced racist stereotyping during an audition, while 55% suffered racist behaviour at work.

Meanwhile, 71% said hair and make-up departments had been unable to cater to their heritage, hair or skin tone.

Sir Lenny Henry called the findings a "stain against the entire industry".

The actor and comedian added: "This report finally brings into the open what many of us talk about, and suffer, in private.

"We all work in this industry because we love it, but we must do better."

The report was commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.

Almost four out of five actors who responded said they had been asked to audition for a role that potentially stereotyped their ethnicity. Only 39% felt they could turn down those auditions.

One actress of Middle Eastern heritage said "all the roles that were specific to my heritage... were all stereotypical", including a terrorist daughter, immigrant and "scripts written with broken English".

A British Asian actress in her 50s said "eight out of 10" of her auditions were for an "Indian mother/aunt, etc, with accent", often spouting outdated ideas on sexuality and interracial marriage.

"[It's] like my generation of British Asian has been completely forgotten, but we are the ones that left home and defied convention," she said. "We studied Shakespeare and Ibsen and went to uni in the UK... yet we just don't exist."

'Painful reminder'

The report said stereotypes were hard-wired into casting notes, with Afro-Caribbean actors often told to "play it more sassy, urban and street".

In other examples, actors of various ethnicities were asked to "do a Middle-Eastern accent" or "sound 'more Asian'".

The findings correlate with previous studies, including a 2016 report by the British Film Institute, which found that Afro-Caribbean actors were more likely to be cast in roles connected to slavery, racism, colonialism, crime and gangs.

Sir Lenny said the lack of diversity in casting was "one of the greatest challenges facing the industry".

He wrote: "Every time we see a great actor like Thandiwe Newton, Idris Elba or David Harewood leave these shores to find opportunities denied to them in the UK, it is a painful reminder of why casting is so important."

The report also exposed specific issues around hair and make-up.

"The few black hair stylists I worked with knew not only how to tend to afro-centric hair texture, but also Caucasian and thick Asian or Hispanic. But I'm still yet to work with a white hairstylist who knows how to treat afro-centric hair," wrote one respondent.

"I normally bring my own foundation on jobs because I'm not sure if the make-up department will be used to dealing with my skin tone," added another.

The study concluded with several recommendations, including an independent third-party reporting body and having people of colour in substantive roles with the power to actively engage in anti-racist practices.

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Sir Lenny Henry: Survey shows racism is a stain on entertainment industry

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More than half of all actors from ethnic minorities have directly experienced racism in the workplace, a major new study has revealed. The UK survey of more than 1,300 actors found that 64% had experienced racist stereotyping during an audition, while 55% suffered racist behaviour at work.

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In Paris, near-daily French officials subject adults and children living in migrant encampments to degrading treatment, police harassment, and restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance, with the purposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or lack of housing.

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(Paris) - French officials regularly subject adults and children living in migrant encampments around Calais to degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Five years after French authorities demolished the sprawling Calais migrant camp frequently called the "Jungle," more than 1,000 people are staying in encampments in and around the town.

The 79-page report, " Enforced Misery: The Degrading Treatment of Migrant Children and Adults in Northern France," documents repeated mass eviction operations, near-daily police harassment, and restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance. The authorities carry out these abusive practices with the primary purposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or lack of housing, or of deterring new arrivals.

"Subjecting people to daily harassment and humiliation is never justifiable," said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. "If the aim is to discourage migrants from gathering in northern France, these policies are a manifest failure and result in serious harm."

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 60 migrants, including 40 who identified themselves as unaccompanied children, in and around Calais and the nearby commune of Grande-Synthe from October through December 2020 and June to July 2021. Human Rights Watch also met with officials from the prefecture and child protection office for the Pas-de-Calais department, and the Grande-Synthe mayor's office.

An estimated 2,000 people, including at least 300 unaccompanied children, were staying in and around encampments in Calais in mid-2021, according to humanitarian groups. Several hundred more, including many families with children, were in a forest in Grande-Synthe, adjacent to the city of Dunkerque (Dunkirk).

Policing efforts to push migrant adults and children out of Calais and Grande-Synthe have not discouraged new arrivals and do not appear to have reduced irregular Channel crossings, which hit record highs in July and August. But policing practices have inflicted increasing misery on migrants.

"When the police arrive, we have five minutes to get out of the tent before they destroy everything. It is not possible for five people, including young children, to get dressed in five minutes in a tent," a Kurdish woman from Iraq told Human Rights Watch in December 2020.

Police routinely require migrants to move temporarily off the land they are occupying while police confiscate - and often destroy - tents, tarps, and sleeping bags the people have not managed to take with them. Police subjected most Calais encampments to these routine eviction operations every other day in 2020 and the first half of 2021. In Grande-Synthe, these evictions took place once or twice a week.

Police conducted more than 950 routine eviction operations in Calais and at least 90 routine evictions in Grande-Synthe in 2020, seizing nearly 5,000 tents and tarps and hundreds of sleeping bags and blankets, according to Human Rights Observers (HRO), a group that regularly monitors police evictions of these encampments.

Police also periodically evict everyone from an encampment, claiming that these are "shelter" operations. But shelter is only provided for a few days. The authorities carrying out mass evictions also do not effectively identify and take specific steps to protect unaccompanied children.

These tactics leave children and adults constantly on alert and focused on their day-to-day survival. Many are haggard, sleep-deprived, and, as the national ombudsperson's office, the French Defender of Rights, observed in September 2020, "in a state of physical and mental exhaustion."

Officials have also placed legal and practical restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance. Local ordinances prohibit food and water distributions by aid groups in the Calais town center. Government aid sites are often moved, or aid is distributed at the same time as evictions.

Government services do not meet the needs of women and girls. The Calais encampments have no separate toilets for women, and Grande-Synthe has no toilets. Toilets lack adequate lighting, with particular risks for women and girls. Barriers to water access mean scarcity for everybody and problems for women and girls during menstruation.

Emergency shelter is in principle available to anybody who needs it in France, but the system is overstretched. Shelters in Calais are frequently full, and emergency accommodation is even more limited for those in Grande-Synthe. Emergency shelter is usually limited to a few nights, even for families with young children. A separate shelter system for unaccompanied children is also frequently at or near capacity, with many children turned away.

Police have also harassed volunteers with HRO, Utopia 56, and other nongovernmental groups that observe police conduct during evictions. Some police have falsely told observers they could not film police operations, threatening them with arrest.

These abusive practices further a deterrence policy under which officials seek to eliminate or avoid anything they view as drawing migrants to northern France or encouraging the establishment of encampments. This approach does not account for the reality that the real draw is its proximity to the United Kingdom, 30 kilometers across the Strait of Dover.

"Exiles aren't travelling to northern France because they've heard they can camp in the woods or stay under a bridge. They aren't coming because groups are giving them a little food and water. They come because that's where the border is," said Charlotte Kwantes, Utopia 56's national coordinator.

The end of the Brexit transition period means that the United Kingdom can no longer return most adult asylum seekers to France without first considering their asylum claims. The UK government has also stopped accepting new family reunification transfer applications, the only practical legal option for UK entry available to unaccompanied children.

The prefects of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, the departments in which Calais and Grande-Synthe are located, should end repeated evictions of migrant encampments and stop seizing people's belongings, Human Rights Watch said. The prefectures should work with departmental authorities to offer alternative accommodation that provides people with stability and helps them make informed choices about seeking asylum or other status in France or elsewhere or returning to their home countries.

French child protection authorities should do more to inform unaccompanied children about their options, including entry into the child protection system, which offers the possibility of receiving legal status at age 18.

The European Union should create a system for sharing responsibility among EU member states that avoids unfair stress on countries of first arrival and the most popular destination countries, and takes into due consideration the family and social ties as well as individual preferences of asylum seekers.

The UK government should develop safe and legal means for migrants to travel to the United Kingdom to seek safe haven, reunify with family members, or work or study.

"French authorities should abandon their failed playbook toward migrants of the past five years," Jeannerod said. "They need a new approach to help people, not repeatedly harass and abuse them."

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France: Degrading Treatment of Migrants Around Calais

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(Paris) - French officials regularly subject adults and children living in migrant encampments around Calais to degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Five years after French authorities demolished the sprawling Calais migrant camp frequently called the "Jungle," more than 1,000 people are staying in encampments in and around the town.

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Yesterday(6-10-2021) , human rights activist group in Yemen accused the United Nations of doing nothing about alleged human rights violation on that country , particularly in areas under government control which with be using "terrorism groups" to carry out attacks with the aim of fighting dissents.

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Yemen activists denounce the United Nations and its former envoy Martin Griffiths for ignoring rights breaches and putting 'politics before humanity'.

A Yemeni government fighter fires a vehicle-mounted weapon at a front-line position during battles against Houthi rebels in Marib [File: Ali Owidha/Reuters]

Human rights advocates from southern Yemen have accused the United Nations of turning a blind eye to human rights violations committed in areas under government control at the hands of what they described as "terrorist" groups.

Human rights lawyers also criticised the UN and its former envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, for his "piecemeal" approach to the conflict and for putting "politics before humanity" - a negotiating strategy that has led to a complete failure of the peace process, they said.

"The government of Yemen is using violence against its citizens in Shabwa, including targeted assassinations with the help of agents from extremist and terrorist groups," said Nasr Obaid, a human rights activist with the Southern Independent Group, an NGO representing southern Yemenis.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council last week in the Swiss city of Geneva, Obaid said Yemeni citizens who collaborated with the Shabwani Elite Forces, a UAE-backed militia that fought al-Qaeda alongside the tribes in the south, are now victims of government reprisals.

Some 55 assassinations and more than 600 arbitrary arrests have been reported in the southern governorate of Shabwah since the Saudi-backed government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi took control of the region, according to Frontline, a Yemeni NGO. But UN reports fail to acknowledge the increase in violations taking place in the south of the war-torn country, Obaid said.

'Committing heinous crimes'

Presenting a documentary film on the human rights situation in Shabwah, Obaid said summary executions are committed in broad daylight by government officers, as well as agents of Al Islah, the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, and other hardline groups.

"These extremists come from the north of the country and from Marib," said Obaid. "The southern tribes have been fighting them all along, but they commit heinous crimes to punish all those that refuse to collaborate with them."

Obaid and other activists claimed the central government is using armed groups against tribal leaders, human rights advocates, and political adversaries in Shabwah and the southern provinces in order to curb dissent.

The Yemeni government mission to the UN in Geneva did not answer Al Jazeera's requests for comment. The office of the UN special envoy to Yemen did not respond by the time of publication.

Al-Qaeda and Shabwah

Shabwah is one of Yemen's oil-rich governorates and during the outbreak of the Yemeni civil war in 2015 became the battleground between the Houthi rebels and late President Ali Abdullah Saleh loyalists on one side and the internationally recognised government of President Hadi on the other.

In 2017, government loyalists and the Saudi led-coalition pushed the Houthis out of the region. But ever since, Shabwah has been the theatre of a prolonged armed uprising campaign by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as well as a power struggle between the Hadi government and the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, which considers itself the only legitimate representative of the southern people.

During the same period, the UAE's increasing involvement in "counterterrorism" operations alongside the Shabwani Elite Forces and the United States in the south has upset the tribes, adding to the tensions between local and central authorities.

A UN report issued in September says there are no clean hands in Shabwah.

The 60-page document said the governments of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Southern Transitional Council, as well as the Houthis, referred to as the "de facto authorities", are all responsible for human rights violations and individuals belonging to these parties "have committed acts that may amount to war crimes".

Ardi Imseis, one of the UN legal experts compiling the report, told Al Jazeera the government of Yemen and Saudi Arabia continue to impede UN lawyers' access to the country.

"Only the Houthis have agreed to our field visits, but we cannot go unless Saudi Arabia and the government of Yemen allow us to do so," said Imseis.

Saleh Alnoud, a lawyer in international humanitarian law, said the government needs to do more for the people of Shabwah.

"It is difficult to know who controls what in Yemen, but the central government is formally in charge of Shabwah and should be held responsible for the lack of security and services over there," Alnoud told a media briefing.

UN envoy criticised

The deteriorating human rights situation in Shabwah is also the result of a flawed approach to the peace process by the UN and its envoys, which have ignored the instances of the southern regions, Alnoud said.

"The former envoy has allowed the two parties (government and Houthis) to manoeuvre and dominate the agenda as much as they wanted, especially the Houthis," said Alnoud.

"The government of President Hadi has no legitimacy in the south of Yemen ... The new UN envoy ( Hans Grundberg) should acknowledge the realities on the ground head-on. There has to be a different approach."

The UN approach to the conflict acknowledges only two belligerent sides: the Houthis who occupy the capital Sanaa and the north of the country; and the internationally recognised government. Some experts argue this two-party framework is ignoring the realities on the ground in Yemen, including the complexity of its tribal set-up as well as the longstanding southern struggle for independence.

A solution would be to replace Security Council Resolution 2216 and widen the spectrum of political, ethnic, and gender representation at the negotiating table, analysts have said.

Battle for Marib

Activists, however, worried that with the Houthis laying siege to the oil-rich city of Marib, the last northern stronghold of the central government, human rights conditions may deteriorate and violations go unreported.

Marib, 120km (70 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, lays at a strategic junction the north and south of Yemen. It is not only key to controlling the northern regions, but its capture may lead to the conquest of other territories in Shabwa and the rest of the south.

David Beasley, chief of the World Food Programme, said last month more than half the nation of 30 million urgently needs food assistance.

"We're literally looking at 16 million people marching towards starvation," he said.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement listing many violations committed by different actors in September.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, publicly executed nine men, including one who reportedly was a minor when he was detained.

In Aqabat al-Qanda' in Shabwa governorate, an air attack launched by the Saudi-led coalition hit a pick-up vehicle, killing five members of a family, among them two children. None of those killed was a member of an armed group.

In another incident, a young man was robbed and shot dead at a checkpoint set up by a unit affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council in Lahj governorate.

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UN accused of turning a blind eye to Yemen abuses

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Yemen activists denounce the United Nations and its former envoy Martin Griffiths for ignoring rights breaches and putting 'politics before humanity'. Human rights advocates from southern Yemen have accused the United Nations of turning a blind eye to human rights violations committed in areas under government control at the hands of what they described as "terrorist" groups.

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This article was posted on october 1 of 2020 and talks about the egyptian police that violates HR by arresting lesbian, gay, bissexual and transgender  people just because they belong to the LGBTQ+ community. They torture them, sexual abuse them and practice forced exams and “virginity tests”. They also inflict verbal abuse, extract forced confessions and deni them acess to medical care. They do this because they hava a big prejudice against people of this community they say that they are unnatural.

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Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People

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(Beirut) - Egyptian police and National Security Agency officers arbitrarily arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and detain them in inhuman conditions, systematically subject them to ill-treatment including torture, and often incite fellow inmates to abuse them, Human Rights Watch said today.

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This article was published on 1 october 2021. It is about Mohib Ullah who was killed at a refugee camp in Blangladesh. The UN High commisioner for human rights is investing why and who killed this man.

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Mohib Ullah, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was shot dead on Wednesday by unknown assailants in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, located in the south of the country.

The camp was established in August 2017 and houses more than 750,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority group from neighbouring Myanmar, who fled mass killings, rapes and persecution by the army and security forces.

'An exceptional human rights defender'

"It is heartbreaking that a person who spent his life fighting to ensure that the violations committed against the Rohingya people were known world-wide has been murdered in this way," the UN rights chief said.

Ms. Bachelet described Mr. Ullah as "an exceptional human rights defender, who despite the risks that his work entailed, nevertheless continued defending the rights of his people."

For years, he methodically collected information about violations against the Rohingya in their home state of Rakhine, in northwestern Myanmar, and sought to galvanise international action.

A persecuted community

Mr. Ullah travelled to Geneva in March 2019 to address the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council in person, explaining how the Rohingya had suffered discrimination for decades, such as being deprived of their basic rights, including nationality, land, health and education.

"Imagine if you have no identity, no ethnicity, no country. Nobody wants you. How would you feel? This is how we feel today as Rohingya," he told the Council at the time. "We are citizens of Myanmar, we are Rohingya."

Ms. Bachelet said Mr. Ullah's words "were very powerful and highlighted the terrible situation of the Rohingya and today, four years later, they echo as a reminder that Rohingya are still waiting for justice and still waiting to return home."

His death highlights the precarious situation of the Rohingya in both countries, she added, emphasizing "we need to do much more to help this persecuted community, both in Bangladesh and in Myanmar."

Insecurity in the camp

Insecurity has been increasing alarmingly in the Kutupalong /Cox's Bazar camp, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, with growing criminality, rising tensions between different groups, as well as heavy handed security crackdowns during anti-drug operations. Anti-Rohingya sentiment has also been increasing within Bangladeshi communities.

"Whoever was responsible for his murder, Mohib Ullah's death is a clear example of the insecurity in the camp, and the apparent attempts to silence moderate civil society voices," said Ms. Bachelet.
"A prompt, thorough, and independent investigation should be conducted not only to identify and apprehend his killers, and expose their motives, but also to define what measures are needed to better protect vulnerable civil society leaders, while avoiding further securitisation in the camps."
Step-up pressure

While stating that she fully comprehends the huge challenges Bangladesh has faced in hosting Rohingya refugees, and the need for greater international support, Ms. Bachelet stressed that their basic rights must be upheld.

Meanwhile, the situation of roughly 600,000 Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine State remains dire, with many still confined in camps, and reports of alleged violations including unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and high levels of extortion.

" Mohib Ullah's killing should be a clarion call to the international community to redouble its pressure on Myanmar to recognize the Rohingya and accept their return, and to pursue accountability for the terrible crimes committed against them," said Ms. Bachelet.

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UN rights chief calls for investigation into 'heartbreaking' killing of veteran Rohingya activist

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Mohib Ullah, chair of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), was shot dead on Wednesday by unknown assailants in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, located in the south of the country.

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This article is from 13 September 2021, and show us the reality of a lot of Tigrayan people (Ethiopia). According to this news, there's malnutrition mainly children's, attacks and looting on civilians, extrajudicial killing, which is illegal, killings by the government, enforced disappearance and torture probably by the government too. There're gang rapes, who tortured people sexually because of their ethnical group or because of their gender.

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Multiple reports of alleged human rights violations in Tigray

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UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet on Monday deplored “multiple and severe reports of alleged gross violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law” committed by all parties to the conflict in Tigray.

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This article is about violence against women and girls during pandemic and tell us that even before covid-19 existed domestic violence but during the lockdown the number of domestic violence against women and girls between 15 and 49 years increased a lot because of isolation of those women, what made it easier for them to suffer at the hands of their partners physically and physichologically. At this time it is harder for women to communicate with the people that can help them, because they are isolated and in most cases their partners limit their access to a phone.

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Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women

Date: Monday, April 6, 2020

With 90 countries in lockdown, four billion people are now sheltering at home from the global contagion of COVID-19. It's a protective measure, but it brings another deadly danger. We see a shadow pandemic growing, of violence against women.

COVID-19: Women front and centre

As more countries report infection and lockdown, more domestic violence helplines and shelters across the world are reporting rising calls for help. In Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom [ 1], and the United States [ 2], government authorities, women's rights activists and civil society partners have flagged increasing reports of domestic violence during the crisis, and heightened demand for emergency shelter [ 3, 4, 5]. Helplines in Singapore [ 6] and Cyprus have registered an increase in calls by more than 30 per cent [ 7]. In Australia, 40 per cent of frontline workers in a New South Wales survey reported increased requests for help with violence that was escalating in intensity [ 8].

Confinement is fostering the tension and strain created by security, health, and money worries.And it is increasing isolation for women with violent partners, separating them from the people and resources that can best help them. It's a perfect storm for controlling, violent behaviour behind closed doors. And in parallel, as health systems are stretching to breaking point, domestic violence shelters are also reaching capacity, a service deficit made worse when centres are repurposed for additional COVID-response.

Even before COVID-19 existed, domestic violence was already one of the greatest human rights violations. In the previous 12 months, 243 million women and girls (aged 15-49) across the world have been subjected to sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this number is likely to grow with multiple impacts on women's wellbeing, their sexual and reproductive health, their mental health, and their ability to participate and lead in the recovery of our societies and economy.

Wide under-reporting of domestic and other forms of violence has previously made response and data gathering a challenge, with less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seeking help of any sort or reporting the crime. Less than 10 per cent of those women seeking help go to the police. The current circumstances make reporting even harder, including limitations on women's and girls' access to phones and helplines and disrupted public services like police, justice and social services. These disruptions may also be compromising the care and support that survivors need, like clinical management of rape, and mental health and psycho-social support. They also fuel impunity for the perpetrators. In many countries the law is not on women's side; 1 in 4 countries have no laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence.

Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19 - UN chief video message

If not dealt with, this shadow pandemic will also add to the economic impact of COVID-19. The global cost of violence against women had previously been estimated at approximately USD 1.5 trillion. That figure can only be rising as violence increases now, and continues in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The increase in violence against women must be dealt with urgently with measures embedded in economic support and stimulus packages that meet the gravity and scale of the challenge and reflect the needs of women who face multiple forms of discrimination.The Secretary-General has called for all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19. Shelters and helplines for women must be considered an essential service for every country with specific funding and broad efforts made to increase awareness about their availability.

Grassroots and women's organizations and communities have played a critical role in preventing and responding to previous crises and need to be supported strongly in their current frontline role including with funding that remains in the longer-term. Helplines, psychosocial support and online counselling should be boosted, using technology-based solutions such as SMS, online tools and networks to expand social support, and to reach women with no access to phones or internet. Police and justice services must mobilize to ensure that incidents of violence against women and girls are given high priority with no impunity for perpetrators. The private sector also has an important role to play, sharing information, alerting staff to the facts and the dangers of domestic violence and encouraging positive steps like sharing care responsibilities at home.

COVID-19 is already testing us in ways most of us have never previously experienced, providing emotional and economic shocks that we are struggling to rise above. The violence that is emerging now as a dark feature of this pandemic is a mirror and a challenge to our values, our resilience and shared humanity. We must not only survive the coronavirus, but emerge renewed, with women as a powerful force at the centre of recovery.

Related content

Notes

[1] "Coronavirus: I'm in lockdown with my abuser" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52063755, accessed 3 rd April 2020

[2] "Domestic violence cases escalating quicker in time of COVID-19" https://missionlocal.org/2020/03/for-victims-of-domestic-violence-sheltering-in-place-can-mean-more-abuse, accessed 3 rd April

[3] Lockdowns around the world bring rise in domestic violence" https://www.theguardian. com/society/2020/mar/28/lockdowns-world-rise-domestic-violence, accessed 3 rd April 2020

[4] "Domestic violence cases jump 30% during lockdown in France" https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/28/domestic-violence-cases-jump-30-during-lockdown-in-france, accessed 3 rd April 2020

[5] "During quarantine, calls to 144 for gender violence increased by 25%" http://www.diario21.tv/notix2/movil2/?seccion=desarrollo_nota&id_nota=132124), accessed 2 nd April 2020

[6] "Commentary: Isolated with your abuser? Why family violence seems to be on the rise during COVID-19 outbreak", https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/coronavirus-covid-19-family-violence-abuse-women-self-isolation-12575026, accessed 2 nd April 2020

[7] "Lockdowns around the world bring rise in domestic violence" https://www.theguardian. com/society/2020/mar/28/lockdowns-world-rise-domestic-violence, accessed 3 rd April 2020

[8] "Domestic Violence Spikes During Coronavirus As Families Trapped At Home" https://10daily.com.au/news/australia/a200326zyjkh/domestic-violence-spikes-during-coronavirus-as-families-trapped-at-home-20200327, accessed 2 nd April 2020

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Violence against women and girls: the shadow pandemic

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Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women Date: Monday, April 6, 2020 With 90 countries in lockdown, four billion people are now sheltering at home from the global contagion of COVID-19. It's a protective measure, but it brings another deadly danger. We see a shadow pandemic growing, of violence against women.

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Last month thousands of Haitian men, women and children ran away from Haiti to Mexico with hope to enter the United States, because of the natural catastrophes, gang violence and food insecurities, but were refused by the horse-mounted officers violently corraling them.

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"When children and families are sent back without adequate protection, they find themselves even more vulnerable to violence, poverty and displacement - factors that drove them to migrate in the first place", said Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

A rocky road

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has been long plagued with poverty, civil unrest, political and economic instability.

Children should never be returned to situations where their basic safety and wellbeing are at risk -- UNICEF chief

Last month, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the country, upending lives, destroying markets, roads and irrigation systems. And just days after the seismic event, Tropical Storm Grace amped up the suffering with additional damages.

Wanting to secure a better life, thousands of Haitians - many of whom have been living outside their homeland for years - have fled to Mexico with the hope of entering the US.

They have been met with a show of force from border agents in Texas, with scenes broadcast around the world of horse-mounted officers violently corralling migrants, evoking tactics widely used in the slave-era South.

On Thursday morning, the US special envoy for Haiti, resigned in protest over the deportation of Haitian migrants by plane from the border area, a process which began last weekend, after more than 13,000 migrants had gathered and set up camp, under a bridge.

UNICEF urged authorities to "refrain from any use of force at borders, to keep families together, and to properly assess migrants' protection needs before any decision on return is made".

" Children should never be returned to situations where their basic safety and wellbeing are at risk ", said the UN agency.

Early evaluations

Initial assessments in Mexico and Haiti suggest that many of the children under age 10 were either born outside Haiti or lived most of their lives in another country.

Zeroing-in on Haitian migrant families camped in the southwest Texas border town of Del Rio, UNICEF estimated that about 40 per cent were children who "live in overcrowded and inadequate conditions and need basic humanitarian support".

News reports said that more than 1,400 Haitians have been returned from the area, since the deportations began.

Children must 'trump all'

Meanwhile UNICEF continues to work for children and families to receive basic assistance, including in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, where it will help with child protection services and deliver drinking water, hygiene kits, mobile toilets and handwashing stations.

In Haiti, the agency is coordinating with national authorities and the International Organization for Migration ( IOM) to provide the returning children with psychosocial support, protection services and education supplies.

But more support is needed to provide these families with the life-saving assistance they need.

" The best interests of children must trump all other considerations ", underscored the UNICEF chief.

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UNICEF: Haiti children vulnerable to 'violence, poverty and displacement'

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As Haiti continues to reel from the "triple tragedy" of natural disasters, gang violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) expressed concern on Thursday that two-thirds of Haitian migrants expelled from the United States border in recent days are women and children - including newborns with "specific and immediate needs".

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Hundred of millions of women are living lives governed by theirs husbands, brothers, fathers in 57 countries during 2021. Women still can not make their own decisions, they don't have power to control their own body; do not receive appropriate health or education, because they are considered inferior.

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According to the UN Population Fund ( UNFPA)'s State of World Population report, the lack of bodily autonomy may have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic, placing record numbers of women and girls at risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.

"The fact that nearly half of women still cannot make their own decisions about whether or not to have sex, use contraception or seek healthcare, should outrage us all", Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director, said in a news release announcing the findings.

"In essence, hundreds of millions of women and girls do not own their own bodies. Their lives are governed by others", she added, noting that the denial of bodily autonomy is a violation of women and girls' fundamental human rights. It also reinforces inequalities and perpetuates violence arising from gender discrimination.

"It is nothing less than an annihilation of the spirit, and it must stop".

The report also noted that a woman's power to control her own body is linked to how much control she has in other spheres of her life, with higher autonomy associated with advances in health and education, income and safety.

Alarming findings

Amongst its findings, the report documented several ways through which bodily autonomy of not only women and girls, but also men and boys, is violated, with factors such as disability worsening the situation.

For instance, girls and boys with disabilities are nearly three times more likely to be subjected to sexual violence, with girls at the greatest risk, the report said.

It also noted that punitive legal environments, combined with stigma, discrimination and high levels of violence, placed gay men and other men who have sex with men, at high risk of HIV infection because they are driven underground out of fear of prosecution or other negative consequences.

As a result, they do not receive appropriate health education, and are reluctant to seek healthcare services, testing and treatment.

The report added that some 20 countries or territories have so-called "marry-your-rapist" laws, where a man can escape criminal prosecution if he marries the woman or girl he has raped, while 43 countries do not have legislation addressing the issue of marital rape.

The report also outlined how efforts to address abuses can lead to further violations of bodily autonomy. For example, to prosecute a case of rape, a criminal justice system might require a survivor to undergo an invasive so-called virginity test.

'Men must become allies'

The report highlighted that addressing the appalling situation "requires much more than a disconnected series of projects or services", stressing that real, sustained progress largely depends on uprooting gender inequality and all forms of discrimination, and transforming the social and economic structures that maintain them.

"In this, men must become allies. Many more must commit to stepping away from patterns of privilege and dominance that profoundly undercut bodily autonomy, and move towards ways of living that are more fair and harmonious, benefiting us all", Dr. Kanem said, urging everyone to challenge discrimination "wherever and whenever it is encountered."

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Hundreds of millions of women living lives 'governed by others', UN report shows

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According to the UN Population Fund ( UNFPA)'s State of World Population report, the lack of bodily autonomy may have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic, placing record numbers of women and girls at risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.

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Since June 2017, President John Magufuli and his sucessor, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office in March 2021, have denied thousand of pregnant girls and young mothers the right of education, forbidding them to attend a public school. Most of them had been tested for pregnancy at school or at a local hospital. In 2020, the Tanzania government allowed those girls to attend a parallel accelerated education program, described as “alternative education pathways”. This country has a very high adolescence birth rate and 360.000 girls and young women ages 15 to 19 give birth each year.

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(Nairobi) - Tanzania 's ban on pregnant students and adolescent mothers attending school has denied tens of thousands of girls their right to education, Human Rights Watch said today. Public schools across mainland Tanzania conduct compulsory pregnancy testing on female students and expel pregnant girls before they complete their compulsory education.

Since June 2017, the late President John Magufuli and his successor, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office in March 2021, have enforced an official ban against students who are pregnant or are mothers.

"Tanzania's girls are suffering because the government insists on an arbitrary policy that is ending their education, humiliating and isolating them, and destroying their futures," said Elin Martinez, senior children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The government should urgently end this inhumane policy and allow pregnant students and mothers back in school."

Human Rights Watch in July and August interviewed 30 girls and women ages 16 to 24. All had been expelled from school or stopped attending primary or secondary school between 2013 and 2021 because they were pregnant.

School officials and teachers are the primary enforcers of the government's policy, often in ways that humiliate and stigmatize girls, as well as their parents and guardians. Most of those interviewed had been tested for pregnancy at school or at a local hospital or dispensary, and then summarily expelled.

A number of girls were expelled just before completing lower secondary education, a milestone for many students given the country's low retention rates in secondary education. Several were unable to take national qualifying exams in Form 4, the last year of lower secondary school, because schools conducted pregnancy tests just before or in the middle of these exams.

School officials in Morogoro region in 2020 expelled a 16-year-old girl. Before her last two Form 4 exams: "They simply said because I was pregnant ... I was supposed to be kicked out of school even though I was left with only two exams. I really don't know what they were thinking .... They didn't even want to hear me out. They just kicked me out of school."

Most girls and women interviewed were not enrolled in training programs or alternative education centers. Several were enrolled in non-formal tailoring training, and a couple attended a nongovernmental school that supports girls who have been expelled from public schools.

In 2020, the Tanzanian government announced that it would allow students who were pregnant or were mothers to enroll in a parallel accelerated education program, described as "alternative education pathways." This program will be expanded with US$180 million of the World Bank's US$500 million loan for Tanzania's Secondary Education Quality Improvement Program (SEQUIP).

In describing this program, the World Bank stated that "while there is no government policy that states that students who become pregnant must be expelled from public schools, most pregnant girls do drop out." Tanzanian government and the World Bank have sought to promote this program as a comparable education alternative for girls who have " dropped out " of school because of pregnancy.

Although alternative education pathways are important for children who prematurely drop out of school, Tanzania's parallel system effectively remains the only option for girls who have been expelled and denied their right to education without completing compulsory education.

But most centers charge tuition, and students often have to travel long distances to them. This perpetuates the same financial and access barriers that many girls face in secondary schools. Many centers don't offer additional support for adolescent mothers, including child care.

Tanzania is one of the three sub-Saharan African countries that Human Rights Watch found to adhere to an official ban against pregnant students. In March 2020, Sierra Leone, which had an identical discriminatory ban against pregnant schoolgirls and teenage mothers, reversed its 10-year-old policy. In March 2021, the Sierra Leone government adopted a policy of " Radical Inclusion," which reaffirms pregnant girls and adolescent mothers' right to education. Human Rights Watch found that at least 30 African Union countries now have laws, policies, or strategies to protect pregnant students and adolescent mothers' right to education.

President Suluhu Hassan should enact a decree to effectively end the expulsion of pregnant students, order government officials to end punitive and discriminatory practices against girls, and direct the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to adopt a policy that adequately protects the rights of both pregnant students and adolescent mothers to study in public schools, Human Rights Watch said.

"Tanzania is an outlier from other sub-Saharan African countries that have adopted laws, policies, and strategies to uphold the right to education of pregnant students and adolescent mothers," Martinez said. "President Suluhu should end the ban on pregnant students and adolescent mothers and make a commitment to safeguard and fulfill every girl's right to an education."
Teenage Pregnancy in Tanzania
Tanzania has a very high adolescent birth rate: 22 percent of women ages 20 to 24 give birth before age 18. According to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive rights organization, 360,000 girls and young women ages 15 to 19 give birth each year; and 390,000, or 57 percent of girls in this age group have an unmet need for or are not using modern contraception.

Between 2003 and 2011, over 55,000 adolescent girls were forced to drop out or were expelled due to pregnancy, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global women's rights organization. The World Bank estimates that 5,500 pregnant students stop going to school every year, although nongovernmental organizations have previously estimated that close to 8,000 students have been forced to drop out of school each year.

Tanzania's elevated teenage pregnancy rates shows that children and adolescents have an acute need for life-saving and protective information, yet comprehensive sexuality education is still lacking in schools. In 2017, Human Rights Watch found that many girls lacked basic knowledge of reproductive health. Often, girls and women access vital information on sexuality and reproductive health only after they are pregnant or give birth.

Fear of expulsion from school adds to the pressures many girls already face. The girls and women interviewed described financial hardships that men exploit. They said men offered them rides and money to get to school or to buy basic items, in exchange for sex. Many of those interviewed said they became pregnant as a result of rape and sexual exploitation, often by boda boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers or local men.
Tanzania's School Ban
Tanzania's Education Act, and its education expulsion regulations of 2002, permit expulsion when a student has "committed an offence against morality" or if a student has "entered into wedlock." Although the regulations are not explicit about pregnancy, ministry officials and school officials interpret pregnancy as constituting an offense against morality. In 2013, the Center for Reproductive Rights found that pregnancy-based expulsion was a near-universal practice in Tanzania.

In 2014 and 2017, Human Rights Watch research found that public schools did not interpret this policy uniformly. Some schools allowed pregnant students and adolescent mothers to stay in school, and some head teachers personally supported including them. Still, many schools conducted compulsory pregnancy tests and regularly expelled students. Although pregnancy testing is not rooted in regulations, it is applied in the vast majority of secondary schools to implement the government's expulsion policy. Human Rights Watch has found that pregnancy testing is a serious infringement of girls' rights to privacy, dignity, equality, and bodily autonomy.

Then-President Magufuli endorsed the expulsion policy on June 22, 2017, saying, "As long as I'm president, no pregnant students will be allowed to return to school...the warranty to go to school be it secondary or primary is forbidden." The president's decree, which was accompanied by threats made by Tanzania's home affairs minister against civil society groups and activists critical of the ban, took effect immediately.

Imani A., 18, from Morogoro region, said she was 12 in 2015 when her primary school expelled her from Standard 6. "No, they didn't tell me that [I could return to school], because the president made it clear that anyone who gets pregnant shouldn't go back to school," Imani said. "So they are just following the president's order."

Government officials have closely monitored compliance with the 2017 decree, publicly encouraging pregnancy testing and expulsion of students.

On February 29, 2020, Dodoma District Commissioner Patrobas Katambi directed heads of schools and education officers to report cases of pregnant students to the police:
Every three months, the school administrations ... should put together a coordination mechanism ... setting aside a special day for testing students for pregnancy and sensitization on the risks associated with pregnancy and risks associated in engaging in senseless early sexual relationships.
Katambi added that on the same day, schools should:
Announce those [students] who have been found to be pregnant and measures taken against them. For those positive cases that have been identified on that day, they should be reported to the police...This will be a measure of our performance appraisal... If you are content to see pregnancies at your school... that means you are part of [the problem], we shall know how you contribute to the problem.
He explained that within five days of these actions, he should:
Receive a full and comprehensive report on the 195 students' pregnancy cases [reported to him] where are they, what measures were taken/not taken... how many have a ruling, how many are still pending... On this matter, I am very serious... I [will] denounce those that are hindering us. If it is the judiciary, we should able to say so, that the President [will] be made aware.
On April 3, 2020, Hassan Abbasi, chief spokesperson for the government, issued the following statements on his official Twitter account:
The idea of preventing pregnant pupils from returning to the formal education system is not to encourage students to engage in sexual acts at an early age ... A girl who gets pregnant is not denied her right to education. They will continue with their studies in a different system which will be different from the formal system and will include folk development centres and VETA [technical and vocational education]... The practice of pregnant schoolgirls not continuing with their studies did not start today, it has been the government's stance throughout the years. The government created an alternative education system for students [who] get pregnant.
In contrast to mainland Tanzania, in the semi-autonomous island archipelago of Zanzibar, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training effectively adheres to a conditional reentry law and policy. In April 2021, Zanzibar's education minister reaffirmed girls' rights to return to school after pregnancy.
Ban's Impact on Pregnant Schoolgirls
Former students referred to various forms of humiliation, including being singled out by teachers and being used as an "example" to others. Leyla M., 23, in Kilimanjaro region, said that "The headmaster was very strict ... he said I should never set foot at the school." Esther A., 21, from a village near Kilimanjaro, was expelled from Form 2 in 2017:
My mom tried to beg [school officials] whether I could return to school after I have given birth. But they told her no, I couldn't go back to school. They said they can't have a mother in the classroom, and that I'll be a bad influence on other students.
Teachers tested Gladness M., 19, at school along with all female students. In 2017, she was expelled from her secondary school in Morogoro region, when she was four-months pregnant in Form Four. "The teachers told students that I was expelled because I was pregnant," Gladness said. "They then told other students that if they get pregnant, they'll also be kicked out of school."

Several girls interviewed had miscarriages, but were not allowed back into school even though they were not pregnant or parents. In 2015 in Arusha region, Maria T., 21, had a miscarriage when she was four-months pregnant in Form 2, but was not allowed to return to school:
I was kicked out at school when I was only 15 years old. I was young ... I didn't know anything about ... the world - the guy who got me pregnant was also very much pressurizing me into [having an abortion]. I was scared that something worse could happen, [and] I didn't have my family's support ... Nobody cared about me, I couldn't go back to school.
Half-a-dozen girls described not being allowed to take their final Form 4 exams. Without this exam, students cannot get a certificate of completion of lower secondary school or qualify for higher secondary education. Most had pregnancy tests prior to their exams.

In 2017, when she was 17, Glory R., was expelled from her secondary school in Arusha region almost at the end of Form 4: "For Form 2 and 4 students [the two grades that take qualifying national exams], a month before sitting for any exams they'd bring in the nurses to come and test us." Girls were also tested for pregnancy every three to four months in Glory's school.

Similarly, that year, Rebecca C., 23, was expelled from Form 4 at a secondary school in Arusha region. She was pregnant two months before the last national Form 4 exams: "Because it was routine for the school to check girls for pregnancies, when we were tested, we were found to be pregnant and we got expelled from school," Rebecca said. She was so scared about what her parents would do to her because she was pregnant that she fled her home and had a miscarriage.

Rebecca asked school officials whether she could return to her school:
They made it very clear that I wasn't wanted. Whether I had aborted or miscarried, they said that they would never accept me again. They told me if I go back to school, I'll teach the rest of students bad habits.
A female head teacher in Arusha said: "Our country's laws are very clear on that. If she is pregnant, she'll be expelled even though she's left with only one month [of exams] ... because the law requires me to do that. I don't have options ... a teacher cannot go against that."

In June 2016, Tanzania's parliament adopted an amendment to the Education Act that makes it unlawful to marry a primary or secondary student, or impregnate school-going girls, with up to 30 years in prison for violators. The act further mandates every head of school to keep a record and report cases of marriages and pregnancies linked to these provisions to the district or regional commissioner.

Human Rights Watch found that schools often collect this information in very stigmatizing ways. In Simiyu region, Salma H., 19, was 15 when a man she knew raped her. Soon after, she realized she was pregnant. A close friend advised Salma not to tell her parents and gave her pills so that she could have an abortion. The abortion failed, and Salma was able to hide the pregnancy for a few months while she was in Form 1. Teachers heard rumors from other students and conducted pregnancy tests. Salma said that after she returned to school they started questioning her about the man responsible:

I didn't want to tell them anything. They called my friend and asked her the same kinds of questions. She gave them the names of men I had slept with before. They called me back and asked me again which man from the list they got from my friend is responsible for my pregnancy. I told them I don't know which one could be responsible.
The teachers then wrote the [expulsion] letter and mentioned three names they had heard from my friend and sent a copy of the letter to the police station, to court, and to my parents.
Teachers expelled Rose B., 20, who is from a Maasai community in Arusha region, from Form 3 in 2020. Rose was questioned at her school:
We were tested a t school, that's how the teachers found out ... They asked me to name the person who got me pregnant, but I refused. I was very worried. My parents were then asked to come and pick me up at the school ... I felt so bad, I was heartbroken, and I regretted so badly what happened to me.
Several girls described being expelled from private schools. In Arusha region, Maria T., 21, was expelled from her private school in 2015, when she was in Form 2:
There were two of us who were found to be pregnant. The teachers simply told us that we won't be able to continue with studies because [of] the government policy ... After that, they gave me a letter to take to my parents and that was the end of my studies. That is a very bad policy because it hurts children ... Girls should be allowed to continue with school just after they've given birth. It should be the girl's decision whether to go back school or not. But putting a law that forbids them from going back to school affects other girls who would want to go back to school. For instance, if I had an opportunity to go back to school after I miscarried, I would have gone back to school.
Esther A., 21, in Arusha, said:
There are a lot of challenges in the streets. Some girls give birth when they are very young ... a girl is still not clever enough to look for something to do, or her parents are not supporting her, those are the kind of girls who [can] just end up being in the streets ... They should just allow her to go back to school and continue with her studies so that she doesn't cut her dreams short. Tanzania's World Bank-Funded Alternative Education Pathways Program
In March 2020, the World Bank approved a $500 million loan for Tanzania's Secondary Education Quality Improvement Program, including $180 million for Alternative Education Pathways (AEPs) and a safe schools program for girls. Human Rights Watch and others criticized the World Bank's decision to approve the loan despite clear evidence of Tanzania's discriminatory education practices, and raised concerns regarding the bank's compliance with its commitments to nondiscrimination.

Leonard Akwilapo, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said in a media interview that the government was acting "hand in hand with our agreement with the World Bank in relation to the education project it currently funds that requires the government to provide teen mothers with alternative pathways to education." In March 2021, Akwilapo announced that 54 centers would begin to enroll pregnant girls and adolescent mothers as of January 2022.

Girls who are expelled still face access and financial barriers to enroll in AEP centers. Public primary and lower secondary schools are tuition free, yet the alternative education centers are not free. Programs can cost about US$150 per year, according to World Bank project documents, which note that AEP centers will only receive "subsidies" for fees for "vulnerable girls."

A study by TENMET, Tanzania's nongovernmental education network, found that the long distance to these centers, their placement in predominantly urban areas, and the cost created significant barriers for girls. Some girls said that given their personal circumstances and the amount of time they were out of school, they would prefer to either complete secondary education in alternative education centers or receive training to set up their own small businesses. But most said they felt constrained because they have to pay fees as well as transportation costs. Some said they also felt unable to pursue further education because they had no support with child care.

Malika M., 21, said: "I'd really like to go back to school - even tomorrow. If I get someone to pay for my school fees, I will go back to school because we've got financial challenges at home ... These [training] schools charge tuition fees, but the old school that I used to go to never charged school fees." But she expressed frustration that there weren't any centers near her: "And if I go back to study, from that area, I'm likely to end up in the same situation that got me to where I am now."

Separate schooling for pregnant students is discriminatory, Human Rights Watch said. In December 2019, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice found that Sierra Leone's policy that banned pregnant students and adolescent mothers from schools was discriminatory. The court also ruled that the government's alternative schools for pregnant students and mothers - which share some characteristics with Tanzania's AEPs - were discriminatory and a violation of girls' right to education.
Key Recommendations

The President's Office for Regional Administration and Local Government should mandate all officials to stop expelling students because of pregnancy or parenthood and stop the mandatory reporting of students to the police and local commissioners.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should:

Seek to amend the Education Act, and revise the accompanying 2002 Education (Expulsion and Exclusion of Pupils from Schools) Regulations, and insert protections for pregnant students and adolescent mothers, learning from good practice in other African countries.

Urgently adopt a national continuation policy, school guidelines, and a national comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.

End mandatory pregnancy testing in schools.

Ensure that pregnant students and adolescent mothers can take annual and qualifying Form 2 and Form 4 exams.

Ensure that all Alternative Education Pathways centers are tuition-free, and ensure these centers are adequately set up to accommodate adolescent mothers, including childcare support.

The African Union should encourage the Tanzanian government to remove the ban, urge it to cease denying girls' right to education, and to design a "continuation" policy to ensure that pregnant students remain in school for as long as they choose to, and support adolescent mothers to return to school.

Tanzania's development partners, including the World Bank, should press Tanzania to end the school ban, and urge the government to adopt a comprehensive policy to ensure that pregnant students and adolescent mothers have the support they need to stay in school and complete secondary education.

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Tanzania: Pregnant Student Ban Harms Thousands

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(Nairobi) - Tanzania's ban on pregnant students and adolescent mothers attending school has denied tens of thousands of girls their right to education, Human Rights Watch said today. Public schools across mainland Tanzania conduct compulsory pregnancy testing on female students and expel pregnant girls before they complete their compulsory education.

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This article was created on 13 of September 2021.
The civilians of Tigrayan, in the last few months, have been suffering firm mass detections, killings, systematic looting and sexual violence, because of this the Tigrayan civilian population was forced to displacement to another place.

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Multiple reports of alleged human rights violations in Tigray

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UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet on Monday deplored “multiple and severe reports of alleged gross violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law” committed by all parties to the conflict in Tigray.

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Migrants are suffering with French police harassment and restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance. The police do these abusive practices with the purpose of forcing people to move to other places, without giving them time to resolve their migration status.

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(Paris) - French officials regularly subject adults and children living in migrant encampments around Calais to degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Five years after French authorities demolished the sprawling Calais migrant camp frequently called the "Jungle," more than 1,000 people are staying in encampments in and around the town.

The 79-page report, " Enforced Misery: The Degrading Treatment of Migrant Children and Adults in Northern France," documents repeated mass eviction operations, near-daily police harassment, and restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance. The authorities carry out these abusive practices with the primary purposes of forcing people to move elsewhere, without resolving their migration status or lack of housing, or of deterring new arrivals.

"Subjecting people to daily harassment and humiliation is never justifiable," said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. "If the aim is to discourage migrants from gathering in northern France, these policies are a manifest failure and result in serious harm."

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 60 migrants, including 40 who identified themselves as unaccompanied children, in and around Calais and the nearby commune of Grande-Synthe from October through December 2020 and June to July 2021. Human Rights Watch also met with officials from the prefecture and child protection office for the Pas-de-Calais department, and the Grande-Synthe mayor's office.

An estimated 2,000 people, including at least 300 unaccompanied children, were staying in and around encampments in Calais in mid-2021, according to humanitarian groups. Several hundred more, including many families with children, were in a forest in Grande-Synthe, adjacent to the city of Dunkerque (Dunkirk).

Policing efforts to push migrant adults and children out of Calais and Grande-Synthe have not discouraged new arrivals and do not appear to have reduced irregular Channel crossings, which hit record highs in July and August. But policing practices have inflicted increasing misery on migrants.

"When the police arrive, we have five minutes to get out of the tent before they destroy everything. It is not possible for five people, including young children, to get dressed in five minutes in a tent," a Kurdish woman from Iraq told Human Rights Watch in December 2020.

Police routinely require migrants to move temporarily off the land they are occupying while police confiscate - and often destroy - tents, tarps, and sleeping bags the people have not managed to take with them. Police subjected most Calais encampments to these routine eviction operations every other day in 2020 and the first half of 2021. In Grande-Synthe, these evictions took place once or twice a week.

Police conducted more than 950 routine eviction operations in Calais and at least 90 routine evictions in Grande-Synthe in 2020, seizing nearly 5,000 tents and tarps and hundreds of sleeping bags and blankets, according to Human Rights Observers (HRO), a group that regularly monitors police evictions of these encampments.

Police also periodically evict everyone from an encampment, claiming that these are "shelter" operations. But shelter is only provided for a few days. The authorities carrying out mass evictions also do not effectively identify and take specific steps to protect unaccompanied children.

These tactics leave children and adults constantly on alert and focused on their day-to-day survival. Many are haggard, sleep-deprived, and, as the national ombudsperson's office, the French Defender of Rights, observed in September 2020, "in a state of physical and mental exhaustion."

Officials have also placed legal and practical restrictions on provision of and access to humanitarian assistance. Local ordinances prohibit food and water distributions by aid groups in the Calais town center. Government aid sites are often moved, or aid is distributed at the same time as evictions.

Government services do not meet the needs of women and girls. The Calais encampments have no separate toilets for women, and Grande-Synthe has no toilets. Toilets lack adequate lighting, with particular risks for women and girls. Barriers to water access mean scarcity for everybody and problems for women and girls during menstruation.

Emergency shelter is in principle available to anybody who needs it in France, but the system is overstretched. Shelters in Calais are frequently full, and emergency accommodation is even more limited for those in Grande-Synthe. Emergency shelter is usually limited to a few nights, even for families with young children. A separate shelter system for unaccompanied children is also frequently at or near capacity, with many children turned away.

Police have also harassed volunteers with HRO, Utopia 56, and other nongovernmental groups that observe police conduct during evictions. Some police have falsely told observers they could not film police operations, threatening them with arrest.

These abusive practices further a deterrence policy under which officials seek to eliminate or avoid anything they view as drawing migrants to northern France or encouraging the establishment of encampments. This approach does not account for the reality that the real draw is its proximity to the United Kingdom, 30 kilometers across the Strait of Dover.

"Exiles aren't travelling to northern France because they've heard they can camp in the woods or stay under a bridge. They aren't coming because groups are giving them a little food and water. They come because that's where the border is," said Charlotte Kwantes, Utopia 56's national coordinator.

The end of the Brexit transition period means that the United Kingdom can no longer return most adult asylum seekers to France without first considering their asylum claims. The UK government has also stopped accepting new family reunification transfer applications, the only practical legal option for UK entry available to unaccompanied children.

The prefects of Pas-de-Calais and Nord, the departments in which Calais and Grande-Synthe are located, should end repeated evictions of migrant encampments and stop seizing people's belongings, Human Rights Watch said. The prefectures should work with departmental authorities to offer alternative accommodation that provides people with stability and helps them make informed choices about seeking asylum or other status in France or elsewhere or returning to their home countries.

French child protection authorities should do more to inform unaccompanied children about their options, including entry into the child protection system, which offers the possibility of receiving legal status at age 18.

The European Union should create a system for sharing responsibility among EU member states that avoids unfair stress on countries of first arrival and the most popular destination countries, and takes into due consideration the family and social ties as well as individual preferences of asylum seekers.

The UK government should develop safe and legal means for migrants to travel to the United Kingdom to seek safe haven, reunify with family members, or work or study.

"French authorities should abandon their failed playbook toward migrants of the past five years," Jeannerod said. "They need a new approach to help people, not repeatedly harass and abuse them."

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France: Degrading Treatment of Migrants Around Calais

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(Paris) - French officials regularly subject adults and children living in migrant encampments around Calais to degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Five years after French authorities demolished the sprawling Calais migrant camp frequently called the "Jungle," more than 1,000 people are staying in encampments in and around the town.

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Urgent support is needed for 76 families of missing migrants in Ethiopa, Spain and United Kingdom. Despite human rights obligation, their perspectives are being ignored in government debates about safe migration.
This families who are forced to rely on smugglers and other informal network, to trace loved ones.

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Despite human rights obligations, their perspectives are being ignored in government debates about safe migration. This results in persistent exclusion and marginalization, which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smuggling investigations

A study by IOMs' Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), found that authorities often frame missing migrant cases as investigations into migrant smuggling, rather than about the disappearance itself.

Yet, families' testimonies indicate the devastating psychological anguish, as well as legal, financial and administrative impacts of the disappearance of their relatives, the report said, highlighting the case of a farmer in Ethiopia whose missing sons had been his hope for the future.

'My life is becoming hell'

"They used to help me till and farm the land and now I am getting older and weaker and can't work", he said. "I rely on my relatives for agricultural labour but my farm is ploughed late and cannot produce much. My life is becoming hell. I cannot even pay the moneylender.  My wife is already bedridden."

The report revealed how inequalities shaped by factors such as gender, age, class, race, and migration status impede search efforts.

The Centre's Missing Migrants Project compiled the report based on research with 76 families of missing migrants in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Spain and the United Kingdom.

IOM recommended that States and relevant international actors establish specific roadmaps for managing cases of missing migrants and also implement safe and accessible ways for families to report their missing relatives.

"The study aims to amplify the voices of people with loved ones missing on migration journeys, and to better understand their challenges," Frank Laczko, GMDAC Director said.

"Sharing these findings with the public is but a first step in improving the support mechanisms for migrants and the people they leave behind."

Missing migrants project

The report and policy briefing  are part of the project, Assessment of the needs of families searching for relatives lost in the Central and Western Mediterranean, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

A revamped Missing Migrants Project website now includes the project's country reports and final report, as well as other resources to learn more about the experiences of families of missing migrants.

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Families of missing migrants, forced to search alone

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Despite human rights obligations, their perspectives are being ignored in government debates about safe migration. This results in persistent exclusion and marginalization, which has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. A study by IOMs' Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), found that authorities often frame missing migrant cases as investigations into migrant smuggling, rather than about the disappearance itself.

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Saturday, in afghanistan the taliban's new education minister ordered the reopening of schools but only for boys, consequentaly girls have been exclued from education because they take famales teachers from school so the males teachers don't allowed to teaching girls so denying girls the right to education.

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Police abuse is a chronic  human rights problem that human rights  watch has worked on for decades in Brazil.
In the last five years  police killed 22000 people,most of them black. Those killings by police are result of the use of excessive infliet.
Police descriminates people with other colour and race.
President Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged violence and proposed legal changes that would make it harder to hold abusive officers accountable.

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Police abuse is a chronic human rights problem that Human Rights Watch has worked on for decades in Brazil. In the last five years, Brazilian police killed 22,000 people, most of them Black.

We have documented extrajudicial executions and other killings by police that are the result of the use of excessive force. We have also shown the failure of authorities to properly investigate those deaths and hold abusive officers accountable.

President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has encouraged police violence and proposed legal changes that would make it harder to hold abusive officers accountable.

Human Rights Watch has been at the forefront of the fight against those damaging legislative proposals. Recent impact of work by us and our partners in Rio de Janeiro, one of the states with the highest rates of police killings, shows progress is possible even under a reckless federal government.

In April, families of victims, community associations, the Rio de Janeiro Public Defender's Office, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations testified at a Brazil Supreme Court hearing about strategies to reduce police killings in Rio de Janeiro. Upon request of Justice Edson Fachin, Human Rights Watch submitted recommendations for improving forensic analysis and investigations into police abuses.

In May, Justice Fachin issued an opinion that cites much of this testimony and devotes three of its 71 pages to quoting Human Rights Watch's presentation at the hearing. Justice Fachin endorsed some of our recommendations, such as the need for a plan with concrete measures, to curb police killings. One of the other justices asked for more time to support or dissent, which has put the full ruling on hold.

Human Rights Watch has also been pressing prosecutors to ensure adequate investigations into police killings. In April, we sent a letter to Rio de Janeiro Attorney General Luciano Mattos, criticizing his decision to dissolve a unit of prosecutors specialized in police abuse.

Three weeks later, a police raid in the low-income neighborhood Jacarezinho left 28 people dead. Human Rights Watch immediately called for Mattos to launch an independent investigation into the killings without relying on the police to investigate its own members. Mattos did open an investigation a few days later, and, per Human Rights Watch recommendations, confirmed that prosecutors would gather their own evidence rather than using the evidence the police had collected.

Strong evidence of police abuse in Jacarezinho only accentuates the need for a permanent specialized unit of prosecutors. In his May opinion, Justice Fachin ordered that the National Council of Prosecutor's Offices (CNMP, in Portuguese), a national body that oversees the country's prosecutors, review Mattos' decision to dissolve the specialized unit, citing Human Rights Watch's findings. Fachin's order will enter into force if his opinion is supported by the full Supreme Court.

On May 31, we released unique research on the Jacarezinho raid that included evidence of extrajudicial killings, destruction of crime scene evidence, and serious failures in the police investigation. Human Rights Watch called on Mattos and federal prosecutors to investigate the police commanders who planned and executed the raid, in addition to the officers who pulled the trigger.

In June, a working group led by Rio de Janeiro federal prosecutors that includes the Public Defender's Office, local non-governmental organizations, and other groups asked CNMP to call on State Prosecutor's Offices around the country to investigate all police killings, and not leave investigations in the hands of police, a call that Human Rights Watch supports.

In an August 15 New York Times op-ed, Human Rights Watch senior researcher César Muñoz laid out the horrendous human toll of police abuse, particularly on Black Brazilians living in low-income neighborhoods, and its harmful effects on public security. The suffering will not abate as long as there is no accountability. Human Rights Watch will continue to seek comprehensive reform so that instead of terrorizing communities, police become effective, professional forces that serve them.

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Judicial Action Against Police Abuse in Brazil

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Police abuse is a chronic human rights problem that Human Rights Watch has worked on for decades in Brazil. In the last five years, Brazilian police killed 22,000 people, most of them Black. We have documented extrajudicial executions and other killings by police that are the result of the use of excessive force.

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On 10th September, the taliban have shot dead four persons and hung their bodies in public street in an Afghanistan city. Apart from this killings they also inflict extreme punishments, executions and amputations. This displaying of the bodies was done to control people.

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Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, told the Associated Press news agency that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.

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Afghanistan: Taliban hang bodies as warning in city of Herat

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Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, told the Associated Press news agency that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.

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In the Afgahn city of Heart, on 10th of September, the Taliban said they had shot dead four kidnappers and hung their bodies in public squares, after a notorious Taliban official warned that extreme punishments such as executions and amputations would start again.

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Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, told the Associated Press news agency that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.

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Afghanistan: Taliban hang bodies as warning in city of Herat

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Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, a local shopkeeper, told the Associated Press news agency that four bodies were brought to the square, one was hung there and the three other bodies were moved to other squares in the city to be displayed.

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During the afternoon of 14 September 2021, the Human Rights Council continued to generate debate on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with the objective of a global human rights update presented by Michelle Bachelet, who, also gives updates about Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sri Lanka, countries where the rights to freedom of opinion and expression as well as to peaceful assembly are severally violated, due to dictatorial governments.

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Afternoon, 14 September 2021

The Human Rights Council this afternoon continued the general debate on the global human rights update presented by Michele Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as her updates on Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sri Lanka.

Speakers reiterated their deep concern over the reported violations and abuses of human rights across Afghanistan, which threatened to reverse the achievements of the Afghan people over the last two decades. They were particularly worried about the rights of women and girls, a fear shared by human rights defenders, journalists, civil society leaders, members of ethnic and religious minorities, and ordinary civilians increasingly targeted by the Taliban. Speakers were dismayed at the reported retaliation against those who had supported the building of a democratic Afghanistan based on the rule of law and human rights. They further called for the immediate cessation of violence against ethnic minorities, human rights defenders, journalists, members of the former government, and women and girls in Afghanistan. Some speakers echoed the High Commissioner's repeated call for the establishment of an independent mechanism to investigate all violations and abuses committed in Afghanistan, to promote accountability, and to monitor the human rights situation on the ground.

Speakers also expressed concerns about the Nicaraguan Government's systematic dismantling of all opposition political parties. They were further concerned by the threat to free and fair elections in November and called on the authorities to ensure full respect for civil and political rights in the context of the elections. Some speakers urged the Government to allow the Office of the High Commissioner to enter its territory in order for it to fulfil its mandate. Opposing those views, some speakers observed with concern the escalation of the situation around Nicaragua as the general elections approached. They stated that the wave of external pressure on Managua pursued only one goal - to remove the legitimate government from power through the use of political technologies, supplemented by illegal financial and humanitarian restrictions.

On Venezuela, speakers reiterated that the way out of the political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis could only be achieved through an inclusive political dialogue based on human rights. They strongly valued and supported the negotiation process that had taken place in Mexico between the Venezuelan Government and the opposition and hoped that this process would lead to a solution for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. The technical assistance provided by the Office of the High Commissioner should be reinforced by establishing a permanent presence in the country that would facilitate the implementation of the recommendations made by the High Commissioner. On the other hand, some speakers were saddened that human rights issues continued to be used by Western States and like-minded States to put pressure on Venezuela. This did not take into account the consequences of foreign sanctions and that the current humanitarian situation was a direct consequence of the use of illegal attacks against Venezuela.

Concerning Sri Lanka, some speakers noted the commitment of the authorities to address a set of problems in the human rights sphere, including through building cooperation with the Human Rights Council. They continued further positively assessing the course towards ensuring equal rights for representatives of all strata of the population and ethno-confessional groups and observed progress in the process of national reconciliation. Speakers repeated their negative attitude to the creation of mechanisms for collecting information, which clearly contradicted the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States, insisting that investigation of violations and prosecution were the prerogative of Sri Lanka itself. Opposing those views, some speakers encouraged Sri Lanka to fully implement resolution 46/1, and ensure progress on reconciliation, accountability and human rights.

On the COVID-19 pandemic, speakers mentioned its significant impact on the promotion and protection of human rights globally. "Pandemics know no borders", they said, adding that nationalism in terms of vaccines was a dangerous solution, which unfortunately fed the risk of the multiplication of variants, including the most contagious. They shared their concerns that some States had used the shield of the pandemic to target human rights defenders, civil society, health workers and journalists. Speakers further expressed their opposition to States that had or continued to abuse emergency measures or use arbitrary detention to silence individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms. They mentioned that access to justice and consular assistance to detained foreign and dual nationals should not be restricted, including under the guise of COVID-19.

Speakers fully supported the Council's stance on human rights defenders and the safety of journalists around the world, adding that the rights to freedom of opinion and expression as well as to peaceful assembly were basic human rights. Some speakers expressed concerns about the "Pegasus" programme, developed by a company called NSO Group, that had, since 2016, spied without a judicial warrant and in violation of all procedural rules on more than 50,000 people and entities. Further expressing their concerns, speakers mentioned that these practices constituted serious violations of fundamental human rights, invading privacy, violating freedom of opinion and expression and those of the media and more. They invited the Special Procedures to address this issue, in particular by ensuring strict supervision by a code of conduct for digital activities in relation to the exercise of human rights and democratic freedoms, and asking for a moratorium on the commercialisation of technologies that undermined democracy and fundamental freedoms.

The High Commissioner presented her global human rights update as well as updates on Venezuela, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka on Monday, 13 September, and a summary can be found here. The statements of Venezuela, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka speaking as countries concerned as well as the beginning of the general debate took place this morning and a summary can be found here.

Speaking during the general debate were Austria, Argentina, Netherlands, Bahrain, Cuba, Uruguay, Russian Federation, India, Nepal, Brazil, Namibia, China, Czech Republic, Bolivia, Pakistan, Mauritania, Sudan, Ukraine, Philippines, United Kingdom, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Togo, Tunisia, Norway, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Qatar, Slovenia, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Egypt, Switzerland, Greece, Sovereign Order of Malta, Ecuador, Israel, Australia, Finland, Spain, Iraq, Thailand, South Africa, Albania, Kenya, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, United States, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Turkey, New Zealand, Ireland, Malaysia, Belgium, Singapore, Salvador, Croatia, Portugal, Iran, Syria, Estonia, Vanuatu, North Macedonia, Hungary, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Iceland, Afghanistan, Serbia, Jordan, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Chile, Niger, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Mali, Republic of Moldova, Sweden, Nigeria, Botswana, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Panama, Timor-Leste, Maldives, Chad, Tanzania, South Sudan, Mauritius and Viet Nam.

Also taking the floor were the following national human rights institutions: Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Australia Human Rights Commission on behalf of the Asia Pacific Forum, and National Human Rights Commission India.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council's forty-eighth regular session can be found here.

The Council will resume its work at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 September, to conclude the general debate on the High Commissioner's updates. It will then hold an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

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Human Rights Council continues general debate on the High Commissioner's global human rights update, as well as her updates on Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sri Lanka - World

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Afternoon, 14 September 2021 The Human Rights Council this afternoon continued the general debate on the global human rights update presented by Michele Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as her updates on Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sri Lanka.