Thailand: Dozens injured in violent protests

Pro-democracy activists and security forces have clashed once again in Bangkok, with police using tear gas and water cannons laced with irritating chemicals to stop protesters from entering the country's parliament.


Student-led pro-democracy protesters in Thailand clashed with police, who sought to keep them from entering the parliament premises on Tuesday.

At least 40 people were wounded, including five who were reportedly shot, according to emergency services. It was unclear who fired the shots and whether they were live rounds or rubber bullets.

"We tried to avoid clashes," Piya Tavichai, the deputy head of Bangkok police, told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that the police had tried to separate student protesters and the yellow-shirted royalist counter-protesters.

According to eyewitnesses, some people were injured during a brawl between pro-democracy protesters and stone-throwing royalists who oppose constitutional changes.

Read more: Thailand revokes emergency decree, protesters demand Prayuth resignation

Protesters in Thailand defy government order

Worst clashes in months

Tuesday's violence was the worst in months, as the Southeast Asian country's movement against the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha continues to gain strength.

Demonstrators have also been displaying their displeasure with Prayuth's government as they believe the party has an unfair grip on power.

The prime minister's parliamentary majority stems from the fact his junta picked the entire upper house before an election last year that opponents say was designed to keep him in power.

The protests, which began in July to demand former junta leader Prayuth's removal, have since manifested themselves to also call for reforms of Thailand's powerful monarchy.
Constitutional amendments or an attempt to buy time?

Thai lawmakers were scheduled to vote on seven proposed constitutional reforms during a two-day joint session of the elected House and appointed Senate. They adjourned a previous session without voting on proposed amendments, leading the pro-democracy protesters to accuse the government of acting in bad faith.

Read more: Thai parliament opens special session as protests continue

The protesters say the constitution, written and enacted under military rule, is undemocratic.

Experts say the parliamentary session is an effort by the government to take the initiative away from the pro-democracy movement, which also wants Prayuth and his government to step down.

Parliament is likely to establish a drafting committee to write a new charter. This would allow the government to say it is willing to meet the protesters' demands at least halfway, while buying time with a process that could extend over many months.

Read more: 

Pandemic and protests: Thailand's double whammy

Thai king's time in Bavaria draws growing scrutiny

shs/rs (dpa, Reuters, AP, AFP)

Thai police fire water cannon at parliament protest, at least 41 hurt

At least 41 people were hurt during protests in Thailand's capital Bangkok on Tuesday, including five with gunshot wounds, the city's Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said. It did not give a full breakdown of the injuries, but earlier said that 12 people had suffered from teargas fired by police.

German state minister resigns over gun purchase from right-wing extremist

Veteran German politician Lorenz Caffier stepped down after buying a pistol from a member of a far-right survivalist group. Caffier flatly denied any far-right links, but said the purchase itself was "not a mistake."


A controversial gun purchase prompted the resignation of the interior minister of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Tuesday.

The minister, Lorenz Caffier, bought a hunting pistol from the arms dealer in 2018. It later came to light that the dealer was a member of the Nordkreuz (Northern Cross) group, an extreme-right survivalist network made up of people stockpiling for the collapse of the German state.

"I bought a firearm from someone whom I should not have bought it from, in hindsight. Although it was not the purchase that was a mistake, but how I handled it. I apologize for that," Caffier said in a statement.

The arms dealer's affiliation with the group only came to light in 2019, but the dealer's name was already known to authorities in 2017. The name came to light during the questioning of a witness associated with the Nordkreuz Group, and the information was then forwarded to authorities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Read more: 

Groups stand up to far-right in eastern Germany

How racist is Germany's police force?

As the state interior minister, Caffier oversaw the police and intelligence agencies conducting an investigation into the extreme-right group.

In his statement Tuesday, Caffier flatly denied any links to right-wing extremists and condemned "unrestrained reporting" into the case. He said he was resigning to "protect my family, the people around me and my staff" and to "avert damage from the government."
Who is Lorenz Caffier?

Caffier, 65, had served as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania interior minister for 14 years and was the oldest sitting politician in that position. He also served as the leader of the center-right CDU party in the northeastern German state from 2009 to 2017.

He had also played a key role in a proposed ban of the extreme-right NPD party, a measure that was not implemented.

Migratory species live fast, die young: study



Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 
  

Migration can take place in the skies, underwater, or across different landscape. 

SEBASTIEN BERDA AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Migratory birds and mammals that expend lots of energy travelling long distances to chase food or find a choice nesting spot tend to live fast and die young, scientists reported Tuesday.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers found that migratory animals have a shorter lifespan than their homebody counterparts.

But they compensate by having more offspring in less time.

Analysing over 700 birds and 540 mammal species, the study determined that from an evolutionary standpoint, neither strategy is "better" than the other.

"These are just two different ways of solving life's problems," said UK Exeter University professor Stuart Bearhop, an author of the study.

"One way is to live fast and die young, the other way is to live slow" and produce offspring over a longer lifetime.

It balances out, otherwise one group -- migratory or non-migratory species -- would dominate over the other.

"An animal that has a shorter life but produces more offspring ultimately leaves as many copies of itself to reproduce as an animal that has a slower life and produces less offspring," Bearhop said by phone.

Some species can swing both ways.

Blackcaps -- olive-grey warblers with distinctive splashes of black or brown on their heads -- can be either resident or migratory.

- Climate change -

The ones that wander afield typically live a shorter life, reach maturity at a younger age and produce more chicks.

Migration can take place in the skies, underwater, or across different landscape.

Climate change could tilt the evolutionary tables against migratory species, which have "to cope with changes in multiple locations, as opposed to just one for residents," said Bearhop, who teaches Animal Ecology.

They travel between their breeding and non-breeding sites in accordance with the seasons, and depend on predictable weather patterns such as winds and ocean currents.

But global warming is disrupting these patterns, through rising temperatures, modified rainfall, and shifts in vegetation.

The Blue Whale travels between tropical calving grounds in winter and high latitude feeding grounds in summer.

As sea temperatures rise, the abundance and distribution of their food -- plankton, fish and squid -- changes, weakening females and increasing the intervals between the birth of offspring, earlier research has shown.

- Size matters -

"Climate change isn't happening evenly and its effects are already showing to be much worse at higher latitudes," Bearhop said.

The Arctic, favoured by migratory birds, is one such area.

Scientists expect to see differences in reproductive and survival rates due to climate change.

The study also found that size matters.

"Migrant flyers such birds and bats tend to have smaller body sizes than residents, whereas in migrant walkers and swimmers -- all mammals except bats -- it tends to be larger," the authors said.

Only larger walkers and swimmers can store enough energy to complete long-distance migrations.

Larger birds face energetic problems when forced to use flapping flight, the authors added.

"That's why there are no migratory mice, for example," Bearhop said. "They simply cannot cover the ground in an efficient way."

© 2020 AFP

Greenland's largest glaciers likely to melt faster than feared: study

Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 

Over the last two decades, the world's ice sheets atop Greenland and Antarctica have become the single largest source of sea level rise

Jonathan NACKSTRAND AFP

Paris (AFP)

The three largest glaciers in Greenland -- which hold enough frozen water to lift global sea levels some 1.3 metres -- could melt faster than even the worst-case warming predictions, research published Tuesday showed.

Until 2000, the main driver of sea level rise was melting glaciers and the expansion of ocean water as it warms.

But over the last two decades, the world's ice sheets atop Greenland and Antarctica have become the single largest source of sea level rise.

A team of researchers based in Denmark and Britain used historical images and a host of other data to estimate how much ice had been lost from Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae, Kangerlussuaq Glacier and Helheim Glaciers in the 20th century.

They found that Jakobshavn Isbrae lost more than 1.5 trillion tonnes of ice between 1880-2012, while Kangerlussuaq and Helheim lost 1.4 trillion and 31 billion tonnes from 1900–2012, respectively.

The ice melt has already contributed more than eight millimetres to global sea levels, the researchers wrote.

Shfaqat Abbas Khan, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, said using photographs taken before the satellite era was another tool to help recreate the last century's ice loss.

"Historical measurements over the 19th and 20th century may hide important information that can significantly improve our future projections," he told AFP.

The UN's climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, has forecast sea level rise from all sources of between 30-110 centimetres by 2100, depending on emissions.

Under the IPCC's high emissions pathway, known as RCP8.5, nothing is done to curb carbon pollution throughout the 21st century, leading to a climate more than 3C hotter than pre-Industrial levels.

Models ran under RCP8.5 for the three glaciers featured in Tuesday's study predict a sea-level rise of 9.1–14.9mm by 2100.

But the paper, published in Nature Communications, pointed out that the high-emissions pathway temperature increase was more than four times larger than during the 20th Century, when the three glaciers already added 8mm to seas.

"The worst-case scenario is underestimated. Ice loss may be anywhere from three or four times larger than previous predicted for the thee glaciers considered in this study," said Khan.

A Nature study published in September found that if greenhouse gas emissions continued unabated, ice sheets in Greenland will shed some 36 trillion tonnes this century, enough to lift the global waterline some 10 centimetres.

© 2020 AFP

Report names and shames countries cosy with Big Tobacco

Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 

Tobacco claims some eight million lives each year from cancer and other lung diseases, a million in China alone 

PRAKASH SINGH AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

The global tobacco industry has aggressively lobbied governments during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand markets and blunt measures designed to curb their business, a report from watchdog groups aligned with the World Health Organization claimed on Tuesday.

A ranking of 57 countries based on their willingness to keep Big Tobacco at bay puts Japan and Indonesia at the bottom of the list, with Romania, China and Lebanon among the 10 worst offenders.

The United States is the lowest-ranked Western nation, with Malaysia, Spain, Germany and India also seen as too accommodating, said the report by non-profit groups based in France, England and Thailand.

"The tobacco industry has a well-documented history of deception and of capitalising on humanitarian crises, and it is using the pandemic to attempt to improve its deteriorating public image," commented Adriana Blanco Marquizo, head of the secretariat for the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Tobacco claims some eight million lives each year from cancer and other lung diseases, a million in China alone.

In several countries, stringent tobacco control measures were defeated or diluted.

Philip Morris International (PMI), for example, "lobbied for the promotion and sale of its heated tobacco product in a dozen countries", resulting in the lifting of bans, lower taxes, and a voice in government-led deliberations on regulating tobacco products, the report found.

Taxes on these new nicotine delivery devices are now lower than cigarettes in France, Germany and Japan.

Costa Rica, Zambia and Bangladesh also eased the tax burden for tobacco firms.

Big Tobacco has a long track record of suing to block plain packaging for cigarettes, sponsoring cultural events or sports teams, and challenging the legality of smoke-free zones.

- $850 billion industry -

During the pandemic, tobacco firms have been handing out personal protective equipment, ventilators and hand sanitisers in countries across the world.

"While publicising its charitable acts to resuscitate its image as being part of the solution, the industry was simultaneously lobbying governments not to impose restrictions on its business," the report said.

In Kenya, the government listed tobacco products as "essential products" during the pandemic, and in Jordan cigarettes were delivered with bread and other foods directly to neighbourhoods.

By contrast, India and South Africa banned the sale of tobacco products during the pandemic.

More broadly, the countries seen as least susceptible to the influence of tobacco interests included France, Uganda, Britain, New Zealand and Iran.

Peru, The Netherlands, Kenya and Ethiopia also got good marks.

The report, releasee by the STOP partnership, was put together after former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the researchers a three-year grant of $20 million to track how the industry markets its wares worldwide, especially in developing countries.

"This is the only product I know of where if you use it as advertised, it will kill you," Bloomberg told AFP in 2018, when he awarded the grant.

More than 80 percent of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.

Smoking has plateaued in most rich nations, but in the developing world the total number of tobacco users -- overwhelmingly men, especially the young -- continues to climb.

The global tobacco market size was valued at nearly $850 billion in 2019.

The groups collaborating on the report included the Tobacco Research Group at the University of Bath, the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

© 2020 AFP

Armenia looks to protect cultural artefacts amid conflict with Azerbaijan

Issued on: 17/11/2020 -

Armenian historians have secured hundreds of ancient manuscripts from Nagorno-Karabakh. © FRANCE 24 screengrab
Text by:FRANCE 

Video by:Luke SHRAGO|Romeo LANGLOIS|Mohamed FARHAT

Ever since rockets started falling over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a team of historians has worked to bring hundreds of ancient Armenian manuscripts to safety for fear they might be destroyed by artillery or vandalism.

Behind a thick vault door at the Matenadaran-Gandzasar cultural centre in Armenia’s capital Yerevan, troves of Armenian manuscripts – some dating as far back as the 13th century – can be found. They have been moved there from their sister complex in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenia’s reignited conflict with Azerbaijan threatens their existence.

“We saw the rocket fire fall on the Gandzasar cathedral in Shusha, since the Matendaran is located next to the monastery complex of Gandzasar. For reasons of security, we decided to temporarily move everything to the Matendaran in Yerevan,” explains Aram Torosyam, director of the centre.

But he is not just worried about rocket fire. “The manuscripts were removed, given how the destruction of monuments is an ongoing phenomenon for these terrorists – Azerbaijani, Turkish groups, they have this tendency to destroy monuments.”

The manuscripts are an important part of Armenia’s cultural heritage, many documenting its deep and often troubled relationship with its neighbours.

Burkina Faso: Thousands of internally displaced face disenfranchisement from presidential vote

Thousands of people in Burkina Faso remain internally displaced after having fled the unrest that prevails in some regions of the country. These Burkinabes are now at risk of being disenfranchised in the November 22 presidential election, in which national security is likely to be a primary issue.

Thousands of Burkinabes have fled villages targeted by terrorist attacks, often leaving behind their papers and other important belongings.

The independent electoral commission has admitted that nationwide voting will not be able to take place due to the tenuous security situation, with the residents of nearly 1,600 villages unable to be registered.

About a third of Burkina Faso citizens face being excluded from the vote, one civil society activist told FRANCE 24.

Click on the video player to watch the full FRANCE 24 report

French security law: government crackdown on filming the police causes outrage

2020-11-17 14:44 

 

French bill banning images of police worries activists and journalists

Issued on: 17/11/2020 -

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has said the controversial clause in the new bill is needed to “protect those who protect us”. © Thomas Coex, AFP / file picture

Text by:FRANCE 24

French lawmakers will begin debating a controversial bill on Tuesday that proposes a ban on the publication of images showing law enforcement officers. The bill has drawn sharp criticism from media outlets and activist groups who say it would violate principles of press freedom and the public’s right to be informed.

The bill's Article 24, which has been dubbed the “guerre des images” (war of images) in France, is aimed at “protecting those who protect us” by banning anyone – journalists and civilians alike – from publishing or broadcasting images in which on-duty police officers or gendarmes can be clearly identified for what the bill calls "malicious purposes".

The clause was first proposed by an MP for President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) party after police unions lobbied for it. The purpose of the bill "is to forbid any calls for violence or reprisals against officers and their families" in videos on social media, another LREM MP, Alice Thourot, told France Inter radio.

Critics, however, say the ban would essentially censor journalists by outlawing an activity that could be essential to their work. Images documenting police brutality or misconduct could also fall under the rubric of the ban. 

The January death of Cédric Chouviat, a delivery driver in Paris who suffered a heart attack and died after police put him in a chokehold, shined a spotlight on France's own demons. In the wake of George Floyd protests in the United States, France faced unprecedented protests against police brutality and racism over the summer. 

According to international NGO Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières or RSF), the clause “clearly violates the principles of press freedom and the public’s right to be informed”.

Read more: As George Floyd protests spread, France confronts its own demons

Civilians would also be prevented from sharing such images on social media. A Change.org petition protesting the ban had on Tuesday garnered more than 80,000 signatures.

Should the proposal – which will require approval from both France’s upper and lower houses – go through, offenders would face up to one year in prison and a €45,000 fine.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

French MPs tackle controversial clampdown on filming police

Issued on: 17/11/2020 - 

French police have long been accused of using heavy-handed tactics. A protestor in lawyer's garb holds a sign reading "Police, who will protect us when you misbehave ?" during a rally against the comprehensive security bill debated in parliament. 

STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

Paris (AFP)

The publication of police officers' faces unless blurred could become illegal in France, under legislation debated in parliament Tuesday and which critics say risks discouraging attempts to document abuses of authority.

France's security forces have long faced accusations of using brutal tactics when dealing with protesters, but also when confronting or arresting individuals, in particular from black or Arab minorities.

A series of incidents caught on video and spread on social media have spurred calls for reform, which gained momentum this year with the "Black Lives Matter" movement in the US following the death of George Floyd.

But police say they are increasingly under personal threat as they struggle to carry out President Emmanuel Macron's promise to reduce crime and insecurity, especially in the rough housing blocks surrounding Paris and other cities.

An attack on a police station outside Paris last month, by dozens of people armed with fireworks and steel bars, galvanised the government to vow concrete measures to protect officers and improve working conditions.

A new "comprehensive security" law from Macron's centrist government proposes reforms such as giving more autonomy to local police -- and potentially arming more of them -- and expanding the use of surveillance drones in high-crime areas.

But last month, his rightwing Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin supported a measure long sought by police unions, making it a crime to show images of an officer's face unless it has been made blurry.

Publication on social media or elsewhere with the intent of undermining an officer's "physical or psychological integrity" could be punished by a year in prison or fines of up to 45,000 euros ($53,000).

- 'War of images' -

Darmanin says the measure would "protect those who are protecting us," especially in poor neighbourhoods where tensions often run high between law enforcement and immigrant communities.

The law's co-author Jean-Michel Fauvergue, a former head of France's elite RAID police unit, rejected claims that police were getting new protections from criticism.

"In no way does this stop journalists from working," Fauvergue said at a press conference Tuesday.

He said the law would only punish publication of an officer's face "with messages calling for hate or violence".

Journalists and rights activists are not convinced, saying the stricter rules would effectively work as a "gag law," similar to a measure in force in Spain since 2015, that would hinder attempts to hold police accountable.

An open letter this month signed by journalists across France, including some from Agence France-Presse, urged lawmakers to reject the new image limits, and protests have been called for outside parliament on Tuesday.

"There's reason to fear that officers who already often try to prevent filming or photographs of their interventions in public areas, including through the use of force -- despite it being perfectly legal -- will feel even more empowered to do so," they wrote.

A letter from The UN Human Rights Council this month also warned French authorities the proposal "could discourage, even punish those who could supply elements of potential human rights violations by law enforcement, and provide a sort of immunity."

Critics point in particular to the hundreds of violence complaints filed against officers during the "yellow vest" anti-government rallies that erupted in 2018, which saw fierce clashes between protesters and police that made headlines worldwide.

In July, three officers were charged with manslaughter over the death of a delivery man, Cedric Chouviat, who was filmed by bystanders as officers had him in a chokehold after his arrest for a traffic offence in Paris.

Chouviat said "I'm suffocating" seven times before his body went limp.

"Black Lives Matter" also fuelled mass protests this summer against alleged police violence in France, particularly over the 2016 death in custody of a 24-year-old black man, Adama Traore.

Medical experts have exonerated the officers who arrested Traore, but his family has contested the findings, saying he was a victim of choking.

France's human rights auditor has also warned of "considerable risks" from the new law, saying it "must not impede on freedom of the press, nor on freedom of information."

"The publication of images regarding police interventions are legitimate and necessary for a democracy to function," the Defenseur des Droits said.

© 2020 AFP

MEXIQUE
Police open fire on femicide protest in Mexico

AMLO IS A MACHO NEOLIBERAL 
Issued on: 11/11/2020 - 
  

Screengrab of one of the videos below. This was filmed during a protest against femicides in Cancún, Mexico on November 9. © Facebook

Text by:Chloé Lauvergnier

VIDEOS AT THE END

Several people were injured when police opened fire during a protest against femicide in Cancun, Mexico on November 9. People across the globe expressed shock and horror as news of the crackdown spread across social media.

The protest was called after three femicides in Quintana Roo: One woman was killed in the town of Jose Maria Morelos and two others in Cancun. Their bodies all showed signs of torture. The protesters, rallied by the Quintana Roo Feminist Network, demanded justice for the victims and denounced violence against women in general.

This protest against femicides took place in Cancún on November 9.

"I saw police officers about 20 or 30 metres from me and then I started to hear shots being fired”

Nadia, a member of a group called DAS (which stands for Rights, Autonomy and Sexuality in Spanish) and Pride Cancun (Fierte Cancun) took part in the protest.

I went to the protest because I was really affected by these three femicides and because Mexico isn’t a safe place for women in general. Feminist organizations have been working with the authorities on these issues since the large protest held in Cancún on March 8 [Editor’s note: on International Women’s Day], but unfortunately, nothing is happening quickly.

We gathered around 5pm in front of the building of the Public Ministry, because that is the government body responsible for investigating femicides. Members of women’s rights organizations were there as well as the family members of Alexis [Editor’s note: 20-year-old Alexis was one of the women killed in Cancún that weekend] and her friends and teachers. There were a lot of teenagers who attended. I think that there were about 600 of us in total [Editor’s note: the media reported around 2,000 people]. Some carried photos of the victims. There were speeches. We stayed there for about two hours.

Nadia filmed this video showing people gathered in front of the Public Ministry in Cancún on November 9.


Nadia took these photos during the rally against femicides in Cancún on November 9.

Some people wanted to go to City Hall. But en route, certain people started destroying traffic signs. By the time we got there, I think there were only about a hundred of us left. We were yelling “Justice for Alexis!” but then some people started damaging City Hall, breaking windows and throwing rocks. Some people even went into the building and came out carrying things.

Nadio filmed this video in front of City Hall in Cancún on November 9. You can hear women calling out for justice for Alexis and the sound of windows breaking.

That’s when a group of police descended on us. I saw them about 20 or 30 metres away from me and then I heard shots being fired. I started running, along with everyone else, to hide in a nearby park. I don’t know if they were firing real bullets or rubber bullets but, later, real bullets were found at the site. The police beat some people and carried out numerous arrests. It’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of crackdown on a protest in Cancún. We are wondering who gave the order for the police to act in that way.

Nadia sent our team this video. It was filmed by someone who was near her when the police opened fire in front of Cancún City Hall on November 9.

This video, filmed in front of Cancún’s City Hall on November 9, shows police violently cracking down on protesters, starting at 0’30. The man filming the video yells out, “I’m here with them! Calm down, those are my students!” At 2’05, he says to a police officer: "Are you aware that you are firing bullets during a peaceful protest?” You can hear shots being fired during most of the video.

⚠️Vean una de las arbitrarias detenciones por las que no responden @CarlosJoaquin, @MaraLezama ni @kpya.
La policía que se mandó solita en Cancún, flanqueada por la gloriosa Guardia Nacional.
¿Qué carajos con este país?
🎥: Guadalupe Villarreal pic.twitter.com/Fm54CnXnWS Alfredo Lecona (@AlfredoLecona) November 10, 2020

Police officers violently push a protester during a demonstration in Cancún on November 9.

At least four people were wounded during the demonstration, according to the Mexican media. Two journalists were shot – one in the shoulder and another in the leg.


Cancún’s Director of Public Security removed from his post

No local officials have yet taken responsibility for what happened. The governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín Gonzalez, said he gave "precise instructions" that there should be "no physical violence and no weapons during the protests on this day". The secretary of Public Security in Quintana Roo, Alberto Capella, said he had called for an “internal investigation”. The mayor of Cancun, Mara Lezama, also claimed that she had "given specific instructions for investigations to be opened [into the incident]".

She also demanded that the city’s Director of Public Security, Eduardo Santamaría, "be removed immediately from his post".

Numerous human rights organisations, including the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, condemned "the excessive use of force” and “lethal weapons” during the protest.

Last year, a total of 34,608 intentional homicides and 1,012 femicides – cases where a woman or girl was killed by someone, usually a man because of her gender – were reported in Mexico, according to official statistics. The figures represents the highest number of femicides since officials began collecting data on these crimes.

Ethnic minorities face rising disparity in homicide risk across England and Wales

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

New research analysing racial disparities among murder victims across most of Britain over the last two decades shows that people of Asian ethnicity are on average twice as likely as White British people to be killed.

For Black people, however, the risk of homicide has been over five and a half times (5.6) higher than for White British people - on average - during the current century, and this disparity has been on the rise since 2015.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology were surprised to find that official UK data did not include relative risk statistics by ethnicity, as is common in countries such as the US and Australia.

They argue that the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) should publish "relevant denominators with raw numerators" to help with public understanding of crime risk and police resourcing. The work is published as a research note in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing.

"Through a series of straightforward calculations, we found substantial racial inequality in the risks of being murdered in England and Wales," said co-author Professor Lawrence Sherman of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology.

"The pandemic has given the public a crash course in statistics. It provides an opportunity to present all kinds of data in ways that have more meaning for the population as well as those on the front line of prevention," Sherman said.

Billy Gazard, a crime statistician for the ONS, said: "We have outlined our plans for improving crime statistics for England and Wales in our July 2020 progress update. Within this update we committed to better addressing inequalities in victimisation and highlighting those groups in society that are at most risk of experiencing crime. We plan to carry out further analysis over the coming year, which will include looking at homicide victimisation rates by ethnicity."

Cambridge criminologists went back over the last 20 years of annual figures using an approach now familiar to many through coronavirus statistics: rates of cases per 100,000 people. This provided a risk ratio for homicide rates by ethnicity in England and Wales.

The researchers say that, to the best of their knowledge, theirs is the first comparison of ethnic group trends in UK homicide victimisation rates per 100,000 to be published in recent decades, if ever.

They found that homicide risk for White and Asian people has stayed relatively consistent since the turn of the millennium - around one in 100,000 for White people and a little over two in 100,000 for Asian people, consisting primarily of persons of South Asian descent. For Black people, however, risks have fluctuated dramatically over the last 20 years.

The homicide victimisation rate for Black people was highest in the early noughties: almost 10 in 100,000 in 2001. It dropped by 69% between 2001 and 2012 to a low of 3 in 100,000 around 2013. Rates then began to climb again, rising seven times faster than for White people to reach over 5 in 100,000 last year.

When accounting for age, the disparity is starker still: for those aged 16 to 24, the 21st century average puts young Black people over ten and a half times (10.6) more likely than White people to be victims of homicide in England and Wales.

In fact, researchers point out that - per 100,000 people - the most recent data from 2018-19 puts the murder risk of young Black people 24 times higher than that of young White people.

The criminologists found no correlation between changes in homicide risk for different ethnicities. As an example, they point to the last three years of data: the homicide rate for White people aged between 16-24 dropped by 57%, while for young Black people it increased by 31%.

"Policing requires reliable evidence, and changing levels of risk are a vital part of preventative policing," said Sherman. "Our initial findings reveal risk inequalities at a national level, but they may be far greater or lower in local areas. We would encourage police forces to produce their own calculations of murder rates per 100,000."

Sherman has long advocated for a more "meaningful" approach to crime data. He has led on the development of the Cambridge Crime Harm Index: a classification system weighted by the impact of an offence on victims, rather than just counting crime numbers.

"Simple statistics show us that the risks of becoming a murder victim are far from equal," added Sherman. "We need more data analysis of this nature to inform police resource allocation, and promote a more fact-informed dialogue with communities across the country."