Wednesday, March 23, 2022

“Everyone Wants Me Dead”

Iraq: Impunity for Violence Against LGBT People

Killings, Abductions, Torture, Sexual Violence by Armed Forces

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© 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

March 23, 2022

(Baghdad) – Armed groups in Iraq abduct, rape, torture, and kill lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today with IraQueer. The police arrest and also carry out violence against them.

The 86-page report, “‘Everyone Wants Me Dead’: Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Sexual Violence Against LGBT People by Armed Groups in Iraq,” documents cases of attempted murder of LGBT people by armed groups primarily within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which are nominally under the prime minister’s authority. Human Rights Watch also documented cases of abductions, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and online targeting of LGBT people by the police and armed groups. The Iraqi government is responsible for protecting LGBT people’s rights to life and security but has failed to hold those responsible for the violence accountable, Human Rights Watch found.

“LGBT Iraqis live in constant fear of being hunted down and killed by armed groups with impunity, as well as arrest and violence by Iraqi police, making their lives unlivable,” said Rasha Younes, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Iraqi government has done nothing to stop the violence or hold the abusers accountable.”

Human Rights Watch and IraQueer, an Iraqi LGBT rights group, interviewed 54 LGBT Iraqis who have experienced violence by armed groups and police. Human Rights Watch also interviewed representatives of nine human rights organizations and international agencies, and seven representatives of foreign missions in Iraq and LGBT rights advocates. Those interviewed had experienced abuse in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq as well as in the Kurdistan region. Human Rights Watch also reviewed online documentation of attacks against LGBT people, including videos, images, and digital threats.

The groups found that LGBT people’s ability and willingness to report abuses they face to the police or file complaints against law enforcement agents are impeded by a combination of loosely defined “morality” clauses in Iraq’s Penal Code, and the absence of reliable complaint systems and legislation protecting them from discrimination. This has created an environment in which armed government actors, including the police, can abuse LGBT people with impunity, the groups found.

One 31-year-old Iraqi transgender woman said she was on her way home from work in February 2021 when six men in a Hummer with tinted windows stopped her next to a garbage dump in Baghdad. “They pulled out a razor blade and a screwdriver and poked and cut me all over, especially my ass, crotch, and thighs,” she told Human Rights Watch and IraQueer. “They sliced me up and poured around five liters of gasoline all over my body and face and set me alight.”

One 27-year-old gay man from Baghdad described how his boyfriend was tortured by four members of an armed group in front of him in May 2020. “Then they shot him five times,” he said.

Mariam, a 21-year-old lesbian woman from Baghdad, is one of many LGBT Iraqis who said they were harassed at checkpoints by security forces due to their appearance. © 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

Zoran, a 25-year-old gay man from Sulaymaniyah, said he was sexually assaulted by two members of the Asayish while he was on a date with a man who tricked him after they met on a same-sex dating application. © 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

Karim, an 18-year-old gay man from Najaf, said he was 17 when police in Baghdad arrested him, verbally and physically abused him, sexually harassed him, and subjected him to a forced anal exam. © 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

In eight cases, abuses by armed groups and police, including arbitrary arrest and sexual harassment, were against children as young as 15. Many of those attacked were able to identify the armed group responsible. The groups implicated in the most serious abuses are Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq, Atabat Mobilization, Badr Organization, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Raba Allah Group, and Saraya al-Salam.  

The people interviewed described arrests and routine violence from security officials, who verbally and physically assault them, and arbitrarily arrest and detain them, often without a legal basis.

LGBT people reported abuses during detention including being denied food and water, or the right to contact a lawyer or family members, or get medical care. They said the police sexually assaulted them and physically abused them and forced them to sign pledges stating that they had not been abused.

In June 2021, police in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) issued arrest warrants based on article 401 of the penal code which criminalizes “public indecency” against 11 LGBT rights activists who are either current or former employees at Rasan Organization, a Sulaymaniyah-based human rights group. As of March 2022, the case remained open pending investigation, though authorities had not detained the activists.

Most of those interviewed also said they had experienced extreme violence at least once by male relatives for their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Such violence included being locked in a room for extended periods; being denied food and water; being burned, beaten, raped, given electric shocks, attacked at gunpoint, and subjected to conversion practices and forced hormone therapy; being subjected to forced marriages; and being forced to work for long hours without compensation.

Iraqi authorities should investigate all reports of armed-group or other violence against people targeted due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and expression; prosecute, fairly try, and appropriately punish those found responsible; and publicly and expressly condemn all such violence, Human Rights Watch said. The government should take all appropriate measures to end torture, disappearances, summary killings, and other abuses, including based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, and compensate survivors of serious abuse and the families of all victims of killings by armed groups.

Iraqi security forces should stop harassing and arresting LGBT people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender expression and instead protect them from violence. Iraq should introduce and enforce anti-discrimination legislation including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Countries providing military, security, and intelligence assistance to Iraq, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France should urge the Iraqi authorities to investigate allegations of abuses by armed groups and the role of their own assistance in these alleged violations. These countries should suspend military, security, and intelligence assistance to units involved in these violations and explain any suspension or end to that assistance publicly.

“LGBT Iraqis’ lives will continue to be lost if the Iraqi government does not end the violence and impunity immediately,” Younes said. “Iraqi authorities should start by publicly condemning violence against LGBT people and safeguarding their right to access protection in their own country.”

“Everyone Wants Me Dead”
Killings, Abductions, Torture, and Sexual Violence Against LGBT People by Armed Groups in Iraq

Download the full report in English

Annex I: Letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Annex II: Letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq

Annex III: Letter to the Kurdish Regional Government

Annex IV: Response to HRW from the Kurdish Regional Government

Deadly Violence against LGBT People in Iraq

Published in:Rudaw
Rasha Younes
Researcher, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program

@Rasha__Younes

Click to expand Image
Mariam, a 21-year-old lesbian woman from Baghdad, is one of many LGBT Iraqis who said they were harassed at checkpoints by security forces due to their appearance. © 2022 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

In February news circulated that a 23-year-old transgender woman, Doski Azad, had been killed by her brother in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. I read the news, having just concluded my research on armed groups’ killings, abductions, torture, and sexual violence against LGBT people in Iraq, and thought, how can LGBT people get justice and accountability when they can be killed and abused with impunity, even in their own homes?

Over the past six months, I interviewed 54 LGBT Iraqis who have survived harrowing violence at the hands of Iraqi armed groups and the police. Some of them also had intimate knowledge of other LGBT Iraqis who had been killed or disappeared by armed groups due to their gender presentation or perceived sexual orientation.

Our new report documents 8 abductions, 8 attempted murders, 4 extrajudicial killings, 27 instances of sexual violence, 45 threats to rape and kill, and 42 cases of online targeting by armed units within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), groups nominally under the prime minister’s control since 2016, against LGBT people in Iraq. In eight cases, abuses by armed groups and police were against children as young as 15. In thirty-nine cases, the victims were able to identify the armed group behind the attack against them.

The numbers are most likely much higher. The attackers are known. Yet, as with so many killings and disappearances in Iraq, the perpetrators have not been held accountable.

Many of the people I interviewed were young enough to have just graduated from high school, yet the fear and isolation they described stretched as far as they could remember. Most had never spoken to anyone about what had happened to them. I found myself on several occasions setting aside my interview questions and just talking to them. I listened to a 27-year-old gay man describe how his boyfriend was tortured in front of him. “Then they shot him five times,” he said.

The story of one 21-year-old gay man stayed with me. He survived an attempt to kill him in November 2019, while three masked men stabbed the friend who was with him to death. He told me, gasping for breath, “They kept screaming: ‘Faggot! Faggot! You are faggot scum and deserve to die.’ One of them stabbed me in the shoulder, and I still don’t know how, but I ran for my life.”

His own father broke both his knees while beating him with a baton after he found him chatting with a man online. He said his father forces him to work at a family-owned laundromat for 16 hours per day in an underground room he called “a dungeon.” His father gives him leftovers from others’ plates and had previously thrown food in the garbage and told him to find it there.

Or the 31-year-old Iraqi transgender woman who was on her way home from work when six men in a Hummer with tinted windows stopped her next to a garbage dump in Baghdad. “They pulled out a razor blade and a screwdriver and poked and cut me all over, especially my ass, crotch, and thighs,” she said. “They sliced me up and poured around five liters of gasoline all over my body and face and set me alight….”

Her neighbors rescued her. Today, scars from her burns stretch from her neck to her feet. “They wanted me dead,” she said. “They have constrained my body, and I cannot love or be loved….I even contemplated suicide.”

Another transgender woman who had been kidnapped, tortured, and gang-raped in June 2020 by a PMF group, told me that after her abduction she stopped eating, failed her university exams, and attempted suicide. “I feel like the walking dead,” she said.

Where does justice begin for these individuals? No Iraqi laws protect LGBT Iraqis from violence. In fact, some provisions of Iraq’s Penal Code, like articles 41(1) and 128, empower attackers against them under the pretext of “honor,” knowing that the attackers can and most likely will get away with it. All of the people I interviewed said they would not report violence against them to the authorities because they are terrified that they would be targeted again, dismissed by the police, or detained.

The Iraqi government is responsible for ending the bloodshed and impunity, and it should start by investigating all reports of violence by armed groups or others against all victims including LGBT people and publicly condemning all such violence. The justice system should prosecute and appropriately punish those found responsible.

The government should take all measures to end torture, disappearances, summary killings, and other abuses based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, and compensate the families of all victims of unlawful killings and survivors of serious abuse. Justice only begins there.

SINGAPORE
Reach, the government feedback unit, gathers views on LGBT+ issues and Section 377A

There are also questions on whether participants feel that the LGBT+ community is accepted in Singapore.

Goh Yan Han
Political Correspondent

SINGAPORE - Government feedback unit Reach has launched a public survey on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) issues and Section 377A of the Penal Code, following Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam's comments earlier this month on the topic.

This is likely one of the first public polls by Reach on sentiments surrounding this topic.

Feedback from the Reach survey, which closed at noon on Wednesday (March 23), "will be shared with relevant agencies and could be used within the Government for policy updates and changes", said the survey in its preamble.

Reach also said: "We wish to hear your thoughts about the LGBT+ community in Singapore. This survey is open to everyone regardless of your sexual orientation and/or gender identity."

Mr Shanmugam had said earlier this month that the Government is carefully considering the best way forward on the law, which criminalises sex between men but which the Government has said will not be proactively enforced.

"We must respect the different viewpoints, consider them carefully, talk to the different groups," he told Parliament on March 3 during the debate on the budget of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"If and when we decide to move, we will do so in a way that continues to balance these different viewpoints and avoids causing a sudden, destabilising change in social norms and public expectations," he added.

When asked if this was Reach's first public survey on attitudes towards the LGBT+ community and Section 377A, as well as why the survey was commissioned, a Reach spokesman said: "This survey is one of many that Reach pushes out frequently to Singaporeans to gather feedback on issues they are concerned with."

In the survey, under the section that collects demographic data of the participants, the question on gender provides three options - male, female and others.

There are also questions on whether participants feel that the LGBT+ community is accepted in Singapore, and if they are supportive of the LGBT+ community and its causes.

The survey also asks for participants' opinions on whether Section 377A should be repealed, maintained, modified, or if they are indifferent to it.

In a judgment released last month, the apex court here ruled that the law will stay on the books, but cannot be used to prosecute men for having gay sex.

After the survey closed, Reach said on the site that there had been "an overwhelming response that far exceeds the usual number of responses received in our e-Listening Points". An e-Listening Point is a virtual feedback platform.

Martin Scott
WSWS.ORG

Less than a month after the New South Wales (NSW) Liberal-National government shut down Sydney’s rail network, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has agreed to ask its members to implement a six-week ban on industrial action.

Since Monday, union officials have carried out dozens of small workplace meetings designed to limit open discussion among workers and suppress opposition to the union-government peace deal.

Following these meetings, the RTBU also plans to call off limited work bans that only began this week and had been planned since March 11. These include indefinite bans on working with contractors and on undertaking work prohibited through the industrial action of another union , as well as two-week bans on transpositions, foreign depot work, altered work and changes to the master roster.

The RTBU’s commitment to drop these bans is a further example of the role the union has played since the shutdown, swooping in to rescue the government from a political crisis of its own making.

Sydney train guard checks station platform (Photo: Facebook / RTBU NSW)

In response to similar bans that were set to begin on February 21, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) ordered the cancellation of all train service in Sydney, Australia’s largest city. While Transport Minister David Elliott and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet denied responsibility, documents and testimony have since emerged that made clear the shutdown had been planned at the highest levels of government over several weeks.

The NSW government faced widespread anger from the public over what was quickly revealed as a deliberate move to sabotage the rail network in a provocative attack on rail workers. Yet with the authorities on the back foot, the RTBU swiftly stepped in to restore service and resume backroom negotiations.

Last Tuesday, RTBU NSW Secretary Alex Claassens offered the state government an easy way to avoid any further industrial action on the railways. He said: “As soon as the government announces a fare-free day on Friday, we’re going to withdraw [planned industrial action].”

Elliott quickly made clear that this offer was highly favourable to the government, promising fare-free Fridays for a year in exchange for a ban on industrial action over that time.

In other words, the union has abandoned any pretence that the limited work bans it has announced are directed against the assault on wages and conditions in the EA negotiations. Instead, the union has issued the government a promise to suppress workers’ opposition to the rotten deal in exchange for a cheap public relations exercise aimed at dampening hostility over the shutdown in the broader working class.

The union justified the strike ban on the basis of supposed agreement from the state government and TfNSW on a handful of workers’ claims in ongoing enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations. These claims are primarily related to overtime rates and the incorporation of shift allowances into base pay.

Also supposedly agreed to is the retention of a clause requiring 28 days’ notice of changes to the master roster and a maximum of four master roster changes per year. This clause was included in the 2018 EA with the stipulation that it would expire when the agreement was replaced.

The RTBU’s no-strike promise makes clear that the union is preparing to wind up the dispute and ram through a sell-out deal that does nothing to resolve workers’ major concerns over privatisation and moves to eliminate guards on the New Intercity Fleet.

All other modes of transport in the state, including ferries, buses and light rail, are now in the hands of private operators, after more than a decade of sell-offs carried out with the full collaboration of the RTBU and other transport unions.

The fully-automated Sydney Metro train network is also privately operated and is currently being expanded to replace sections of the existing rail network in the city’s southwest. This demonstrates that the NSW government intends to further slash jobs for drivers, guards and other rail workers in the coming years.

The union is also silent on the question of pay, under conditions where rail workers are still subject to a 2.5 percent annual wage increase cap, well below the official inflation rate of 3.5 percent. The cost of basic items including housing, food and fuel, is rising even more rapidly.

Rail workers have not had a pay rise in almost two years, as the previous EA expired in April 2021 and TfNSW has not agreed to backdate the wage rise in the new agreement.

Under the public sector wage cap, even the union’s earlier meagre demand for 3.5 percent annual increases will depend on cuts to spending in other areas, meaning jobs will be destroyed and conditions will be slashed. The RTBU, along with all other unions covering NSW public sector workers, has consistently enforced the cap since it was introduced by the then state Labor government in 2008.

NSW public sector workers now confront not just wage stagnation but substantial wage cuts in real terms. This has intensified longstanding anger and opposition.

In December last year, NSW teachers held a 24-hour strike for the first time in a decade, while nurses walked out last month, their first statewide strike since 2013. In both cases, workers defied bans issued by the pro-business NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

Despite a pledge by the NSW Teachers’ Federation to ban strikes during term one, teachers have recently carried out isolated walk-outs and protests in opposition to massive understaffing exacerbated by rampant COVID-19 infection caused by the forced return to face-to-face teaching.

Nurses are voting this week on whether to hold a second statewide strike, making clear that a single walk-out was not enough to vent mounting pressure from workers as the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association had intended.

It was partially in response to these strikes that the Perrottet government launched its provocative assault on rail workers last month, as a warning to the broader working class that no industrial action, however limited, will be tolerated.

The RTBU peace deal makes clear that the union bureaucracies are doing everything they can to suppress the emerging struggles of the working class, and to ram through further regressive EAs.

Rail workers must reject the union’s moves to shutdown industrial action and rescue the government. They should reach out to teachers, nurses and other workers to mount a unified struggle against the wage cap and all other attacks on jobs, pay and conditions.

This requires a conscious break with the RTBU and all the corporatised trade unions which function as industrial policemen to enforce the demands of management and serve the interests of a privileged bureaucracy.

Workers must form new organisations of struggle, rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, to take up a political fight against the capitalist system, and all of its representatives in the major political parties, unions and media. Only through a fight for a socialist perspective and workers’ governments can critical public services, including, transport, health and education, be operated to meet the needs of workers and the mass of the population.

AUSTRALIA

Aged care workers struggle to cover basics as low wages and rising living costs take toll

Full-time income of a single parent worker not enough for essential expenses, Australian Aged Care Collaboration report reveals

Comparing average wages with key cost of living indicators such as rent and childcare showed care workers ended up with little to no disposable income.

Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Melissa Davey Medical editor
@MelissaLDaveyWed 23 Mar 2022 04.02 GMT

Aged care workers are being priced out of their communities, with low wages and rising living costs leaving a worker in a typical two-parent household with $34 of disposable income each week, and a single parent full-time worker unable to cover basic expenses.

The findings come from a report published on Wednesday by the Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC), a group of six aged care peak bodies. The report compared average wages for workers in the residential and home care sectors against key cost of living indicators including average rents, childcare expenses, grocery costs, and petrol.

Expenses were then compared to income earned by a certificate III qualified personal care worker employed at the award rate for a 38-hour week, who would earn $900 a week, or $773 after tax.

‘Yelling out for help’: the atrocious conditions inside Australia’s aged care homes

“Based on average earnings and expenses, an aged care worker in a single household would have $156 of income each week after basic expenses to cover other costs,” the report found.

“An aged care worker in a single-parent household would not be able to cover even basic expenses without working extra hours, working late nights or weekends, and relying on additional government benefits.

“An aged care worker in a typical two-parent household would have $34 of disposable income each week after expenses. These assumptions only cover basic weekly living costs.”

The report said aged care workers in single households were likely in serious financial stress with little or no savings buffer, while aged care workers in coupled households were likely to be financially dependent on a partner’s income.

“The results also reinforce concerns that aged care workers, like other frontline workers, are being priced out of housing,” the report concluded. “This helps explain why some aged care providers are being forced to offer housing options to attract staff.”

It is also one of the factors contributing to workers leaving the profession, creating workforce shortages. Aged care services are competing for workers with the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the health system, and the community sector.

“Each of these sectors is funded to offer higher pay to these workers,” the report said.

Ahead of the federal election, the AACC is calling on all parties and independent candidates to join representatives of older people and their carers, providers, unions, and health professionals to support the aged care workforce and push for key reforms.

These include a minimum wage increase for aged care workers, an award wage increase from July, and a commitment to a multidisciplinary workforce by putting in place an allied health needs assessment and funding model by July 2024.

The median hourly wage for a support worker is $28.41, and $28.99 for a home care worker. The median hourly wage for a bartender is $30, and $31.79 for a cashier.

In February, nurses and other workers protested dangerous staff shortages, underpayment, and a lack of personal protective equipment – issues that persist more than two years after the Covid-19 pandemic began and despite numerous inquiries into the aged care sector.

ISRAEL

Deputy Minister Yair Golan: The right and Netanyahu are responsible for terrorism

Deputy Economy Minister blames former Prime Minister Netanyahu and right-wing parties for Bedouin terrorism in the Negev.

Dalit Halevi
23.03.22

Yair Golan Noam Moskowitz, Knesset spokesperson

Deputy Economy Minister Yair Golan (Meretz) on Tuesday blamed the right-wing parties for the Bedouin terrorism in the Negev region.

Responding to the attack in Be'er Sheva in which four Israelis were murdered by a Bedouin affiliated with ISIS, Golan wrote on Twitter, "Always remember that every right-winger who talks about 'governance in the Negev' was responsible for the Negev for more than 12 years. Violence, poverty, terrorism and crime in the Negev are the work of Netanyahu and the right."

The Ra’am party, which represents, among others, the Bedouin in the Negev, issued a statement condemning the Be’er Sheva attack.

Knesset members from the party, including Waleed Taha, wrote on their Facebook accounts, "Ra’am condemns the criminal attack in Be'er Sheva, and sends its condolences to the families of the murdered and wishes a complete recovery to the wounded."

"The Arab citizens of the state are law-abiding and condemn any element that uses violence against other citizens. Ra’am calls on all citizens to maintain the common and delicate fabric of life, to take responsibility and promote tolerant dialogue at this difficult time," said the Ra’am MKs.

The chairman of the predominantly Arab Joint List, Ayman Odeh, also condemned the attack, saying, "I was shocked to read about the murderous incident in Be'er Sheva. Violence is not our way and we must condemn it with all our might. My heart goes out to the families of those killed at this difficult time, and I send my best wishes to the wounded."

Reko Diq deal

Editorial
Published March 23, 2022 -

IN what is being described as a breakthrough, Barrick Gold Corp has agreed to restart the suspended Reko Diq mine project in Balochistan’s Chaghi district, following a settlement with Pakistan on the framework to reconstitute the agreement after 10 years of legal battles and negotiations. The reconstituted agreement allows the Canadian company’s Chilean partner, Antofagasta Plc, to exit the project by withdrawing from its claim of $3.9bn in place of a payment of $900m. The two companies have won an award of around $11bn from an international arbitration court against Pakistan’s decision denying their joint venture a licence to develop Reko Diq. The government claims that the agreement will help it avoid the penalty, besides bringing in an investment of $10bn and creating 8,000 new jobs in the province. Under the new arrangement, Barrick gets half the project while Balochistan and federal state-owned firms will each hold 25pc of the remaining half. Barrick will get a mining lease, an exploration licence and surface rights. The project, once it enters the production stage five to six years from now, is billed to be potentially the world’s largest gold and copper mine, with deposits capable of producing 200,000 tons of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold a year for more than half a century. The government contends that Pakistan will benefit for “over 100 years from this project and the total worth is estimated to be over $100bn”.

Indeed, the new agreement seems to be an improvement from the past when international investors held 75pc of the project. But questions remain. For instance, the details made public so far don’t inform us if the investor plans to set up a refinery at Reko Diq for exporting precious metals or intends to take minerals out of the country in their raw form like the Chinese operator in Saindak. In case Barrick decides to export the metals in their raw form, do we have the capacity for determining the quantity extracted and moved out of the country, and to verify the exact revenue? Will there be a cap on the quantity of minerals to be excavated annually? Will Barrick and Pakistan share the anticipated investment equally according to their shareholding? If yes, where will $5bn come from for investment in five to six years? The government owes it to the people of Balochistan as well as the rest of Pakistan to make all the details public for the purpose of transparency.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2022

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At UN, Baloch activist raises concern about rights violation in Pakistan

Munir Mengal, a Baloch political and human rights activist on Tuesday raised concerns about the violation of the ongoing rights against minority communities in Pakistan.

ANI | Geneva | Updated: 23-03-2022

Munir Mengal, a Baloch political and human rights activist on Tuesday raised concerns about the violation of the ongoing rights against minority communities in Pakistan. Speaking at the 49th session of UN Human Rights Council, Munir said, "No amount of violence and no amount of brutality, no amount of regression can crush the people's desire for the basic right to freedom. Since 1948, Pakistan with a colonial mindset has unleashed a might on the people of Balochistan who refuse to surrender their most basic right --- the right to regain their sovereignty on their land."

The Baloch rights activist said the brutality of the Pakistani state has led to an unending tragedy for the people of Balochistan. "The family members, the civil society representatives and students are continuously rallying at press clubs at Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad for the safe release of victims of enforced disappearances," he added.

Citing the reports of the human rights group, Munir said thousands of Baloch are victims of enforced disappearances including Baloch women and infants. "The practice of disappearing by force, extrajudicial killings and target killing are done in Balochistan systematically on daily basis with impunity." Notably, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) earlier had expressed alarm over reports of a fresh wave of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and the rest of Pakistan, including most recently, Hafeez Baloch, a postgraduate student at the university in Islamabad.

Experts believe that the missing persons may be dead or their mutilated bodies dumped into ditches and may be locked in some detention centers. The 49th regular session of the Human Rights Council started on February 28 and will continue till April 1.

(ANI)

Baloch activists seek UN intervention to stop human rights violations in Balochistan

The Baloch political and human rights activists have demanded immediate intervention by the United Nations to stop gross human rights violations in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.

ANI | Geneva | Updated: 17-03-2022 22:55 IST | Created: 17-03-2022 22:55 IST

Baloch activists seek UN intervention to stop human rights violations in Balochistan. Image Credit: ANI

The Baloch political and human rights activists have demanded immediate intervention by the United Nations to stop gross human rights violations in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.The Baloch Human Rights Council organised a demonstration at Broken Chair during the 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.

They shouted slogans like "Stop human rights violations in Balochistan", "We Want Freedom" and "Terrorist State Pakistan". The banners at the demonstration highlight the ongoing genocide and rising cases of enforced disappearances in the province.The protesters alleged that thousands of youth have been forcibly displaced in Makkuran, Jhalawan, Dera Bugti, and Kohlu regions of Balochistan and the perpetrators of human rights violations are given impunity by the military-controlled legal system in Pakistan.

Samad Baloch, General Secretary of Baloch Human Rights Council said, "We are requesting the United Nations, the international community and the so-called civilised world to intervene in Balochistan as they have done in Ukraine. Russia has invaded a sovereign nation Ukraine, similarly, in 1948 Pakistan has invaded and forcibly annexed Balochistan."He added, "It is the high time that they show their moral, political responsibility and duty to intervene in Balochistan and help the people of Balochistan to gain their sovereignty to live in peace, security and stability with honour and dignity in their own soil."Hassan Hamdam, Vice President of Baloch Human Rights Council said, "We are here to highlight the gross human rights violations happening across Pakistan. Balochistan is having the worst human rights violations these days as the Pakistan Army takes some actions against the Baloch people. They are creating a heinous crime against humanity."He added, "It is unfortunate that the Pakistan Army picks young Baloch from their houses and their mutilated bodies found in mountains. They are disappearing like ghosts. These ghosts are from the Pakistani intelligence agencies."Hassan said, "We are here to request the international community if there is a state who is killing its people then who is going to protect us? When the state fails to provide security and justice to the people, then there must be someone who is responsible to take action. It is the United Nations that brings us here to highlight these issues." (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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WATER IS LIFE

Surface water availability becoming limited: Unesco

Amin Ahmed

Published March 23, 2022

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations World Water Development Report has projected that while water use is projected to grow by roughly one per cent per year over the next 30 years, overall dependence on groundwater is expected to rise as surface water availability becomes increasingly limited due to climate change.

Released by Unesco, on the occasion of World Water Day, the report points out the low use of water is not due to a lack of renewable groundwater, but rather by a lack of investments in infrastructure, institutions, trained professionals and knowledge of the resource.

The report says groundwater accounts for 99pc of all liquid freshwater on Earth. However, this natural resource is often poorly understood and consequently undervalued, mismanaged and even abused.

It says in order to meet global water and agricultural demands by 2050, including an estimated 50pc increase in food, feed and biofuel demand relative to 2012 levels, it is of critical importance to increase agricultural productivity through the sustainable intensification of groundwater abstraction, and decreasing the water and environmental footprints of agricultural production.

Regions heavily reliant on groundwater for irrigation, and in South Asia, 57pc of the areas equipped for irrigation use groundwater.

Asia-Pacific is the largest region in the world in terms of both area (28 million kilometres) and population (4.7 billion). The region is the largest groundwater abstractor in the world, the report says.

The critical driver of groundwater development in the region is rising demand for water due to growing populations, rapid economic development and improving living standards.

Utilisation of groundwater resources has provided numerous benefits for irrigation, industrial activity, domestic use, drought resilience and livelihood enhancement, according to the report.

These socio-economic benefits have been particularly crucial for the agricultural sector — a sector that is key to economic development in many developing countries in the region, and that accounts for an estimated 82pc of total water withdrawals.

Additionally, groundwater quality is under threat due to a variety of anthropogenic and geo-genic drivers that further contribute to water stress in the region.

It is estimated that agricultural pollution has overtaken contamination from settlements and industries as the major factor in the degradation of inland and coastal waters.

Nitrate, from chemical and organic fertilisers, is the most prevalent anthropogenic contaminant in groundwater globally. Insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, when improperly applied or disposed of, can pollute groundwater with carcinogens and other toxic substances.

Evidence suggests that laws and regulations to prevent or limit groundwater pollution from agriculture, and especially their enforcement, are generally weak. Policies addressing water pollution in agriculture should be part of overarching agriculture and water policy framework at the national, river basin and aquifer scale.

In terms of climate change adaptation, the capacity of aquifer systems to store seasonal or episodic surface water surpluses can be exploited to improve year-round freshwater availability, as aquifers incur substantially lower evaporative losses than surface reservoirs.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2022

South Korea sued to stop deep-sea gas pipeline

By Vivienne Nunis
Business reporter, BBC News

Image caption,
Tiwi Islanders Francisco Babui and Daniel Munkara say the gas project will impact their way of life

Aboriginal people from northern Australia have filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping South Korea funding a proposed deep-sea gas field.

They say a 300km gas pipeline threatens their way of life and risks harming turtles near their Tiwi Islands home.

The Barossa gas field, located in seas north of Darwin, was partially approved by Australia's offshore energy regulator last week.

The gas giant Santos plans to begin drilling wells in the next few months.

If the project is given full approval, Santos wants to construct an undersea gas pipeline alongside Bathurst Island, the western-most island in the Tiwi archipelago. At its closest point, the pipeline will be 6km from shore.

Image caption,
Environmentalists say the gas project risks damaging the Tiwi's pristine marine environment

Aboriginal groups from the Tiwi Islands, located in the Timor Sea north of Australia, say they were not properly consulted about the project.

The legal challenge aims to prevent South Korea from lending approximately A$950m (£530m) to Santos via the state-owned Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation.

Lawyers filed an injunction in the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday under a law known as the Korean Civil Execution Act.

It seeks to prevent potential damage - either to the environment or to South Korea's future financial position if the investment fails - by prohibiting the financing from going ahead.

If the legal action is successful, lawyers say the financial viability of the entire project is at risk.

Jikilaruwu Tiwi Island clan leaders Francisco Babui and Daniel Munkara have accused Santos and the previous owner of the project, ConocoPhillips, of disregarding the islanders' concerns.

"Under Australian law and in accordance with Aboriginal tradition, the Jikilaruwu clan is the owner of the sea country where that gas pipeline will go through. We are the decision makers for that sea country," Mr Munkara said in a statement released by the Stop Barossa Gas Campaign group.

"We were told briefly about the pipeline in 2018 and we said 'no' to the project. They said it wasn't happening. Now we find out Santos wants to lay the pipeline through our sea country without our consent."

Santos declined to comment.

'Wild frontier'

Environmental campaigners in Australia have long criticised the Barossa plan.

They say the proposed gas field and pipeline will damage the unique marine environment in the Timor Sea, including turtle nesting areas.

"You've got this massive continental shelf that extends off northern Australia, and that continental shelf is covered in big drowned river valleys, which means there's a real diversity of habitat," said marine biologist Jason Fowler from the Environment Centre Northern Territory, which is supporting the legal fight.

Image caption,
Olive Ridley sea turtles are the most common species nesting on the Tiwi Islands

"The Timor Sea is quite warm and shallow and muddy - it's dominated by sponges, not corals," he said.

"There are over 900 species of sponges out there, some of them are undiscovered. We've only mapped about 10% of this area. So it's very much a wild frontier, that we are only just beginning to understand."

The pipeline Santos proposes would pass through an area designated as as a "habitat protection zone" in the Ocean Shoals Marine Park.

Under Australian government rules for the management of marine parks, gas pipelines can be constructed within such zones under license.

Those rules were approved by Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg when he was the minister for energy and environment in 2018.

Mr Fowler said he lobbied Mr Frydenberg at the time, and asked him to introduce stronger protections for marine parks, but that the minister had "ignored the science and listened to the oil and gas industry".

"When you build a gas pipeline across the sea floor, it's like building a railway line across the country," he said.

"You've got to build bridges over valleys, you've got to dredge out areas of high ground, you've got to try and make it as flat and even as possible, because you don't want your pipeline going up and down. So there's a lot of habitat modification."

Tiwi Islander Francisco Babui echoes those concerns.

"The pipeline is too close to Cape Fourcroy [on the islands' western tip]. There is a reef there with lots of turtles and dugongs," he said. "The turtles lay their eggs on that beach and we go hunting in that area. We use that coastline for camping and fishing.

Image caption,
Tiwi Islanders say their way of life depends on healthy seas

Other critics of the Barossa plan have questioned the viability of drilling for gas that contains a relatively high proportion of carbon dioxide.

John Robert, a chemical engineer with 40 years' experience in the oil and gas sector, said that means carbon emissions from Barossa will be especially high.

"The Barossa project would produce about one and a half tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) it produces, so it would in fact be a CO2 factory with an LNG by-product," he said.

"And that's before you transport it, turn the LNG back into natural gas, and then burn it in a power station. So it's going to be about the dirtiest LNG around. But unfortunately Santos seems very determined to move ahead with it."

Mr Frydenberg and ConocoPhillips declined to comment.

Australia's offshore energy regulator, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, said a range of environmental and safety approvals need to be granted before gas extraction or production can begin at the Barossa field.