The story behind the Netherlands' empty prisons
Astrid Prange de Oliveira1

0/20/2024

DW

The number of people held in prisons worldwide is growing, but in the Netherlands it's falling. Empty jails have been converted into hotels or cultural centers. So is the Netherlands winning the battle against crime?

The former prison Blokhuispoort in Leeuwarden has been transformed into a cultural center

Image: Robert Fishmanecomedia/IMAGO

The US, China, Turkey and Brazil are just some of the countries that are putting more and more people behind bars. But in the Netherlands, it's a different story. Some empty prisons there have now been re-purposed as hotels or cultural centers.

But what's the reason for the country's falling prison population? And is it really the success story it appears to be? DW has taken a closer look at some of the studies and statistics.

Beating the global trend

A study conducted by the Universities of Leiden (Netherlands) and Portsmouth (UK) found that the number of people in prison in the Netherlands fell from 94 per 100,000 citizens to 51 per 100,000 between 2005 and 2016.

Although the downward trend has not continued since, figures from Eurostat suggest that the imprisonment rate has stabilized at this low level. In 2021 and 2022 it was at 54 per 100,000.

That makes the Netherlands one of the few countries that have seen their prison populations decline. Data platform World Prison Brief (WPB) has identified a similar trend in Germany, Liechtenstein, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and the Baltic states.

Only one country has seen its rate of incarceration fall more dramatically than the Netherlands, and that's Russia, where WPB statistics point to a 59% decrease since 2000. But the reason for that appears to be military: many prisoners have been released to serve as soldiers in the war against Ukraine.

Elsewhere in the world, though, the overall trend is for an ever-growing prison population, with the numbers exploding in many countries. Since 2000, prisoner numbers have surged by 224% in South America, by 141% in Asia and by 84% in Oceania.

Why are numbers so low?

There are a number of different aspects to consider when examining the fall in the number of prisoners in the Netherlands, including sentencing policy in the courts, the overall crime rate, the work of the judicial authorities, the costs of incarceration and resocialization, and the overall legal situation.

The number of people receiving custodial sentences from the courts has fallen significantly in the Netherlands. In 2005, Dutch courts imposed prison sentences on some 8,305 convicted criminals. Ten years later, only 4,540 offenders were sent to jail. Studies show that the decrease in custodial sentences was seen across the full spectrum of criminal activities.

Crimes against property saw a 44% decrease in prison sentences, violent crime and sexual crime saw imprisonment rates fall by 39%, and for drug-related crimes the drop was as much as 49%. The number of people sent to jail for failing to pay a court-imposed fine decreased by 38%.

The Netherlands also has an unusually low average length of custodial sentence. The criminologists at the University of Leiden noted in their study that half of all those sent to prison there were released again within one month.

By contrast, according to a report by the University of Lausanne that looked at prisoner rates across the 46 members of the Council of Europe, just 5.2% of inmates spend less than six months in jail, and some 21.3% serve between 12 months and three years.

Lower rates of remand and falling crime rate

Another major factor in the Netherlands is the fall in the number people being held in pre-trial detention. The study shows that 21,029 spent time on remand in Dutch prisons in 2005, with that number falling to 13,350 by 2016 — a decrease of 37%.

In the same period — 2005 to 2016 — the number of crimes registered in the Netherlands fell from 1.35 million to 930,000. Crimes against property fell by 216,000 (-27%) and there were 32,000 fewer violent crimes (-26%).

Crime rates appear to be falling in the NetherlandsImage: Remko de Waal/ANP/picture alliance

But the biggest falls were registered for vandalism and public order offences (-50%) and drug-related crimes (-31%).

The crime rate reached a record low in 2018, with 770,000 registered offences. That figure has climbed again since then, but only slightly — reaching 798,000 in 2022.
More options for prosecutors

Since 2006, state prosecutors in the Netherlands can handle some cases without the involvement of a judge and even impose non-custodial sentences, such as fines or community service. It's a change that was introduced to speed up the judicial process and reduce the workload for judges.

The reform meant that fewer cases ended up in court, where suspects would have faced a possible custodial sentence. This in turn contributed to the overall fall in prisoner numbers.

Longer investigations

Research by criminologists Judith van Valkenhoef and Edward van der Torre published in 2017 raised some doubts about the degree to which these statistics represent a success story for the Dutch judicial system. Their study points to other issues, such as inefficient police investigations and failures by state prosecutors to bring criminals to justice.

They argue that the Netherlands has become a major center for the synthetic drugs market and is likely to remain so without political action.

For the University of Portsmouth's Professor Francis Pakes, co-author of the above report, the statistics don't tell the whole story, and the overall decline in the prisoner population isn't solely the result of fewer crimes being committed. The study suggests that there are other factors at play, such as fewer cases being prosecuted or even investigated. He cites the growing influence of the drugs mafia in the Netherlands as evidence of this development.

This article was originally published in German.


Astrid Prange de Oliveira DW editor 

Tunisia under harsh criticism for anti-migrant measures

Kersten Knipp | Tarak Guizani

DW

10/21/24

UN experts have accused Tunisian security authorities of grave human rights violations. Can Tunisia keep its status as a safe country for returning migrants?

A recent UN report outlined grave human rights abuses against migrants in Tunisia

Image: Hasan Mrad/Zumapress/dpa/IMAGESLIVE /picture alliance

According to UN experts, the human rights violations committed against migrants in Tunisia can only be described as "shocking."

A recently published report stated that Tunisian authorities had engaged in "dangerous manoeuvres when intercepting migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers at sea." The report also mentioned episodes of physical violence, including beatings, threats of use of firearms, the removal of engines and fuel and the capsizing of boats.

The report, released on October 14, said that between January and July, 189 people, including children, were said to have lost their lives while crossing the Mediterranean Sea, while 265 reportedly died during interception operations at sea.

Ninety-five people have been reported missing, in some cases "victims of enforced disappearance or acts tantamount to enforced disappearance," said the report. Migrants from sub-Saharan countries are subjected to a heightened level of violence, according to the UN.

Migrants told DW that Tunisian security forces stole their phones and demolished their accommodations

Image: Fethi Belaid/AFP

"We are appalled by the reported violence and the excessive use of force during these transfers," the UN experts said.

Once on Tunisian soil, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, including children and pregnant women, are allegedly brought to the desert areas bordering Algeria and Libya, and fired at by border guards if they attempt to return.

The report also said aid organizations were being obstructed in their work.

The declaration was signed by the UN special rapporteurs on human trafficking, racism and migrants' rights as well as several human rights lawyers.

These independent experts are commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.

While Tunisian authorities have not yet responded to a request for comment by DW, Tunisia's government has repeatedly rejected such accusations in the past.

And yet, human rights activists have regularly highlighted the mistreatment of migrants in Tunisia.

Saied cracks down on migrants

In view of these "serious allegations," the experts criticized the fact that Tunisia is still considered a safe country of origin by EU countries.

The country's attitude toward migrants has become considerably tougher under President Kais Saied. Critics have said Saied has been ruling in an increasingly authoritarian manner since first coming to power in 2019. In 2021, he started a power grab, curtailing opposition parties and independent media, that has culminated in his recent reelection earlier this month.

Saied himself has repeatedly made disrespectful remarks about migrants.

President Kais Saied was recently reelected for a second term, but observers have said the vote was anything but free or democraticImage: Fauque Nicolas/Images de Tunisie/ABACA/picture alliance

Migrants in Tunisia have confirmed the allegations made by the UN experts.

A refugee from Burkina Faso told DW that when his group came close to the Tunisian coast in their boat, the ship piloted by security authorities drew dangerously tight circles around them.

The refugee asked DW not to publish his name, for fear of retribution. "Later in the refugee camp, the police took our cellphones and our food," he said, adding that "the police even took away the blankets and destroyed our accommodation."

Another migrant from Guinea, who also preferred to remain anonymous, reported a similar story. His group was repeatedly attacked, he told DW. "They broke into our accommodation, stole our cellphones, our money, everything," he said.

EU-Tunisia migration deal 'contributing to human rights violations'

The European Union has called on Tunisia to conduct an investigation into the treatment of migrants, a call that has so far gone unanswered.

The EU and Tunisia agreed a migration pact in July 2023, which provides comprehensive EU aid for Tunisia, as well as €105 million ($113 million) for border protection. Those funds go toward the coast guard, and pay for the repatriation of migrants to their countries of origin.

"Tunisia has further received Italian and European aid for the years 2024 and 2025 in the form of equipment and fuel costs for operations on the high seas," said Romdhane Ben Amor, a human rights activist with the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. He added that the aim of Tunisian authorities is to reduce the flow of migrants and demonstrate their commitment to the EU-Tunisia pact.

Why Black Tunisians suffer historic racism  03:02

Human rights organizations have long been vehemently critical of the cooperation between the EU, or individual EU member states, and Tunisia when it comes to migration.

"The ongoing cooperation between the European Union, EU member states, and Tunisia on migration control which includes reliance on the possibility to disembark people rescued or intercepted at sea in Tunisia — similar to previous cooperation with Libya — is contributing to human rights violations," said a recent statement signed by numerous aid organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. "Despite the documented human rights violations by Tunisian authorities, the EU and its member states have stepped up their support for Kais Saied's administration."

EU calls for independent monitoring mission

Migrants in Tunisia also suffer from other problematic methods of migration control, Romdhane Ben Amor told DW.

"Since August 2023, Tunisia has also resorted to other solutions such as the deportation of migrants when they return by sea to the borders with Libya and Algeria," he said.

How the EU compromised its values on migration  12:34

An unnamed spokesperson for the European Commission responded to those accusations in late September. "As Tunisia's partner, we expect these cases to be properly investigated," the spokesperson told the online news outlet Euractiv.

According to the spokesperson, the EU is planning to set up an independent monitoring mission in Tunisia. Whether Tunisia's government will agree to this, however, remains to be seen.

This article was originally written in German.

Does the US economy care who is president?

Timothy Rooks | Rodrigo Menegat Schuinski

DW

  10/21/24

Over the past 15 years, the US economy has done quite well compared with those of other countries. It added millions of jobs and quickly put the coronavirus pandemic behind it. Do things need to be "made great" again?

ARTICLE CHARTS AND GRAPHS
https://p.dw.com/p/4lrSm

Through ups and downs, the US economy has held the title of the biggest in the world, regardless of who is president

Image: Dominick Sokotoff/ZUMA Wire/IMAGO


A lot of time, effort and money goes into presidential and national elections in the United States, and this year is no exception.

But combing through the data since 2009 shows that no matter who was in power, the economy seemed to be equally driven by global events, demographic developments and decisions made in the White House.

The period from 2009 to 2024 covers both of Barack Obama's two terms in office, plus the single terms of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, whose presidency is now coming to an end.

Looking back at Obama, Trump and Biden

There were two major disrupters for the economy during this period. The first was the financial crisis that started before Obama took office in January 2009, and the second was the COVID-19 pandemic that struck in the final year of the Trump administration in 2020.

The financial crisis led some to fear the collapse of the entire banking system. Soon afterward, GM and Chrysler, two of the biggest American carmakers, declared bankruptcy to reorganize their businesses, and the housing market, specifically mortgages, spun out of control.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a more immediate impact on the US and global economies. Lockdowns, shortages due to delicate supply chains and the closure of borders caused deaths, economic chaos and massive job losses.

Partly through large stimulus checks, the US managed to quickly escape the pandemic slump, picking up where the economy left off and creating a strong recovery.
American GDP vs. other economic giants

One problem comparing the impact presidents and their policies make is the lag in time it takes for their decisions to make a difference. Investing in infrastructure or industries like chipmaking is necessary, but the benefits are only felt way in the future. Tightening the border to Mexico may keep out some migrants, but the impact of missing workers takes time to affect supermarket prices.

Another problem is assessing the impact of presidents separately from decisions made together with policymakers in Congress or independent institutions like the Federal Reserve.

Since 1990, American gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has grown each year except 2009, and that was another knock-on effect of the financial crisis. Last year, the country's GDP per capita was over $81,000 (€74,700).

At the same time, when it comes to the annual percentage of growth per capita, China and India have had stronger growth. Despite this higher growth rate, America's per capita GDP is still three times higher than China's and eight times higher than India's.

In 2023, America's overall GDP was an astounding $27.36 trillion, making it by far the biggest economy in the world. China came a distant second at $17.66 trillion, followed by Germany and Japan.


Many jobs for many people

In the first few months of Obama's presidency, unemployment went up because of the financial crisis. From April 2009 to September 2011, it was at 9% or more.

After that, the unemployment rate slowly crept down until it reached its lowest level since the 1960s before a short-lived spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, which put many out of a job. This year, it has hovered around 4%.


On another front, American workers are more productive than workers in other nations thanks to innovation, spending on research and development and the willingness of workers to change jobs or move.

Pay inequality at the bottom

Another measure that has increased is pay inequality: America is the most unequal country in the G7 group. The top 1% of Americans hold a huge proportion of the country's wealth.

In the US, to get into the top 1% of earners requires an annual household income of around $1 million a year before taxes. In the United Kingdom, it only takes around $250,000.

The salary of company bosses was over 250 times more than their average employee, Obama wrote in an open letter to his successor in The Economist in October 2016.

Moreover, in 1979, "the top 1% of American families received 7% of all after-tax income. By 2007, that share had more than doubled to 17%," he wrote. More positively, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell.

Migration is changing America

Irregular migration into the US is hard to measure, but documented migration can be counted. One measure of this is the number of green cards granted, and from 2009 to 2022, over 14 million people were given such status.

The foreign-born population living in America, legally or otherwise, has grown considerably over the past 50 years in size and share of the population, according to a report issued by the US Census Bureau in April.

In 1970, there were 9.6 million foreign-born residents. By 2022, there were over 46 million, or nearly 14% of the total population.

Of the overall total, nearly one-third of the country's foreign-born population came to the US in 2010 or later, and half live in just four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York. More than half have become citizens.

High inflation comes to America

Since January 2009, inflation has gone on a wild ride, based on the Consumer Price Index.

When Obama took office, inflation was at zero, went into negative territory and eventually climbed to a high of 9.1% in June 2022. This past September, it was down to 2.4%, the lowest since February 2021.

This relatively short period of higher inflation is having a long afterlife and has led to big cost of living increases for many Americans.

Consumer prices are up, and voters are very unhappy about it. It's one of the most important issues this year and could decide the election in swing states. It's also one of the hardest things for any president to control.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

Mozambique: Police fire tear gas at opposition leader

The capital of Mozambique, Maputo, was brought to a standstill by strikes and protests on Monday, before police dispersed demonstrators using tear gas. Caught up in the violence was opposition leader Venancio Mondlane.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane (right) was speaking to journalists when police fired tear gas

Image: ALFREDO ZUNIGA/AFP

Police in Mozambique fired tear gas at the country's opposition leader and his supporters on the streets of the capital Maputo on Monday.

Venancio Mondlane, the main challenger to the ruling Frelimo party in the recent presidential election, was speaking to journalists close to the spot where his lawyer and a senior opposition party official were killed by unidentified gunmen on Friday night.

Video footage posted to Mondlane's Facebook page shows tear gas canisters being fired as Mondlane, aides, supporters and reporters run for cover.

At least one journalist was injured, according to local media, while several others, including those from DW, inhaled the gas.

Additional footage seen by DW shows at least one protester left limping with a bloodied leg after being struck by a projectile.

Police fire tear gas at protest in Mozambique's capital 03:56

Rising tensions in Mozambique

Tensions have been soaring in Mozambique since elections on October 9.

Results aren't expected until later this week, but preliminary results suggest that Frelimo (the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) is set to extend its 49-year rule which dates back to the southeastern African country's independence from Portugal in 1975.

Opposition parties have denounced the elections as fraudulent, with Mondlane calling for people to stay away from work and protest on Monday.

Mondlane, who ran as an independent candidate but was backed by the new Podemos opposition party, told reporters that police had tried to prevent him from leaving his own house to join the protest.

"The whole of last night, police cars were at my doorstep," he said. "I was trying to find other ways to leave the house without being noticed. I did. I won't say how."

On Monday morning, the national strike had brought Maputo and other major cities to a standstill with shops closed and streets deserted as a helicopter circled overhead.

Clashes between protesters and police began around 7:30 a.m. when security forces began to disperse groups preparing to take part in the peaceful marches.

After police fired tear gas and gunshots into the air, protesters responded by throwing rocks and pyrotechnics and shouting slogans such as "Save Mozambique" and "This country is ours."

International community condemns violence

Activists and reporters have complained in the past that Mozambique's security forces have violently clamped down on dissent, broken up peaceful protests and disrupted media work, while Frelimo has often been accused of rigging elections, which it denies.

The African Union, European Union and United Nations have condemned Friday's killing of the two opposition figures and called on the authorities to identify the perpetrators.

The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said he had "deep concern" over "reported cases of post-election violence and in particular the recent killings."

The European Union, which sent a team of election observers, called for an immediate investigation into the killings "that will bring to justice those responsible for this outrageous crime."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on "all Mozambicans, including political leaders and their supporters, to remain calm, exercise restraint and reject all forms of violence."

mf/wd (AFP, AP, DW)

Mozambique police and protesters clash following political assassinations

Oct. 21, 2024 / UPI

Members of Mozambican police walk as they disperse people gathering to take part in the peaceful marches called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane to repudiate the assassination of two members of his party, in Maputo, Mozambique, on October, 21, 2024. Photo by Luisa Nhantumbo/EPA-EF

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Police and protesters clashed in the Mozambican capital of Maputo on Monday, resulting in the death of at least one demonstrator, as the southern African nation continues to reel from a pair of political assassinations over the weekend.

Mozambique has been rocked by protests since Oct. 12 when partial results from the country's general elections held three days earlier on Oct. 9, showed Daniel Chapo, the candidate for the long-ruling Frelimo Party, in the lead.

The contest has been marred by irregularities, and opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who was projected to finish second, has claimed victory and called for a national strike for Monday in response to the results.

But that strike turned into a march after Mondlane's lawyer, Elvino Dias, and a representative of his Podemos party, Paulo Guambe, were assassinated in the early hours of Saturday.

Gunmen had opened fire on them while in a vehicle and were killed, according to the Mozambique Center for Democracy and Human Rights, which said 25 bullets were unloaded. A third occupant in the vehicle was also shot but survived.

Protests against their killings on Monday quickly turned violent.

The Mozambique chapter of the Center and Democracy for Human Rights said Monday that a protester was killed in the Bascula Zone of Matundo when police opened fire on demonstrators.

The center also reported police also fired tear gas canisters at journalists and opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in the capital, and that two journalists, a security guard for the independent politician and two others suffered gunshot wounds during a rally Monday morning, it said.

Video of the incident posted to Mondlane's Facebook account shows him speaking to reporters for more than 20 minutes before the firing of weapons is heard, followed by an explosion near the journalists who then flee the scene.

The Frelimo party has been the only one to the lead the country since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In recent years, it has increased its oppression of the opposition. The U.S. State Department's most recent country report on Mozambique highlights reports of the government committing arbitrary or lawful killings of opposition politicians.

Since the election, there have been reports of government security forces opening fire on protesters.

According to Amnesty International, two people were wounded at polling stations on Oct. 10. On Wednesday, at least one person was wounded at a rally for Mondlane when police fired at his supporter.

The United States on Monday issued a statement condemning the killings of Dias and Guambe, calling for a swift and thorough investigation.

"We urge all state institutions, political leaders, citizens and stakeholders to resolve electoral disputes peacefully and lawfully, rejecting violence and inflammatory rhetoric," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"We also call on all Mozambicans to turn to peaceful means of filing electoral grievances and reject violence and violent rhetoric. The only means to challenge results and demand accountability is through the official complaint process."

African Union Chairman H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned the killings in a Monday statement while expressing "deep concern" over the post-election violence and recent killings.

The Sala Da Paz election watchdog expressed its concern over the violence at Monday's protest, pointing to the country's constitution that enshrines the right to demonstrate "as one of the fundamental pillars of Mozambican society."

"However, instead of ensuring the free exercise of this right, the security forces resorted to excessive use of force, including the firing of tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, reportedly to disperse protesters and journalists who were exercising their legitimate constitutional right," it said in a statement.

"This act of repression not only seriously violates the civil and political rights of citizens but also further undermines society's trust in public security institutions, whose duty should be to protect and defend democratic freedoms."

NBA and Nike extend partnership deal for 12 years

New York (AFP) – The NBA and Women's NBA announced a 12-year contract extension with global partner Nike Inc. through 2037 to provide uniforms, apparel, merchandising, marketing and content for the leagues.

The NBA and Nike announced a 12-year extension of their global partnership agreement through 2037 © Garrett Ellwood / NBAE / Getty Images/AFP/File

The exclusive apparel extension comes on the eve of the start of the NBA's 79th season and a day after the New York Liberty won the WNBA crown and also covers the developmental G-League.

"Nike is inextricably linked to basketball and has helped fuel the growth and innovation around our sport for decades," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.

"With an added focus on youth basketball, our expanded partnership will create even more opportunities for aspiring players to learn and compete at all levels and for fans of all ages to engage with the NBA and WNBA."

The extension's new content provisions include a greater commitment to youth basketball and a deeper investment in the WNBA plus a joint membership to deliver fans of both brands distinctive products, content and experiences.

"Nike has always been more than a league sponsor -- we're a strategic partner with an unwavering commitment to growing the game," said Elliott Hill, Nike Inc. president.

"Our collective power, global reach and genuine love for the game will only continue to create new pathways and opportunities for players and fans."

The renewal follows an eight-year deal struck in 2015 that began with the 2017-18 campaign.

Nike has been an NBA partner since 1992 and a marketing partner of the WNBA since its 1997 debut.

"Since our league's inception, Nike has committed to a shared vision for girls and women’s basketball," said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

"Our continued partnership is an opportunity to fortify avenues for development and enhance touchpoints across our dynamic fan base while globally showcasing the WNBA."

Nike also extended its license agreement as an official partner of the NBA players union, the National Basketball Players Association.

"This partnership highlights the reach, influence and impact of our members, driving basketball fandom and inspiring millions of people around the world," said union executive director Andre Iguodala.

© 2024 AFP

Chile launches vaccine that neuters dogs for a year

Santiago (AFP) – Chile has launched a vaccine described as the first of its kind that sterilizes dogs for a year and is expected to be sold in several dozen countries.

A dog is temporarily sterilized with a vaccine described by its Chilean creators as the first of its kind © RODRIGO ARANGUA / AFP

The injection prevents sexual behavior and reproduction, offering an alternative to irreversible surgical castration, its creators say.

"This is the first vaccine of this type in the world for dogs," said Leonardo Saenz, from the University of Chile's veterinary sciences faculty.

The researcher and his team have been working since 2009 to develop the vaccine, which began to be distributed this month in the South American nation.

It stimulates antibodies and stops the production of sex hormones for a year in both male and female dogs.

"Everything is blocked: sexual activity and fertility," Saenz said.

The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as in the European Union.

In Chile, it costs $50 a shot.

Ivan Gutierrez, a 27-year-old student, took his dog Franchesco to a veterinary clinic in Santiago to be given the injection.

"I didn't really want him to have the operation," he said.

He is not alone in having concerns about surgical castration.

"Most owners are afraid of surgery," said Mariela del Saz, the clinic's veterinarian, noting the risk of cardiorespiratory arrest.

Another method of temporary castration for dogs involves the insertion of a hormonal implant under the skin, but it "can cause side effects," Saenz said.

© 2024 AFP

Biden unveils plan expanding access to contraceptive products

The White House on Monday proposed to expand access to free contraceptive products for 52 million women of reproductive age in the United States with private health insurance, the White House said. Kamala Harris has made the issue of women’s health care access a key part of her platform in her bid for the presidency.


Issued on: 21/10/2024 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

A pack of birth control pills is displayed in this illustration picture taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 11, 2022. © Hannah Beier, Reuters

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced plans to expand access to contraceptive products, including free over-the-counter birth control, just two weeks before elections where reproductive rights are a key issue.

“This new action would help ensure that millions of women with private health insurance can access the no-cost contraception they need,” Biden said in a statement.

The proposed rule would widen coverage of contraception without cost for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance, the White House said.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris described the proposal in a statement as the “largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade”.

The proposal must go through a 60-day public comment period before it is finalized.

The current US health care law requires most insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost, but allows them to require a prescription.

The proposal would extend coverage to over-the-counter products including emergency contraceptives.

In the wake of a 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have positioned themselves as the party of reproductive rights, with polls indicating that a majority of Americans support access to abortion.

(AFP)

Biden proposes rule change that would make OTC contraceptives free

Oct. 21, 2024 / UPI

On Monday, the Biden administration issued a proposal for a rule change that will give women access to free over-the-counter contraceptives. “We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions,” the president (pictured in 2023 at the White House) said Monday in a statement. “Including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.” File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The Biden administration on Monday proposed a rule change that will give women access to free over-the-counter contraceptives.

Administration officials said the proposal would be the "most significant expansion" for women's contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which more than 50 million Americans rely on for health insurance.

"We believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions," the president said Monday in a statement. "Including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family."

If finalized, it would "significantly increase" over-the-counter contraceptive coverage and would allow women for the first time to get OTC contraception at no cost.

The proposed rule change builds on Affordable Care Act requirements that say most private health plans must cover contraception without cost sharing. The White House added it could affect as many as 52 million U.S. women of reproductive age on a private health insurance plan.

On Monday, President Joe Biden called the initiative "a major step" in expanding coverage for "no-cost contraception" under the ACA, also known as "ObamaCare," which he helped implement as vice president under Barack Obama.

But Biden also took direct aim at Congressional Republicans, which was echoed by a Democrat lawmaker on the Hill later in the day.

"Republican politicians have made clear they aren't stopping at overturning Roe and intend to restrict birth control next," Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Monday afternoon on X.

In Biden's statement, the president said that, since Roe v. Wade's reversal more than two years ago, the GOP has "made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control, defund federal programs that help women access contraception, and repeal the Affordable Care Act."

At least 18 government-approved contraceptives now exist on the U.S. market. It took until the ACA's 2010 passage for contraception to be a requirement for coverage under most insurance plans.

The federal government added on Monday that it's also issuing new guidance to "help ensure that patients can access other preventive services," such as cancer screenings, which must be covered without cost sharing under the law.

According to the White House, the administration so far has lowered coverage costs for health insurance in the marketplace by an average of $800 per year and "more Americans than ever before" have signed up for health insurance through the law.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury revealed that nearly 50M of the more than 345 million people in the U.S. population had so far enrolled in Obamacare since 2014.

"While we fight to protect and expand health care, extremist so-called leaders are attacking reproductive freedom at every turn," Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee and the nation's first woman to serve in the role, said Monday in her own statement.

In January, the Affordable Care Act reached a 20M 'milestone' for new enrollments as the year began. On Monday, the outgoing president called on Congress "to restore reproductive freedom and safeguard the right to contraception once and for all."

This follows other previous Biden administration efforts to expand access of the critical contraceptive care for women. Last year in June, the president signed an executive order to expand free birth control including over-the-counter contraception.

If finalized, the proposed federal rule change will signify the "most significant expansion" of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since earlier efforts in 2012.

New Jersey's Pallone, ranking member on the House Energy Committee, added how Biden and Harris' move "defends" against ongoing GOP political attacks on women's reproductive freedom.

Rwanda orphans build hope from horror 30 years after genocide

Paris (AFP) – Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa was sure she was going to die three times during the Rwandan genocide in which most of her friends and family were massacred.

'I don't know how we survived': Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa at her mother's home in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

She and her sister hid in the bush for six weeks as the slaughter went on around them, moving on all the time as Hutu extremists hunted Tutsis like them "down with dogs".

"I don't know how we survived," she said.

Much about that time she does not want to remember. "Otherwise I won't be able to go on."

Jeanne learned to live with her demons, but "you cannot wipe a genocide from your memory. It comes back went it wants."


Then one day she took stock. "Am I going to let the killers who wanted to wipe me out also take my second life?

"Or am I going to live it?" said the 46-year-old, who went on to be a top local government official in Paris.

More than a million people died in the genocide organised by the extremist Hutu regime in 1994.

Men, women, children from the Tutsi minority systematically exterminated between April and July 1994 -- often with machetes -- by Hutu forces, and sometimes even by their neighbours, colleagues and even friends.

Three decades after the horror, AFP set out to find Tutsi children who survived the killing and who were adopted or grew up in France.

They talked of the weight of what they witnessed, their feeling of injustice and about living for those who were slaughtered.

Some have remained abroad, while others have been drawn back to Rwanda.

Jeanne lost her father, sister, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles -- "I try not to count".

"They put the guns to our temples the day they came to kill us," she said.
Silences

Moving to France "gave me the chance to study", but more than anything it "helped me because I didn't have to see the killers every day."

Soon after arriving, Jeanne helped found the Ibuka group, a survivor group which keeps the memory of the genocide alive, going out into schools to speak about what happened.

Jeanne grabbed her "second life" in both hands, began a family and worked for the mayor of Paris.

"I feel that by talking about it I am not shutting up the dead who have been silenced."

Surviving the unthinkable: Manzi Rugirangoga at work in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

A heavy silence, however, hung over Manzi Rugirangoga's childhood.

Now living back in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Manzi survived the unthinkable as a baby.

He was just 15 months old when his family took refuge in a school with other Tutsis in the southern town of Butare. On April 29, 1994, Hutu militia attacked. His mother, who was carrying him on her back, was killed along with his aunt and uncle.

But he and his sister and brother, who were four and seven, were not.

"The killers didn't spare us, they just said that they didn't want to waste their bullets on us." Instead they were left to "die from hunger and grief".

Manzi's father found him in an orphanage in Burundi three months later.
A terrible injustice

The children survived thanks to an extraordinary rescue operation by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh), which has only come to light recently thanks to a book called "The Convoy" by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, one of 1,000 survivors its aid workers got out of the country.

"Dozens of members of my family" were killed in the genocide, said Manzi, now 31. "My father is the only survivor on his side." A vet, he was in France on a training course when the genocide began.
Manzi as a child after he was brought to live in France © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

He brought the children to France "because he had very little hope of finding anything in Rwanda".

"I still feel this huge feeling of injustice about what happened," said Manzi.

Little was ever said at home. "People would ask you where you came from, and I knew very little."

It was only after the "shock" of returning to Rwanda for the first time when he was 10 that he felt "an instinctive need" to go home.

"I finally knew where I came from," he said.

After some difficult teenage years, Manzi went back to Kigali on his own when he was 15 to stay with his aunt, and then boarded at high school in the east of the country, where he had to learn Rwandan.

After university in France, he moved back to Kigali.

"Back then, I didn't see my future in France," he said.

Sandrine Lorusso grew up in the same silence. The youngest of nine, she lost both her parents and three siblings in the massacres.

Adopted by her eldest sister and her husband who were living in France, her interview with AFP was the first time the soft-spoken mother-of-two has ever talked publicly about what she went through in Kigali.

"It wasn't something we talked about," said the nurse.

"The killers gathered in front of our house. They took my mother, but they left me and my sister Aline. We ran to our neighbours and a few minutes later we heard gunfire," she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Panic attacks

She still doesn't know how her father died. He was found in a mass grave.

Growing up, "my brain worked hard to hide" the memories. But things got "complicated" as Sandrine approached adulthood. It all got too much "between the ages of 17 and 24 and I had depression".

The trauma came back with a vengeance when she was pregnant with her first child. "I had inexplicable panic attacks. You try to keep it down but sooner or later it comes out," she said.

When she left for France, Jeanne thought she was also "leaving the genocide" behind her.

"I thought I was going to live a good life, I hoped to never have to see the images of the bones and the ruins. But even if you move 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles), you bring the genocide with you," she said.

She described how it followed her down French streets where she would notice "spots where people might be able to hide", or be spooked by the "sound of shooting" when she went to the cinema.

"The nightmares have lasted a long time," she said.

Survivor Gaspard Jassef with a photo of him arriving in France with his adopted mother Dominique Jassef © JOEL SAGET / AFP

Gaspard Jassef's memories would not leave him alone either. As a six-year-old, he hid out from the genocide alone in the forest for five months.

"The commemoration of the 30 years (since the genocide) touched me intensely... and I want to sort out of all the unknowns in my head about what happened to me," he told AFP in a Paris cafe.

His little sister and his mother -- a Tutsi married to a Hutu -- were poisoned by their Hutu relatives at the start of the genocide.

Fearful for his "mixed" child, his father told him to hide in the forest. But he never came to find him. He too had been killed, according to information Gaspard has been able to piece together.

In October 1994 -- three months after the genocide ended -- a French nurse called Dominique Jassef, who had been working in a local dispensary, found him in the forest with advanced malnutrition. "I ate what I could. I hunted small animals. I stayed in the trees," he said.

"When my second mother found me, I probably had a week to live," he said. The doctors thought "there was no hope" but the French nurse refused to give up on him, got him treatment and later adopted him, changing his life.

France's shameful legacy

French President Francois Mitterrand with his Rwandan counterpart Juvenal Habyarimana on a visit to Kigali in 1984 © Georges GOBET / AFP/File

Gaspard still has trouble sleeping and is haunted by the day when he had to bury his mother and his sister.

But in "my sadness I have had the great good luck to have had two very loving mothers", he added.

Despite the trauma, he was a brilliant student and worked for several years for a think tank and co-founded the support group, The Adopted of Rwanda.

Even so, "everyday life can be a struggle, and sometimes I feel very old", he admitted.

A deeply social party animal, Gaspard loves nothing more than talking French politics for hours on end. "My blood and my skin is Rwandan and I also feel fully French," he said.

Yet France's role in the genocide of the Tutsi has been an extremely touchy subject.

Paris, which had close relations with the murderous Hutu regime, was for a long time accused by Kigali of "complicity" in the genocide.

A commission of historians in 2021 found that France under the late president Francois Mitterrand had "heavy and overwhelming responsibility" for the genocide but had not been complicit.

The writer Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse makes a distinction between "the absolutely fantastic French people who welcomed her" and "the French politicians and military whose actions should be condemned".

Her host family "really looked after me" and even took her to a psychologist.

Despite the trauma, she was able to "reconstruct" her life. "Of course, you feel fragile," she admitted. "When you have been excluded from humanity... it's a long road back from that," she said.

She chose a career where she "fights against death", working for NGOs dealing with AIDs and addiction.

Reconnecting

The 30th anniversary of the genocide has been a big moment for many of the survivors.

Last year Jeanne moved back to Rwanda with her husband and young son.

"I felt I was missing something in France," she told AFP from Kigali. "I wanted to live with my family and my mother again. She is now over 80. I wanted to show my son my homeland and my language and maybe help rebuild the country."

Gaspard said he has finally found a "form of stability" and wants to go back to his village and understand what happened to his father.

Reconnecting with his roots: Manzi Rugirangoga in Kigali © Guillem Sartorio / AFP

Manzi has a heap of projects on the go in Kigali. He has written an "African futurist" novel, founded a publishing house and has invested in farms growing peppers, beans and watermelons.

"Reconnecting with my roots, my family and my history has helped me," he said.

But "the idea that we can totally reconstruct ourselves, and that we don't think about what happened, that is unobtainable," Manzi added.

Back in France, Sandrine wants to get more involved in a group keeping alive the memory of what was done.

She has also thought about going to a therapist. "There are things about what happened in 1994 that I can't remember -- and the genocide has also robbed me of my memories of what went before, of my early childhood."

Since she went back to Rwanda, Beata has found happiness in its particular "light and landscapes" and the spirit of the place.

"Every time I return, I reconnect with who I was," she said.

© 2024 AFP

Unsung heroes who saved 1,000 children from Rwanda genocide

Paris (AFP) – The untold story of how around 1,000 children were rescued from Rwanda during the bloodiest and most chaotic days of its genocide is finally coming to light three decades after they were saved from the slaughter.

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, the survivor who has now told the story of Rwanda's children's convoys © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Aid workers risked their lives to get the children -- mostly orphans -- out to safety in neighbouring Burundi in a series of Swiss humanitarian convoys.

Many of the children were wounded or had watched their families being massacred in front of them in the 100 days of systematic slaughter.

Around one million people, mainly from the Tutsi minority, were clubbed, shot or hacked to death with machetes between April and July 1994 by the army and Hutu extremists from the Interahamwe militia.

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, who was 15 when she was smuggled out, tells of the little known operation from the inside in her acclaimed new book, "The Convoy".


AFP has also tracked down several other children from the convoys who grew up or were adopted abroad.

Umubyeyi Mairesse was hidden in the back of a truck under a sheet, with orphans sitting on her and her mother to conceal them when they were stopped at Hutu checkpoints.

The Rwandan authorities only allowed children under 12 to be transported on the packed convoys run by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh) -- "People of the Earth" in English.

In her book, Umubyeyi Mairesse tells how they held their breath at the roadblocks, trying not to move a muscle as militiamen inspected the trucks, hoping the fear on the faces of the bandaged and traumatised children would not give them away.

'Chaotic'

Orphans fleeing the genocide shelter in a church in Kabgayi, south of Kigali in May 1994 © Alexander JOE / AFP

She took several years to piece together the testimonies of the "children of the convoys" -- now scattered across the world -- who were rescued thanks to the courage of aid workers, nuns, journalists, a diplomat and a priest.

Some had been in Rwandan orphanages before the massacres began, while many were the children of Tutsis killed during the genocide.

"Terre des hommes found itself facing an unbelievable situation," said Jean-Luc Imhof, a longtime Rwanda specialist for the charity.

They "were responsible for more than 1,000 of these children", and with war and the genocide raging all around, the situation was completely "chaotic", he told AFP.

"Lots were really young, some under three years old, but mostly there were between five and 10. Many had been wounded, including with machetes," he said.

As the Tutsi rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) -- who put an end to the massacres -- closed in, the army and the Hutu-led Interahamwe militia sensed defeat and "became crazy", he said.
'Unimaginable cruelty'

The first convoy in early June, which Tdh organised with the International Committee of the Red Cross, for whom Imhof had previously worked, got safely through to Burundi. But another that set off on June 18, unassisted by the ICRC, "was even riskier", said Imhof.

"The convoy went into the incredible unknown -- they were risking their lives at every checkpoint. The soldiers made the children get out... their lives were hanging by very little," he said.

These were deeply traumatised children who had "seen their families massacred" and "taken their trauma with them".

"Their normal had become escaping death multiple times a day," he said,

Orphan and survivor: Claire Umutoni © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

That was also the case for Claire Umutoni and one of her sisters, who got to Burundi on a July 3 convoy in an escape she still remembers vividly.

"We received a phone call around April 20 from someone whose voice my father recognised. He knew it was one of the dignitaries from the town of Butare, who told him: 'Your time has come.'"

He ordered his five daughters to flee and Umutoni, then 17, suddenly became head of her family, the sisters chased from one hiding place to the next.

Their parents were later murdered with "unimaginable cruelty", she said.

"Bombs were falling near the school where we were staying with several orphans -- the children had all sorts of injuries, both physical and emotional. It was terrible," Umutoni told AFP from her home in Canada.
Clubs and butcher knives

The terror only intensified when they joined the rescue convoy.

"I remember that on the road, there were many of the killers who had carried out genocide fleeing with hammers and machetes... It was chaos because the FPR was at the gates of Butare, but there were still perpetrators who wanted to kill the Tutsis," said Umutoni.

A Hutu militiaman at a checkpoint in Kigali during the genocide in June 1994 

© Pierre BOUSSEL / AFP

At four of the checkpoints she remembers the militiamen armed with "clubs, butcher knives and grenades".

Umutoni and her sisters made it out and were eventually taken in by their aunts.

Her aunt sent her to Canada in 1999 "to start a new life, to start over. And I chose not to spiral into madness," said Umutoni, who now works in Canada's Privy Council Office and is a mother to "three beautiful children".

She returned to Rwanda for the first time in 2008 to bury her parents, who had finally been identified.
'Awakening'

Umubyeyi Mairesse says the 30th anniversary of the genocide is an "awakening" for many of the survivors.

"It is also the start of a broader reconnection for these convoy children -- those who were very young (when they were rescued and who) are finally learning the story. It's powerful," she said.

Since her book came out, several aid workers and convoy children she was not able to track down have contacted her.

"When someone contacts me, I explain that I can send them photos, and we try to identify which convoy they were on."

Orphans queue up for food in Kigali near the end of the genocide in July 1994

 © Alexander JOE / AFP

Several of the convoy children were reunited with their rescuers for the first time at the Shoah Memorial in Paris in June.

When survivor Nadine Umutoni Ndekezi, who now lives in Belgium, began speaking about her memories of the convoy, the emotion was palpable.

"We are here... because you did not give up," she said, thanking the aid workers and journalists for their courage.
'Our heroes'

Umutoni Ndekezi, who was nine at the time, told of how she came across a little boy in an orphanage in Rwanda that she used to look after back home. He had bad head wounds.

He could no longer speak or walk. "He had forgotten everything. I thought that if adults could do that, then I did not want to become an adult... I lost trust in them," she sobbed.

But thanks to the people who rescued them, Umutoni Ndekezi -- now a mental health social worker -- said she "regained hope".

"They stayed true to their values and put their own lives at risk," she told the audience.

"The boy's parents were exterminated. He left with you on June 18 -- I can never thank you enough, you saved our humanity and gave us the strength to move forward."

Other survivors concurred.

"They are our heroes, what they did was incredible," Claire Umutoni told AFP.

"I chose to live in the name of those innocents who were murdered," she declared. "To remain dignified and stand up to the killers" who wanted to wipe her and her sisters from the face of the Earth.

© 2024 AFP

ISLAMIC BANKING

Hezbollah-linked financial firm an economic lifeline for Lebanese

Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Al-Qard al-Hassan, bombed by Israel over it's Hezbollah links, is a lifeline for mainly Muslim Shiite communities battling a years-long financial crisis that has locked Lebanese out of their bank deposits.

A destroyed building at the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted a branch of the Hezbollah-linked Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial firm in south Beirut © - / AFP

The financial firm, officially registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.

Its beneficiaries are mainly Shiite Muslims, but in a country where a five-year economic crisis has forced many into desperation, Christians and Sunni Muslims have also turned to its services.

The United States has sanctioned the association, accusing Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask its financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.

On Sunday evening, Israel struck Al-Qard al-Hassan branches in Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and south Lebanon, official media said.

Israel accuses Al-Qard al-Hassan of financing "Hezbollah's terrorist operations".

Al-Qard al-Hassan says it has more than 30 branches nationwide, mainly in Hezbollah bastions including Beirut's southern suburbs, but also in central Beirut and in other major cities such as Sidon and Tyre.
Micro-credits

It provides micro-credits to small businesses, workers and medium-sized agricultural or industrial enterprises.

In recent years it has broadened its activities, even offering loans for solar panels, in a country plagued by long power cuts.

In 2020 and 2021, while the economic crash prevented Lebanese banks from providing loans, Al-Qard al-Hassan said it had granted 212,000 loans worth $553 million "despite the crisis".

The economic crash boosted the group's allure beyond the Shiite community, because it allowed depositors to preserve their savings in gold.

Al-Qard al-Hassan says its loans are available "to all Lebanese", with some Christians and Sunnis also telling AFP they were clients.

"You deposit gold, and they give you its worth in cash. You can then repay (this loan) without interest," a customer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

A building housing a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon -- with the country in economic crisis, many Lebanese have turned to the firm's services © Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP

For Hezbollah scholar Amal Saad, Israel's attacks on the financial institution aimed to shake the group's support base.

"These strikes don't actually target Hezbollah's finances or Iran's funding, but the economic lifeline of over 300,000 Lebanese who not only deposit their savings with the non-profit NGO but also rely on it for interest-free loans," Saad said on X.

"While Iran helped establish the organisation in the 1980s, it is now entirely self-funded, overwhelmingly by Lebanon's Shia (Shiite) community" that represents 85 percent of its client base, she said.

A senior Israeli intelligence official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, also said the strikes were meant "to affect the trust between Hezbollah and a lot of the Shiite community that uses this system".

'Escape supervision'

Saad added that Israel's targeting of Al-Qard al-Hassan is "part of its strategy to further immiserate an already vulnerable, displaced population," she told AFP, referring to the attacks as "collective punishment" of Lebanese Shiites.

"It's also an expression of Israel's bankruptcy -- it has failed to make any meaningful incursions into South Lebanon... It's resorting to targeting civilian institutions which are of no value militarily," she added.

Israel on September 30 began what it called "targeted" raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a week after it escalated air strikes.

Hezbollah critics say Al-Qard al-Hassan evaded regulations that apply to the banking sector, since it is officially registered with authorities as a charity.

Al-Qard al-Hassan has been caught up in decades-long tensions between Hezbollah's Iranian patron and Washington.

In 2007, the US Treasury froze the institution's assets, and in 2021 imposed new sanctions against several figures linked to it.

Al-Qard al-Hassan, "masquerades as a non-governmental organization (NGO) under the cover of a Ministry of Interior-granted NGO license, providing services characteristic of a bank in support of Hezbollah while evading proper licensing and regulatory supervision", the US Treasury said.

The department has also accused the group of "hoarding hard currency" to build Hezbollah's "support base".

While it claims "to serve the Lebanese people, in practice it illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, exposing Lebanese financial institutions to possible sanctions," Treasury added.

© 2024 AFP

London trial probes 2015 Brazil mine disaster

London (AFP) – A trial to determine whether Australian mining giant BHP is liable for one of Brazil's worst environmental disasters opened Monday in London, potentially triggering billions of dollars in compensation to be shared among hundreds of thousands of people.

The ruptured dam unleashed a deluge of thick, red toxic mud 

© Christophe SIMON / AFP


The High Court in the British capital will examine over several months whether BHP is partly liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam at a mining waste site in Brazil.

The rupture killed 19 people and unleashed a deluge of thick toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean.

The Fundao tailings dam at an iron ore mine in the mountains of Minas Gerais state was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.

At the time of the disaster, BHP had global headquarters in Britain and Australia.


A separate case in Brazil has seen Vale and BHP offer to pay almost $30 billion in compensation. This was increased on the eve of the London trial from almost $25 billion.

The amount of damages sought in the London civil trial is estimated at £36 billion ($47 billion), on behalf of more than 620,000 plaintiffs, including 46 Brazilian municipalities, companies and indigenous peoples.
'Justice?'

"It's nearly nine years on now and no one has been held accountable," Tom Goodhead, of law firm Pogust Goodhead which brought the case, told AFP outside the court.

"Whilst this isn't a criminal trial, it acts as a way of holding the company liable and accountable," added Goodhead, who was joined by relatives of victims.

"Will they get justice?" read a banner which showed photos of those killed.

Fernandes's T-shirt shows a photo of her dead daughter and the words: 'This wasn't inevitable' © DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP

The tragedy in the town of Mariana unleashed almost 45 million cubic metres of highly toxic mining waste sludge, flooding 39 towns and leaving more than 600 people homeless.

The flood killed thousands of animals and devastated protected tropical rainforest.

"It's been really difficult these last nine years but I have to be strong," said Gelvana Rodrigues outside court. Her seven-year-old son, Thiago, was killed following the dam's collapse.

"My hope is to find justice here. In Brazil, it is hopeless."
First stage

The hearing, set to last until March, must determine BHP's potential liability for the disaster.

If it is ruled liable, another trial would take place from October 2026 to determine the damages.

BHP has said the London case is unnecessary because of ongoing legal procedures in Brazil.

In opening submissions to the court Monday, the company laid out as a central argument that it "did not own or operate the dam or any related facilities".

The company estimated that more than 200,000 plaintiffs in the London case had already been compensated.

Bento Rodrigues was the first village engulfed by the toxic waste from the BHP-Vale mine © Douglas Magno / AFP

BHP added that the Renova Foundation, which manages compensation and rehabilitation programmes, has already paid out more than $7.9 billion in emergency aid.

The Australian mining giant said the quality of river water contaminated by the fallout has returned to pre-disaster levels.

However, a scientific paper published this year in the Franco-Brazilian geography review Confins said the dam rupture had caused "permanent effects of pollution" on the river Doce and its coastal plain.

In 2019, another tailings dam owned by Vale collapsed in Minas Gerais, killing 270 people and devastating the surrounding environment.

The London trial opened as BHP weighs whether to mount a renewed bid for British rival Anglo American. One $49 billion takeover was rejected in May.

BHP is allowed to come back with a fresh offer on November 29 following a six-month break, according to UK rules.

burs-bcp/rlp

© 2024 AFP