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Sep 9 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
It may not be the change of top leadership others are talking about right now, but in the realm of international #HumanRights, it’s the big buzz...

🧵
Volker Türk has become the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, having been approved by the UN General Assembly yesterday to replace Michelle Bachelet, whose term ended August 31.

news.un.org/en/story/2022/…
He starts with a lot on his plate, perhaps most immediately the need to follow up Bachelet’s strong report on the Chinese government’s possible crimes against humanity in #Xinjiang.

ohchr.org/en/press-relea…
But the list of critical issues hardly ends there.

⚠️ conflict-related abuses in Ukraine & Ethiopia;

⚠️ the brutal crackdown in Myanmar;

⚠️ racism in the US;

⚠️ rights issues stemming from the climate crisis;

⚠️ abuses with digital technologies…

Take your pick.
So, the big question is...

❓ Is Türk up to the job?
Since 2019, Türk has served as UN under-secretary-general for policy in the executive office of UN Secretary General António Guterres, who appointed him to the new role.
Previously, Türk was assistant high commissioner for protection in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.
On the one hand, having years of experience inside the UN system and having support from the top of it could have advantages.

But there is also concern Türk may be too much of an inside candidate and thus too unwilling to rock the UN boat by speaking out.
Calling out abuses openly is essential for any high commissioner to be effective in putting pressure on offending governments.

It’s really the only power the office has, in fact.
👉 Quiet diplomacy on human rights almost never works to end abuses.

👉 Türk must be ready to take on even the most powerful governments.

📢 Publicly.
📧 This is one of the stories in my daily newsletter today.

➡️ Read the whole edition online here: hrw.org/the-day-in-hum…

➡️ And subscribe to the newsletter here (it's free): action.hrw.org/page/36941/sub…

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More from @astroehlein

Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 8
In 2013, when Shahd was two years old, a barrel bomb was dropped on her neighborhood.

Since then, she can’t hear the bombs anymore.

🧵
It’s a story repeated with thousands of variations across #Syria: child victims of the war are living not only with the deep trauma of their experiences and the fresh terror of new threats, but also with physical disabilities caused by the conflict.
As one of the world’s deadliest conflicts enters its 12th year, the Syrian government is failing these kids, and not just by dropping barrel bombs on them, but by what they do – or don’t do – more generally…
Read 12 tweets
Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 8
A Daily Brief reader got in touch to recommend a powerful series of images they found on Instagram.

Have a look at "The Luggage of Pain" by @SRajasegar here: instagram.com/rajeshshot/

Following the reader tip, I've featured it in today's newsletter here: hrw.org/the-day-in-hum… Image
It simply shows the hands of people holding bags with old photos of their one-time owners: their family members who were forcibly disappeared in #SriLanka at the end of the civil war in 2009.
Some of his interviewees say they had seen relatives surrender to the military.
Read 10 tweets
Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 8
Once upon a time, there were five authors who wrote a book about sheep. 🐑

The ruler of the land was cruel and terrible.

He didn’t like the book, and he threw the authors in the castle dungeon.

The end.

🧵
It’s not a fairy tale but the latest news from #HongKong, where a court has convicted five authors for publishing a children’s book series.

They now face up to two years in prison.

Yes, it really was about sheep. 🐑🐑
Prosecutors said the 3-book series, entitled "Sheep Village" about a flock of sheep resisting the tyrannical rule of a wolf pack, spread “separatist” ideas by portraying #China's government as a “brutal, authoritarian, surveillance state,” feared by its people.
🐑🐑🐑
Read 8 tweets
Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 7
With Europe’s attention focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, repression in neighboring #Belarus has been put on the diplomatic back burner.

That may serve the country’s authoritarian ruler, Aleksandr Lukashenko, but it’s a tragedy for democracy activists & rights defenders. Image
Yesterday, a court in Minsk reminded us all too starkly of what the world has been overlooking, by sentencing ten people to long jail terms for peaceful activism.
Maria (Marfa) Rabkova and Andrey Chapiuk, from the leading Belarusian human rights group Viasna, were sentenced to 15 and 6 years’ imprisonment respectively.

8 other Belarusian activists prosecuted in connection with the same case were given prison sentences of 5 to 17 years. Image
Read 12 tweets
Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 7
The #Israeli military investigated the Israeli military and found that the Israeli military did nothing wrong.

That’s a quick summary of an internal army inquiry into the killing of prominent Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

🧵
She was gunned down while covering Israeli raids in Jenin in the Israeli occupied West Bank in May.

The military concluded she was likely to have been unintentionally shot by an Israeli soldier but was not deliberately targeted.

Case closed, they say. No further questions.
It’s hardly the first time we’ve seen something like this.

The Israeli military has a long track record of whitewashing grave violations, and victims of Israeli abuses have faced a wall of impunity for years.
Read 6 tweets
Andrew Stroehlein Profile picture
Sep 5
Chinese authorities in Tibet, “are literally taking blood without consent to strengthen their surveillance capabilities.”

- @SophieHRW on the bio-dystopian nightmare of mass DNA collection people are now undergoing in towns & villages throughout #Tibet Autonomous Region.

🧵
While the practice of taking blood samples for DNA collection is selective in other parts of China, it is widespread throughout the TAR.

It appears to be taking place in all seven of TAR’s prefectures or municipalities, not to mention in Xinjiang province, as well.
People cannot refuse, and the authorities don’t have to suspect any crime has been committed.

This is a mass round up of personal data that in fact includes some of the most innocent...
Read 9 tweets

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