This No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) news digest rounds up some of the week’s top FGM & Women’s Rights stories for the week ending 20 February:
Khashoggi’s fiancee asks EU to put human rights before economy
Aljazeera, 19 Feb 2019
Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee has urged the European Union (EU) to “transcend economic interests” and exert pressure on Saudi Arabia to ensure justice in the sensational killing.
“Up until now, nothing has been done to those implicated in this crime,” Hatice Cengiz said in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday.
“Hasn’t the moment come? I ask this question as a simple human being.”
Cengiz was speaking as one of the victims of human rights abuses in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, who were invited by the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights to give evidence.
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Ukraine: Five years after the Maydan protests, justice still not attained for victims
Amnesty International, 19 Feb 2019
The Ukrainian authorities have failed to attain justice for all victims of police abuses committed during the EuroMaydan protests five years ago, Amnesty International said on the fifth anniversary of the protests’ worst day of violence which led to the downfall of then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
“The sheer scope of the human rights violations committed during EuroMaydan was far beyond what the Ukrainian criminal justice system was designed to deal with, to say nothing of its inefficiency. Worse, it has resisted and obstructed justice instead of prosecuting the former and current members of the law enforcement,” said Colm O Cuanachain, Senior Director at the Office of the Secretary General of Amnesty International during his visit to Kyiv on the day.
Take them back
The Jerusalem Post , 19 Feb 2019
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces recently announced the final push to take Baghouz in Syria’s northeast from Islamic State fighters. This move comes months after a concerted effort by anti-ISIS coalition forces to take the neighboring city of Hajin. As the ISIS self-professed caliphate collapses, more fighters and their families continue to be captured, and increasingly consist of foreign volunteers from northern countries such as France and the United Kingdom. The question now is whether these countries will repatriate their citizens, or leave them to face retribution from local authorities, such as in Iraq.
Shamima Begum: Isis Briton faces move to revoke citizenship
The Guardian, 19 Feb 2019
The row over the fate of Shamima Begum, the British-born teenager who travelled from east London to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, has taken a further twist as the home secretary ordered she be deprived of her British citizenship.Sajid Javid has sought to adopt a tough stance in respect of Begum’s case but he was immediately faced with the prospect of a legal battle as Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for her relatives, said they were “considering all legal avenues to challenge the decision”, that had left them “very disappointed”.
My Father Faces the Death Penalty. This Is Justice in Saudi Arabia.
The New York Times, 13 Feb 2019
Despite the claims of Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his enablers, Saudi Arabia is not rolling back the hard-line religious establishment. Instead, the kingdom is curtailing the voices of moderation that have historically combated extremism. Numerous Saudi activists, scholars and thinkers who have sought reform and opposed the forces of extremism and patriarchy have been arrested. Many of them face the death penalty.
Salman Alodah, my father, is a 61-year-old scholar of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia, a reformist who argued for greater respect for human rights within Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Quran. His voice was heard widely, partly owing to his popularity as a public figure with 14 million followers on Twitter.
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