Newsletter

1. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 

The OHCHR is the principal human rights entity of the United Nations. Its functions include promoting and protecting all human rights, helping to empower people, and developing a human rights perspective in all United Nations programs. The current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is Mr. Volker Türk.

A) OHCHR Report Highlights the Human Rights Crisis in El Fasher, North Darfur since May 2024

– On December 20, 2024, the OHCHR Sudan Country Office published a report on the alarming human rights situation in El Fasher, North Darfur.

Source: Wikimedia Commons. Bangladesh quota reform movement 2024. Date: July 6, 2024.
Link to the image: here. Link of the license: here.

The capital of North Darfur has been at the center of intense hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), transforming it into a battlefield since April 2023. The conflict in El Fasher, home to one million residents, including thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) from African tribes, intensified when RSF, supported by Arab militias, laid siege to the city in May 2024. From May to November 2024, RSF launched relentless attacks, including artillery strikes and “suicide drone” operations, cutting off supplies to SAF and devastating the local population.

According to the report, at least 782 civilians were killed and over 1,143 were injured during this period. Civilians faced indiscriminate violence, including artillery shelling in homes, markets, and streets. Vital infrastructure such as hospitals and health facilities also came under attack, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. The report highlights additional human rights violations, including torture, sexual violence, ethnic-based detentions, and child recruitment by RSF. Extortion at checkpoints and forced displacement compounded the suffering, while food insecurity reached critical levels, with Sudan now reporting the highest malnutrition rates in Eastern Africa. The UN Security Council’s Resolution 2736, adopted in June 2024, demanded an end to the siege and hostilities, emphasizing the need for safe passage for civilians to move out of the city. However, compliance by parties to the conflict remains limited.

The OHCHR has called on all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law, ensure accountability for violations, and pursue mediation to end the violence. This report underscores the urgent need for international attention to address the ongoing human rights crisis in El Fasher and the broader Darfur region. The report can be found here.

B) OHCHR Report Sheds Light on Afghanistan’s Media Freedom Crisis

– In November 2024, the OHCHR, through the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, released a landmark report on media freedom in the country.

Source: Flickr. North Korea, Pyongyang. Link of the image: here. Link of the license: here.

Since the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, Afghanistan’s media outlets have faced severe setbacks. Economic challenges, censorship by de facto authorities, intimidation, and arbitrary detentions have led to the closure of many outlets. Between August 2021 and September 2024, 336 cases of human rights violations against journalists and media workers were documented.

In September 2021, the Government Media and Information Centre introduced new restrictions on the media. The restrictions included bans on content deemed contrary to Islam or Afghan culture, as well as the prohibition of music and films perceived as violating Sharia law. New restrictions, such as prohibiting women from traveling over 78 kilometers without a male guardian and banning their voices on broadcasts, have disproportionately affected women journalists. These measures have stifled freedom of expression and access to information, essential components of any society.

In addition, the OHCHR report highlights incidents that occurred in the country following the implementation of media restrictions, such as the July 2023 arrest of several journalists when they were covering a fire, demonstrating the unpredictable enforcement of Sharia law and the chilling effect on media operations. In this regard, the OHCHR recalled Afghanistan’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to ensure media freedom, protect journalists against violence, and guarantee access to information without discrimination.

Finally, the report urges the Taliban authorities to cease intimidation and arbitrary detentions, safeguard press independence, and actively share public information. This call to action emphasizes the need for immediate measures to protect media freedom and uphold fundamental human rights in Afghanistan. The report can be found here.

2. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

The CRC is the United Nations body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

A) CRC Finds Finland Violated Sámi Indigenous Children’s Rights in Mining Case

– On October 7, 2024, the CRC ruled that Finland violated the rights of Sámi indigenous children to culture and land, by granting mineral exploration permits on their traditional territory without proper impact assessments or ensuring their meaningful participation.

Source: Wikimedia Commons. 7122. Lapper og Reinsdyr. Date: May 4, 2009. Link to the license: here.

The case was brought by three sisters, M.E.V., S.E.V., and B.I.V., members of the Kova-Labba Siida, a Sámi semi-nomadic reindeer herding community. They argued that mining activities threatened the continuity of their traditional culture, deeply tied to their cultural identity and reindeer herding practices, and limited their ability to benefit from the transmission of Sámi culture and livelihood.

In 2014, the Geological Survey of Finland decided to conduct mineral exploration over an area of 390 hectares of the Kova-Labba Siida traditional territory, consisting of boreholes between 100 and 300 meters deep at 20 sites. The State mining authority consulted the Sámi Parliament and the Käsivarsi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative about the project, but they opposed any approval that would allow mining. However, the exploration permits were granted in 2016, allowing mineral exploration over the traditional territory during winter, a critical period for reindeer survival. Despite opposition from the Sámi parliament and local cooperatives, appeals against the decision were rejected, with authorities claiming consultation was sufficient for the purposes of the Finland Mining Act.

The CRC held that Finland had violated Articles 8, 27, 30, and 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child against the Sámi Indigenous children. In its decision, the CRC found that the mineral exploration in the traditional territory would cause irreparable harm to the Sámi culture, by making reindeer herding unsustainable and damaging the core dimension or the Sámi Indigenous children to be active and willing recipients of an unhindered transmission of the Sámi way of life. Furthermore, the CRC recalled that the integrity and continuity of a culture’s identity requires the existence of conditions for its way of life and is associated with the use of traditional territory and the utilization of its resources. The CRC also considered that the State had violated Articles 8, 27, and 30, read in conjunction with Article 12 and in relation to Article 2.1 of the Convention, because the authors had not been allowed to participate adequately in the decision regarding the mineral exploration permits, nor had the State taken into account international standards on the participation of indigenous people and free, prior and informed consent in matters affecting their rights. In this regard, the CRC found that the approval of the exploration permits without such process violated the children’s rights to enjoy their own culture and amounted to intersectional discrimination against the authors as Indigenous children.

Therefore, the CRC ordered Finland to effectively review the decisions concerning the mineral exploration project, based on an adequate process of free, prior, and informed consent, accompanied by an independent assessment of the impact on the rights of the Sámi people. The decision can be found here and the press release here.

3. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

The CEDAW is the United Nations body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

A) CEDAW Condemns Peru’s Forced Sterilization Policy as Sex-Based Violence.

– On October 30, 2024, the CEDAW ruled that the policy of forced sterilization in Peru during the 1990s constituted sex-based violence and intersectional discrimination against women.

Source: Flickr. Perú: Derechos sexuales y reproductivos. Date: October 1, 2018. Link to the license: here.

Over 300,000 women, predominantly Indigenous and rural, poor, and illiterate, as opposed to roughly 25.000 men, were sterilized without their consent.

The authors of the complaint were five women –María Elena Carbajal, Florentina Loayza, Rosa Loarte, Elena Rojas, and Gloria Basilio– who were forcibly sterilized between 1996 and 1997 as part of a State-led birth control policy. In 1995, the Peruvian government modified the National Population Policy Law, authorizing the use of voluntary surgical contraceptives and male and female sterilization procedures; whilst the Ministerial Resolution No. 071-96-SA-DM, adopted in 1996, approved a program aimed at voluntary surgical contraception. According to the victims, these measures integrated a consistent pattern of coercion, pressure, and deception against women in Peru to undergo sterilizations in clinics that lacked adequate facilities or trained personnel. The procedures were carried out without prior informed consent, and many women could not even fully understand the nature of the procedure.

Maria Elena, 26, was sterilized when she gave birth to her fourth child, after being coerced with the threat of taking the newborn away from her if she did not undergo the procedure. As a result of the sterilization, she was traumatized and faced physical and psychological issues. Only later, she understood that forced sterilization was a crime. Florentina, 19, was sterilized under the condition she would receive food only afterward. She tried to escape without success. Since then, she has suffered from ongoing physical and mental health problems. Rosa, 35, was forcibly sterilized after being taken to a medical center without explanation. She now suffers from severe pain in her torso and spine. Elena, 30, was sterilized after being told she would lose social benefits if she refused. She did not receive post-operative care, developed uterine cancer six months later, and to this day lives in severe pain and poverty. Lastly, Gloria, 25, was forcibly sterilized and now suffers from permanent trauma and a detached uterus. Four of the five women were abandoned by their husbands after being sterilized.

The CEDAW recalled that “[v]iolations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, such as forced sterilization […], are forms of gender-based violence that, depending on the circumstances, may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. It also mentioned that forced sterilization, when widespread or systematic, may constitute a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The CEDAW noted, in particular, that forced sterilization constituted sex-based violence against the victims, as male and female sterilizations differ substantially in the nature of the intervention and involve higher surgical risks than those associated with male sterilization. The CEDAW particularly considered the context in which the victims were sterilized, namely by unskilled medical personnel and in inadequate sanitary conditions, and within the framework of a family planning policy that prioritized surgical contraception on a massive scale, without guaranteeing the prior, free, full and informed consent of the women who underwent this type of procedure. It also highlighted the State’s failure to act with due diligence to clarify the facts relating to the sterilizations of the victims, nor has it guaranteed them full reparation. Consequently, the CEDAW found that Peru violated Article 2, read in conjunction with Articles 3, 10.h), 12, 14, and 24 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Finally, the CEDAW urged Peru to adopt effective measures to investigate all forced sterilizations carried out during the 1990s and to establish a comprehensive reparation policy for the victims. The decision (in Spanish) can be found here and the press release here.