View previous stories
	UN report documents horrors faced by thousands held in arbitrary detention in Libya by OHCHR, CNN, Reliefweb, agencies   June 2018   UN sanctions Libyan migrant traffickers. (CNN)   Six men who allegedly made large amounts of money from buying and selling vulnerable migrants have been hit by United Nations sanctions in a response to the international slave trade exposed by CNN, the Dutch foreign ministry this week.   The men are accused of leading criminal networks that traffic large numbers of vulnerable migrants through Libya to Europe. One is a commander with the Libyan Coast Guard. He is accused of using firearms to deliberately sink boats carrying migrants. Others in the group are accused of selling migrants as "sex slaves" and being responsible for some of the worst migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean.   The motion for sanctions was filed to the UN Security Council''s Libya sanctions committee by the Netherlands, supported by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the first time the committee has issued international sanctions on individuals for human trafficking.   Dutch prosecutors describe the men as acting with impunity. "The sanctioned individuals are people who spend their money on their militia, their business, but also on properties and goods all over the world. They feel untouchable," the Dutch Prosecutor''s Office said in a statement.   Documents obtained by CNN show how the men profited from the smuggling and exploitation of migrants and refugees in a network that spanned Africa.   "This abuse has reached an unprecedented scale and level of severity, and these illicit activities have resulted in thousands of fatalities on land and sea," one of the UN documents says. "This cynical business model has enabled armed groups to accumulate vast wealth," it adds.   The sanctions imposed will freeze the six men''s financial assets including personal bank accounts and the revenue from their global business activities. The six men will also be subject to strict travel bans.   "These sanctions will help stop the flow of blood money.. It will prevent them from buying protection in Libya which in turn can destabilize the region," the Dutch National Prosecutors Office said.   For those involved in the smuggling and trafficking networks, it has been a lucrative and exploitative business with revenues in the billions, according to the European Migrant Smuggling Center (EMSC).   In 2015, migrant smuggling networks made between EUR 4.7 billion and EUR 5.7 billion trafficking people bound for Europe, according to a 2017 EMSC report.   The recent crackdown by the Libyan Coast Guard means fewer boats are making it out to sea, leaving the smugglers with a backlog of would-be passengers on their hands. As a result, there are increasing reports of migrants being sold in slave auctions and facing the most appalling conditions.   Migrant testimonies provided to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have revealed "the image of a Libya in chaos, where violence and abuse are increasingly frequent and armed groups find human beings an extremely profitable source of money."   Last year, CNN reporters went undercover at a slave market in Libya to document the shocking violation of human rights and inhumane treatment that so many desperate migrants have suffered.   "The situation is dire," Mohammed Abdiker, the IOM director of operation and emergencies, told CNN in November. "Some reports are truly horrifying and the latest reports of ''slave markets'' for refugees can be added to a long list of outrages."   The evidence filmed by CNN was handed over to the Libyan authorities, who launched investigations into the networks operating in the region. The footage also sparked international condemnation and a backlash of protests around the world.   "The work of CNN helped to bring attention to this terrible slave trade that has been going on in Libya for far too long," Blok, the Dutch Foreign Minister, said.   "As Netherlands is currently a member of the UN Security Council, we proposed to them to impose sanctions on six of the worst perpetrators -- and that will mean that this crime won''t be entirely left unpunished."   http://edition.cnn.com/specials/africa/libya-slave-auctions http://tmsnrt.rs/2sU049L http://www.freedomunited.org/advocate/libya/   UN report documents horrors faced by thousands held in arbitrary detention in Libya   Armed groups in Libya are holding thousands of people in detention where they are being submitted to torture and other human rights violations, according to a United Nations report published this week.   The study, by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, and the UN Support Mission in the country, known as UNSMIL, estimates that some 6,500 people are being held in official prisons while thousands more are in facilities nominally under the authorities or that are directly run by armed groups, some of which are affiliated with the State.   “This report lays bare not only the appalling abuses and violations experienced by Libyans deprived of their liberty, but the sheer horror and arbitrariness of such detentions, both for the victims and their families,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.   One facility, believed to be the largest of its kind in western Libya, houses 2,600 people who face torture, unlawful killing, denial of adequate medical treatment and poor detention conditions.   “Men, women and children across Libya are arbitrarily detained or unlawfully deprived of their liberty based on their tribal or family links and perceived political affiliations,” the report stated.   “Victims have little or no recourse to judicial remedy or reparations, while members of armed groups enjoy total impunity.”   The report’s findings are based on first-hand accounts and other information gathered from sources inside Libya.   Some detainees have been held since 2011 in relation to the armed conflict that led to the overthrow of former President, the late Muammar Gaddafi, and a surge in armed groups.   The report further stated that since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, politicians and others, while hostage-taking for prisoner exchanges or ransom is also common.   “Rather than reining in armed groups and integrating their members under State command and control structures, successive Libyan governments have increasingly relied on them for law enforcement, including arrests and detention; paid them salaries; and provided them with equipment and uniforms,” the report said.   The authors are calling on the Libyan authorities to condemn torture, ill-treatment and summary executions of those detained, and to ensure accountability for these crimes.   “These violations and abuses need to stop – and those responsible for such crimes should be held fully to account.”   http://reliefweb.int/report/libya/libya-dozens-refugees-and-migrants-wounded-after-trying-escape-horrific-captivity   Nov. 2017   The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein has sounded the alarm after a probe by UN monitors who visited migrants held in State detention centres in Libya at the start of the month.   From 1 to 6 November, UN human rights monitors visited four Department of Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM) facilities in Tripoli, where they interviewed detainees who have fled conflict, persecution and extreme poverty from States across Africa and Asia, according to the High Commissioner’s Office (OHCHR).   “Monitors were shocked by what they witnessed: thousands of emaciated and traumatized men, women and children piled on top of one another, locked up in hangars with no access to the most basic necessities, and stripped of their human dignity,” OHCHR spokesperson told reporters today in Geneva.   Detainees at the centres said they are often beaten or prodded with electric sticks if they ask for food and medicine. There are no functioning toilets in the hangar-like facilities and the detainees find it ‘difficult to survive the smell of urine and feces.’ Rape and other sexual violence appear commonplace.   The European Union is currently providing assistance to the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrant boats in the Mediterranean. This includes in international waters, despite concerns raised by rights groups that this would condemn more migrants to arbitrary and indefinite detention and expose them to forced labour or extortion. According to OHCHR, those detained have no possibility to challenge the legality of their detention, and no access to legal aid.   Nearly 20,000 people are in custody now, up from about 7,000 in mid-September.   The spike in numbers came after authorities detained thousands of migrants following clashes in Sabratha, a smuggling and trafficking hub, about 80 kilometres west of Tripoli.   “We cannot be a silent witness to modern day slavery, rape and other sexual violence, and unlawful killings in the name of managing migration and preventing desperate and traumatized people from reaching Europe’s shores,” said High Commissioner Zeid.   His Office has urged the Libyan authorities to stamp out human rights violations in centres under their control, while also calling on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the “unimaginable horrors” endured by migrants in Libya.   http://bit.ly/2zHKEKd http://reliefweb.int/report/libya/libya-must-end-outrageous-auctions-enslaved-people-un-experts-insist http://reliefweb.int/report/libya/abuse-behind-bars-arbitrary-and-unlawful-detention-libya-april-2018-enar   Oct. 2017   Plucked from the Mediterranean by the Italian Coast Guard, refugees and migrants warn of forced labour and slavery in Libya. (UNHCR)   Italian Coast Guard Vessel Dattilo, Mediterranean Sea – Mamoudou Oba from Guinea, who was rescued after days in a drifting vessel, has warned others trying to flee poverty and conflict in sub-Saharan Africa of the dangers of the land and sea routes to Europe.   “I cannot advise anybody to enter in Libya. You will die for nothing,” he told rescuers.   Sitting on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard patrol vessel Dattilo, some 50 miles off the coast of North Africa, shortly after being rescued, he added he was kidnapped, starved and beaten for three weeks before leaving Libya.   Almost 100,000 refugees and migrants like Mamoudou have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Italy since the beginning of the year, according to reports by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.   Sitting among a group of 99 people rescued by the Dattilo, he says people are being bought and sold for as little as US$300. “If you stay, every day they are coming to do bad things to you. One day, one day, one day, they will kill you.”   UNHCR estimates that over 1.3 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Libya. It is calling for an end to detention for migrants, refugees and other vulnerable people there, and unrestricted humanitarian access inside the country to ensure that international protection is given to them.   Mamoudou’s testimony of abuse is borne out by Lucia Guidolin, a medical doctor volunteering with the Italian Coast Guard. She says most refugees and migrants she examined after they are saved from the Mediterranean Sea have endured severe physical and psychological abuse.   Guidolin encountered one such case among the passengers on the Dattilo. Ivorian Abdullah Touré told her he was kidnapped and tortured by street gangs for months on end.   “They threatened us so we would give them money. If not they would kill us. They took a gun and fired next to my ears. Poom! Poom! Poom! Now I can’t hear. I’m here like this.”   http://bit.ly/2zIby5i http://bit.ly/2y4GCbw http://bit.ly/2m6wahL http://bit.ly/2hmigWW http://reut.rs/2iFVZQE http://bit.ly/2ov79wl http://bit.ly/2luyWZj http://bit.ly/2vYO9Hx http://bit.ly/2jf5KFF http://bit.ly/2BfwsX1 http://www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/19/italy-migrant-rescue-ship-impounded Visit the related web page
	Students from 3,000 schools demand action on gun violence by NYT, Vox News, CNN, Giffords Law Center, agencies USA   24. Mar. 2018   Students lead huge U.S. anti-gun rallies (Reuters, agencies)   Chanting “never again,” hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters answered a call to action from survivors of last month’s Florida high school massacre and rallied across the United States on Saturday to demand tighter gun laws.   In some of the biggest U.S. youth demonstrations for decades, protesters called on lawmakers to confront the issue.   At the largest March For Our Lives protest, demonstrators jammed Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue where they listened to speeches from survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.   The massive March For Our Lives rallies aim to break legislative gridlock that has long stymied efforts to increase restrictions on firearms sales in a nation where mass shootings like the one in Parkland have become frighteningly common.   “Politicians: either represent the people or get out,” Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, told the crowd. Another survivor, David Hogg, said it was a new day. “We’re going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run not as politicians, but as Americans. Because this is not cutting it,” he said, pointing at the white-domed Capitol behind the stage.   Youung marchers filled streets in cities including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego and St. Louis. More than 800 demonstrations were scheduled across the United States demanding action on gun violence.   http://wapo.st/2I2e1aY http://wapo.st/2G9gwb1 http://wapo.st/2GqgOgK http://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives-latest/index.html http://cbsn.ws/2I2kRx6 http://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html http://bit.ly/2G9ujhu http://bit.ly/2pI2MwW http://bit.ly/2GaWv3x http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2018/mar/23/parkland-students-manifesto-americas-gun-laws http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/parkland-student-takeover http://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/ http://www.vice.com/en_us/topic/voices-of-school-shooting-survivors   14 March 2018   Hundreds of thousands of students poured out of classrooms across the US on Wednesday in an unprecedented expression of mourning and a demand for action to stem the country’s epidemic of gun violence.   Students from an estimated 3,000 schools marched carrying signs that read “Enough” and chanting, “Gun violence has got to go”. In Connecticut, Washington and New York, the signs read: “Protect Kids Not Guns”.   The mass student walkout fell one month after a student gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, in the deadliest high school shooting in the country’s history. Survivors of that massacre joined other student activists to organize Wednesday’s demonstration.   “There were lots of emotions, many people were crying. We were thinking of the 17 we lost,” said Florence Yared, a third-year student at Stoneman Douglas, who joined 3,000 of her schoolmates on the school’s football pitch, where exactly one month ago many were running for their lives.   The protesters called for new gun safety legislation, including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and the introduction of universal background checks.   They also opposed the additional fortification of schools with fences and armed guards, policies endorsed by the NRA, America’s powerful gun lobby group.   Recent polling has indicated that as many as seven in 10 Americans want stricter gun laws, the highest such figure in 20 years. A recent Monmouth University poll found that 83% of Americans support requiring comprehensive background checks for all gun purchasers, including private sales between two individuals.   The gun policy reform group Everytown for Gun Safety reported a 25% leap in members in the two weeks after the Parkland shooting.   “While Congress sits on its hands, students like my son will stand and walk out of school this morning to demand action on gun violence,” tweeted Shannon Watts, the founder of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, on Wednesday morning. “Next we march. Then we vote to #ThrowThemOut.”   Gun safety activists are focused on the midterm elections in November as an opportunity to expunge pro-gun legislators, whose ranks are increasingly out of proportion with the national mood.   A number of gun control bills are currently pending in the US Congress, including bills that fit with the student protesters’ demands relating to assault weapons and background checks. But Congress in the past has repeatedly taken up such legislation only to shelve it, year after year, including in the wake of the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.   Ninety-six Americans are killed each day by guns, and Americans overall are “25 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries”, gun control advocates say.   http://www.vox.com/2018/3/14/17114430/school-walkout-gun-control-photos http://www.vox.com/2018/2/15/17017342/parkland-florida-school-mass-shooting http://marchforourlives.com/walkouts http://marchforourlivespetition.com/ http://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/14/us/national-school-walkout-gun-violence-protests/index.html http://bit.ly/2FQ5DxF http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/mass-shootings-timeline.html   March 2018   Protecting the Parkland Generation. (Giffords Law Center)   In the wake of the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, three weeks ago, the issue of gun violence and its far-reaching impacts on young people has once again been thrust into the spotlight. Our new report, Protecting the Parkland Generation: Strategies to Keep America’s Kids Safe from Gun Violence, examines the life-altering implications for the children who witness or survive shootings, particularly with regard to their mental health. Yet, the substantial impact of exposure to violence can be mitigated with the adoption of lifesaving gun safety laws that ensure firearms stay out of the hands of minors and those who may be a threat to themselves or others.   The dangerous consequences of the gun violence epidemic cannot be overstated. School shootings may garner the most attention, but in fact they represent a small percentage of tragedies when it comes to the deadly intersection between kids and guns—many more children experience gun violence in other ways, like domestic violence, urban gun violence, unintentional shootings, and suicide. And the impact of gun violence on kids is staggering:   Since Columbine alone, more than 150,000 minors have been shot in the United States. Additionally, 150,000 students in at least 170 elementary, middle, and high school have experienced school shootings.   In real economic terms, the annual cost of gun violence to children alone is at least $21 billion. Nearly 60% of all high school students report fears of a mass shooting at their school or in their community.   Nearly 40% of children exposed to a shooting will develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Guns are now the third-leading cause of death for all Americans under age 18.   But, as the brave survivors of the Parkland shooting have pointed out, well-researched, concrete solutions exist. There are a host of policies and programs outlined in this report, designed and proven to reduce gun violence and save lives, like:   Prevent Access to Guns: Nearly 1.7 million American kids live in homes where guns are loaded and unlocked. Children find them and, tragically, use them in unintentional shootings, teen suicides, and school shootings. Enacting laws that require safe storage, punish adults who make it easy for children to access guns, and encourage the development of gun safety technology will save kids’ lives.   Raise the Minimum Age: The shooters in Newtown and Parkland were too young to buy beer but old enough to purchase AR-15–style rifles. We should strengthen age requirements, beginning by prohibiting anyone under 21 from purchasing semiautomatic rifles.   Disarm Dangerous People: The Parkland shooter exhibited warning signs that he was armed and dangerous, even posting online that he wanted to become a school shooter. Extreme risk protection order laws allow law enforcement and family members to petition a court to temporarily disarm people like him and other potentially violent individuals.   Invest in Urban Gun Violence Prevention and Intervention Programs: For black families in America, the chance of a male child dying from a gunshot wound is 62% higher than dying in a motor vehicle crash. Strategic intervention programs in urban communities plagued by gun violence have been able to cut gun homicide rates by as much as 50% in as little as two years. States should fund and support these lifesaving programs.   It’s long overdue that our lawmakers stand up to the NRA by considering and enacting policies and programs like these. Our children need protection, and they’re speaking out and demanding congressional action on this issue. We’re proud to fight for gun safety alongside these courageous students and invite you to learn more about how lawmakers can help save a generation of kids from experiencing the terror and horror gun violence wreaks on their lives.   * Read our new report to learn how your lawmakers can take action for student safety—Protecting the Parkland Generation: Strategies to Keep Kids Safe from Gun Violence: http://lawcenter.giffords.org/protecting-parkland-generation/ http://cnn.it/2GoIaS4   http://marchforourlives.com/sign/ http://bit.ly/2zmogGk http://lawcenter.giffords.org/ http://www.bradycampaign.org/ http://www.vpc.org/ http://www.vpc.org/press/press-release-archive/ http://everytown.org/in-the-news/ http://www.csgv.org/ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/opinion/how-to-reduce-shootings.html http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/6/16615218/ted-cruz-gun-control-sutherland-springs-texas-shooting http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-mass-shooting-in-texas-and-false-arguments-against-gun-control http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/19/opinion/domestic-violence-guns.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/gunned-down/   (In the last 20 years, 2 million people have been shot in the U.S., and 600,000 of those lost their lives. More Americans have died from gun violence, than in all the wars in American history). Visit the related web page
	View more stories