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	Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free by RSF, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)   Dec. 2015   110 Journalists killed in 2015 reports Reporters without Borders   A total of 110 journalists were killed in connection with their work or for unclear reasons in 2015, according to the round-up published today by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is in a position to say that 67 of them were targeted because of their work or were killed while reporting.   These 67 deaths bring to 787 the total number of journalists killed in connection with their work since 2005. It has not been possible to clearly establish the circumstances or motives of this year’s 43 other deaths of journalists. Twenty-seven citizen-journalists and seven media workers were also killed in 2015.   This disturbing situation is largely attributable to deliberate violence against journalists and is indicative of the failure of the initiatives so far taken to protect media personnel.   A European country, France, was one of the deadliest countries for journalists in 2015. It ranked third, after Syria and Iraq. The January attack on Charlie Hebdo contributed to a reversal of last year’s trend, when two thirds of the deaths of occurred in war zones. This year, two thirds of the deaths were in countries “at peace.”   “The creation of a specific mechanism for enforcing international law on the protection of journalists is absolutely essential,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.   “Non-state groups perpetrate targeted atrocities while too many governments do not comply with their obligations under international law. The 110 journalists killed this year need a response that matches the emergency. A special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for the safety of journalists must be appointed without delay.”   In his annual report on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity on 6 August 2015, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said: “I am deeply concerned about the failure to reduce the frequency and scale of targeted violence that journalists face and the near absolute impunity for such crimes.”   In response to the persistence and variety of dangers facing journalists, RSF published a revised and amended version of its Safety Guide for Journalists in partnership with UNESCO on 15 December.   RSF has been producing its annual round-up of violations against journalists for the past 20 years. It is based on precise data gathered by RSF in the course of its monitoring activities.   October 2015   Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free, report from the Committee to Protect Journalists   The ambush of a convoy in South Sudan and the hacking deaths of bloggers in Bangladesh this year propelled the two nations onto CPJ''s Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go unpunished. Colombia exited the index as fatal violence against journalists receded further into that country''s past.   For the first time since CPJ began compiling the index in 2008, Iraq did not claim the title of worst offender, as Somalia edged into that spot. The shift reflects a steady death toll in Somalia, where one or more journalists have been murdered every year over the past decade, and the government has proved unable or unwilling to investigate the attacks.   Iraq''s move away from the top spot is based on a number of factors, few of them encouraging; only one conviction has been achieved in Iraq.   The Impunity Index examines unsolved murders over the previous decade in which journalism is the confirmed motive. The first couple of years of the Iraq War are no longer covered by the most recent 10-year period, and targeted killings dropped in the second half of the decade compared with the watermark years of 2006 and 2007.   More recently, members of the militant group Islamic State have abducted and killed at least two journalists. The group''s forceful control of information has to date made it impossible for CPJ to accurately document additional cases and determine the motive.   Islamic State''s brutality against journalists is also behind Syria''s rise in the index from number five to number three. Since August 2014, militants beheaded three international correspondents, circulating videos of the executions on social media. As in Iraq, the group is believed to be responsible for additional kidnappings and killings of journalists in Syria that CPJ has not been able to confirm.   Syria is the world''s most dangerous place for journalists, with record numbers of abductions and attacks committed not only by Islamic State but other militant factions as well as forces loyal to the Assad regime.   The Philippines, in fourth place, is the only country among the top five that is not in a state of large-scale armed conflict.   The Impunity Index-which is being released in advance of the second International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, November 2, a day adopted by the United Nations General Assembly-calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country''s population.   For this edition, CPJ examined journalist murders in every nation in the world that took place between September 1, 2005, and August 31, 2015. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on the index. This year, 14 countries met the index criteria, compared with 13 in the previous edition.   Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained; cases in which suspects are killed during apprehension or some, but not all, perpetrators are held to justice, are classified as partial impunity and not counted toward the five-case threshold. The total number of cases analyzed for this Index is 270.   Colombia, the only country to drop off the index this year, has fewer than five unsolved cases for the time period under examination. Convictions in two journalist murders have taken place there since 2009; both notably brought full justice with the sentencing of the masterminds.   But Colombia''s improvement is also largely attributed to a decrease nationwide in political violence and to a government protection program for journalists.   Journalists have nonetheless been threatened on numerous occasions, according to CPJ research. On September 10, an unidentified gunman killed Colombian journalist Flor Alba Núñez Vargas in front of her radio station. Her colleague said Núñez had received threats in connection with her reporting.   Convictions also took place in the last year in three index countries-Russia, Iraq, and Brazil-but in only one case, the 2009 homicide of Russian reporter Anastasiya Baburova, was the person who commissioned the crime jailed.   The addition of South Sudan, where five journalists traveling in a political convoy were ambushed and killed this year, is emblematic of the challenges to achieving justice in areas wracked by war or where potent illegal armed groups actively menace journalists, like Pakistan, 9th on the index, and Nigeria, 13th.   At the same time, more than half the countries on the index are democracies with functioning law enforcement and judicial institutions, including the Philippines, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and India, which together have let the killers of at least 96 journalists go unpunished over the past decade.   The numbers show that the political will needed to prosecute those who silence journalists, many of whom investigate corruption or report critically on local leadership, is absent.   In May this year, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2222 which calls for states to take greater steps to protect journalists in situations of armed conflict and ensure accountability for crimes against them. The resolution is the latest in a series of measures the UN has adopted to address the problem. In its 2014 special report, "Road to Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Impunity," CPJ concluded that despite this growing international attention, there has been little progress in terms of the number of convictions.   http://www.cpj.org/reports/2015/10/impunity-index-getting-away-with-murder.php http://en.rsf.org/rsf-annual-round-up-110-29-12-2015,48676.html http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/1/article/ifj-calls-for-international-laws-protecting-journalists-to-be-enforced-after-another-deadly-year-of/ http://cpj.org/reports/2015/12/journalists-killed-syria-france-most-deadly-countries-for-the-press.php http://www.icij.org/ http://www.frontlineclub.com/club/news/ http://www.frontlineclub.com/videos/ http://pulitzercenter.org/ http://dartcenter.org/   http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/safety-of-journalists/ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/safety-of-journalists/un-plan-of-action/ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/EndImpunity http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/02/01/afghanistan-journalists-security-collapse/ http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/38246/en/afghanistan:-solidarity-with-the-afghan-media-community http://iwpr.net/global/afghanistan http://globalvoices.org/2016/02/16/burundis-independent-media-finds-itself-in-the-crossfire-of-a-deadly-crisis/ Visit the related web page
	The World Bank is a Human Rights-Free Zone by Philip Alston UN expert on extreme poverty   Oct 2015   The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, has called on the World Bank and its member States to adopt a new and consistent approach to human rights.   “For most purposes, the World Bank is currently a human rights-free zone. In its operational policies, in particular, it treats human rights more like an infectious disease than universal values and obligations,” Alston says in a new report* published online on the approach to human rights by the World Bank, the most important international actor on poverty alleviation.   The report, which will be officially presented to the UN General Assembly on 23 October, explains that the biggest single obstacle to better integrate human rights into the work of the World Bank is “the anachronistic and inconsistent interpretation of the ‘political prohibition’ contained in the Bank’s Articles of Agreement.”   “They invoke the Articles of Agreement, which were adopted in 1945, and argue that this clause not to interfere in States’ political affairs effectively prohibits the Bank from engaging with issues of human rights,” the expert says.   However, he stresses, “these Articles were written more than 70 years ago, when there was no international catalogue of human rights, no specific treaty obligations upon States, and not a single international institution addressing these issues.”   In his report, Alston notes that –despite their legal arguments– the World Bank’s real reason to avoid dealing with human rights is clearly political.   “Western countries, cheered on by Western civil society, have often pushed the Bank to sanction developing countries with a poor human rights record by delaying or withholding development loans to those countries. Countries that borrow money from the Bank, or member states that are critical of human rights, don’t want the World Bank to turn into a ‘human rights cop’ that meddles in their internal affairs,” he explains.   For the Special Rapporteur, all these approaches are misguided. “World Bank member States from all parts of the world are to blame,” he says.   “The use of the human rights framework makes an enormous difference, which is exactly why the Bank is so resistant to using it,” the expert notes, stressing that human rights invoke the legal obligations that States have agreed upon and brings a degree of normative certainty. “Even more importantly, the language of rights recognizes the dignity and agency of all individuals.”   “It is striking how little thought has been given to what a World Bank human rights policy might look like in practice. It is now time for World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to take the initiative”, Alston says in his report. “But World Bank member states also have a responsibility: they should begin to grapple seriously with what a World Bank human rights policy should look like, and they should start doing that today!”   The UN Special Rapporteur will spend the next few weeks talking to the World Bank and its member states about his recommendations, before the official presentation of his report to the UN General Assembly in New York.   * Access the report via the link below. Visit the related web page
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