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	Prosecuting past crimes provides hope to survivors in Guatemala by United Nations News   24 May 2013   The United Nations human rights office today said it was “concerned” about the legal rights of Guatemalans after a high court overturned the 80 year prison sentence against former military leader, Efrain Ríos Montt.   “Amid continued legal uncertainty about what the ruling of the Constitutional Court annulling the verdict on the Ríos Montt case means in practice, we are concerned about the right of victims in Guatemala to obtain remedies,” the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva.   “The victims have waited three decades for justice for atrocities committed against the Ixil population, and it is unfortunate that a verdict of such importance has been annulled on procedural grounds,” Mr. Rupert continued.   He added that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recalls “States'''' obligations to prosecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” and that it hopes “this extremely important trial will be decided on its merits.”   13 May 2013   The top United Nations human rights official today welcomed the conviction of José Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemala’s former de facto head of State, to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.   “Guatemala has made history by becoming the first country in the world to convict a former head of State for genocide in its own national court,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who added that the trial was of “monumental” national and global importance in the fight against impunity.   “I salute the victims, relatives and survivors whose courage and perseverance made this possible against all odds, as well as the lawyers, prosecutors and judges who carried out their duties under exceptionally difficult circumstances in the face of serious threats and intimidation.”   Mr. Ríos Montt was sentenced on Friday to 80 years for his leading role in the killing of 1,771 people during his time in office between 1982 and 1983, as well as for the forced displacement, starvation, torture, and systematic rape and sexual assault that were deliberately inflicted on Guatemala’s Mayan Ixil communities.   The Guatemalan court found that the crimes were committed in accordance with military plans intended to exterminate those who were considered “enemies,” which included not only guerrillas but also the civilian Ixil community that the authorities perceived to be supporting them.   The three-judge panel concluded that Mr. Ríos Montt had ordered the plans that led to the genocide, had full knowledge of the atrocities committed, and did nothing to stop them despite having the power to do so.   In all, some 200,000 people – over 80 per cent of them of indigenous Mayan origin – were killed during the 36-year-long war, but the period of Ríos Montt’s rule is considered one of the bloodiest in the conflict.   “Despite all the obstacles, interruptions and numerous legal challenges which slowed down the trial, Guatemala has shown the world, and even more importantly its own people, that it is possible to address past crimes and bring justice,” Ms. Pillay said.   “This historic verdict shows that no one is above the law, and that Guatemala’s institutions have the strength and solidity to carry this through – provided there is the will to do so.”   Ms. Pillay urged the Guatemalan authorities to continue to provide effective security for all those involved in the trial, including lawyers, prosecutors, victims, witnesses and human rights defenders. She also urged respect for the verdict and sentence and continued adherence to due process of law.   “Guatemala can now truly begin to heal the wounds of the past, as the suffering of so many people has been formally recognised,” she said. “Now the country has shown that justice for serious international crimes can – and should – take place anywhere and everywhere that they occur.   “This trial will bring encouragement to people all over the world struggling for justice for crimes committed thirty years ago, and for crimes being committed today.   For this reason, the trial and conviction of Ríos Montt has been of monumental importance at the international as well as the national level.”   23 April 2013   UN adviser calls on judges to ensure accountability for atrocities.   Senior United Nations officials have urged judicial authorities in Guatemala to ensure that legal proceedings continue without interference against the country’s former head of State and former head of intelligence who stand accused of atrocities committed in the Central American nation over 30 years ago.   “I appeal to the judicial authorities to act responsibly and prevent any attempt at interference, obstruction of justice or manipulation of the law, which would seriously undermine the credibility of the judicial system in Guatemala,” Adama Dieng, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, said in a news release.   Guatemala’s former president Efraín Ríos Montt and former intelligence chief José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez stand accused of committing genocide and crimes against humanity for their roles in Guatemala’s civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996 and during which a reported 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.   “The victims of the atrocities committed during the civil war in Guatemala and their families have waited many years for justice; I hope that they will not have to continue to wait,” continued Mr. Dieng.   During the conflict, Guatemala became the theatre for numerous displays of brutality which were ultimately catalogued and revealed by the UN-backed Historical Clarification Commission of Guatemala in its report on the war.   At a press conference announcing the release of the report at UN Headquarters in 1999, two members of the Commission, Christian Tomuschat of Germany and Otilia Lux de Cotí of Guatemala, described the “atrocious nature” of some of the massacres committed by Government forces against ethnic enclaves during the conflict.   In particular, they noted the Government"s “scorched earth” policy which led to the destruction of entire villages and the murders of all their inhabitants, including women, children, babies and elderly people. The two experts also stated that pregnant women and babies had been victimized with “particular brutality.”   The UN Special Adviser noted that case was indeed unique as it was the first time that a former head of State had been indicted by a national tribunal on charges of genocide and that the “historical precedent” could ultimately “serve as an example to those States that have failed to hold accountable those individuals responsible for serious and massive human rights violations.”   At the same time, he underscored the importance of bringing the case to a conclusion and determining accountability in view of Guatemala’s future.   “Only in this way can Guatemala consolidate its peace process and build trust and confidence among its diverse populations,” Mr. Dieng concluded. “Such trust and the credibility of its institutions are indispensable for the prevention of future abuses.”   The Secretary-General"s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, said in a statement, “Justice in Guatemala has been delayed for so many, but it must not be denied,” she added about the crimes which ocurred during the conflict between 1960 and 1996.   These judicial proceedings “give hope to the thousands of victims who suffered,” Ms. Bangura said. “Sexual violence must never be treated as an inevitable part of armed conflict, but as the internationally recognized crime it is.”   In her statement, Ms. Bangura also praised the survivors of sexual violence for “their bravery in coming forward to explain what they have suffered” and whose testimonies will help ensure that “sexual violence crimes do not remain hidden in silence and impunity.”   http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2013/may/10/guatemala-genocide-trial-victim-video Visit the related web page
	Violence against health care must end by Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement   Violence against patients and health-care workers is one of the most crucial yet overlooked humanitarian issues today. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement runs a global campaign aiming to improve security and delivery of impartial and efficient health care in armed conflict and other emergencies.   In conflicts and upheavals worldwide, violence disrupts health-care services when they are needed most. Civilians and fighters die of injuries that they should survive because they are prevented from receiving the timely medical assistance to which they have a right.   Violence, both actual and threatened, against the wounded and the sick, and against health-care facilities and personnel, is a crucial yet overlooked humanitarian issue today. An overriding problem is the widespread lack of respect for the law by parties to conflict and other armed groups.   The law says hospitals, ambulances and health-care workers must be protected and should never be targeted as they carry out their regular duties. This is often far from the reality. Worldwide, the lack of safe access to health care is causing untold suffering to millions of people.   Attacks on health-care workers and facilities, and other illegal acts that obstruct their work, put the lives and well-being of millions at risk. http://healthcareindanger.org/   28 May 2013   Thousands lack health services since attack on Afghan Red Crescent.(Reuters)   Thousands of people in northern Afghanistan have had no basic health services since militants killed two Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) staff last month, forcing the group to suspend its work in the area, a senior official from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said.   The ARCS driver and health worker were shot on April 16 when their vehicle came under fire as they returned from vaccinating villagers in the Khanaqa district of Jawzjan province. Two other staff members were injured.   "According to International Humanitarian Law health care workers should be respected at all times. The tragic consequences go well beyond those who have been attacked," Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the ICRC in Afghanistan, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.   "When you have such an incident in an area, the health support is disrupted due to safety concerns and this has a knock-on effect on local populations who are now cut off from any medical supply. I would say thousands of people have been affected by the suspension of ARCS health services as a result."   The ARCS mobile clinic team of four had been working in poor communities in remote areas of Khanaqa where there are no clinics or hospitals and, because of the fear of attacks by Taliban insurgents, villagers cannot travel to get treatment when they are ill.   Pontrandolfi said the attack had forced the ARCS, one of the few aid groups providing medical care in the area, to suspend its operations until the facts of the attack were known.   For now, thousands of poor Afghans will have no medical services, he said. "They are cut off while the Afghan Red Crescent Society tries to establish the facts -- who is behind the attack, why did it happen -- and then receive assurances from the parties involved that this incident won"t recur."   Aid workers often face the threat of violence as they try to bring relief to communities in areas of conflict in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.   According to The Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD), a project set up by the research consultancy Humanitarian Outcomes, 308 aid workers were killed, kidnapped or wounded in 2011 -- the highest number since the project began tracking attacks on aid workers in 1997.   Organisations such as the ICRC and Medicins Sans Frontieres say attacks on medical workers appear to be more pronounced, and both groups have launched campaigns to draw attention to the damaging impact on local people when an aid worker is attacked.   Pontrandolfi said the security situation in Afghanistan was worsening – for both aid workers and the civilian population.   "The situation in Afghanistan certainly remains fragile and volatile." he said.   "People have more difficulty in moving to urban centres where they can get help because of the shift in power structures, and the civilian populations find themselves trapped between multiple front lines and shifting alliances where they are exposed to threats, intimidation and explosive devices."   28 May 2013   WHO suspends polio drive in Pakistani city after shooting, by Jibran Ahmed.   The World Health Organisation suspended its polio eradication campaign in a Pakistani city on Tuesday after two young workers were shot as they administered drops, the latest attack aimed at the U.N.-backed operation.   The victims of the shooting in the violence-plagued northwestern city of Peshawar were aged 18 and 20. Police said both had died, but medical sources said one had died and one was seriously wounded.   No group claimed responsibility for the attack, though many Islamists, including Taliban militants, have long opposed the campaign, believing that the anti-polio drive is a "Western plot" to sterilise Muslims.   The United Nations in Pakistan pulled all staff involved in the campaign off the streets last December. Immunisation continued in some areas without U.N. support although many workers refused to go out.   "They were administering polio drops when they were attacked," police officer Siraj Ahmed said.   WHO spokesperson Maryam Younas said the organisation was temporarily suspending its polio vaccination drive in Peshawar.   "Operations will remain suspended in Peshawar until the security situation returns to normal," she said.   Polio crippled thousands of people every year in rich nations until the 1950s. As a result of vaccination, it is now only endemic in three countries - Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Visit the related web page
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