Human Rights

08 Dec 2022; MEMO: Algeria's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, called on Wednesday for reform of the UN Security Council so that Africa can have two permanent seats. Lamamra made his call during the ninth conference of senior African officials about peace and security across the continent held in the Algerian city of Wahran.

07 Dec 2022; MEMO: The United States is expanding its current visa restriction policy to hold to account military or political actors who undermine or delay the democratic process in Sudan, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

06 Dec 2022; MEMO: Bulgaria has been accused of shooting a refugee, after a new video emerged showing a young Syrian man being fired at on the border with Turkiye, Sky News reports.

Footage taken on 3 October near the Bulgarian-Turkish border fence shows 19-year-old Abdullah El Rustum fall to the ground after a bullet goes through his hand and into his chest.

He has claimed he was shot by Bulgarian border officials after they caught his group illegally entering the country and pushed them back to Turkiye.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Israeli Occupation authorities demolished the Arab village of Al-Araqeeb for the 210th time on Monday.

According to a statement made to an Anadolu correspondent by Aziz Al-Turi, a member of the Local Committee for the Defence of Al-Araqeeb, "The Israeli forces stormed the village of Al-Araqeeb and demolished its homes for the 210th time."

Al-Turi reiterated that the people "will rebuild their village, as they always do."

06 Dec 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces yesterday demolished a mosque in the Khallet Taha neighbourhood of the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron, the Wafa news agency reported.

Occupation forces armed with heavy machinery stormed the area and tore down a 100 square metre mosque. The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowment said Israeli occupation forces demolished Rasoolallah Mosque in Hebron.

06 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has provided the International Criminal Court (ICC) a file on Israel's crimes against Palestinian children, Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Maliki said yesterday.

Israel's decision to deport French-Palestinian human rights defender and lawyer Salah Hammouri to France against his will may constitute a war crime under the Geneva Convention, UN experts said Friday, reports Anadolu Agency.

Israel reaffirmed the revocation of Hammouri's permanent residency in Jerusalem on November 30.

Authorities said Hammouri would be deported December 4 to France because of his alleged "breach of allegiance to the State of Israel" and based on secret evidence.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: UNHCR has criticised a report issued by the Centre for Policy Studies on UK asylum reform, which includes a blanket ban on anyone arriving on a small boat from claiming asylum, with the UN agency stating that access to asylum should not be dependent on how people arrive, or their nationality.

Among the report's recommendations is that the Modern Slavery Act should be reformed to include a ban on entire nationalities such as Albania using the act to claim asylum.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: The heads of more than 50 municipalities in Israel have protested against a role belonging to the Ministry of Education being handed to a far-right Knesset Member and his party. According to the Jerusalem Post, the "rebellious" municipalities will self-fund the plans that will be affected by handing the external programme unit to Avi Maoz MK of the far-right Noam Party.

05 Dec 2022; MEMO: Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani yesterday warned that a new Palestinian intifada may erupt and this time it would be "fiercer than previous one which erupted 20 years ago."

He said that the increasing "brutal" Israeli practices against Palestinians could be the trigger of the new intifada.