Human Rights

Guwahati, Dec 22 (PTI) A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Gauhati High Court by an advocate seeking an independent inquiry and a separate judicial probe into the alleged encounters by the Assam Police since May this year.

The PIL, filed by New Delhi-based advocate Arif Jwadder who hails from Guwahati, was registered on Tuesday.

Jwadder has claimed in the PIL that over 80 such encounters have taken place in Assam since the new government took charge in May this year.

21 Dec 2021; MEMO: Christians in the occupied Palestinian territories face the "threat of extinction" from "radical" Israeli groups, church leaders have warned in a startling message in the run up to Christmas. They have called for help from the worldwide Christian community of 2.3 billion people.

21 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities yesterday handed a Palestinian family an evict order telling them to vacate their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, Wafa reported and to seize a piece of land owned by the family.

Mahmoud Salhia was handed the order for the second time in four months, with the occupation authorities saying the seizure of his land was in the "public interest" to establish a school there.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have taken over privately-owned Palestinian land in three different areas across the occupied West Bank, Anadolu reported on Tuesday.

"An Israeli army bulldozer protected by troops raided a farm near the settlement of Halamesh," explained a member of Deir Nizam municipality in Ramallah. "The soldiers erected a fence around more than an acre of land under the pretext of security," added Monjed Al-Tamimi.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Following interviews with migrants and refugees in Poland fleeing Belarus after being forced to cross the border, the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called on both countries to urgently address the "appalling situation", reports Anadolu Agency.

Belarus has refused to allow officials of the UN Rights Office to visit the border area, office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a press conference.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Flawed intelligence has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths from US airstrikes in the Middle East, confidential military documents have revealed. Documents obtained by the New York Times from the US Department of Defence reveal over 1,300 reports which show that strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles — drones — caused more civilian casualties than were previously admitted, as a result of "deeply flawed intelligence".

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: An NGO has filed manslaughter charges against senior British and French officials for refusing to rescue dozens of migrants who drowned in the English Channel last month.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israel must immediately halt its settlement activities, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East said yesterday.

Tor Wennesland called on Israel "to cease the advancement of all settlement activities immediately," describing the move as a "flagrant violation of UN resolutions."

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israeli authorities yesterday extended a travel ban imposed on the Al-Aqsa Mosque Imam, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri.

"The so-called Israeli interior minister has issued an order to ban Sabri from travelling outside the country for another four months, ending on 29 March 2022," the cleric's office said in a statement.

The statement pointed out that the extension was "the third in a row," noting that the first ban order was issued in March.

21 Dec 2021; MEMO: A number of European representatives and diplomats yesterday visited the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem and met with Palestinian families threatened with eviction by occupation authotiries.

The European delegation was headed by EU representative in Palestine, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, and included the consuls of Canada and Switzerland.