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Citizenship and conflict: How the militaries of Israel and Myanmar are taking advantage of displaced persons

Posted on 14/10/2024 by cswpress in Asia, Burma, Eritrea, Israel, Middle East & North Africa, Sudan

There are currently around 30,000 asylum seekers in Israel. Most have fled severe repression, including religious persecution, under a government responsible for decades of widespread crimes against humanity in Eritrea, or come from Sudan, where a gruelling 18-month conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan Armed Forces is the latest in a series of calamities to cause a severe humanitarian crisis.

Most will have travelled through Egypt before arriving there, typically with the help of people smugglers, and at great risk of assault, extortion, gender-based violence, or arrest and possible refoulement. The majority of those who complete this journey are young men, together with some young women who have likely endured unimaginable atrocities en route.

Upon their arrival, these asylum seekers find themselves in legal limbo; according to the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Israel’s leading refugee advocacy organisation, Israel approves less than 1% of the asylum claims it receives, with many cases pending for over five or even ten years.

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North Korea: We cannot look away

Posted on 03/10/202403/10/2024 by cswpress in Asia, North Korea

‘Our vision remains one of a North Korea in which everyone is free to exercise their rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of religion or belief, and today we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that this vision becomes a reality.’

– CSW’s CEO Scot Bower

A CSW delegation recently travelled to Seoul, South Korea to launch a report summarising the condition of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in North Korea over the past ten years. The report – titled North Korea: We Cannot Look Away was commissioned to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights Commission of Inquiry (COI) into crimes against humanity in the country.

In 2014, when the initial report of the COI was published it concluded that the situation in North Korea was one ‘without parallel’ in the world. The COI found evidence of ‘unspeakable atrocities’ against the North Korean people. They found evidence of ‘widespread, systematic and gross’ violations of human rights occurring across the country. And they found these state actions qualified as crimes against humanity – among them execution, enslavement, starvation, rape, re-education, forced labour and forced abortion.

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Women from Africa and the diaspora call for action to protect women and girls in Sudan from conflict-related sexual violence

Posted on 25/09/202427/09/2024 by cswpress in Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan

As women from Africa and the diaspora, we have signed this open letter to express our solidarity with women and girls in Sudan who are being targeted in a relentless campaign of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and to appeal for the urgent initiation of international protection measures and accountability mechanisms.

The war in Sudan began in April 2023 and has been described as a conflict fought on the bodies of women and girls. A total absence of protection for women and girls heightens the risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

Distressing reports have emerged of rape, gang rape, and forced ‘marriages’, with many of these violations occurring in people’s homes.¹

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UN International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Honouring Eritrea’s Missing Voices

Posted on 30/08/2024 by cswpress in Eritrea, Sub-Saharan Africa

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, CSW shares a guest blog post from our friends and partners at Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HRC-E).

As the world marks the UN International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we stand in solidarity with the countless Eritrean families who have endured decades of pain, uncertainty, and fear. This day is a poignant reminder of the grave human rights violations committed by the Eritrean government, which continues to use enforced disappearance as a means to silence dissent and control its population.

Eritrea is one of the most repressive states in the world, where enforced disappearances are not isolated incidents, but part of a systematic campaign to quash opposition. Thousands of Eritreans, including political dissidents, journalists, religious figures, and ordinary citizens, have been forcibly disappeared—detained without trial, often in secret prisons, leaving their families in the dark about their fate or whereabouts.

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‘More that unites us’: Bridging the border between Indians, Pakistanis, Hindus and Muslims

Posted on 29/08/2024 by cswpress in Asia, India, Pakistan

This month marked 77 years since one of the world’s most violent religious conflicts: the partition of India and Pakistan, which claimed more than a million Hindu and Muslim lives and displaced over 15 million people. A people that once lived together were now forced to choose sides. Families were torn apart. The bloodshed didn’t end there and neither did the hatred, as the countries fought several more wars in the years to come.

On either side of the border, my generation grew up hearing the worst of each other. Most of the narratives we read in newspapers or watched in the cinema portrayed the other in bad light. The enmity and hatred was and continues to be so deep rooted that it affects religious groups in both nations.

I cannot count the number of times I have heard an Indian Muslim being called a Pakistani in a derogatory tone. Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first came to power in 2014, these slurs have only become more frequent and toxic.

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