In UK news
The government has announced that it is ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. When granting Mauritius’ independence in 1968, the UK unlawfully separated the Chagos Archipelago and forcibly expelled around 1500 to 2000 inhabitants in order to lease Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, to the USA for military use. In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that the British administration of Chagos Archipelago was unlawful and should be ended “as rapidly as possible”. The government has pledged that it shall implement a resettlement programme and a new trust fund to provide support for the inhabitants. However, it has also confirmed that it has leased Diego Garcia to the USA for an initial period of 99 years. The British government has been accused of unlawfully detaining a group of asylum seekers who inadvertently got stranded on Diego Garcia, and legal proceedings are ongoing.
The government has announced that MPs will get to vote on a bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK. It has been confirmed that the MPs will get a free vote and the government will remain neutral. While details of the bill have not yet been confirmed, it has been reported that it is likely to allow terminally ill adults with six months or fewer to live to get medical help to end their lives. The issue raises fervent debate. Supporters of legalising assisted dying argue that it prevents unnecessary suffering and gives patients autonomy over the manner of their death. However, disability rights activists are worried that such legislation would create a hostile and coercive environment for disabled people, pointing to societal stigma around disability and cuts to social care.
In international news
Lithuania has formally referred the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan KC to investigate the situation in Belarus. Lithuania submits that deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts are being carried out against the civilian population of Belarus at the instruction of senior figures in the Belarusian regime. Lithuania describes how thousands of Belarusians have had to flee or been forcibly displaced to neighbouring countries such as Lithuania on political grounds, alleging that this is a tactic used by the Belarusian government to rid itself of political opponents. It provides a list of alleged inhumane acts carried out by the Belarusian government against the civilian population including: serious deprivation of fundamental rights, arbitrary detention, persecution, serious unlawful violence, unlawful killings, sexual violence, physical and mental harm, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, intimidation and harassment, forced labour, and enforced disappearances. The Minister for Justice for Lithuania, Ewelina Dobrowolska, has stated that she expects the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the leader of the Belarusian regime.
In the courts
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that the Taliban’s “regime of segregation and oppression” against women amounts to persecution and so Afghan women qualify for asylum in the EU on the basis of their gender and nationality. To qualify for asylum Afghan women will not have to demonstrate a real risk of ill-treatment on account of her particular circumstances or characteristics. The Taliban has recently introduced the “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law” that, among other things, requires women to be completely veiled in public and bans women from singing or reading aloud in public. In response, Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands have initiated legal proceedings against the Taliban at the ICJ alleging that the measures constitute gender discrimination and “gender apartheid”.
The post The Weekly Round-up: UK cedes Chagos sovereignty, vote on assisted dying, and gender apartheid in Afghanistan appeared first on UK Human Rights Blog.