Your MENA NewsDrops 🗞💧
How do we hold Syrian officials accountable for their war crimes?... and more!
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🇸🇾 Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad is facing a police investigation in the UK as she is accused of inciting and encouraging ‘terrorist’ acts by Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers. The conflict-focused international justice law firm 👩⚖️ submitted a confidential filing to the War Crimes Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service Counter-Terrorism Command on Saturday and stated that Assad must be prosecuted in the UK “where the process will be independent and impartial.”
👉🏻 Asma al-Assad is not the only one being investigated, in fact, just last month Germany charged a former Syrian intelligence officer for committing crimes against humanity. Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was accused of torturing about 4,000 people between 2011 and 2012. 🤔 Could national courts lead the way in bringing justice to the victims of war crimes in Syria?
🇹🇷 Turkey plans to host the Afghanistan peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Istanbul in April 2021 and appoint an Afghanistan special envoy. After negotiations in Qatar reached a standstill, the US proposed a new peace plan for a power-sharing interim government in Afghanistan and suggested Turkey host the next talks.
💡 The issue is that whilst Doha was seen as a formal mediator by the Afghan sides, Ankara does not play such a role. So why would this change in venue help ? 🤷♀️
🇹🇷🇪🇬 Turkey and Egypt had their first diplomatic encounter since their relationship deteriorated after the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état, leading the countries to expelling each others’ ambassadors.
👉🏻 The countries were driven even further apart by their opposing sides in the Libyan civil war, where Turkey backed the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and signed a military cooperation agreement to help them fight against Egypt-backed general Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).
🇯🇴 In Jordan, several COVID-19 patients died after a hospital in the town of al-Salt ran out of oxygen, leading health minister Nathir Obeidat to resign stating that he “bears all moral responsibility for the incident that took place at the al-Salt hospital”.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s ministry of human resources and social development announced changes to the Kafala system, whereby workers are tied to a single employer who alone can renew or terminate their residency and work status in the country. Under the Kafala system, there have been:
👉🏻 Reports of employers confiscating workers’ passports, forcing them to work excessive hours and denying them wages.
👉🏻 Rights groups have said the system makes workers vulnerable to abuse by their employers, particularly if working in construction and doing domestic work.
What changed ?
📍 Migrant workers can now switch jobs when their contract expires or transfer jobs during their contract if they notify their employers within a set timeframe.
📍 They will no longer need an “exit authorisation”, meaning they will be able to travel without their employers’ permission.
However, critics say abuses will continue as long as work and residence visas are tied to a “Kafeel”, or sponsor.
🇾🇪 Protesters in Yemen stormed the Maasheq presidential palace in the southern city of Aden, chanting anti-government slogans and protesting against the living conditions and delayed wages. 🪧 The demonstrators reportedly withdrew from the palace peacefully after negotiating with the police.
🇪🇬 Yet another Egyptian activist was sentenced to 18 months in jail after she was arrested in June 2020 for broadcasting ‘fake news’ 🗞 about the situation in Egypt during the pandemic.
Sanaa Seif was critical about the way the Egyptian authorities were handling the COVID-19 crisis and the spread of the virus 🦠 in prisons , calling for the release of arbitrarily detained prisoners, such as her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah, also a well-known activist.
Egyptian activist & film editor Sanaa Seif has been sentenced to 1.5 yrs in prison. For joining her family to ask for a letter from her detained brother as Covid-19 spread in prison--Sanaa has been beaten, arrested, and now, sentenced. Injustice beyond words. #FreeSanaaسناء اتحكم عليها بسنة و٦ شهور Sanaa Seif has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison #FreeSanaaMona Seif @Monasosh
Yay! You’re all caught up for this week! See you next week with some more NewsDrops 🗞💧.
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