Category: Legal Judicial

WASHINGTON —

If Congress fails to act, the U.S. government’s authority to continue spending money will expire at midnight on Thursday, forcing more than 1 million federal workers and an untold number of contractors to stop working. Thousands more will be expected to continue working without clarity about precisely when they will be paid.

“The stakes are whether the United States government is able to answer the many challenges that we face as a country,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, an advocacy group for improved federal government.

And once the government shuts down, Stier said, restarting it isn’t like flipping a switch.

“This is a multitrillion-dollar, very complex entity,” he told VOA. “And so, turning it off and turning it back on actually takes a ton of energy and a bunch of time. So, it is highly costly — billions of dollars costly — when you have a shutdown, even if it’s not for a very long period of time.”

History of shutdowns

Since 1980, the federal government has shut down because of a lack of funding 21 different times.

This would be the first government shutdown of President Joe Biden’s term in office. Going back to Jimmy Carter’s term in office from 1977 to 1981, every U.S. president except for George W. Bush has experienced at least one such funding crisis, though the majority have lasted only a few days and several have been for a few hours.

The last time the government shut down was in 2018, when a dispute between then-President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over his proposal to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico resulted in a record-setting 35-day partial closure that stretched into January 2019.

Not a full shutdown

The term “government shutdown” is something of a misnomer. Under existing rules, when the government runs out of funding, federal agencies are required to furlough all “nonessential” employees. Doctors and nurses at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs will still be allowed to go to work. So will Transportation Security Agency officers, active duty members of the military and most federal law enforcement officers.

But employees deemed essential will still not be paid until the shutdown is resolved.

In a sign of the degree to which government shutdowns have been normalized as just part of how Washington does business, Trump in 2019 signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which guarantees that federal workers, essential and nonessential, receive the back pay they missed during the duration of any future government shutdowns.

However, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that a promise of getting paid eventually is cold comfort to a federal worker unable to pay their rent.

“So many of our members live paycheck to paycheck,” Kelley told VOA. “Unless a creditor or landlord agrees to work with them, they’re going to be in a terrible situation.”

If financial distress winds up affecting a furloughed employee’s credit rating, Kelley said, the damage can extend to their careers. “A lot of security clearances depend on your credit rating,” Kelley said, meaning that workers whose credit suffers could lose their jobs.

What to expect

In past shutdowns, the most publicly visible effects were the closure of national parks and the museums near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Those would also likely happen this time around. But it’s beneath the surface where shutdowns cause real turmoil.

About 60% of government employees would be barred from working during a shutdown, which means that any number of seemingly mundane procedures would stop happening. New passport applications wouldn’t be processed; small business loans wouldn’t be approved; requests for federal retirement benefits would stop moving through the system.

Most Americans would not be immediately affected by stalled government activity. But those who are — a person waiting for a passport, a small-business owner waiting for funding, a retiree needing income — could face anything from inconvenience to significant economic injury.

Employees of government contractors are particularly vulnerable. For example, Congress has contracts with private firms to supply the workers who provide food service on Capitol Hill and clean congressional offices. During a shutdown, those workers cannot work, and because they are paid an hourly wage rather than a salary, they rarely recover those lost wages.

Economic damage is limited and localized

The 35-day shutdown during the Trump administration was only partial, because before it began, Congress had passed funding measures for some agencies, most notably the Department of Defense.

Nevertheless, the Congressional Budget Office later estimated that the shutdown had “delayed approximately $18 billion in federal discretionary spending for compensation and purchases of goods and services, and suspended some federal services.”

The overall impact on GDP was minor, the CBO found. During the shutdown and immediately following it, economic activity slumped noticeably, but much of that “lost” productivity was recouped later in the year. On balance, the CBO said that the 35-day shutdown cut 2019 GDP in the U.S. by just 0.02%

However, the CBO noted, the damage from the shutdown was not equally distributed.

“Underlying those effects on the overall economy are much more significant effects on individual businesses and workers,” the agency found. “Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income.”

‘Completely irresponsible’

Kelley, of the American Federation of Government Employees, pointed out that it is unprecedented for the government to be shut down in the midst of a pandemic, calling it “completely irresponsible” to hobble agencies battling COVID-19 with staff shortages.

“Shutting down the government at this critical juncture, in this fight against the dangerous delta variant (of the COVID-19 virus) is simply unthinkable,” he said.

Stier, whose organization prepared detailed guidance for government agencies navigating shutdowns, said all that guidance had to be rewritten to reflect employees working remotely, and that new measures remain untested.

Source: Voice of America

Berlin  – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is extremely concerned about a sharp increase in the deaths and disappearances at sea of migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands along the West African coast.

By the end of August 2021, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project recorded 785 people, including 177 women and 50 children, who had died or disappeared so far this year while heading for the Canaries. August was the deadliest month in terms of documented fatalities – with 379 lives lost – accounting for nearly half of the total number of deaths recorded this year.

The figures show a two-fold increase compared to the number of deaths recorded in the same period last year when about 320 people lost their lives on the Western Africa-Atlantic Route. In all of 2020, 850 migrant deaths were recorded on this route, the highest documented number of lives lost in a single year since IOM began collecting data in 2014. 

Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Center, said the real number of lives lost at sea is likely much higher.

“Invisible shipwrecks, in which there are no survivors, are believed to be frequent occurrences on this route but are nearly impossible to verify,” he said.

Even when boats are reported in distress, it is difficult to determine the number of people lost.

In the first eight months of 2021, 9,386 people have arrived in the Canary Islands by sea, a 140 per cent increase over the same period in 2020 (3,933).

Survivor testimonies indicate that the journeys are becoming riskier. One of the seven survivors of a boat carrying 54 people that drifted for two weeks before capsizing close to the Mauritanian coast in mid-August told IOM staff that their engine was lost after three days at sea and they ran out of food and water.

“People were already starting to die,” she said. “Their bodies were thrown into the sea so that the boat would not be too heavy and we would all die. There were people who looked like they had gone mad, sometimes they bit each other, they shouted, and they threw themselves into the sea.” 

Reports of remains washing ashore along the Atlantic coast of Western Africa or frequently being caught up in the trawl nets of fishing vessels are further indications of “invisible shipwrecks”. The Spanish civil society organization Caminando Fronteras has estimated that 36 boats disappeared without a trace on the route to the Canary Islands in the first six months of 2021.

“The lack of concerted efforts to recover migrant remains on this and all routes means that hundreds of families are left bereaved,” Laczko said.

Conflict and poverty, exacerbated by measures to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with limited channels for regular migration, continue to compel people to undertake extremely perilous journeys at sea.

“Ending this senseless loss of life on all maritime migration routes to Europe requires a comprehensive response, enhanced state-led search and rescue capacities and pathways for safe, orderly and regular migration,” Laczko said.

Source: International Organization for Migration

The Human Rights Council this morning began an interactive discussion with the High Commissioner for Human Rights on her annual report after concluding its dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. It also heard a statement by the Attorney General of Ethiopia.

In the discussion with the High Commissioner, speakers stressed that many pillars of democracy were being challenged today, including by countries which had ratified international treaties. All forms of intimidation and reprisals against civil society actors and human rights defenders were condemned, and countries were asked to address them. Some countries used human rights as an excuse for military intervention and unilateral coercive measures, which had brought untold sufferings to the people of other countries. The Office of the High Commissioner and the Council were commended for promoting a human rights response to COVID-19 and its recovery, as COVID-19 severely tested the potential of governments to exercise the enjoyment of all human rights globally. Speakers said that human rights must not be instrumentalised and noted that some situations were intensely scrutinised, while others were completely ignored – there was a collective crisis of solidarity that threatened the basic principles of the Council.

Speaking were Costa Rica on behalf of a group of countries, Cameroon on behalf of the Group of African States, Norway on behalf of a group of countries, Netherlands on behalf of a group of countries, Egypt on behalf of the Group of Arab States, Uruguay on behalf of a group of countries, European Union, Netherlands on behalf of a group of countries, United Kingdom on behalf of a group of countries, China on behalf of a group of countries, Haiti on behalf of a group of countries, Timor Leste on behalf of a group of countries, China on behalf of a group of countries, Russian Federation on behalf of a group of countries, Belarus on behalf of a group of countries, China on behalf of a group of countries, Canada on behalf of a group of countries, Qatar, Liechtenstein, Canada, Cuba, Luxembourg, Germany, Kuwait, Ecuador, Slovenia, Switzerland, France, Viet Nam, United Nations Development Programme, Sierra Leone, Indonesia, State of Palestine, Portugal, Australia, Finland, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Republic of Korea, Fiji, Czech Republic, Senegal, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Bahrain, Estonia, Armenia, Iraq, Syria, China, Chile, Burkina Faso, India, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Maldives, Morocco, Lebanon, Norway, Algeria, Iran, Venezuela, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, United States, Jordan, Greece, Slovakia, Namibia, South Africa, Austria, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Belarus, Ireland, Pakistan, Belgium, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Timor-Leste, Georgia, Argentina, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Turkey, Afghanistan, Cabo Verde, and Ethiopia.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Council concluded its interactive dialogue with Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.

Speakers welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s report and said it pointed to a lack of political will, not a lack of capacity in addressing human rights violations. The situation in Eritrea was worsening and the Council was urged to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Rape and deliberate targeting of civilians in Tigray region was alarming. Despite the recent releases, individuals continued to be held incommunicado and detained indefinitely, some for decades.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Babiker said that the international community could alleviate the plight of the Eritrean refugees by encouraging civil society in the diaspora to engage with the mandate as they had access to Eritrean refugees. He encouraged countries to adopt best practices on laws relating to the integration of refugees to mitigate their being exposed to human trafficking in the region. States were invited to help Eritrea to improve its human rights record and resolve the conflict in Tigray. Mr. Babiker expressed hope that Eritrea would be willing to cooperate with the mandate in the future.

The following civil society organizations took the floor: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, Elizka Relief Foundation, Centre for Global Nonkilling, Human Rights Watch, and CIVICUS.

At the end of the meeting, the Council was addressed by Gedion Timothewos, Attorney General of Ethiopia. He informed the Council that the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front had rebuffed the Ethiopian Government’s repeated plea to resolve differences in a peaceful manner and had attacked the Ethiopian National Defence Force. This act of aggression and treason posed a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ethiopian State and a danger to the stability of the entire Horn of Africa region. Therefore, it was a duty upon the Government of Ethiopia to take appropriate measures against the illegal army and to restore lawful authority in the Tigray region. Mr. Timothewos said that premature and untimely resolutions in this Council’s session would constitute undue interference with ongoing investigations and would only undermine the integrity of ongoing investigations and do nothing to advance the cause of human rights.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s forty-seventh regular session can be found here.

The Council will next meet this afternoon at 3 p.m. to conclude the interactive discussion on the annual report of the High Commissioner. It will then hear the High Commissioner for Human Rights present the report of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Iran, followed by her oral update on the human rights situation in Nicaragua, followed by statements from the concerned countries. This will be followed by the presentation of a report by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, taking stock of the right to adequate housing 20 years after the creation of the mandate, and on the mission of his predecessor, Leilani Farha, to New Zealand, followed by an interactive discussion.

Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea The interactive dialogue with Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, started on 21 June and a summary can be found here.

Discussion Speakers welcomed the report and said it pointed to a lack of political will, not a lack of capacity in addressing human rights violations. The situation in Eritrea was worsening and the Council was urged to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Reports of rape and deliberate targeting of civilians in Tigray region were alarming. Despite the recent releases, individuals continued to be held incommunicado and detained indefinitely, some for decades. The situation regarding arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and religious persecution was also concerning. Grave violations of international humanitarian law by Eritrean troops were alarming and the authorities were doing nothing to address this, despite being members of the Council. The Eritrean Government continued to be one of the most repressive globally. What other avenues of international pressure could be leveraged in the continued rejection of the Eritrean Government to cooperate?

Concluding Remarks MOHAMED ABDELSALAM BABIKER, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, in his concluding remarks, said that the international community could alleviate the plight of the Eritrean refugees by encouraging civil society in the diaspora to engage with the mandate as they had access to Eritrean refugees. States in the region could also facilitate his mandate in the region, especially in host countries. He encouraged countries to adopt best practices on laws relating to the integration of refugees to mitigate refugees being exposed to human trafficking in the region. States could also adopt best practices on laws relating to the integration of refugees to mitigate their being exposed to human trafficking in the region. States were invited to help Eritrea to improve its human rights record and resolve the conflict in Tigray. It was difficult to ascertain the degree of arbitrary detention. There was a complete lack of the rule of law. It was not acceptable that people were detained without charge or being informed about the reason for their arrest. Eritrea must stop arbitrary detention and release all detained persons. Freedom of thought and religion must be respected and the recent closures of Muslim schools must stop. Before capacity building could work in Eritrea, the country must undergo significant institutional reforms. To ensure accountability for human rights violations, States should consider institutional and individual sanctions, as well as protecting the independence of any investigations. Mr. Babiker expressed hope that Eritrea would be willing to cooperate with the mandate in the future.

Interactive Discussion on the Annual Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented an oral update on her annual report on 21 June and a summary can be found here.

Interactive Discussion Speakers stressed that many pillars of democracy were being challenged today, including by countries which had ratified international treaties. All forms of intimidation and reprisals against civil society actors and human rights defenders were condemned, and countries were asked to address them. Attention was drawn to political, economic and social crises as well as human rights violations in a number of countries and regions. Some speakers noted that certain countries were using baseless accusations as a means to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, severely violating the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, while turning a blind eye to their own serious human rights problems. Also, some countries used human rights as an excuse for military intervention and unilateral coercive measures, which had brought untold suffering to the peoples of other countries. States should enhance peace and development and promote true multilateralism instead of encouraging divisions and confrontations.

There was an increased tendency by the Office of the High Commissioner and mandate holders to interpret themselves the provisions of intergovernmental decisions and to use disrespectful language in public statements and news releases. The Office of the High Commissioner and the Council were commended for promoting human rights response to COVID-19 and its recovery, as COVID-19 severely tested the potential of governments to exercise the enjoyment of all human rights globally. Recovery efforts had to focus on socio-economic and cultural rights and the vaccination process should be offered to all. All Member States were urged to pay their contributions to the United Nations. Hope was expressed that new technologies and digital space offered better means for monitoring abuses and mobilising support to human rights defenders.

The rise of nationalism, racism, Islamophobia and terrorism was concerning to speakers. Freedom of expression and freedom of the media were important components of any democratic society, speakers said, calling on States to protect journalists. Societies had the right to choose their principles and values, and must not be forced to fit into a particular template. All independent human rights mechanisms and mandates must have full access to the territories where violations were taking place. The promotion of human rights was all the more important during the period of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. These ongoing challenges complicated the protection of human rights around the world. The most vulnerable persons in every society must be prioritised, as many speakers outlined their national strategies and achievements in this regard. Speakers in particular welcomed the ongoing technical assistance provided to countries that requested it, but noted that there was an increase in interventions into the internal affairs of States – this was not helpful in addressing human rights situations. The High Commissioner’s call to reduce the debt burden of developing States in order to return to the path of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals was praised by speakers.

Speakers noted the recent global digital transformation, highlighting the need to promote human rights during the digital age and implement the international human rights framework in cyberspace. Human rights must not be instrumentalised, speakers said, noting that some situations were intensely scrutinised, while others were completely ignored – there was a collective crisis of solidarity that threatened the basic principles of the Council. Countries had a sovereign right to use and enforce capital punishment to ensure justice. Many speakers criticised a large number of violations in a wide variety of countries, regions and territories across the globe, including: violations committed by occupying powers in occupied territories; the assault on religious and ethnic minorities, the deteriorating situation of refugees; criminalisation of human rights defenders; deep-rooted racial discrimination that resulted in violations committed by police forces; unacceptable impunity in certain territories where alleged war crimes were committed; the ongoing arbitrary attacks on political opposition by various Governments; and the historic and current treatment of indigenous populations.

Statement by the Attorney General of Ethiopia GEDION TIMOTHEWOS, Attorney General of Ethiopia, said that reform efforts in Ethiopia had been faced with serious challenges, including the attempt by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, a terrorist group well known for committing human rights violations over the last three decades, to reclaim power through illegitimate and violent means. The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front had rebuffed the Government’s repeated plea to resolve differences in a peaceful manner and had attacked the Ethiopian National Defence Force. This act of aggression and treason posed a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ethiopian State and a danger to the stability of the entire Horn of Africa region. Therefore, it was a duty upon the Government of Ethiopia to take appropriate measures against the illegal army and to restore lawful authority in the Tigray region. Seven months after the successful conclusion of the law enforcement operation against the terrorists, the federal Government had been working to grant unfettered humanitarian access to humanitarian workers while rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts were underway and had made progress in restoring basic social and economic services.

Following reports of alleged crimes committed in the Tigray region during the past few months, the Government of Ethiopia had committed to carrying out investigations to bring the perpetrators to justice. The investigation into the atrocities committed in the town of Mikadra had been completed and the trial of the suspects would commence in the coming weeks. Investigation into the crimes committed in the city of Axum were also being finalised. A joint investigation team composed of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had already been deployed and had commenced its work. Those who were involved in committing crimes would be brought to justice and the Council needed to let justice run its course. Mr. Timothewos said that premature and untimely resolutions in this Council’s session would constitute undue interference with ongoing investigations and would only undermine the integrity of ongoing investigations and do nothing to advance the cause of human rights. Ethiopia called on the Council to support its efforts, particularly by providing the requisite time and space for the investigations to be completed.

Source: UN Human Rights Council

NAIROBI, May 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The latest woman to make history as a head of the judiciary in an African nation is Martha Karambu Koome of Kenya.

Her appointment was affirmed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday after the Judicial Service of Kenya and the National Assembly vetted and accepted her nomination to the post.

Whiles it is a giant stride in the East African nation, Koome joins a growing list of African women who have made history by heading the judiciary in their respective countries.

SUDAN:   Nemat Abdullah Khair was appointed to the CJ position in late 2019 by the ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council.

It was the first time the Arab Muslim nation had a female leading the judiciary.

She was nominated by the judges’ professional association, which was part of a protest movement that helped oust Bashir in April that year.

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed in November 2018 appointed the country’s first female chief justice, Meaza Ashenafi.

Ashenafi, who founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, EWLA, currently hold the position of President of the federal Supreme Court.

SEYCHELLES: Mathilda Twomey is the 7th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Seychelles. In 2011, she became the first female judge in the history of the Indian Ocean island-nation, and in 2015 made history as the country’s first female chief justice.

Twomey was in 2018 exonerated by an impeachment inquiry that was investigating allegations of abuse against her.

ZAMBIA: Irene Mambilima has been Zambia’s chief justice since 2015. She had served as deputy chief justice since 2008.

Mambilima also oversaw elections in 2006,2011 and 2015 as the country’s electoral commission chairperson.

Zambia’s first female chief justice has considerable international experience having served as a sessional judge of the Supreme Court of Gambia, and taken on election observer missions in Liberia, Kenya, Mozambique and Seychelles. — NNN-AGENCIES

 

Source: NAM News Network