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somalia
United States and Iran Help China Push Global Executions to 10-Year High
Lawmakers in southern U.S. states accused of demonstrating "a chilling commitment" to state-sponsored murder alongside "a callous intent to invest resources in the taking of human life."
May 29, 2024
The number of executions worldwide hit a nearly 10-year high in 2023 thanks to a surge in state killings by Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United States.
A new global report published by Amnesty International documents that the death penalty was imposed on 1,153 people last year, though the total is believed to be significantly higher due to the secrecy surrounding China's penal system. The international human rights group believes "thousands" of people were executed by the Chinese government, but the exact figure is not known.
"This is the list you don't want your country to be on." —Amnesty International
The 1,153 figure was 30% higher than the number of people who received the death penalty in 2022 and the highest annual figure documented by Amnesty since 2015 when the number of confirmed killings was 1,634. In addition to executions carried out, the number of death sentences handed down rose by 20% in 2023, with a total of 2,428.
Among the other key findings of the report:
- U.S. executions rose from 18 to 24, keeping the U.S. among the world's top five executioners in the world.
- The top five nations for the death penalty were China ("thousands"), Iran (853+), Saudi Arabia (172), Somalia (38), and the U.S. (24).
- The 48% spike in executions in Iran made it the nation with the most documented death penalty cases;
- China continues to execute thousands, while threatening the public that crime will result in the death penalty
- Lowest number of executing countries on record shows progress.
In the United States, said Amnesty, the number of executions—all which took place in just five states across the south—rose 30% last year. The executions that took place were in Texas (8), Florida (6) Oklahoma (4), Missouri (4), and Alabama (2).
According to the report, the U.S. increase in state-sponsored murder was accompanied by new legislative moves that will allow for killing people by various means.
"Bills to carry out executions by firing squad were introduced in Idaho and Tennessee, while the Montana legislature considered a measure to expand the substances used in lethal injections," the report notes. "In South Carolina a new law was signed to conceal the identity of people or entities involved in the preparation or carrying out of executions. Alabama executed Kenneth Smith using the cruel and untested method of nitrogen asphyxiation just 14 months after subjecting him to a botched execution attempt."
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, said legislators in those particular states, all dominated politically by Republican lawmakers, "demonstrated a chilling commitment to the death penalty and a callous intent to invest resources in the taking of human life" in 2023.
While rebuking the U.S. for its approach to the death penalty, Callamard said the "huge spike" in executions globally "was primarily down to Iran" last year.
"The Iranian authorities showed complete disregard for human life and ramped up executions for drug-related offenses, further highlighting the discriminatory impact of the death penalty on Iran's most marginalized and impoverished communities," she said. "Despite the setbacks that we have seen this year, particularly in the Middle East, countries that are still carrying out executions are increasingly isolated."
One bright spot noted in the report is that while executions overall were up, the number of nations where the death penalty was imposed actually went down.
"The inherent discrimination and arbitrariness that marks the use of the death penalty have only compounded the human rights violations of our criminal justice systems," said Callamard. "The small minority of countries that insist on using it must move with the times and abolish the punishment once and for all."
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US Accused of Killing Cuban Doctors in Somalia Airstrike
Cuban and American officials are investigating the unverified claim that the doctors, who were kidnapped by al-Shabaab militants in 2019, died during a recent U.S. drone strike.
Feb 21, 2024
The United States military said Tuesday that it is investigating whether a drone strike on Somalia targeting al-Shabaab fighters killed two Cuban doctors being held hostage by the militant group.
According to al-Shabaab, surgeon Landy Rodríguez Hernández and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera Correa were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Somalia's southern state of Jubaland last Thursday—although there has been no confirmation of the deaths.
"The aerial bombardment, which began at around 12:10 am, targeted a house in Jilib, instantly killing Assel Herrera and Landy Rodríguez," the al-Qaeda-affiliated group said on social media.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernández traveled to Kenya "to make urgent efforts with the highest authorities of that country in the search for cooperation and clarification, in the light of the recent published news on the possible unconfirmed death" of the two doctors.
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) acknowledged carrying out the February 15 bombing but said that "we do not have further information at this time about these reports, but we do take all claims of civilian casualties seriously. The command will continue to assess the results of this operation and will provide additional information as available."
According to Airwars, a U.K.-based monitoring group, hundreds of Somalis—including some civilians—were killed by U.S. airstrikes last year alone as the Biden administration quietly continues the so-called War on Terror launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes and ground raids in Somalia since the George W. Bush administration.
Al-Shabaab kidnapped the Cuban doctors in Mandera County, Kenya in April 2019. The doctors were working there under an agreement between the Kenyan and Cuban governments for the provision of medical professionals for services including the implemention of universal healthcare.
Cuba's socialist government provides universal healthcare to the Caribbean country's citizens and also deploys doctors to dozens of nations on humanitarian missions. While Cuban doctors are hailed around the world for their lifesaving service, they also allegedly face serious restrictions on their freedoms while working abroad.
Responding to news of the doctors' possible deaths, Cuban President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel y Bermúdez said: "I express all my solidarity and affection to the families of our doctors Assel and Landy, in these moments of uncertainty and increased pain, and in the face of the tragic news not yet confirmed, in whose clarification we are working hard with international authorities."
"I admire the strength of both families and I remember with great affection our previous meetings," he continued. "Assel and Landy represent the noble and generous spirit of a people who share even what they do not have, with the humble of the Earth."
"Cuba does not lose hope of finding them alive," Díaz Canel added. "We will do so as long as there is no official confirmation that they have died."
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Record 50 Million Children Now Displaced as Wars, Climate Crisis Rage
"When children lose their homes, they lose almost everything: their access to healthcare, education, food, and safety," one advocate said.
Feb 20, 2024
The 10 biggest global crises—including Israel's war on Gaza—forced more than 10 million children to flee their homes in 2023.
That figure likely puts the total number of displaced children at more than 50 million, a new record, Save the Children said in an analysis published Tuesday. The number of children displaced worldwide has also more than doubled from around 20.6 million in 2010. While the number of displaced people overall reached a record 114 million in October 2023, children are being pushed from their homes at an even faster rate than adults and face unique vulnerabilities.
"While the statistics are overwhelming, a displaced child is not just a number. It's a child who has most likely witnessed the kind of violence or destruction no child should ever have to see, before having to leave behind everything that they know," Save the Children's global humanitarian director, Gabriella Waaijman, said in a statement. "When children lose their homes, they lose almost everything: their access to healthcare, education, food, and safety."
Save the Children focused both on children forced to leave their home countries and those displaced within their country of origin. It based its calculations on data from organizations like the United Nations' International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Crises created by conflict and the climate emergency are displacing an average of 29,000 children a day, for a total of 10.5 million in 2023. The greatest number of children were displaced in Sudan by fighting that ignited last April between the country's military and a paramilitary faction. Hostilities have forced around 4.1 million children from their homes.
The second highest number of displaced children, at as many as 1.6 million, were driven from their homes in Somalia last year by a combination of flood, drought, insecurity, and violence. There are now 2.4 million Somali children displaced by these ongoing emergencies. Scientists have concluded that global warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels increased the severity of both drought and heavy floods in the Horn of Africa.
"We snuggle in our clothes and snuggle our children in our clothes to get warm."
Another ongoing crisis for children beginning in 2023 is Israel's assault on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice determined could plausibly amount to genocide. The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory was one of the top five crises that escalated in 2023, according to Save the Children. Israel's bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza forced around 890,000 children from their homes between October 7 and December 21, and Gaza now has one of the highest rates of internal displacement in the world.
"We left everything behind. All our possessions, everything we own, our clothes and bedding, everything remained behind," Shadi, a 40-year-old farmer from northern Gaza who fled south with his family, told Save the Children. "During the day, it's hot inside the tent. And when night comes, it's cold. It's freezing cold until 7:00 am. We snuggle in our clothes and snuggle our children in our clothes to get warm."
The other crises Save the Children considered were in Congo, Turkey and Syria due to an earthquake, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.
Overall, children represent around 40% of all displaced people. They are especially at risk when they are forced from their homes because they can lose access to education, healthcare, and other essential services. At the same time, families that flee often face financial precarity, which can put children in danger of child labor, sexual exploitation, crime, or being forced to serve as child soldiers.
"We need to act urgently and keep the rights of children—who are the least responsible for the conflicts and climate emergencies that uproot them—at the center of our responses to displacement," Waaijman said.
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