Human Rights

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s suppression of information seen as pivotal to a free and open media is at the center of accusations that the country has become one of the world’s most secretive democracies.

Last week, a former Australian spy was convicted over his unconfirmed role as a whistleblower who revealed an espionage operation against the government of East Timor.

19 June 2021; MEMO: Vermont State Labour Council has announced joining alliance of Labor for Palestine which stands against "Israeli apartheid," raising the number of American labour bodies which joined this alliance to 15.

"Our affiliate Vermont State Labor Council AFL-CIO joins its counterpart at the Connecticut Labor Council in standing against Israeli apartheid," the council said in a statement posted on Facebook.

19 June 2021; MEMO: Head of the General Federation of Trade Unions Sami Al-Amasi has confirmed that 20 factories were destroyed during the last offensive on Gaza, and 5,000 workers had lost their jobs.

18 June 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces today issued demolition orders against eight Palestinian structures in the village of Jawaya, based near Hebron, reported Wafa news agency.

Coordinator of the National and Popular Committee in southern Hebron, Rateb Al-Jbour, said that Israeli forces barged their way into the village and handed six villagers demolition orders for their property.

18 June 2021; MEMO: The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has today requested that the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights urgently intervene in the imminent execution of twelve men sentenced to death following the decision by Egypt's highest appeals court's to confirm the death sentences on 14 June 2021.

18 June 2021; MEMO: A 15-year-old boy yesterday succumbed to his injuries after being shot with live ammunition by Israeli occupation forces in Beita, a village south of Nablus.

Ahmad Zahi Ibrahim Bani Shamsa spent a day in intensive care before being pronounced dead by the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Srinagar, Jun 19 (PTI) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday welcomed the release of her uncle and senior party leader Sartaj Madni from a six-month-long preventive detention and said it is high time all political prisoners and other detainees be let go by the Centre.

18 June 2021; MEMO: The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel (HFC) has condemned the arrest of the Imam of the Grand Omari Mosque in the city of Lod at dawn on Thursday. Sheikh Yousef Al-Baz's arrest, said the committee, is part of "an organised campaign targeting political and leadership figures."

CHICAGO (AP) — Activists widely expected Joe Biden to take swift action against the death penalty as the first sitting president to oppose capital punishment, especially since an unprecedented spate of executions by his predecessor ended just days before Biden took office.

Instead, the White House has been mostly silent.

17 June 2021; MEMO: The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on Thursday launched an inquiry into alleged human rights violations in Ethiopia's northernmost region of Tigray, Anadolu Agency reports.