The vote on a critical resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has been postponed to Tuesday, as Colombo stepped up efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting which is being seen as an acid test for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
A recent inquiry report by the Geneva-headquartered Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has cast serious aspersions on the claims of the Sri Lankan government over alleged war crimes duirng the conflict with the LTTE. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Bangladesh is in turmoil, which is not good news for India, which shares a porous 4000 km border with it. There is a danger of fundamentalism growing there, and India has to move in to reset its ties with the new dispensation before China and Pakistan make capital out of it, alerts Ramesh Menon.
As news of Hasina's departure spread, hundreds broke into Hasina's residence, vandalising and looting the interiors, providing dramatic expression to the anti-government protests that have killed more than 100 people in the last two days. At the centre of people anger is the Hasina government's controversial quota system reserving 30 per cent jobs for families of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war. With volatile crowds taking to the streets -- some clambering on Hasina's father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's statue and smashing it with hammers in a lasting image underscoring the fickleness of history -- Army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced that the 76-year-old prime minister has resigned.
Hitting out at the report, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi that the update of the earlier OHCHR report is "merely a continuation of the earlier false and motivated narrative" on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The United States and Israel voted against the resolution while Brazil, Japan, Myanmar and France were among those that abstained.
'We should be mindful that the religious minority community in one country is the majority in another (and) so treatment of the minority community in our respective countries will be an important variable in our relationship'
Self-proclaimed godman and fugitive Nithyananda's 'United States of Kailasa' has signed a 'cultural partnership' with over 30 American cities, a media report has said, days after the city of Newark in the United States state of New Jersey said it rescinded a 'sister-city' agreement with the fictional country.
A former British envoy has deposed before a special court through video conferencing in connection with a post-Godhra riot case, where four persons, including three British nationals, were killed in Sabarkantha district.
This is the first conversation between Modi and Yunus after he assumed the responsibility following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government.
High Commissioner of Canada Nadir Patel said the language in the document 'does not reflect the government of Canada's policy toward India'.
They said there was "genuine concern" that if the present ruling dispensation loses people's mandate, the transition of power may not be smooth and there could be a constitutional crisis.
The United States has welcomed the passage of United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka and said that it sends a "clear message" to the Rajapaksa government that the international community is committed to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asian country.
United Nations Human Rights chief on Tuesday said she has information that that security forces in southern Kyrgyzstan are using torture against young Uzbek men, who are also being subjected to beatings, arbitrary detentions and forced confessions.
In a significant development, India for the first time on Thursday abstained from voting on the United States-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka on alleged human rights violation which was passed by 23 votes in favour as against 12 in opposition and 12 abstentions in the United Nation's Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"The largest displacements in the context of disasters in 2021 occurred in China (6.0 million), the Philippines (5.7 million) and India (4.9 million). Most disaster displacements during the year were temporary," it said.
The Secretary-General's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric during the daily press briefing on Thursday said the UN chief has underscored the need for dialogue as the only way to resolve the issue and, "as part of the solution for the current crisis in Kashmir, to make sure that human rights aspects are very much dealt with, as well."
Pakistan on Monday summoned the Indian High Commissioner to express serious concerns over the killings of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and many civilians in Kashmir and called for "fair and transparent" inquiry against individuals responsible for "blatant" violation of fundamental rights.
The United Nations, its top leaders and agencies have expressed horror and strong condemnation over the killing of hundreds of civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza, underscoring that attack on hospitals or civilian infrastructure is against international humanitarian law and called for holding those responsible to account.
This is for the first time the UNHRC has issued a report on the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir and PoK.
Pakistan has said that Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industries, which cancelled Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale's public engagement at the last minute, is an independent body, a day after India summoned Pakistani envoy to lodge a strong protest over the incident.
"They cry victim when they actually are the perpetrators," she said, rejected Pakistan's charges against India on the issue at the 42nd session of the UNHRC.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear in March a plea seeking direction to the government to release Rohingya refugees who have been 'illegally and arbitrarily' detained in jails and detention centres across the country.
India, which abstained during the vote on a strong resolution against Sri Lanka's human rights practices at the UNHRC, on Tuesday urged Colombo to fulfill its commitments on the devolution of political authority, to carry forward the process of reconciliation and address the aspirations of the Tamil community in the island nation.
Accusing the Indian government of 'abandoning' them to their fate, Indian dock workers from Mississippi who claim to be victims of modern day slavery have now sought the help of the United Nations. Saket Soni, who led the Indians, said Deputy Director of New York office of High Commissioner for Human Rights Craig G Mokhiber had agreed that their alleged ill-treatment constituted violation of international and humanitarian laws. 17 workers met the UN official in New York.
The 1994 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) espionage case, in which former space scientist Nambi Narayanan was falsely implicated, was allegedly created by a then special branch officer of Kerala police to justify his illegal detention of a Maldivian woman in India after she spurned his advances, the Central Bureau of Investigation has told a court in Thiruvananthapuram.
The expert said the mission "lacked a holistic human rights approach'.
The Government also defended the President's decision to enforce a state of emergency, that had given him sweeping authority to act in the interests of public security and preserving public order, including suspending any laws, authorising detentions and seizing property, saying it was declared after attempts were made to attack the President's Office and other public property.
Italy has petitioned the United Nations over the trial of its two marines in India under a strict anti-piracy law for the killing of two Indian fishermen, and said it would exercise "all options" to bring back the naval personnel.
Expressing anguish, the high court of Karnataka has termed the incident of a woman being paraded naked in a village in Belagavi district as an "extraordinary case" and said "it will have extraordinary treatment at our hands".
The Sri Lanka deputy high commissioner's office in Chennai is coordinating the efforts, it added.
More than 6,000 people have died in the nearly one-year-old Ukraine conflict; the United Nations human rights office said on Monday and warned that "deliberate targeting" of civilians may constitute a "crime against humanity".
The UNHRC agreed to defer the report on Sri Lanka's alleged human rights violations.
There is a heightened security presence and barricades have been erected outside the Indian High Commission in London on Wednesday due to a planned demonstration called by some British Sikh groups.
Tirumurti said India continues to remain deeply concerned at the worsening situation and reiterates its call for immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities.
Remaining in the denial mode, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday termed as "India's long-time habit" the assertion that his country was behind the Uri attack.
Three journalists of China's state-run news agency Xinhua, who were denied extension of visa, have departed India, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Ulajh strikes you as an attempt at statement-making gone horribly wrong, a punchline that doesn't land, a roar that never reaches the ear, observes Sreehari Nair.
A GERF labourer was killed while two others including a BSF jawan were injured in the shelling and firing on forward posts along the LoC in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
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