GENEVA: Athletes who speak out for equality or denounce abuses in their sport often do so at great personal risk and must be given the same protection as all other defenders of human rights, the UN human rights chief said on Monday.
“When athletes use their voice to promote equality in sport, they are human rights defenders,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“They often speak out at great risk to themselves and to their careers, in a context that has not always been open to criticism from the inside. Because — as in other areas — power dynamics are still very much at play in the sporting world, and more is needed to dismantle them.”
Turk, who did not name any athletes, said those who use their voice to address issues in their sport or in society should be protected and given “avenues to speak out and seek redress, safely and without fear of reprisals.”
Turk was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on a panel alongside Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), on human rights and the Olympics ahead of the Paris Summer Games.
Paris will host the Olympics from July 26 to Aug. 11, and the Paralympic Games from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
Athletes who are ‘human rights defenders’ need protection, says UN
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Athletes who are ‘human rights defenders’ need protection, says UN
- “When athletes use their voice to promote equality in sport, they are human rights defenders,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Kenya police say over 270 arrested for criminal acts during Tuesday protests
- Widespread looting and property damage was reported during the youth-led demonstrations in various cities across the country
- Demonstrations began in an atmosphere of calm but later degenerated into violence, with police firing tear gas at rock-throwing crowds in Nairobi
Widespread looting and property damage was reported during the youth-led demonstrations in various cities across the country, which some protesters said had been infiltrated by “goons.”
“Security forces across the country singled out suspects found engaging in criminal activities in the guise of protesting, and took them to custody,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, late Tuesday.
It said a total of 204 suspects were arrested in the capital Nairobi and another 68 in various other areas of the country.
“The DCI has further deployed scrupulous investigators across the affected regions to pursue suspects captured on CCTV cameras and mobile phone recordings violently robbing, stealing and destroying properties and businesses of innocent citizens,” the statement added.
Tuesday’s demonstrations began in an atmosphere of calm but later degenerated into violence, with police firing tear gas at rock-throwing crowds in Nairobi and scenes of looting and property damage in the capital and other cities.
“Goons have infiltrated,” prominent Gen-Z protester Hanifa Adan posted on X on Tuesday.
Young Gen-Z Kenyans launched protests last month against a deeply unpopular finance bill that contained a raft of new taxes, adding to the hardship of people already suffering a cost of living crisis.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said on Monday that 39 people had been killed and 361 injured during two weeks of rallies — with the worst violence occurring in Nairobi on Tuesday last week — and condemned the use of force against demonstrators as “excessive and disproportionate.”
Although President William Ruto later abandoned the finance bill, the protesters are now calling for him to resign in a wider campaign against his rule under the hashtag “RutoMustGo.”
More demonstrations have been called for Thursday and Sunday.
It is the most serious crisis to confront Ruto since he took office in September 2022 in a nation often considered a beacon of stability in a turbulent region.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki denounced what he described as an “orgy of violence,” warning that the government would take action against anyone engaging in “anarchic chaos and cruel plunder.”
“This reign of terror against the people of Kenya and the impunity of dangerous criminal gangs must end at whatever cost,” he said.
In a television interview on Sunday, Ruto denied he had “blood on my hands” after the protester deaths but his calls for dialogue with Kenyan youth about their grievances have not appeased the demonstrators.
Ruto also warned that following the scrapping of the finance bill, the cash-strapped government would now have to borrow more.
The government had said previously that the tax increases were necessary to fill its coffers and service a huge public debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), or about 70 percent of GDP.
Terror, ‘chaos’ as India stampede kills 121
- More than 250,000 people attended Hindu religious event in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state
- Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses
HATHRAS, India: Survivors of India’s deadliest stampede in more than a decade recalled on Wednesday the horror of being crushed at a vastly overcrowded Hindu religious gathering where 121 people were killed.
A police report said more than 250,000 people attended the event in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, more than triple the 80,000 for whom organizers had permission.
Discarded clothing and lost shoes were scattered across the muddy site, an open field alongside a highway, on Wednesday morning hours after the event.
People fell on top of each other as they tumbled down a slope into a water-logged ditch, witnesses said.
“Everyone — the entire crowd, including women and children — all left from the event site at once,” said police officer Sheela Maurya, 50, who had been on duty Tuesday as a popular Hindu preacher delivered a sermon.
“There wasn’t enough space, and everyone just fell on top of each other.”
Almost all the dead were women. Dozens more were injured.
Officials suggested the stampede was triggered when worshippers tried to gather soil from the footsteps of the preacher, while others blamed a dust storm for sparking panic.
Some fainted from the force of the crowd before falling and being trampled, unable to move.
Forensic officers scoured the site on Wednesday searching for evidence.
Uttar Pradesh’s state disaster management center, the Office of the Relief Commissioner, released a list of the dead on Wednesday morning.
It said 121 people had been killed.
Maurya, who had been on duty since early morning on Tuesday in the sweltering, humid heat at the preacher’s ceremony, was among the injured.
“I tried to help some women but even I fainted and was crushed under the crowd,” she told AFP.
“I don’t know, but someone pulled me out, and I don’t remember much.”
Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.
“The main highway next to the field was packed with people and vehicles for kilometers, there were far too many people here,” said Hori Lal, 45, who lives in Phulrai Mughalgadi village, near the site of the stampede.
“Once people started falling to the side and getting crushed, there was just chaos.”
Chaitra V., divisional commissioner of Aligarh city in Uttar Pradesh state, initially said panic began when “attendees were exiting the venue when a dust storm blinded their vision, leading to a melee.”
The initial police report into the deaths said it began when “followers started to collect earth” from the path of the preacher as he left the venue.
Maurya said she had worked at several political rallies and large events in the past but had “never seen such huge numbers.”
“It was very hot, even I fell there and I survived with great difficulty,” she added.
Four unidentified bodies lay on the floor of a makeshift morgue at the hospital in the nearby town of Hathras at dawn on Wednesday.
Ram Nivas, 35, a farmer, said he was searching for his sister-in-law Rumla, 54, who was missing after the crush.
“We haven’t been able to find her anywhere,” Nivas said after he had visited all the nearby hospitals throughout the night.
“We just hope she’s still alive,” he said quietly. “Maybe just lost.”
In the hospital’s emergency ward, Sandeep Kumar, 29, sat next to his injured sister, Shikha Kumar, 22.
“After the event ended, everyone wanted to exit quickly, and that is what led to the stampede,” Sandeep said.
“She saw people fainting, getting crushed.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of $2,400 for the next of kin of those killed and $600 for those injured in the “tragic incident,” and the upper house of parliament observed a minute’s silence on Wednesday.
President Droupadi Murmu said the deaths were “heart-rending” and offered her “deepest condolences.”
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also a Hindu monk and was dressed in flowing saffron robes, flew in by helicopter to visit victim’s families.
Religious gatherings in India have a grim track record of deadly incidents caused by poor crowd management and safety lapses.
In 2008, 224 pilgrims were killed and more than 400 were injured in a stampede at a hilltop temple in the northern city of Jodhpur.
Malaysian court tosses jailed ex-Prime Minister Najib’s bid to serve graft sentence in house arrest
- Najib Razak was charged and found guilty in a corruption case linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad
In an April application, Najib said he had clear information that then-King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued an addendum order allowing him to finish his sentence under house arrest. Najib claimed the addendum was issued during a Jan. 29 pardons board meeting chaired by Sultan Abdullah, which also cut his 12-year jail sentence by half and sharply reduced a fine.
Najib’s counsel, Mohamed Shafee Abdullah, said it was disappointing for the High Court to rule Wednesday that the government has “no legal duty” to verify if such an order existed. He said they would file an appeal.
“The court said there is no legal duty but in terms of ethics, the government should have answered,” Shafee told a news conference at the court building.
In his application, Najib has accused the pardons board, home minister, attorney-general and four others of concealing the sultan’s order “in bad faith.” Sultan Abdullah hails from Najib’s hometown in Pahang. He ended his five-year reign on Jan. 30 under Malaysia’s unique rotating monarchy system. A new king took office Jan. 31.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he had no knowledge of such an order as he wasn’t a member of the pardons board. The others named in Najib’s application have not made any public comments.
Shafee said Najib’s application was not based on hearsay but that there was “digital evidence” of the addendum as Trade Minister Zafrul Aziz had taken a snapshot of it on his mobile phone when told by Sultan Abdullah. He said the government’s silence also implied there is such an addendum order.
“One thing is clear, not one person or any government institutions have said that this addendum doesn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist, just say so. … If the government dare says clearly there is no addendum, we can all go home and sleep,” he said.
Najib, 70, served less than two years of his sentence before it was commuted by the pardons board. His sentence is now due to end Aug. 23, 2028. He was charged and found guilty in a corruption case linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
The pardons board didn’t give any reason for its decision and wasn’t required to explain. But the move has prompted a public outcry on why Najib appeared to be given special privileges compared to other prisoners.
The Malaysian Bar, which represents over 20,000 lawyers, filed an application to challenge the pardons board decision that it said was illegal, unconstitutional and invalid. It said the decision made a mockery of Najib’s other ongoing criminal cases. The hearing for the Bar’s challenge started this week.
Najib set up the 1MDB development fund shortly after he took office in 2009. Investigators allege at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates through layers of bank accounts in the United States and other countries, financed Hollywood films and extravagant purchases that included hotels, a luxury yacht, art and jewelry. More than $700 million landed in Najib’s bank accounts.
Thai court sets July 17 for next hearing in opposition Move Forward party case
- Constitutional Court president said this week there would be a verdict in the case before September
- Case stems from an election commission petition to disband Move Forward over its campaign to amend the royal insult law
BANGKOK: Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday set July 17 as the next hearing date for a case seeking the dissolution of the popular opposition Move Forward party, which has 30 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament.
The court’s president said this week there would be a verdict in the case before September.
The case against the party stems from an election commission petition to disband Move Forward over its campaign to amend the royal insult law, also known as lese majeste, which carries penalties of up to 15 years in jail for each perceived insult against the monarchy.
The decision follows a separate ruling by the Constitutional Court in January that said Move Forward’s campaign to change the royal insult law was a hidden effort to undermine the monarchy.
The court ordered the party to stop the campaign and did not call for any further punishment then.
The Move Forward party, which complied with the court’s earlier ruling, denied any wrongdoing and vowed to contest the Election Commission’s case in court.
Move Forward won the most votes in last year’s general election on an anti-establishment platform, but the party was blocked from forming a government by conservative lawmakers and senators allied with the royalist military.
The party continues to be popular among Thai voters, polling at 49.2 percent in a recent opinion survey of 2,000 people conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) last month.
The dissolution of Move Forward’s predecessor party, Future Forward, in 2020 over a campaign funding violation was among the factors that triggered massive anti-government street protests.
Dangerously high heat builds in California and the south-central United States
- California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night
- An analysis by The Associated Press found that heat killed more than 2,300 people in the United States last year
SACRAMENTO, Calif: Swaths of California sweltered Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.
The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and adviseries from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.
California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46.1 Celsius).
John Mendoza, 35, called it a “firehose of heat” as he walked around the Capitol on Tuesday with an iced coffee in his hand. By 9 a.m. he had already been in a pool once — and planned to go back later in the day.
“I felt like I needed to be submerged in water,” he said.
About 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Sacramento, crews working in scorching conditions were battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced the evacuation of about 13,000 people in and around Oroville. The blaze, dubbed the Thompson Fire, broke out before noon and sent up a huge plume of smoke as it swiftly grew to more than 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) by evening, with zero containment.
Firefighters lined roads, trying to keep the flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on the fast-moving blaze.
The governor’s office announced late Tuesday that federal funding had been approved to help with firefighting efforts. Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom activated the State Operations Center to coordinate California’s response, dispatch mutual aid and support local communities as they respond to threats of wildfire and excessive heat.
As the temperatures spiked in Sacramento, Katherine Powers sought refuge in the shade of Cathedral Square. Powers, who is homeless, sipped sparkling water while resting her bare feet on the shaded sidewalk.
Powers said she had loaned her shoes to a friend. She had not yet visited one of Sacramento County’s nine “cooling centers,” she said, because of the difficulty in bringing all the possessions she carries.
“I’m just going to go to a park with a water fountain just to stay cool, stay in the shade and just keep pouring water on me, basically,” she said. “There’s not too much that I can do.”
Darlene Crumedy, who lives in Fairfield, said she doesn’t use air conditioning because it’s too expensive.
“I’m good, I have a hundred fans,” she said, adding she tries to stay inside and drink cold water.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that heat killed more than 2,300 people in the United States last year, a record. That figure is likely a major undercount, dozens of experts told AP reporters.
Dr. Arthur Jey, an emergency services physician with Sutter Health in Sacramento, told reporters that getting out of the heat is important, along with wearing a hat and loose clothes, hydration and watching out for signs of heat stroke.
“With heat stroke, it looks like a stroke,” Jey said, describing symptoms that may include acting unusual, significant headaches, blurry vision, profuse sweating and then no sweating.
“And that’s a really big deal,” Jey said. “So we want to prevent them getting even close to heat stroke.”
California’s heat was expected to spread from north to south over the week, with the worst of it focused on interior areas including the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the southern deserts. But warnings extended out to just short of the coast.
San Francisco, famous for its cool summers, was expected to have a high Tuesday in the upper 80s (31 C) downtown but mid-60s (18.3 C) at Ocean Beach, forecasters said.
“The high pressure dome will linger over California for at least a week, with more long range guidance suggesting that timeline may even be optimistic,” the Bay Area weather office wrote.
The heat arrived with gusty, dry winds in the northern part of the state, where the utility Pacific Gas & Electric implemented public safety power shutoffs in parts of 10 counties to prevent wildfires from being ignited by downed or damaged electrical wires.
About 12,000 customers were told their power could be cut and given information about centers where they could obtain ice, water, snacks, Wi-Fi and other necessities, PG&E said.
California has had a spate of spring and early summer wildfires feeding on abundant grasses spawned by back-to-back wet winters. The largest current blaze, dubbed the Basin Fire, was 17 percent contained after charring more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County since it was sparked June 26.
