HART News Round-up 12/2/16

News From HART

• Guest blogger, Talia Augustine, discusses palliative care in Uganda and how one organisation is working to change attitudes towards terminal illness.
• The deadline for the HART Prize for Human Rights is nearly upon us! If you’re aged 13-25 and passionate about human rights then you may be interested in a chance to win a number of prizes, including a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Sudan

• The clashes between the government and the rebels in Darfur’s Jebel Marra area have caused the biggest displacement of people in a decade.
• The foreign minister has asked the United States Institute of Peace to put pressure on the rebel groups in order to join the peace process.
• The UN Security Council has extended the panel of experts monitoring the UN arms embargo in Darfur, without reference to the illicit gold mining in the region
• The World Bank has granted Sudan $3.5 million as support for a project of social protection. The finance minister said that the project was a pilot aiming at the North Kordofan State by providing direct support to the poor families.
• The first UN convoy carrying aid to civilians fleeing clashes in Darfur has reached a peacekeeping base where up to 23,000 people have taken shelter, the US has said.

  

South Sudan

• The EU delegation to South Sudan, the ambassadors of several European Union nations, and the USA all have called for a further review of the NGO bill, which imposes restrictions on the number of foreign aid workers that a given relief group can employ in the country and adds to the documentation required by aid workers in order for them to carry out their jobs. Agok Makur Kur, a rebel appointed MP in the forthcoming transitional government, has also criticised the parliament for passing laws without their involvement.
• Three UN Agencies – the FAO, UNICEF and the WFP – have warned that as many as 2.8 million people are in urgent need of food assistance and at least 40,000 people are on the brink of catastrophe.
• The UN mission in South Sudan says it needs more access to parts of the country which are currently being denied to them.
• South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has named Riek Macher as vice-president, raising hopes for the implementation of a repeatedly broken peace deal to end more than two years of civil war.

Uganda

• Two parliamentary committees want to cut costs by closing down the Uganda AIDS Commission, set up 24 years ago to oversee and coordinate HIV prevention and control despite activists’ fears that this could damage the fight against HIV/AIDS.

  

Nigeria

• 56 people are dead after two women blow themselves up at a refugee camp set up in Dikwa in north-east Nigeria for people fleeing Boko Haram. A third woman went against orders, tore off the suicide vest and fled out of fear of killing her father. She has since been found by local security forces.
• President Buhari’s remark insinuating that Nigerians are criminals in an interview with The Independent has sparked a social media campaign with #NigeriansAreNotCriminals.
• Lassa fever continues to threaten the lives of Nigerians with 101 deaths reported since the outbreak

India

• Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is planning to attend the birth anniversary celebrations of 15th century Dalit poet-saint Ravidas this month – an act which has been criticised as an attempt to win Dalit votes before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh next year.
• The BBC published an article on whether 2016 will be a turning point for free speech in India.

Timor Leste

• Small-scale farmers in Timor Leste have been chosen to feature in ‘The Other Hundred’, a photo book project which focuses on the world’s everyday entrepreneurs, acting as an alternative to the ‘Forbes 100’ rich list.

Burma

• More clashes have been reported between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Shan State Army-South this week, with both armed groups trading blame over the cause of hostilities.

  

• Fighting has been reported on successive days since Feb. 7 across three townships in northern Shan State—Namkham, Namhsan and Kyaukme.
• On Thursday, twelve farmers from Pegu Division’s Taungoo Township publicly demanded that charges against them be dropped and thousands of acres of land allegedly confiscated by a major Burmese company be returned.