December 23, 2020
n an open letter to Donald Trump on Tuesday, an independent UN human rights expert asked the departing United States President to pardon Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Courtesy photo
NEW YORK In an open letter to Donald Trump on Tuesday, an independent UN human rights expert asked the departing United States President to pardon Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
“Assange has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty for the past ten years”, wrote Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. “This is a high price to pay for the courage to publish true information about government misconduct throughout the world”.
The United Nations
In an open letter to Donald Trump on Tuesday, an independent UN human rights expert asked the departing United States President to pardon Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
“Mr. Assange has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty for the past ten years”, wrote Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. “This is a high price to pay for the courage to publish true information about government misconduct throughout the world”.
Incarcerated since the authorities arrested him inside London’s Ecuadorian Embassy in April, 2019, a British court is set to rule on 4 January as to whether or not Mr. Assange should be extradited to the US.
GENEVA (22 December 2020) – A UN human rights expert today issued an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, asking him to pardon Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been held in Belmarsh high security prison since his arrest by British authorities inside the Embassy of Ecuador in London in April 2019.
A British court is set to rule on 4 January whether Assange should be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal prosecution and, if convicted, up to 175 years in prison for the publication of secret documents through the whistleblower platform WikiLeaks in 2010. This is the text of the letter from Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment:
Spain: Power outages put children’s lives at risk in informal settlement – UN experts
GENEVA (22 December 2020) – A two-month power outage in a vast informal settlement near Madrid is endangering the health of some 1,800 children, UN human rights experts said today, calling on the Government of Spain to immediately restore electricity as temperatures fall to freezing. Children in Cañada Real Galiana are truly suffering, and their health is at risk, the experts warned. Now that winter is closing in – and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic – electricity must be restored.
The latest power outage started on 2 October and has affected at least 4,500 people, particularly in Sectors 5 and 6 of Cañada Real Galiana. The settlement is home to some 8,000 people who live in a 16km-long, 75m-wide strip established more than 40 years ago. Many residents are migrants or Roma.
UN expert applauds European Parliament’s moves to protect national and linguistic minorities
GENEVA (21 December 2020) – The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, today welcomed the adoption of a resolution by the European Parliament to protect national and linguistic minorities, calling it one of the most important developments in decades for minorities.
“These are much needed and welcome developments, as the human rights of minorities appear increasingly threatened or ignored in many countries, even by international and regional organisations,” the UN expert said. He pointed out that the resolution underlines concerns about the alarming increase of hate crime and hate speech, motivated by racism, xenophobia or intolerance, directed at people belonging to national and linguistic minorities in Europe.