human rights crisis – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog

Pakistan’s Floods : A Humanitarian and Climate Crisis

One third of Pakistan is underwater following disaster-level floods that have ravaged the country since mid June of 2022. The flooding is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, bringing climate change and environmental justice into the focus of conversations about why the floods are so devastating. The record-breaking monsoon rains have affected 33 million citizens, leaving millions displaced and threatening the economy by washing away the fall harvest and essential farmland. Pakistan’s most vulnerable are struggling to access the scarce aid that is available, including the 19 million children affected by the floods. It is an unprecedented, once in a century crisis event exacerbated by climate change, poor infrastructure, and the damages of the recent economic crisis prior to the flooding.

Direct Impact of the Floods: Hunger, Disease and Displacement.

The monsoon rains have killed over a thousand people, roughly 400 of which are children. However, hunger, thirst, disease, and shortages of essential supplies threaten the lives of even more; millions of Pakistani people have been displaced over the course of the floods since June. The United Nations Refugee Agency has estimated that 6.4 million people are in need of immediate support.

Any discussion of rebuilding has been shelved in submerged regions as the flood waters may not recede for months, leaving the thousands of kilometers of roads, tens of thousands of schools, hundreds of thousands of homes, thousands of essential healthcare facilities destroyed by floodwater, and prior residents stranded or displaced. In addition to the initial death toll from the floods, the Pakistani people are facing immediate dangers of water borne disease, lack of access to food, water and shelter, and risks of violence; especially for women, children, and minority groups.

The country’s health system has faced substantial blows, both from loss of structures and supplies caused by the flood and the overwhelming need of those affected. Dehydration, dysentery, cholera, malaria, and dengue fever are ravaging make-shift camps as the flood waters become stagnant and clean water and sanitary supplies become harder to come by. Sindh Province, the second-most populated province in Pakistan, and one of the hardest-hit by the floods, has seen over 300 deaths from water borne-diseases since July. Early disease surveillance by the WHO has revealed that tens of thousands of cases of flood water-caused diseases are already present amongst those within reach of relief efforts. Countless villages remain stranded as roads and highways are underwater, so the true number of deaths, displaced persons, diseased, and persons otherwise impacted by these crises are expected to climb as more recovery efforts continue to search the flooded regions.

Without international aid and intervention, an epidemic of disease caused by the floods will cause a second wave of deaths in Pakistan, of which the elderly, children, and pregnant women will be the largest groups facing losses. International aid, medical and humanitarian organizations have joined the Pakistani government and are regularly dropping medical supplies, malaria nets, food and provisional shelters, but the need continues to grow as more people find their way to temporary camps and the rate of disease climbs.

Human Rights & The Most Vulnerable

A nation’s most vulnerable populations are often the ones who suffer the worst effects for the longest time after a natural disaster like these floods. For Pakistan, those vulnerable groups are women, children, the Khwaja Sira (transgender) community, those living in extreme poverty, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups. Typically, socially disadvantaged groups are living in regions with lesser infrastructure, facing the initial worst impacts of natural disasters, but marginalized status often leads to upwards battles to access humanitarian aid after the disaster as well. There are estimated to be 650,000 pregnant women displaced in Pakistan right now, in urgent need of maternal health care and safe, sterile facilities to give birth in, with many taking perilous journeys in hopes of reaching a hospital or safe places to give birth.

CARE, an international human rights and social justice organization, spoke on this concern. Pakistan Country Director for CARE, Adil Sheraz said, “With entire villages washed away, families broken up and many people sleeping under the sky, the usual social structures that keep people safe have fallen away, and this can be very dangerous for women and girls.” 

Following the 2010 floods in Pakistan, denial of aid and violence against minorities became a prevalent issue and large protests against law enforcement arose due to their failure to protect vulnerable groups. Preventative measures against recurrence of these issues have been few and far between since 2010, and international human rights communities are on high alert for rising reports of discrimination in relief distribution and crimes against minorities. Reports of sexual violence have already increased following the floods.

In addition to some of the most vulnerable Pakistanis are roughly 800,000 Afghani refugees who have been hosted by Pakistan in Sindh and Balochistan; two provinces faced with the worst of the flooding and submersion. Pakistan has a deep history of offering asylum and refuge for those fleeing across the border from conflict in Afghanistan, and is home to 1.4 million Afghani refugees currently in 2022. Following the August 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate government (also known as the Taliban), Pakistan became an even more essential haven for the influx of refugees fleeing a violent authoritarian regime. In the wake of this natural disaster, the loss of $30 billion dollars worth of infrastructure, homes and supplies, and facing an economic crisis, Afghani people with hopes of finding refuge in Pakistan must now find new routes to safety.

Environmental Justice & Climate Change

Though Pakistan faces annual flooding of the Indus river from heavy rains in monsoon season, record breaking rains preceded by an extended heatwave contributed to an unrivaled degree of flooding this summer. Heatwaves brought temperatures around 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit) to India and Pakistan between March and May of this year. Monsoon rains followed the spring heatwaves, and in the regions of Sindh and Balochistan rainfall reached 500% above average. The 2022 floods will leave a significant economic, infrastructural, and humanitarian impact on the country of roughly 220 million people. The reason for the dramatic influx in severity is complex, but simple at its core: climate change.

Pakistan is facing an unfair share of the consequences of climate change; while it was responsible for only .3% of global CO2 emissions in 2020, it is likely that this year’s heatwaves and floods will be on the less severe end of what is to come. The United Nations has deemed Pakistan a “climate change hotspot”, stating that people in South Asia are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts. As the global temperature rises and geohazards become more extreme, disaster-prone regions like Pakistan will face more and more devastation. The best prognosis for the region comes with prevention efforts like strengthening anti-disaster infrastructures. As the global north is responsible for 92% of excess emissions contributing to global warming and climate change, Pakistan, the United Nations, and other international agencies are calling for countries like the United States to make increased contributions to relief funds and infrastructure development overseas.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while visiting Pakistan in September 2022, said, “…the fact is that we are already living in a world where climate change is acting in such a devastating way. So, there must be massive support to what usually is called adaptation, which means to build resilient infrastructure and to support resilient communities and to create conditions for those that are in the hotspots of climate change. Pakistan is one of the hotspots of climate change. For those countries to be able to prepare for the next disaster and to be able to resist the next disaster, this needs a huge investment and this investment needs to be provided.”

Relief & Aid

Pakistan has faced an overwhelming series of calamities since the start of this year, and the impacts from these disasters are greatly exacerbated by food shortages and an economic crisis prior to the start of the disasters in March. There are millions of people in need of aid, and every bit of support helps. If you are unable to financially contribute, please consider sharing this or other articles about this crisis to increase international attention on those who need our help.

For donations of money, time, or other resources, we have compiled some reputable aid agencies below:

Pakistan’s Red Crescent Society is providing clean drinking water, medical treatments, temporary housing, and other essential aid across flood-hit regions. Donate or get involved with their flood response efforts here.
The United Nations Refugee Agency has provided millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan, and you can contribute here to support their continued relief efforts.
The International Medical Corps are on the ground in Pakistan, providing medical care and responses to both the floods and gender-based violence across the country. Find out more & how you can donate here.
Muslim Aid has reached over 29,000 people in three affected districts of Pakistan, providing hygiene kits, shelter, and essentials to those in need. Contribute to their fund here.

Crisis in Ethiopia: An Overview of the Conflict in Tigray

Purpose of image is to provide context of Tigray's location within Africa — The Tigray Region, highlighted in red, has been a source of major tension within Ethiopia because of ethnic and cultural divides. SOURCE : Yahoo! Images

Like many other nations in Africa, Ethiopia has had a long and storied history. Known as one of the world’s oldest nations, Ethiopia first emerged as one of the world’s first Christian states, centered around the ancient kingdom of Aksum. As European powers began to colonize the interior of Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Ethiopia thrust itself onto the world stage after a game-changing victory against colonial Italy during the 1896 Battle of Adwa. Ethiopia remained one of a very few African states to have never been extensively colonized, with Ethiopia’s monarchy only falling under the rule of fascist Italy briefly before being freed by the Allied Powers in World War II.

Ethiopia became a powerful advocate for the decolonization of Africa following the end of the Second World War. Haile Selassie I, who ruled as Ethiopian emperor from 1930 until his assassination in 1974, brought Ethiopia into both the League of Nations and the United Nations. He also made Addis Ababa the center of international cooperation in African politics with the establishment of the Organization for African Unity (now known as the African Union).

Despite Ethiopia once being regarded as a center of African progress and unity, great troubles have befallen this ancient nation. After the ancient monarchy ended with the assassination of Emperor Haile Selassie II and the establishment of a new military government, conflict began in the Ethiopian region of Tigray.

Beginning with the establishment of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region began a decades long conflict with Ethiopia’s new government in 1975. Tigray, which is located in Northern Ethiopia, has long supported a mostly agrarian population, with local peoples growing crops such as cereals, legumes, coffee, and cotton. The Tigray people, who make up about 10% of the population of modern-day Ethiopia and 50% of the population of Ethiopia’s northern neighbor Eritrea, are known to have descended from Semitic peoples, and today most ethnically Tigrayan people adhere to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo (Coptic) Church, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa. Despite numerous cultural and religious similarities between the Tigray people and the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups (which account for about 60% of Ethiopia’s total population when combined), linguistic differences and political rivalry have been the cause of multiple conflicts between the Tigray people and the central Ethiopian government, including the war that began in November of 2020.

An Overview of the War in Tigray

In November 2020, the Ethiopian central government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, began a campaign against the TPLF, which had retreated back to the region of Tigray after being ousted by Ahmed’s new government despite Ahmed’s former ties with the party. Despite the Ethiopian government’s stated mission “to arrest the political and military leadership of the ousted regional government in what it still refers to as a law enforcement operation“, civilian structures in Tigray communities such as hospitals, schools, factories, and businesses have been ravaged by the conflict. Reports from among the ethnic Amhara elite in Ethiopia have found that many view the conflict as a war of expansion, and Amhara militia and special forces have been “pivotal” in aiding Ahmed’s war campaign. Because of Tigray’s history as an agrarian powerhouse for Ethiopia, despite possessing little arable land and sparse vegetation, many experts have pointed out that the war in Tigray seems to be over “access to and control of land“, and as the region of Tigray has been cultivated for millennia, it is a prime target for control by the new ruling elite of Ethiopia.

Before the military campaign began, tensions began to rise between Tigray and the Ethiopian government as Ahmed postponed regional parliamentary elections due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In defiance of the central government, Tigray held elections in September 2020, and these elections were quickly deemed illegitimate by the federal government. Early in November, it was reported that TPLF forces attempted to steal weapons from a federal military base in Tigray, and the conflict began hours later after a declaration from Prime Minister Ahmed. Despite the government’s reports, the TPLF declared that the preemptive strike was necessary, as special forces had arrived just days before in preparation of an assault on the TPLF.

Swift action was taken against the TPLF, despite the presence of ethnically Tigray officers within the Ethiopian military, causing several instances of in-fighting between rival units. Phone and internet communication within the region was restricted, and the Federal Council of Ministers declared a six month state of emergency within Tigray that took effect on November 4, 2020.

As the conflict continues to rage, human rights accusations against Ahmed’s government swirl. Several reports have found that special forces within Tigray have committed multiple attacks against civilians. Devastation reached all parts of the Tigray region, and it has been reported that as of December 2021, up to 400,000 people within Tigray may be living in “famine-like” conditions, despite a unilateral ceasefire from the Ethiopian government that was issued on June 28, 2021. A report from the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner found large amounts of human rights abuses occurring in Tigray between October 2020 and June 2021, including “extrajudicial killings, torture, pillaging, sexual and gender-based violence, and the forcible displacement of civilians.” The war in Tigray has left up to “nine in ten people” in the region needing humanitarian assistance, and over two million people have been displaced by the conflict. Thousands of refugees from the region have ended up in Sudan, worsening the water crisis that is beginning to happen in the region.

Potential Solutions

Following a special session of the United Nations that was called for by concerned parties in the European Union, The United Nations drafted a resolution on the conflict in Tigray and set up an international human rights probe into the conflict. Key aspects of the resolution include calls to all parties participating in the conflict to halt “direct attacks against civilians…including on the basis of their ethnicity or gender”. The draft also called for an end to attacks on civilian assets such as crops and livestock, and provided guidance to the Ethiopian government regarding ending the conflict within the region and providing transitional justice mechanisms, specifically for “accountability, reconciliation, and healing“. The Ethiopian government will be responsible for updating the UN Human Rights Council on the conflict’s progress during its 50th session, which will occur in June 2022.

Some human rights advocates have also called for Prime Minister Ahmed to be stripped of his 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, of which he was awarded for “his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.” Ahmed has taken a particularly active role in the conflict, making multiple appearances on the frontlines as battlefield commander, and has also been accused of using the peace deal he brokered with Eritrea in order to more successfully subdue Tigray.

As the conflict continuing to violate human rights within Tigray, human rights watchers are hopeful that the United Nations may be able to produce a peaceful resolution to the conflict within Tigray. With the Ethiopian report due in June, there may be hope for a brighter future within the region.

An Overview of the Insurgency in Cabo Delgado

The country of Mozambique, a nation of 29.5 million in sub-Saharan Africa, is currently facing increasingly alarming violence at the hands of Islamist extremists. The violence has affected countless lives and is coming to the attention of international peace-keeping bodies, with the Human Rights Chief declaring a “desperate” situation in Mozambique as calls for intervention by Mozambique’s government grow by the day.

Cabo Delgado is located in Northeastern Mozambique, shown here. SOURCE : Wikimedia Commons

Background

Beginning in 2017, Islamic groups intent on establishing an Islamic State in Southern Africa have terrorized the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique. The population of Mozambique is extremely young, with about 45% of citizens being under fifteen years of age, and a median age of just seventeen. As Islamic groups began to move into the region, many exploited the high rate of poverty to recruit young people to their cause. These militant groups have brought destruction to Mozambique, killing an estimated 2,000 people in three short years and causing a refugee crisis as over 430,000 have been forced to flee their homes and begin their life again, only adding to massive rates of poverty present in the region currently.

Increasing Horror

The violence of the current insurgency in Cabo Delgado has reached new heights of horror in 2020. In April, it was reported that over 50 young people were murdered by insurgent groups for refusing to join their cause. Beginning on October 31, insurgents beheaded dozens in a series of attacks on the Muidumbe District. Survivors who returned reported dead bodies and buildings that burned for several days, completely uprooting the lives of many who called the Muidumbe District home. While the increasingly more violent attacks have drawn attention from international bodies, including the president of Zimbabwe, the situation continues unfold as more lives are stolen.

The violence even has grown to the neighboring country of Tanzania, where 175 houses were burned down in an attack on the border village of Ktaya. The violence in Tanzania can be traced back to earlier in October, when more than 20 were beheaded in another attack on Ktaya. The expansion of attacks into Tanzania led to a more coordinated effort by Tanzania to become involved in containing the insurgency.

Despite mobilization efforts by Mozambique’s government, backed by a coalition consisting of South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Russia, the ISIS-backed insurgency groups continue to lay siege to Cabo Delgado, with many fearing an all-out civil war breaking out in the region.

Potential Motives

While the insurgents in Mozambique claim their ultimate goal is establishing an Islamic State in Southern Africa, it should be noted that region is also home to $60 billion in natural gas developments. Many of the recruits of these terrorist groups are also promised a better life, a message that preys on the impoverished youth of the nation and the region.

Theocratic states are also inherently incompatible with the promises of the modern human rights movement. Article 18 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights is clear in its promise of freedom of religion:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

The methods of these insurgent groups use to establish power are also extremely problematic, leading directly to loss of life, destruction of property, loss of cultural identity, and violent intimidation that denies the people of Cabo Delgado their basic human rights on a daily basis.

The attacks have also led to the abandonment of many promising economic opportunities that Mozambique’s central government hoped would lead to poverty reduction in Cabo Delgado, which has lagged behind the rest of Mozambique in terms of economic development and poverty reduction. Norwegian fertilizer company Yara pulled out of a contract with the Mozambiquan government to make fertilizer from Cabo Delgado natural gas, mainly out of fear that the insurgency would lead to an inability for Mozambique to provide the gas at a stable cost. The region’s poverty rate has not been improved by the insurgent groups despite their promise to thousands of youths who joined a cause for increased economic mobility. Instead, the insurgency in Cabo Delgado has only led to senseless violence, destruction, and worsened Mozambique’s position to grow into a healthy economy in the 21^st century.

A Promising Future?

The calls for international intervention in Mozambique have begun to grow as the violence increases daily. As well as the President of Zimbabwe and the United Nations Human Rights Chief, both the British Foreign Secretary and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed a heightened level of concern for the situation after news of the October 31 beheadings began to spread worldwide.

During an October visit to Cabo Delgado by Filipe Nyusi, current president of Mozambique, a man in the audience put in quite plainly in his urge to the president, saying “We want the war to stop.”

There have been signs that perhaps the insurgent groups are beginning to lose the war of attrition occurring in Cabo Delgado. On November 19, The Muidumbe District, which had been occupied by the insurgent groups, was retaken by over 1,000 Mozambiquan troops, killing 16 militants in the process.

Positive developments in Cabo Delgado can continue to occur if Mozambique’s central government is provided the adequate support and resources from international peacekeeping organizations like the United Nations. A statement by the Organization for World Peace critiqued the practice of simply condemning violence and called for more direct international support, saying:

“Though the UN’s condemnations of violence and appeals for humanitarian and investigative action are significant, the organization must carry out this action itself while motivating states and international courts to follow suit. The UN must also provide necessary assistance to Mozambican security forces while ensuring that this assistance is not abused to propagate more violence. This collective action will harness all the investigative legitimacy and humanitarian resources of the international community to uproot the militants and secure long-lasting peace.”

The citizens of Cabo Delgado deserve peace after years of violence. The region has enormous untapped potential for economic and cultural growth that has been stifled by the ongoing insurgency. No human being should have their life or home stolen by violence.