‘The UK is deliberately destabilising the entire concept of universal human rights’
The world’s leading human rights organisation has issued a damning condemnation of the UK government’s domestic policies and failure in Gaza, accusing the UK of “deliberately destabilising” global human rights.
In a truly bleak assessment, Amnesty International said Britain had breached international human rights commitments at a “perilous” time in global history, as a result of the UK government’s policies targeting asylum seekers and protesters.
Amnesty’s 2024 annual global report notes Britain’s weakening global and domestic human rights protections for the sake of the government’s own political gain, and at a time when the global community is failing to uphold international law.
Amnesty also accused the UK Government of ‘grotesque double-standards’ for bolstering the actions of Israel and the US in Gaza, as the UK continues to arm Israel while failing to condemn Israel’s actions in the region which ‘likely amounts to war crimes’.
The UK’s weak support for the international criminal court (ICC) investigation into human rights violations in Israel and Palestine was also condemned, along with its failure to stand up as a strong voice in the UN to stop human rights violations in Gaza.
Trudi Warner with supporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, April 18, 2024
A HIGH COURT judge has refused to allow contempt proceedings against a retired social worker who held up a sign outside a court where Insulate Britain activists were due to be tried.
Trudi Warner, from Walthamstow, East London, told of her relief following today’s ruling.
She was arrested on March 27 last year and accused of “deliberately targeting” the jury by holding up a placard outside an entrance used by jurors at Inner London Crown Court.
The sign read: “Jurors you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.”
Rendering judgement at the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Justice Saini said he would not give the Solicitor General permission to pursue proceedings against Ms Warner as she had “accurately informed potential prospective jurors about one of their legal powers.”
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“The proper forum for the Solicitor General to address this concern is Parliament, not by way of contempt proceedings,” he said.
The sun once again shines on the students occupying the main lawn of Columbia University which continues despite a heavy coordinated crackdown
On the morning of April 19, Columbia students emerged from their tents camped out on the main lawn of Columbia University’s campus in New York City, after having held their ground for over 48 hours in what organizers dubbed the “Gaza solidarity encampment.” This action was coordinated entirely by the students, who are part of various organizations including Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace.
“The energy here is incredible. There’s double the amount of people than at the original encampment—maybe even more.”
🏫🇵🇸We’re on day 3 of the student occupation of Columbia! We spoke to Sarah, a grad student at the university, about police repression yesterday—and how that… pic.twitter.com/2XjvT04iCT
— Party for Socialism and Liberation (@pslnational) April 19, 2024
On Friday, inspired by the bold action taken by student organizers, students at both the University of North Carolina and Miami University in Ohio have begun to stage their own encampment in solidarity with Columbia students and Gaza. In response to the upsurge in student solidarity actions, National Students for Justice in Palestine has issued a “call to action” for students in universities across the country to “seize the university and force the administration to divest, for the people of Gaza.”
UNC students right now starting an encampment outside of the university administration building in solidarity with Columbia students and Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/oY4dYKmWQl
Outside of Columbia University, a large crowd has taken to the streets in solidarity with the encampment.
BREAKING: Actress @SusanSarandon has joined the Palestine solidarity activists rallying outside of Columbia University gates to share her message of solidarity with the students. pic.twitter.com/oxTqkLARjx
Students initially took over the lawn at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19, and managed to hold their ground for over 24 hours. The energy on the ground at the encampment reached a peak last night when arrests of students on campus appeared to be imminent. Over 400 students poured into campus and formed a march around the encampment to protect students from a potential crackdown by either the New York Police Department or the Columbia administration. Students chanted “We will not stop, we will not rest, we will divest!” Soon, Columbia President Minoushe Shafik would call in the New York Police Department to arrest 122 students on Thursday afternoon. Police then confiscated student belongings, throwing them haphazardly in an alleyway in between dorm buildings on campus.
UPDATE: A massive group of students have surrounded the Columbia University Palestine solidarity encampment to express their support for the protesters pic.twitter.com/WN6yc7MSac
After ordering the NYPD mass arrests of student protestors, Columbia quickly discarded the Gaza Solidarity Encampment tents, leaving student belongings in between dorm buildings. Undeterred, new students have once again taken over the encampment pic.twitter.com/4zA2KZUJes
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) April 18, 2024
After the mass arrest, the hundreds of students who had been picketing around the encampment in solidarity moved immediately into action. Around 1,000 poured into the other side of the lawn to start a second encampment, and have been able to successfully hold the lawn since then.
The last of the arrested students were released late into the night on Thursday, to resounding cheers from fellow students and supporters who stood outside of the 1 Police Plaza NYPD headquarters in solidarity with those held inside.
Early on day 2 of the encampment, three students at Barnard College, the women’s college that is part of the larger Columbia University system, woke up to their suspensions via email and the disabling of their student IDs. The Columbia administration is reportedly issuing a new wave of suspensions to any student who attempts to pick up their belongings.
Columbia students are drawing from the example of the 1968 occupation of the University’s Hamilton Hall by students in protest of the Vietnam War. This time around, students are protesting their institution’s complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Their demands are that “Columbia University divests all finances, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.”
“Morale on campus is high. People initially expected that we were gonna bleed members on the second day, but that’s not happening,” Grant Miner, Vice President of the Student Workers of Columbia, the union of graduate student workers, told Peoples Dispatch on Thursday, shortly before he himself was arrested. “We’re here to stay until we get divestment. We won’t be moved until we are moved by force, or until Columbia meets our demands. No compromises.” Miner was one of the last to be released late on Thursday night.
Late on Friday April 5, dozens of Ecuadorian police officers forcibly entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito and detained former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas. Glas had been conceded political asylum by Mexico earlier that day after having applied in December 2023 amid intensified political persecution against him.
The move has been widely condemned by nearly the entire political spectrum in Mexico as a grave violation of Mexican sovereignty and has also been widely condemned by progressives in Ecuador.
Following the incident, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena announced that Mexico was suspending diplomatic relations with the country.
Roberto Canseco, the head of Foreign Ministry and Political Affairs at the Mexican Embassy in Quito who was present when the incursion took place, spoke to the press shortly after the incident. “They threw me to the floor. I tried to physically stop them from entering but like criminals they raided the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador. This is not possible, this cannot be, it is insane,” Canseco told reporters incredulously.
The diplomat told reporters that there had been no prior warning to the police raid, but that it clearly happened because Glas is being persecuted. He also expressed concern over the whereabouts and wellbeing of the former VP.
He added, “Risking my life, I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country.”
The unprecedented incident took place amid rising tensions between the two countries. Jorge Glas had been seeking refuge at the Mexican embassy since December 18, 2023 and residing at the embassy as a “guest” after Ecuadorian authorities began to intensify pressure on Glas and summon him for investigations. This past week, the government of Daniel Noboa announced that it declared the Mexican Ambassador Raquel Serur Smeke a “persona non-grata” allegedly in response to comments made by President López Obrador in his morning press conference which insinuated that Noboa had benefited from the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. However, many analysts have pointed to Glas’ presence in the embassy as the key factor behind Quito’s attacks on Mexico, and the events of April 5 seem to have confirmed this theory.
Jorge Glas: Victim of lawfare in Ecuador
Glas spent five years in prison, after being convicted of criminal conspiracy in the Odebrecht case, as part of the vicious lawfare campaign against members of Rafael Correa’s administration. Glas was later convicted in April 2020, along with Correa, in the “Bribes Case”, which alleged that they and 18 other government officials accepted bribes from private companies in exchange for public contracts. As prosecutors were unable to find evidence that the two received bribes, Glas and Correa were accused of “psychic influence” on their subordinates who allegedly carried out these deals and sentenced to several years in prison. Correa was also banned from participating in politics for 25 years.
Throughout the intense lawfare campaign against him and others, Glas has maintained that he is innocent and that both the charges and the harsh sentencing of him constitutes political persecution.
During the Correa presidency, Glas was one of the key leaders in the “Citizen’s Revolution” political project, which sought to make important social and economic reforms to better conditions for the majority. During this period, the Correa administration launched a Constituent Assembly to rewrite Ecuador’s constitution to guarantee essential rights for all, among other measures to promote national culture, Indigenous rights; it promoted Latin American regional integration over ties with the US and kicked out the US military base; and maintained anti-neoliberal economic policies, favoring social investment over cuts to public spending and social programs.
This project was brought to a halt in 2017 when Lenín Moreno was elected president and made a volte-face in Ecuador’s policies across the board, taking out a massive loan from the IMF, exiting regional integration spaces and attacking the country’s regional allies and economic partners like Venezuela, and imposing harsh austerity measures and brutally repressing protests against the measures. Under Moreno, the Attorney General also began its targeted attacks on leaders and officials of the Citizen’s Revolution.
Glas was eventually released on November 28, 2022 and granted “provisional freedom” as he had fulfilled over 40% of his prison sentence. However, in December 2023, days after he arrived at the Mexican embassy and weeks after Daniel Noboa took office as president, a judge revoked Glas’ provisional freedom and called for his arrest and imprisonment. Fearing for his life, Glas remained at the embassy and applied for political asylum, which was granted April 5, 2024.
The left in Ecuador responds
Progressive groups in Ecuador immediately expressed outrage at the actions of Noboa’s government and the National Police and issued sharp condemnations.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) wrote in a statement on X, “The violation of the Mexican embassy in Ecuador is an extremely serious fascist act that threatens diplomatic relations and international law…It is worrying to observe how the authoritarian and fascist government of Ecuador uses force to secure its political trophies. This flagrant violation not only affects bilateral relations between Mexico and Ecuador, but also sends a dangerous message to the international community.”
Pabel Muñoz, the mayor of Quito and a member of the Citizen’s Revolution Movement party, stated, “Unacceptable, a global embarrassment. What just happened in the Mexican Embassy in Quito creates a complex situation for Ecuador before the international system and law. Is there any doubt that Jorge Glas is the victim of terrible persecution? The more concerning part is that he had already been granted political asylum.”
Correa also issued a short statement repudiating the attack on Mexico and the arrest of Glas, “What the government of Noboa has done is unprecedented in Latin American history. Not even in the worst dictatorships was the embassy of a country violated. We do not live under rule of law, it is a state of barbarie, with a guy who improvises [Noboa] that confuses the Homeland with one of his banana farms. We hold Daniel Noboa responsible for the safety and physical and psychological integrity of former Vice President Jorge Glas. To Mexico, its people and its Government, our apologies and eternal admiration.”
Mexico unites in defense of its sovereignty
People across Mexico have expressed outrage in response to the brazen violation of the country’s sovereignty and of international law. In the statement announcing the suspension of diplomatic relations, President López Obrador said it was “an authoritarian act” and a “flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty”.
Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said in an interview with TeleSur that in addition to suspending diplomatic ties, Mexico would take Ecuador to the International Court of Justice and all multilateral bodies over its unprecedented actions.
Presidential candidate for MORENA, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum called the incident “an attack on diplomacy and international law that is inadmissible”.
Mexico’s Senate also released a statement “energetically condemning” the Ecuadorian government’s actions and demanding “respect to our sovereignty and to the integrity of our Embassy and diplomatic personnel.” They called on the Ecuadorian government to reconsider its actions and resume the diplomatic path to resolve issues.
Both traditional right-wing parties PRI and PAN issued condemnations of the police invasion, while their joint candidate in the upcoming elections released a lukewarm statement saying that diplomatic missions cannot be violated.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove speaking during the Scottish Conservative party conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen, March 2, 2024
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The left cannot confine ourselves to condemning what the government does. We need strategies to undo it. This applies to the toxic new definition of extremism announced by Michael Gove last week, which could have catastrophic long-term consequences.
The new definition — and its associated practice, the labelling of certain organisations as extremist by ministerial decree — must not be allowed to bed in. We need mass refusal to accept it, declarations by devolved and local government, trade unions, charities and campaigns that we wholly reject it.
The joint statement by key organisers of the mass street movement for Gaza that Gove’s “redefinition of extremism … is in reality an assault on core democratic freedoms” is the right approach.
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Our defence must be to go on the attack against the extremism definition, to campaign publicly for its reversal and to sign up every organisation that cares for its democratic image to officially oppose it.
The next government should inherit a policy that is already utterly discredited and unworkable because its right to define extremists is universally rejected.
