Lire la version en français

I want to start off with good news today, because I think we all need it right now.

Russia’s government has failed in its effort to join the UN Human Rights Council.

Yes, I know, I know… It may not seem overly comforting that the best I can come up with is meeting the barest minimum of standards. But bear with me here. I know it may not seem like much, but it is good news all the same.

At the 193-nation UN General Assembly yesterday, Russia asked to return to the human rights council after the General Assembly voted to suspend its membership last year following its full-scale, atrocity-ridden invasion of Ukraine.

The governments of the world said no.

No to the Kremlin’s systematic atrocities against Ukrainian civilians. No to Russia’s endless war crimes and crimes against humanity. No to Russian torture. No to Russia’s summary executions and enforced disappearances of civilians. And no to Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

The international community has sent a crystal-clear signal, in an overwhelming vote, that you can’t just invade a country and slaughter its people and pretend everything is normal.

Yes. That is good news.

The fact that it’s exceptional – particularly as China, responsible for crimes against humanity, was voted on to the Human Rights Council – does not extinguish this lone flame of goodness.

The Kremlin has not convinced the world to back mass murder as a tool of geopolitics.

It’s an important signal. Cherish it.

The world has been watching a descent into darkness in Israel-Palestine.

Our message – to all sides – has been straightforward: Their atrocities do not justify your atrocities.

My colleague, HRW’s Program Director Sari Bashi, has written a gripping new article, including these lines:

Searing images of grief and trauma have circulated widely on social media: of an Israeli woman, surrounded by gunmen, clutching her baby and toddler in her arms as fighters kidnapped her and reportedly took her into Gaza; of another mother who lost her grip on her 13-year old daughter and the girl, who has autism, was reportedly kidnapped to Gaza with her grandmother.

The Israeli government says 900 Israelis have been killed. Hundreds are civilians.

Following the assault, the Israeli military launched a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip. Nearly 700 Palestinians have been killed, including 140 children, as of October 9, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The Israeli authorities have also unlawfully cut electricity to Gaza’s 2.2 million residents and reduced water supply, exacerbating the impact of Israel’s more than 16-year illegal closure of Gaza and its crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians.

Again, atrocities do not justify atrocities. War crimes are not the way to respond to war crimes. I think most people understand this fundamental point.

Sari found another way to put this in an interview for the Dutch TV news program Nieuwsuur:

We try to teach our children to be human beings, and we try to teach our children basic principles of humanity. And our kids are pretty good at picking up on that. My nine-year-old gets it. And it’s difficult when she gets it, but really big people, grown-ups, don’t get it.

So, when I hear European governments and the United States appropriately condemning what Hamas and other fighters did on Saturday but not putting any limits or boundaries on the Israeli reaction, even when it means hundreds of Palestinians are being killed, it makes me feel like maybe the need to talk to my daughter. Because she can explain some things to them.

(written by Emily Palomo) 

A deputy from Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of Parliament has made a ludicrous proposal to punish women for provoking abuse by their husbands.   

Amantai Zharkynbek said if a woman’s husband is sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest for domestic violence, then “it follows that his wife should be detained too,” for “provoking” the abuse. He also proposed that the women be labelled “provocateurs” in family abuse cases, and that they be held equally accountable for the violence.  

This, in a country where police receive more than 100,000 domestic violence complaints annually, according to HRW researcher Viktoriya Kim. 

Domestic violence is a serious problem in Kazakhstan, where laws don’t offer adequate protection and fail to hold perpetrators accountable. While the president has called for increased punishments for domestic violence, it still is not a stand-alone offense. 

Women should not be blamed – or punished! – for being abused.

(Compiled by Emily Palomo)  

• “So the World Knows What Happened”: The Scene of Slaughter at Kibbutz Kfar Azza (Haaretz) 
• EU warns Elon Musk over ‘disinformation’ on X about Hamas attack (The Guardian) 
• Social media platforms swamped with fake news on the Israel-Hamas war (Al Jazeera) 
• How the treacherous Darien gap became a migration crossroads of the Americas (HRW) 
• Free speech: Is Gambia sliding back into dictatorship? (DW) 
• Nepal courts refuse to register same-sex marriages (HRW) 
• Australian-Chinese journalist detained for 3 years in China returns to Australia (AP News) 

In yesterday’s Daily Brief, I highlighted how the International Court of Justice – the World Court – is looking at a critical case this week addressing state-sponsored torture in Syria.

As hearings began yesterday, not a single representative of the Syrian government showed up.

It was a pathetic and cowardly of them, of course – but also telling. Syria’s government knows it has no defence. There is no defense for torture.