E-Ling Chiu

Israel is escalating its relentless expansion of illegal settlements by confiscating land in the occupied West Bank, including through the alarming step of blatantly ordering the seizure of land in Area A, under the control of the State of Palestine authorities. States with close trade and political relationships with the Israeli government must urgently take action to pressure Israel to rescind these land confiscation orders. amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…

Marco Rubio’s reprehensible attack on the ICC is the latest in a series of escalating and existential assaults by the Trump administration on the very idea of international justice and a rules-based order, and on the international institutions painstakingly put in place over the last 80 years to ensure global peace and stability. This attack came on the very day the ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor was in Chad meeting Darfuri victims of war crimes and atrocities in Sudan. The contrast could not be starker: while victims seek justice, the US government is seeking to undermine one of the world’s most important mechanisms for delivering it. The ICC exists to deliver justice for the victims and survivors of atrocities around the world and hold the most powerful perpetrators accountable for their crimes. By threatening increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations, visa revocations and travel bans for ICC personnel, and heightened diplomatic pressure on other states to withdraw from the Court and oppose it, the US government is stepping up its campaign for a world without rules and without justice. If other states bow to this pressure, they will acquiesce to a new era of lawlessness, impunity and rampant injustice. Now is not the time to appease. Now is the time to resist. Appeasement will only further embolden perpetrators and open the door to more armed conflicts and more crimes committed by powerful leaders against their own or other states’ populations. Amnesty International calls on all states to firmly resist – both collectively and unilaterally – the Trump administration’s campaign against the ICC and all international institutions that protect human rights. They must also reiterate their support for the Court and enact practical and legislative measures, including so-called ‘blocking statutes’, to mitigate the effect of US sanctions on those impacted. State inaction and cowardice in the face of past sanctions and attacks is what emboldened the US to announce this strategy. For the good of humanity, victims’ hopes of justice, and the prospect of lasting global security, the international community must come together, stand up to the bullies in the White House and State Department and protect the international rule of law. We must not accept a reality where the most powerful have the least legal responsibility.

Amnesty launched a 200p report detailing RSF atrocities in El Fasher and warning the international community that the same violations will be repeated in El-Obeid; indeed, they are repeated. Unless RSF is stopped. Here's the link to the video of Amnesty press conference launching the report: facebook.com/watch/live/?mib…