April 19, 2020

This Week in Human Rights News

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CHERNOBYL FIRES

Source: The Guardian, Forbes

  • Fires that burned near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site in Ukraine for over a week were put out by firefighters and rain earlier this week, but a new report finds elevated levels of radiation in the area as well as the capitol city of Kiev.

  • The fires burned into the 19-mile (30km) exclusion zone around the power plant that famously melted down in 1986, leading to the worst nuclear accident in history.

  • The blazes burned right up to within a kilometer of the plant itself.

  • The fire had sparked radiation fears, with concerns that clouds of radioactive smoke could be released and blow south towards Ukraine’s capital.

  • On Monday, Ukraine’s emergency service said the fire was “difficult” but called for calm, saying all radiation levels in Kyiv were normal and urging people not to listen to “apocalyptic messages”.

  • The smoke itself may have health consequences of its own, however. Air quality in Kiev registered as the worst in the world this week thanks to winds carrying the smoke into the city.

  • There were additional fears that contaminated air would be carried to France, Bulgaria, Romania and Belarus.

  • The report concludes that the dose of radiation a resident living near the disaster area might ingest from crops contaminated by radioactive ash is not insignificant but still low.

  • By comparison, it says a resident of Kiev might inhale an “extremely weak” dose of less than 1 nano sievert, while “the impact resulting from the inhalation of the radioactivity carried by the masses in the air arriving in France should be insignificant.”

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ROHINGYA DEATHS AT SEA

Source: UN News

  • The UN Human Rights Office is calling for compassion for people seeking shelter after 30 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar died on a boat in the Bay of Bengal that had spent two months at sea. 

  • Nearly 400 others onboard were found dehydrated, malnourished and in need of immediate medical care. 

  • The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group and are not recognized as citizens of Myanmar. Members have fled persecution at the hands of the authorities, escaping overland and on boats to Bangladesh and other countries in the region.

  • More than 670,000 fled persecution in August 2017 and are now living in camps in the Cox’s Bazar region in southern Bangladesh.

  • The UN rights office reported that the situation in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin state is again dire. A recent surge in violence between the Arakan Army armed group and the national forces has affected civilians of all ethnic groups.

  • Richard Colville, spokesperson for the UN rights office also reported that the Myanmar army has been carrying out almost daily airstrikes and shelling in populated areas. At least 32 people have been killed, and more than 70 injured, since 23 March.  

  • The situation is even more complex due to an internet blackout in nine townships across Rakhine and Chin States since June 2019, effecting reliable information on hygiene and social distancing measures. 

  • Despite the UN Secretary General’s recent appeal for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, calls for a ceasefire have been ignored.

  • “Further complicating the situation, there has been an internet blackout in nine townships across Rakhine and Chin States since June 2019”, he said.

  • “This blackout has greatly hampered the availability of reliable public information on hygiene, physical distancing precautions and other preventative measures. Internet restrictions have also been applied by the Bangladesh authorities to the Rohingya refugee camps.”

  • OHCHR called on all parties to the conflict to heed the UN chief's appeal.

  • The UN agency also urged the Myanmar authorities to lift the internet ban and allow humanitarians to access all conflict-affected areas, while Bangladesh should allow Rohingya refugees free access to information and communication.

jfa