Posted by hpcr on March 21, 2014  |   Comment  |   Subscribe

[As part of its research and policy project on monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding, the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University aggregates news detailing recent developments in this domain. For more information about this project, visit the project’s web page.]

• Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria, recently offered comments about the confidential list of perpetrators that the commission has been compiling. The list includes individuals allegedly responsible for hostage-taking, torture, and executions. Pinheiro stated that the list of perpetrators includes heads of intelligence branches and detention facilities, military leaders who target civilians, leaders of armed groups who have attacked civilians, and airport officials working in locations where bombings have been planned.
• Sri Lankan police arrested a prominent human rights activist, Ruki Fernando, and a Catholic priest, Father Praveen, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Both individuals were engaged in a fact-finding activities in Sri Lanka.
• United Nations experts have requested an investigation into the death of a Chinese human rights defender and lawyer, Cao Shunli, who campaigned for transparency and increased participation of civil society in the second Universal Periodic Review of China’s human rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Council.The National Council for Human Rights in Egypt released its official report on the forcible break-up of the pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adaweya on August 14.  The report concluded that the majority of the fatalities were peaceful demonstrators.
• Christof Heyns — Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions — recently visited Papua New Guinea and documented his findings in a report about killings that have occurred as a result of domestic violence, tribal fighting, and excessive use of force by police and private security firms.
• Gulnara Shahinian — Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and its consequences— will conduct a follow-up visit to Kazakhstan to review new developments to assess the government’s response to recommendations she made after she first visited the country in 2012.
• The Hague Institute for Global Justice held an event this week to launch the report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Democratic Republic of North Korea. An audio recording of the event is available here.