Women Fighting For Their Voice In New Egypt |
Women comprise only 2 percent of Egypt’s parliament — down from 12 percent when quotas bolstered their position under the dictator Hosni Mubarak. No women participated in the constitutional council organized by transitional military rulers. And none appear on upcoming presidential ballots. After protesting to bring down the old government, some women fear they’re being marginalized by Egypt’s new one. “Now, the decision-makers don’t need women, and we’re back to this idea that femininity is inferior and masculinity superior,” said Hoda Badran, who reconstituted the formerly-banned Egyptian Feminist Union. Her group will bus women to polling places and distribute pamphlets encouraging women to vote for candidates that will back currently existing rights and protections for women that some Islamist candidates seek to dismantle.
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Human Rights Group Accuses Egyptian Army Of Torture |
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a statement that Egypt’s army beat and tortured demonstrators outside of the Ministry of Defense in Cairo earlier this month. The protesters, who objected to the disqualification of an Islamist presidential candidate, told HRW the army “beat us with sticks, kicked us and punched us.” They also alleged that after being arrested and placed in jail, more beatings ensued. “The brutal beating of both men and women protesters shows that military officers have no sense of limits on what they can do,” said Middle East and North Africa director at HRW Joe Stork. “The official law enforcement authorities may arrest people where there is evidence of wrongdoing, but it never has the right to beat and torture them.”
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U.N. Monitors Attacked In Syria |
A team of United Nations monitors were attacked today in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. A U.N. spokesperson said an IED exploded in front of a four-vehicle convoy. None of the U.N. officials were injured and a team has reportedly been sent to evacuate the observers. The L.A. Times World Now blog has amateur video of the incident:
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France Says U.N. Should Authorize Force In Syria If Peace Plan Fails |
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said today after meeting with Syrian opposition officials that the United Nations Security Council should consider authorizing military action to stop the violence in Syria. Juppe said the 300 observers the U.N. recently authorized to monitor the situation on the ground in Syria should be dispatched within the next two weeks. He added that if the peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan fails, “we would have to move to a new stage with a Chapter Seven resolution to stop this tragedy.” Juppe called Annan’s plan “severely compromised” and said “mediation should be given a chance” but added, “We cannot allow ourselves to be defied by the current regime.”
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Annan: ‘It Has Become Clear’ That Assad Hasn’t Pulled Back Troops |
Kofi Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria told the U.N. Security Council today that he still has hopes for a cessation of violence in Syria by the April 12 deadline but that he was “gravely concerned at the course of events.” In a letter to the Security Council, Annan said that “in the last 5 days it has become clear” that President Bashar al-Assad has made no effort to abide by Annan’s peace plan he agreed to earlier this month. However, Annan insisted his peace initiative remains “very much alive,” in part because there is no viable alternative. “If you want to take (the plan) off the table, what will you replace it with?” he asked reporters in Turkey. Meanwhile, according to the AP, residents in the ravaged city of Homs “reported some of the heaviest shelling in months.”
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Rights Group: Syrian Government Troops Executed Civilians |
Human Rights Watch released a new report todayfinding that Syrian government forces “summarily executed over 100 — and possibly many more — civilians and wounded or captured opposition fighters during recent attacks on cities and towns.” HRW says that many of the incidents occurred in March in Idlib and Homs. “Government and pro-government forces not only executed opposition fighters they had captured, or who had otherwise stopped fighting and posed no threat, but also civilians who likewise posed no threat to the security forces,” a HRW statement said.
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Nearly 2,500 Refugees Have Fled To Turkey From Syria In The Last 24 Hours |
A Turkish official said today that nearly 2,500 refugees have fled across the border from Syria into Turkey in the last 24 hours, more than double the highest previous one-day total. The Turkish government was reportedly considering setting up a military buffer zone as early as last June but the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Turkey has drawn up plans for refugee safe zones inside Syria “and other aggressive steps to help protect Syrian civilians if violence spikes there.” “The more intense it gets, the more countries like us will have to take more steps,” said Ibrahim Kalin, a top adviser to Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Clinton To Waive Rights Requirement, Give Egypt Aid |
In a widely-expected move, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go ahead with disbursement of at least some of the $1.3 billion in aid promised to Egypt, waiving a requirement in a foreign aid law that she certify recipient countries’ adherence to human rights standards. Egypt’s poor record came under scrutiny when NGO workers there — including Americans — were detained and narrowly averted trial. Last week, Amnesty International urged Clinton to neither certify that Egypt met obligation, nor waive the requirement. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who authored the requirement, said he was “disappointed” with the “contradictory message.” He said the U.S. should “release no more taxpayer funds than is demonstrably necessary” to Egypt.
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Full U.N. Security Council Endorses Syria Peace Plan |
The U.N. Security Council said it “fully supports” former Secretary-General and special envoy for Syria Kofi Annan’s six-point plan for a peace deal to end the ongoing crisis there. In a non-binding presidential statement that requires unanimous support from Council members — including, notably, Russia and China, who had vetoed an earlier resolution — the Council called “upon the Syrian government and opposition to work in good faith with the Envoy towards a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis.” As Annan reports back, the Council threatened that it “will consider further steps as appropriate.” The Syrian government unleashed helicopters and tanks in clashes against demonstrators in the Damascus suburbs today.
