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Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Heads for Re-election Despite Rampant Human Rights Violations

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Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s current prime minister, is expected to win her fourth consecutive term, a political phenomenon that has never been seen before in the country. Citizens will vote on Sunday to decide whether Hasina will be re-elected despite accusations of severe human rights violations.

The 71-year-old prime minister faces an opposition coalition led by the 82-year-old human rights lawyer and former foreign minister, Kamal Hossain. Former prime minister Khaleda Zia, another prominent political figure and Hasina’s long-time rival, however, is not eligible to run due to her previous corruption record which has led to a 17-year sentence.

Hossain was once a trusted advisor of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and the nation’s first-ever president. But this time, he is no longer an ally of the family but rather a forceful challenger. Polls show his popularity among middle-class citizens who are growing increasingly suspicious of Hasina’s iron-fist rule.

Violence and chaos again plague the country as Election Day approaches. Back in the 2014 election, over half of the parliament seats went uncontested as a result of Bangladesh National party’s boycott of the election and many were killed in violent outbreaks.

This year, opposition leaders including Zia were sentenced on questionable charges or simply disappeared. Two members of the Awami League were murdered as they conducted their campaigns. Many more politicians and citizens were injured as rallies turned violent.

According to Hossain, more than 70 parliamentary candidates from his opposition coalition were so afraid of police retaliation that they did not dare openly campaign for themselves.

“Police harassment of opposition activists has reached unprecedented levels,” he told the Guardian. Last month, as he head to a national martyrs’ monument, his own war was attacked by supporters of the ruling party.

Besides open violence, the government also imposed stricter censorship to hinder information exchange on the Internet that might put the ruling party at a disadvantage. Claiming to counter “propaganda,” authorities slowed down all 3G and 4G services across the country. On Thursday, services stopped altogether for ten hours.

Bangladesh’s authorities also severely restricted internet services across the country in an effort to fight “propaganda” ahead of the election.

Internet services were slowed across the country with 3G and 4G services suspended for several hours on Thursday, a Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) official said.

“We asked telecom operators to halt 3G and 4G services temporarily on Thursday night. We have done it to prevent propaganda and misleading content spreading on the internet,” an official from the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told AFP. He indicated that services could be suspended again during the final days leading to the national election.

Hasina’s main campaign strategy centered on the country’s rapid economic development. Since 2009, Bangladesh’s average growth rate has maintained a high level of above 6 percent and its per-capita incomes has more than tripled, making it one of the fastest-growing developing countries in the world.

Bangladesh’s garment industry is especially crucial to its economy. The gigantic $20 billion industry has created and sustained approximately 4.5 billion jobs. As a result, labour participation rate among young females almost doubled. Coupled with better maternal and child health services, Bangladesh’s life expectancy has increased to 72 years.

The World Bank published a favorable report that outlined the country’s consistent progress on not only life expectancy but also education, national income and the number of people who had been lifted out of extreme poverty.

However, many believed that economic progress could not justify the nation’s lack of growth in other areas.

“We have the fastest growth of ultra-rich in the world,” said Shahab Enam Khan from Bangladesh Enterprise Institute. “But that doesn’t mean the lower strata has benefited.”

Ali Riaz, a politics professor from Illinois State University politics professor, agreed that economic growth was not everything.

“Development is not only economic growth, it has a far broader meaning which includes human rights, rule of law, inclusivity, accountability and good governance, all (of which) seem to be missing here,” he said.

Featured image via Anupam Nath/AP

AFRICA

The UK paid Rwanda an additional $126 million for the contested migrant plan.

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As the tab for Britain’s controversial proposal to relocate asylum seekers to the East African nation continues to increase, the United Kingdom paid Rwanda an extra 100 million pounds ($126 million) in April. This was in addition to the 140 million pounds it had already provided Rwanda.

Even though the Rwanda project is at the core of the policy that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is employing to discourage illegal immigration, there have been no individuals sent to Rwanda as of yet due to legal challenges that have taken place since the initiative was introduced in 2022.

After Sunak’s immigration minister resigned this week, the polarizing policy is now regarded as a danger to Sunak’s leadership, which is anticipated to be challenged in the election that will take place the following year.

According to a letter that the British Ministry of the Interior issued on Thursday, the United Kingdom plans to give Rwanda fifty million pounds in addition to the 240 million pounds it has already provided to the East African nation.

The opposition Labour Party criticized the disclosures regarding the rising cost of a scheme that legal experts warned could collapse. Some parliamentarians within Sunak’s party are also expected to express their disapproval of the idea.

A statement by Yvette Cooper, the shadow interior minister for the Labour Party, on social networking site X, said, “Britain cannot afford more of this costly Tory chaos and farce.”

On Friday, however, the newly appointed minister for legal migration, Tom Pursglove, explained what he called the “investment” of 240 million pounds. He stated that once the Rwanda policy was operational, it would reduce the money spent on hosting asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom.

“When you consider that we are unacceptably spending 8 million pounds a day in the asylum system at the moment, it is a key part of our strategy to bring those costs down,” Pursglove explained to Sky News.

Pursglove stated that the money donated to Rwanda would assist in the country’s economic growth and help get the asylum relationship with the United Kingdom up and running.

There was no connection between the money sent to Rwanda and the treaty that the two nations signed on Tuesday, according to the letter from the Ministry of the Interior.

The treaty aims to respond to a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which stated that the deportation plan would contravene local laws based on international human rights standards.

“The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered,” according to the correspondence.

After Robert Jenrick resigned from his position as immigration minister on Wednesday, Sunak made a plea to fellow Conservative parliamentarians on Thursday to come together in support of his Rwanda proposal. He stated that the emergency legislation the government had drafted to get the scheme up and running did not go far enough.

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UK interior minister travels to Rwanda to resurrect asylum plan.

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On Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior of the United Kingdom, James Cleverly, came to Rwanda to sign a new treaty. This was done to circumvent a court judgment that blocked the government’s contentious policy of transferring asylum seekers to the East African nation.

The Rwandan plan is at the core of the government’s attempt to reduce migration, and it is being closely monitored by other nations who are considered to be considering policies that are comparable to Rwanda’s.

In a decision handed down a month ago, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom stated that such a move would violate international human rights norms embedded in domestic legislation.

Following the decision, the United Kingdom has been making efforts to revise its agreement with Rwanda to incorporate a legally binding treaty that guarantees Rwanda would not remove asylum seekers brought there by the United Kingdom. This is one of the primary concerns of the court.

Several attorneys and charitable organizations have said that it is highly improbable that deportation flights will begin before the election. With a lead of more than ten percentage points in the polls, the opposition Labour Party intends to abandon the Rwanda policy if it is victorious.

A meeting between Cleverly, who arrived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on Tuesday morning, and Vincent Biruta, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, is scheduled to take place to sign the agreement.

“Rwanda cares deeply about the rights of refugees, and I look forward to meeting with counterparts to sign this agreement and further discuss how we work together to tackle the global challenge of illegal migration,” Cleverly says.

The United Kingdom aims to transfer thousands of asylum seekers who came to its beaches without authorization to Rwanda under the plan that was agreed upon the previous year. This discourages migrants from crossing the Channel from Europe in tiny boats.

In exchange, Rwanda has been given an initial payment of 140 million pounds, equivalent to 180 million dollars, along with the promise of additional funds to cover the costs of housing and medical treatment for any deported persons.

THE PRESSURE
A great deal of pressure is being put on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reduce net migration, which reached a record high of 745 thousand people in the previous year, with the vast majority of migrants entering through legal channels.

“Stop the boats” is one of the five goals that Sunak has set for his government. The influx of asylum seekers who pay people smugglers for their crossings of the Channel, which frequently take place in boats that are overloaded and not seaworthy, is one of the aims that Sunak has set.

The Supreme Court determined that the Rwanda plan should not be implemented because there was a possibility that refugees who were deported would have their claims incorrectly evaluated or that they would be sent back to their country of origin to suffer persecution.

In the latter part of this week, it is anticipated that the new treaty will be followed by the release of legislation declaring Rwanda a so-called safe nation. This law is intended to prevent legal challenges against the planned deportation flights.

Despite this, this will probably result in a fresh set of political and legal difficulties.

An immigration attorney at Harbottle & Lewis named Sarah Gogan stated that the government’s policy will be challenged due to Rwanda’s history of violations of human rights provisions.

“Rwanda is an unsafe country and this is not a quick fix,” added the politician. “You cannot in a matter of weeks or months reform a country and turn it into one with an impartial judiciary and administrative culture.”

Another “gimmick” was what Yvette Cooper, the spokesperson for the Labour Party’s home affairs department, called the most recent measures proposed by the administration.

Whether or not to design the law in a way that would avoid subsequent legal challenges is still up for debate by the administration.

Several members of the Conservative Party in parliament are putting pressure on the government to incorporate a “notwithstanding” clause into Rwanda’s policy. This clause would disapprove the domestic and international human rights commitments of the United Kingdom regarding Rwanda.

However, some politicians within the ruling party, such as Robert Buckland, have stated that such a move would be “foolish” and undermine the Good Friday Agreement, which is primarily responsible for ending three decades of carnage in Northern Ireland. This is because the European Convention on Human Rights supports the treaty.

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Madagascar leader wins presidential vote, constitutional court says

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On Friday, the High Constitutional Court of Madagascar certified Andry Rajoelina, the current President of Madagascar, to be the victor of the election a month ago, essentially granting him a third term in office.

Following the dismissal of several challenges submitted against the preliminary results by the electoral board, the court said that Rajoelina collected 58.96% of the votes that were cast.

Florent Rakotoarisoa, the chairman of the High constitutional court, stated that “Andry Rajoelina is elected as the president of the republic of Madagascar and is taking his functions as soon as the swearing (is conducted) comes to an end.”

The rejected challenge was submitted by the politician Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, who received 14.39% of the vote, according to the court. This was one of the challenges that was denied.

Ten of the thirteen candidates chose not to participate in the election; nevertheless, their names were already on the ballot, so they could still divide the remaining votes. The court reported that the turnout was 46.35 percent.

The election on November 16 was preceded by weeks of demonstrations, during which the opposition accused Rajoelina of having fostered conditions that were unjust to the election.

The charges that the vote was rigged have been refuted by Rajoelina, and the army has issued a warning against any attempts to destabilize the country.

As far as the opposition is concerned, the voter turnout for the election was the lowest it has ever been in the country’s history.

Hajo Andrianainarivelo, a former minister who was one of the candidates who chose to abstain from voting, has committed to fight against what he has described as a lack of respect for the rules of the state and the tyranny of the people.

“The popular fight begins now,” he declared on Thursday referring to the ongoing conflict.

Rajoelina, now 49 years old, initially won power in a coup in 2009. After resigning from his position as the head of a transitional authority in 2014, he went on to win another election in 2018 and regain his position as president.

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