Reports we Support
A presentation of “Complicated Delivery: The Yemeni mothers and children dying without medical care” written by Medecins sans Frontières (MSF) offers an insight into healthcare inaccessibility in Yemen.
From November 2018 to February 2019, MSF collected data by using health indicators from 2016-2018 MSF medical reports. They also conducted ten semi-structured interviews with patients, caretakers, and medical facility staff in MSF’s Taiz Houban Mother and Child Hospital and MSF supported hospital in Abs Hajjah. Although the findings of the report are not representative of the entire country, but its recommendations are applicable nationwide.
The war in Yemen escalated in 2014 when the Houthis Shia rebel group took control of the capital, Sanaa, forcing President Hadi into exile. In order to restore public order and bring the power back to the government, in March 2015, the Saudi and Emirati Coalition (SELC), backed by the US, UK, and France, began aerial strikes on the Houthis. This intervention resulted in increased violence which has made the poorest country in the Middle East even more fragile.
“[B]etween 2016 and 2018, there were 860 deaths of reported in Taiz Houban – 17 mothers, 242 children and 601 newborns. Of these deaths, 227 were children and newborns who were dead on arrival,” with the number increasing every year. As of March 2019, no public hospital in the Taiz governorate has been fully functioning, however, with the support of MSF and other international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), three of the five hospitals in Taiz city centre remain partially open. In the Hajjah governorate, mothers have to travel long distances to receive care, which is worsened by the mountainous character of the terrain surrounding the district of Abs. As MSF’s Taiz Houban hospital manager describes, sometimes patients cannot travel because of violence and “women are waiting until the last minute to make the dangerous journey to receive care,”. Medical complications during pregnancy become very deadly and infants need high-level newborn care. In Abs Hajjah, “the facility recorded the deaths of 705 people – 19 mothers, 269 children and 417 newborns. Among the 417 neonates, 106 died on the day of arrival between 2016 and 2018.”
Additionally, economic vulnerability leads to high mortality rates and limits the freedom to choose medical facilities. In Yemen, purchasing power is 148 percent lower than in pre-crisis period and although private healthcare was not free and sometimes unavailable in rural areas , it was affordable for many people with regards to transport and financial means. Separately, while public workers have received partial or no salaries since August 2016, payments resumed in 2018 if workers were employed under an internationally recognized government.Currently, because most medical facilities remain private, with high costs of treatment, most patients choose free MSF facilities which are not always accessible to civilians living in rural areas or on the frontlines.
Traveling to medical facilities is dangerous, especially for those crossing the frontlines. There is often a lot of violence and tension at the checkpoints controlled by different warring parties. Eftekar, a patient from Ibb governorate recalls: “The road from home to the hospital is not safe. In the past, we can take pregnant women to the hospitals at night but now we cannot... there is a risk we will be shot. Movements are allowed only from 6 am to 6 pm.”
MSF arrived at five recommendations that all actors should follow in order to save lives and so that International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is not violated:
- All parties in conflict must cease attacks on medical facilities and respect the protected status of civilians, and medical and humanitarian staff.
- There must be a clearer and faster way for humanitarian staff to enter Yemen.
- Humanitarian organizations should increase efforts to ensure that staff is specialized and experienced in order to provide quality and timely care.
- The bureaucracy should not impede upon the transport of lifesaving drugs and devices.
- Access to humanitarian services in rural and district-level areas.
To learn more, visit:
https://www.msf.org/complicated-delivery-yemeni-mothers-and-children-dying-without-medical-care
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44466574
Author: Giulia DeLuca; Editor: Aleksandra Krol
Geneva Call is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organization aiming at promoting respect, by Armed Non-State Actors (ANSAs), for international humanitarian norms, thereby enhancing their compliance with their obligations under international law.
In September 2018, Geneva Call issued a Report based upon the second edition of the Garance Talks. The meeting was held in 2017 and brought together ANSAs and experts from academia and various NGOs, to discuss the current challenges faced by ANSAs in the administration of justice. The core sessions of the 2017 Garance Talks addressed three related issues: i) the legal basis for the establishment of courts and judicial processes by ANSAs and in territories controlled by them; ii) deprivation of liberty by ANSAs, including the treatment of detainees; and iii) the procedural safeguards, rights and protection of detainees.
The administration of justice by armed groups is a frequent feature in armed conflicts. Practice shows that ANSAs often try their own forces, enemies and civilians. Obviously, the condition is that, when exercising this prerogative, they respect certain judicial guarantees. Notwithstanding this practice, however, the legal basis for the establishment of such judicial mechanisms still remains unclear.
Common Article 3 to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (CA3), which applies to non-international armed conflicts (NIACs), affirms that the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgements pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people is prohibited with respect to persons taking no active part in hostilities. Additional Protocol II of 1977 (APII) then develops and supplements CA3, by establishing certain fundamental fair trial guarantees, such as the obligation to inform without delay, the principle of the individual criminal responsibility, the principle of legality, the presumption of innocence and privilege against self-incrimination.
Within this legal framework, some have interpreted the concept of “regularly constituted court” as only referring to a judicial mechanism established in accordance with the constitutional laws of the State. Accepting this interpretation would, however, mean recognizing that IHL does not allow armed groups to set up a parallel judicial system, completely separate from that of the State, with all the limitations that this view would bring (for instance, conflicts only fought between NSAGs would not be covered).
In this respect, the present Report proposes an alternative reading, based on the principle of equality of belligerents. According to this view, while the administration of justice is a governmental function par excellence, it is contended that, in the context of NIAC, international humanitarian law (IHL) creates equal obligations upon States and ANSAs. It follows that armed groups, like State actors, are granted the possibility to install judicial mechanisms based on their own regulations.
Unfortunately, the position just advanced raises some problematic scenarios. Many of these ANSAs, in particular those with a lower level of organization, have less potential to guarantee an administration of justice in accordance with international standards. Some authors have explained that this is due to the fact that they devote a large amount of their resources to their military, but it could also come as a consequence of their lack of knowledge of these safeguards. Moreover, according to their level of organization, ANSAs might not have a proper civil authority to ensure due processes or specific agencies prepared to carry out law enforcement operations.
Some conclusions can be drawn from the 2017 Garance Talks: first, when an ANSA does not have the capacity to respect the above mentioned safeguards, it shall not carry out judicial processes and alternative mechanisms should be sought; second, when the structure of the group varies and it is not stable, it will only carry out judicial processes as long as it has the capacity to do so; third, when the group has the capacity to carry out judicial processes in accordance with those fair trial guarantees recognized by international law, then everything feasible shall be done to respect them in full.
Report available at:
To read more:
https://medium.com/law-and-policy/can-armed-groups-legally-establish-their-own-courts-c0842c4b9740
18 October, 2018
The report, The Role of Victims in Criminal Proceedings, provides extensive information regarding the active participation of victims through the aid of the Specialized Criminal Chambers (SCCs) which has been put in place for the adjudication of cases involving human rights violations.
In the report, The Role of Victims in Criminal Proceedings, the main focus lies in protecting the rights of the victim as much as the defendant. Rather than simply providing the victim protection, the process of criminal justice proceedings and the provision of reparations also play a restorative role for victims while potentially leading to more successful convictions. The benefits of allowing the victim to participate as a civil party, rather than exclusively as a witness, include their initiation of prosecutions, ability to claim reparations for trauma related to their case, and the direct involvement in proceedings that may lead to a more effective trial.
In order to gain each of these rights of participation, certain victims are selected based upon the contents within their applications. A judge must decide whether the individual is a victim based on two factors: whether there was physical, mental, or emotional harm caused to them personally, and whether that harm was linked directly to the crime committed. This can include harm directly done to them, harm done to a close relative, or whether they were harmed while attempting to prevent the crime from occuring. Once a victim is granted the opportunity to participate, some activities they are permitted to participate in include: presenting and requesting evidence, calling expert witnesses, challenging and appealing court’s decisions, and presenting their views on the charges being brought against the defendant.
The report details specific locations that have taken the initiative in allowing victims to achieve more privileges in court. The International Criminal Court set the precedent for other courts to allow victims have more participation opportunities during proceedings pertaining to their case. For example, the Extraordinary Courts in the Chambers of Cambodia was the first court to allow victims to take on the role of civil parties during trials. This role allows the victims to directly support the prosecution during proceedings and the opportunity to gain moral and collective reparations. The Kosovo Special Chambers and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon have also created statues that expand on the protection of the victims and their rights to participate in proceedings. Examples of these protective and participatory rights include: the creation of a unit within the Registry responsible for protection and participation assistance of the victims, the right to be notified, acknowledge, and reparated, and the right to be represented in the pretrial and trial proceedings if it is not prejudicial to the rights of the accused. These statues emphasis the victim’s rights to be treated with dignity and respect, an effective remedy and fair trial, protection and assistance, reparation, and truth.
The participation of victims during trials can directly result in more successful convictions as well as allowing the victims to achieve reparations and emotional restoration for the harm caused to them during the crime.
To know more, please read:https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Victims_in_Criminal_Proceedings-Final-EN.pdf
