Reports-Informes Recursos

In this section you will find reports, in-depth analysis and investigative materials in English, French, Spanish or Catalan on a range of issues and topics, from public health to human rights or specific national situations uploaded between 2011 and 2015 (new material will be made available weekly) . Each title provides a link to the original location, a summary or/and highlights and context information (posts in the blog, tweets and other sources). 

Other reports and analysis are to be found in posts elsewhere in the blog, like HRW´s documenting  torture under the G.W.Bush administration  and the situation in Haiti  after the earthquake or  MSF materials on Vaccine pricing

Humanitarian Intervention´s original sin

We recover a piece from Alex De Wall (Fletcher School, Tufts University) on the legality of bombing medical facilities (protected by Article 19 of the 1949 Geneva Convention) under the light of the precedent set out by US forces in Somalia during the UN-endorsed “Operation Restore Hope” between December 1992 and May 1993.  Recent instances of disregard for medical neutrality in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan and examples of impunity for misconduct of foreign troops operating under UN banner in Central African Republic, Haiti and Republic Democratic of Congo make this article even more relevant. We have added a few more hyperlinks and provided context information at the end of the post.

A member of US military forces walks through the remains of a church in Mogadishu, Somalia. Made in December 1992 during Operation Restore Hope Rich Mason  Flickr

Is It Ever Legal to Bomb a Hospital? Alex DeWaal On October 6, 2015

Dr. Omar was conducting an exploratory laparotomy on a female patient with a bullet wound in her abdomen when the entire hospital shook with the sound of explosions. Windows were shattering and a light and plaster fell from the ceiling. A nurse ran in to say that a missile had been fired through the wall of another operating theater, that three patients had been killed, and staff and patients were rushing to take shelter in the basement. Dr. Omar stayed with his patient, stitching her up even while the building reverberated with the assault.

Burkina Faso,Septembre 2015: Putsch raté en pays insoumis

On a du bien a partager cet article de Mathieu Lopes avec photographies de Sophie Garcia paru chez survie il y a quelques mois sur la crise parvenue en Burkina Faso en septembre 2015 lors de la tentative de coup d´Etat menée par la Régiment de la Securité Présidentielle (RSP),visant le procès de transition entamé par le pays depuis la chute de Blaise Compaoré suite a un soulèvement populaire en octobre 2014. C´est un article qui examine de façon critique le role joué pendant ces jours de confusion par des institutions comme la CEDEAO ou l´ambassade de la France; sa lecture peut aussi donner un peu de perspective a des évènements dans le pays après les attaques meurtrières a Ouagadougou (janvier 2016) et Grand-Bassam, Côte d´Ivoire (mars 2016), notamment le déploiement des forces paramilitaires françaises pour "combattre le terrorisme" en Afrique de l´Ouest. On a inséré les notes au pied au corps du texte, en taille mineur et entre parenthèses, et ajouté quelques hyperliens; à la fin du post plus d´information d´autres sources relayée par @onadaexpansiva

Journée de protestation des organisations de la société civile le 6  février   2015 sous le slogan "Non au RSP" photo de Yaya Boudani pour la note de RFI Burkina: la société civile dans la rue contre le RSP

Putsch raté en pays insoumis Mathieu Lopes Survie Octobre 2015

Vestiges du régime de Compaoré, la garde présidentielle et le général Diendéré ont tenté de prendre le pouvoir, moins d’un an après l’insurrection qui a chassé le dictateur. Ils ont échoué face à la résistance massive des Burkinabè et d’une partie de l’armée. Les dirigeants africains ou français se sont positionnés à contretemps et parfois à contresens de la volonté populaire.

Death of Yugoslavia: the agony of Bosnia

In July 8th 1995, 8,000 Muslim Bosniak civilians, mainly boys and men, in Srebrenica, Eastern Bosnia, were walked to their death by units of the  Army of Republika Srpska; an act tantamount to genocide, as recognized in 2004 by the International Court on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This was not, by far, the sole episode of ethnic cleansing in the war inBosnia; a conflict that, between 1992-1995, saw  100,000 people killed, roughly bewtween 20,000 to 50,000 women, the majority of whom Bosniak, raped, and over 2.2 million people displaced. It is worth remembering that the Bosniak legitimate government was left completely alone in his fight for survival against Croatian and Serbian backed forces except for the help of Saudi Arabia (resources and weapons) and Iran (weapons, soldiers and cadres encompassing volunteers from all over the Islamic world). 

Sarajevo 1993 from Architecture of Doom

For a closer look at the conflict in Bosnia and the US-arranged peace agreements we highly recommend two episodes of the 6-part BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia (Paul Mitchell, BBC, 1995) based on the book The Death of Yugoslavia  by Allan Little and Laura Silber (Penguin BBC Books  June 1996):  The Gates of Hell   and Pax Americana.

More Info

• #Bosnia #Srebrenica Massacre, After 20 Years, Still Casts a Long Shadow http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/srebrenica-genocide-massacre.html?ref=world … @DanBilefsky @nytimesworld 
•  #Bosnia Women Who Refuse to Die http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2012/06/201262711846997219.html … @AJEnglish #Srebrenica #genocide 
•  #Bosnia #documentary "#Srebrenica : A Town Betrayed" http://seen.li/5c97 v @visionscarto

Actualización Sección Castellano

Ha pasado algún tiempo desde que actualizamos la sección Castellano del blog donde agrupamos todo el material compartido en ibérica (y americana) lengua. Aprovechamos la ocasión para repasar  el conjunto de artículos, notas e informes, incluyendo tambíen algunos posts que se nos olvidó incluir  en la primera recopilación allá por 2011.  En Noviembre de 2012 publicábamos BarrickGold, explotando el filón de impunidad de los Actores No Estatales haciéndonos eco de la carta abierta distribuida por el Colectivo de Abogados Jose Alvear Restrepo (@ccajar) y firmada por un numeroso grupo  organizaciones civiles sobre las puertas giratorias entre esta empresa minera y personalidades vinculadas al trabajo de Naciones Unidas contra la impunidad de las empresas transnacionales (Naciones Unidas: ¿Quién quiere pasar por la puerta giratoria). Tema que volvimos a tratar en Enero de 2015  con una nota, Puertas giratorias, vasos comunicantes del poder , basada en un artículo, de Anne Garay aparecido originalmente en la pagina del Observatorio sobre Multinacionales en América Latina (OMAL) en el marco de su proyecto conjunto con el Instituto de Estudios sobre Desarrollo y Cooperación Internacional (HEGOA) de Diccionario crítico de empresas transnacionales. Claves para enfrentar el poder de las grandes corporaciones editado por Icaria Editorial. 

Potential Human Rights impacts of Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or TPP is a US-led  multi-lateral trade agreement being negotiated since 2006 originally by  Brunei, Chile, Singapore, and New Zealand (a.ka. P4);  joined in 2008 by Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Vietnam for a current total of  12 countries who reportedly represent the 40% of the world´s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); like the Transatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership (TTIP) or the Trade in Services Agreeement (TISA), the Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership or RCEP (another Pacific-area agreement which does include China) TPP is being negotiated in a secretive way: no public records of discussions,  no text of the agreement has been made public and only leaked chapters (2 out of 11) have been made available. An exception seems to have been made for lobbysts for differentindustries with stakes in the agreement such as pharmaceutical companies or financial services which through privileged access to public officials (and office holders) with responsiblity over the negotiations have been able to make sure that their clients points of view and red lines are well taken into account.

Map of negotiating TPP members from State Department willing to overlook Malaysia's mass graves for the sake of TPP  Cory Doctorow Boing Boing July 16th 2015

This opacity is more concerning taking into account that the issues (and policy implications) on the negotiating encompass a wide range of issues with dramatic effects and potential impact on the lives of millions; furthermore, future interpretations of clauses (also present in other MTAs being currently negotiated) such as the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISD), the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET,linked to International Investment Agreements) may seriously hinder (and compromise) the possibilities of successive governments to draft laws and policies deemed non-compatible with the agreement, thus seriously compromising the people´s will regarding, such issues like public services, drug prices, or environmental regulations.These MTA, if completed, would insert themselves as a higher lever of the multiple Free Trade Agreements (FTA), that the US and over 15  countries have signed in the last 10 years. All of them stipulating norms and rules that go beyond what has been agreed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) embodied most notably in what is known as TRIPS+ clauses. This would  become  the new normal, specially when the WTO seems to be gridlocked in issues such as agriculture or pharmaceutical patents issues. Again, the lives of millions of people both in rich impoverished parts of the world  are going to be affected by agreements being negotiated behind closed doors with unelected people taking  unaccountable decisions on behalf of the next generations. 

We have added, in the Reports-Informes-Recursos section, a a Third World Network Report authored by Sanya Reid Smith and  distributed, among others, by Infojustice which focus on the potential human rights impact of TPP on a variety of areas and domains.