Jews and Roma blocked from running in Bosnia and Herzegovina election

A new Panic Button app, to give human rights defenders urgent help from their own networks when facing attack, kidnapping, or torture is now available for public download on Google Playstore, announced Amnesty International yesterday.

Amnesty says "The ‘Panic Button’ mobile app for Android, developed by Amnesty International in collaboration with iilab, activists, tech experts and volunteers from around the world, transforms a user’s smart phone into a secret alarm which can be activated rapidly in the event of an emergency, alerting fellow activists to the danger their colleague faces so that they can get help faster."

“The aim of the Panic Button is to increase protection for activists around the world who face the ever present threat of arrest, attack, kidnap and torture,” said Tanya O’Carroll, Technology and Human Rights Officer for Amnesty International.

“We have long known that the first hours after somebody’s arrest are the crucial window of opportunity for a network to make a difference to their colleague’s release—whether it be flooding the police station with calls, arranging a protest, or mobilizing lawyers and organizations like Amnesty International for a campaign of international pressure.”

“This is an essential tool for activists, human rights defenders, students and lawyers. Everyone who might face danger in their work needs to have Panic Button on his or her phone.”

Illustration by panicbutton

In an attempt to protect future generations from the negative health effects of smoking, British doctors will vote this week on whether to campaign for a permanent ban on the sale of cigarettes to people born after the year 2000.

The British Medical Association is set to vote on a motion which, if successful, would see doctors lobby the government for this permanent ban.

The vote will take place at the association's annual general meeting on Tuesday.

According to the Guardian, the British Medical Association has previously lobbied successfully for a ban on smoking in public places and smoking in cars with children.

The idea behind the ban is that the next generation should not suffer the same widespread smoking-related deaths of the 20th century.

The vote is sure to ignite debate about restrictions on liberty versus the right to good health for all citizens.

Today is World Refugee Day and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is asking people to share stories to commemorate the day.

Whether it's adding your story to the inspiring collection on the UNHCR website, or taking a moment to read someone else's story and share it with others on social media, everyone is invited to take part.

UNHCR has collected a vast array of refugee tales which people are welcome to add to throughout the day. The stories create a picture of refugees throughout time - not just Syrians currently living in Zaatari camp but also grandchildren retelling their grandparents' stories of flights from Eastern Europe to Britain, and many more.

As well as this storyboard, famous personalities such as British actress Emma Thompson have gotten onboard to share their own experiences. In the video Thompson and her adopted son Tindy tell the story of 16 yealr old Tindy arriving in the UK after being a child soldier in Rwanda, and how their lives have been enriched by becoming a family.

We encourage you to take time today to learn a refugee story and share it among your peers. Getting to know the people behind the news bulletins and statistics is what strengthens the cause for better conditions for refugees everywhere.

Oxfam has been present in Southern Sudan since 1983, providing humanitarian aid to victims of conflict, drought and floods, as well as long-term development assistance to some of the most vulnerable communities, focussing on public health, livelihoods and emergency response combined with gender, diversity and conflict-sensitive programming, policy and advocacy work.

The conflict that broke out in South Sudan on 15th December 2013 has left thousands dead and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Vulnerable populations continue to flee ongoing fighting in South Sudan as seasonal rains worsen their already dire living conditions.

Oxfam is currently supporting people affected by the conflict with clean water, sanitation and emergency food security. Over 7 million people are at risk of food insecurity and 4.9 million of them are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Since fighting between government troops and rebel forces erupted last year:

• Over one million people have fled their homes and are now displaced within South Sudan.
• More than 80,000 people have sought refuge at various UN compounds across the country. In Juba, 80 percent of displaced people are women and children.
• More than 350,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, many of whom had to cross the Nile River on their way to Uganda, leaving everything they had behind and risking their lives.
• A cholera outbreak was confirmed mid May, bringing the imminent threat of a health emergency alongside an escalating food crisis.
• Only 15% of people have access to adequate sanitary latrines and 30% do not have access to safe water supply.

With the end of the “month of tranquillity”, which allowed some people to get back to their fields to plant and harvest the coming crops, there is a real danger that a resumption or intensification of hostilities could make all efforts so far count for nothing. It is estimated nearly 4 million people face emergency and crisis levels of hunger as a result of the situation in South Sudan. As many as 2.4 million people could be displaced by the end of the year.

For further information and to support humanitarian aid please read more on Oxfam.

A sperm whale which washed up on a beach in Spain was found to have swallowed nearly 60 pieces of plastic dumped into the sea by farmers who work in greenhouses which produce vegetables for supermarket chains Aldi and Trader Joe's.

A new petition aims to hold parent company Aldi accountable for the damage caused by its dumping, and has already collected more than half a million signatures.

The 4.5 tonne sperm whale, which washed up dead in March last year, had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste, including more than 20 sections of transparent plastic sheets used to cover industrial greenhouses.

The Guardian reported that scientists found other peculiar objects inside the whale's stomach, including a clothes hanger and parts of a mattress. The plastic had blocked the sperm whale's stomach, killing it slowly.

Grocery suppliers must be held accountable for the damage they do to the sea and its inhabitants, specially the sperm whales, of which there are only about 1000 left in the Mediterranean.

Sign the petition now to demand the safe disposal of plastic waste.

Turkish daily Milliyet news paper reported on June 16 that the Interior Ministry has defended the dismissal of a policeman due to his sexual orientation, on the grounds that the law stipulates “the weeding out of these kinds of public servants.”

Based on an informant's notice security forces that a policeman had child porn videos in his home computer had raided his house in Istanbul back in 2009 . The criminal accusation proved groundless, but “evidence” showing that the officer was gay triggered an internal investigation.

Hürriyet Daily News wrote today that the High Discipline Board of the Interior Ministry then discharged the officer from public service, stating that he had “committed disgraceful and shameful acts that conflict with the quality of a public servant.”

According to Milliyet, the officer sued the ministry to be returned to his duties as a policeman, but the 8th Administrative Court in Istanbul dismissed the case.

Hürriyet Daily says "He then carried the case to the Council of State, where a judge reported that the acts cited by the ministry as justification for dismissal were within the scope of private life, which is under the protection of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. As a result, there was no justification for the disciplinary motion. However, the 12th Chamber of Council of State then unanimously ruled to decline the officer’s request for a stay of execution to stop his dismissal."

The Interior Ministry’s opinion letter sent to the Council of State was even more controversial, according to Milliyet. Adnan Türkdamar, a deputy legal advisor at the ministry, stated in the letter that the officer in question occasionally stayed at the same house as two men while living with a woman, describing it as “a disgraceful and shameful act.”

Further, Hürriyet Daily News reports from the ministry's opinion letter: “There is no doubt that practicising public duty through civil servants who have lost the required reputation would shake the individuals’ trust in the administration and lead to undesirable developments in the relationship between people and the administration. The law takes precautions to prevent such a danger and stipulates the weeding out of these kinds of public servants from the administrative organs through their dismissal.”

A media clampdown in Hungary has seen a Constitutional Court rule that website operators are now responsible for any comments to blog posts or articles which may violate media law.

This decision could result in bloggers and other website operators shutting down comments or censoring comments on their sites, for fear of being in breach of the law. This is a clear attack on free speech and internet freedom.

Earlier this month the Hungarian Supreme Court ruled that critical television station ATV had broken a 2010 law against commentary in the press when they described political party Jobbik as "far-right".

According to EU Observer, the court's decision was based on the fact that Jobbik does not call itself a far-right party, so referring to it in that way expresses an opinion.

Considering Jobbik's anti-Roma and anti-Semitic policies, here at fairplanet we think "far-right" sounds like quite a precise description of the party.

At the same time, protestors have been out in force against the sacking of online news site Origo's editor, which occured after the website published a story which alleged that the state secretary of the Prime Minister's office had misused funds.

Another 30 journalists have since resigned from the site in protest.

As many as 500,000 Iraqis were fleeing the city of Mosul and surrounding areas yesterday, as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) insurgents took over Iraq's second largest city.

Caught between the threat of well-known atrocities committed at the hands of ISIS and brutality from Iraqi forces, more than half a million people were attempting to escape on Thursday while thousands of others remained trapped. Meanwhile, ISIS continues to advance towards Baghdad.

ISIS took control of Mosul last week, a city which had been in the control of Iraqi military with support from the US.

The Jihadist militant group, along with its precursor al Qaeda in Iraq, have been operating well outside the law for many years in Mosul. Human Rights watch has documented atrocities including suicide bomb attacks, killing with impunity, torture in detention, executions, discrimination against women and the destruction of religious property. Human Rights Watch says they believe ISIS's crimes may amount to crimes against humanity.

Image credit: Reuters

Fighting between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian militia is fuelling a worsening humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine. Tens of thousands of people are fleeing combat, most of them from the rebel capital of Slavyansk, where almost daily shelling has claimed numerous civilian casualties since late May.

Most residents in the besieged city have been without water, electricity and gas for the past week. Food supplies are limited, and grocery stores smell of rotting food from the lack of refrigeration. Dozens of people queue for drinking water.

About 270 people have died in the east of the country since Kiev launched its "anti-terrorist operation" two months ago, Ukraine's health ministry said on Wednesday. Of those killed, 225 were in Donetsk region, including Slavyansk, where fighting has been heaviest. At least two children have died of shrapnel wounds in Slavyansk this month, according to the health ministry. However, past government estimates have been low, excluding deaths in rebel-held territory.

Appalling conditions in rebel-held towns have caused thousands to flee. The exodus from Slavyansk gathered pace when Ukrainian army shelling intensified at the end of May, with most residents going to the nearby city of Svyatogorsk were they are dependent on the goodwill of locals for housing and food. About 15,000 to 20,000 refugees from Slavyansk have arrived in the city since the end of May, according to mayor Alexander Dzyuba reports the Guardian.