World Bank fails to protect indigenous people

Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani denied accusations that his country funds extremist groups in Syria, while stressing the Persian Gulf state's commitment to the US-led campaign against ISIL, operating in Iraq and Syria.

However, according to Foreign Policy (FP), the emirate of Qatar "has pumped tens of millions of dollars through obscure funding networks to hard-line Syrian rebels and extremist Salafists..."

The FP report points out that a network of Islamist-leaning proxies spans former Syrian generals, Taliban insurgents, Somali Islamists, and Sudanese rebels plays a major role in "destabilizing nearly every trouble spot in the region and in accelerating the growth of radical and jihadi factions."

Over the last 15 years "Doha has become a de facto operating hub for a deeply interconnected community of Salafists living in Qatar but also in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and elsewhere." says Elizabeth Dickinson, author of the FP report.

So far the U.S. seems to having playing along while Qatar was offering various violent groups a platform with access to "money, media, and political capital."

The question is whether and how this could change, now that Qatar joined Washington's campaign against ISIL.

Syrian refugees are bearing the brunt of increased violence from Lebanese citizens in response to the Lebanese army's battle with Islamic State militants.

Lebanese authorities are failing to protect the refugees from this illogical anger, says Human Rights Watch.

"The attacks against Syrians, most of them refugees, are being carried out in a climate of official indifference and discrimination, with the violence appearing in some cases to be attempts to expel Syrians from specific neighborhoods or to enforce curfews."

In August and September the human rights watchdog documented 11 violent attacks by Lebanese civilians, including some involving knives and guns.

The perpetrators made it known to the victims that they were being targeted because of their nationality.

"Almost all victims indicated that they did not trust the Lebanese authorities to protect them or to investigate the attacks," reports Human Rights Watch.

"In at least four cases, witnesses reported that the attacks took place in full view of Lebanese security forces, who did not intervene."

Lebanese authorities have a duty to protect all those under their jurisdiction, and that means refugees, too. Security forces must not turn a blind eye to violence, particularly against some of the most vulnerable members of society.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) released the world’s most comprehensive tally to date of migrant fatalities across land and sea, called “Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration”.

With a count surpassing 40,000 victims since 2000, IOM calls on all the world’s governments to address what it describes as “an epidemic of crime and victimization.”

“Our message is blunt: migrants are dying who need not,” said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, “It is time to do more than count the number of victims. It is time to engage the world to stop this violence against desperate migrants.”

The research behind “Fatal Journeys,” which runs to over 200 pages, began with the October 2013 tragedy when over 400 migrants died in two shipwrecks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The report, compiled under IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, indicates Europe is the world’s most dangerous destination for “irregular” migration, costing the lives of over 3,000 migrants this year.

Calculations based on incidents compiled by The Migrants Files, a joint project conducted under the aegis of Journalism++ , suggests over 22,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe since 2000, mainly on treacherous routes across the Mediterranean Sea.

Further information about IOM can be retrieved here.

As Hong Kong opened for business on Monday, protests continued across the city, blocking roads and closing schools.

The protests, the latest wave beginning over the weekend, were in response to Beijing's announcement of tight controls over who can run for the next elections in 2017.

Under the "one country, two systems" framework agreed upon when Hong Kong became independent of Britain in 1997, the city state's citizens had been promised universal suffrage for electing their next chief executive. But Beijing's announcement puts this in jeopardy.

The latest pro-democracy protests led to mass arrests and the use of tear gas by riot police. But thousands of people refused to back down, employing the "hands up" gesture used in Ferguson, Missouri last month.

In response, Beijing censored any mention of the protests in mainland China's media, and blocked Instagram in a likely attempt to avoid citizen journalism. It had already been suspected that Beijing was using propaganda to quell the protestors - censorship was just the next step.

By making the statement that jailed scholar and Uighur activist Ilham Tohti is not the Chinese Mandela, Chinese state media has thus made him so.

On Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary in English decrying the "irritating comparison" made between Nelson Mandela and Tohti, an economics professor and critic of China's ethnic policies, who was sentenced to life imprisonment the same day.

Tohti, who has worked at Beijing’s Minzu University, was charged with separatism.

Human rights groups, as well as Western governments and activists, have condemned his sentence, which could be considered an attempt to silence the last Uighur activist who is still living in China.

Tohti, who belongs to the minority ethnic group Uighur, is known for seeking peaceful solutions to the racial inequality his people face.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Xinhua News Agency's commentary took exception to the idea, implied by the Mandela-Tohti comparison, that China had colonised the Xinjiang autonomous region - and home of the Uighur - the same way the British and Dutch had colonised South Africa.

Whatever their complaints, if we didn't know the Chinese Mandela and his people before, we sure do now.

The Right Livelihood award was established in 1980 to honour and support those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.

Indeed, according to Ole von Uexkull, executive director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, “this year’s Right Livelihood laureates are stemming the tide of the most dangerous global trends. With this year’s awards, we want to send a message of urgent warning that these trends – illegal mass surveillance of ordinary citizens, the violation of human and civil rights, violent manifestations of religious fundamentalism, and the decline of the planet’s life-supporting systems – are very much upon us already. If they are allowed to continue, and reinforce each other, they have the power to undermine the basis of civilised societies”.

2014 Awards honour courageous and effective work for human rights, freedom of the press, civil liberties and combatting climate change.

The 2014 Right Livelihood Honorary Award goes to EDWARD SNOWDEN (USA) “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”and to ALAN RUSBRIDGER (UK) “for building a global media organisation dedicated to responsible journalism in the public interest, undaunted by the challenges of exposing corporate and government malpractices”.

The Jury further recognises ASMA JAHANGIR (Pakistan) “for defending, protecting and promoting human rights in Pakistan and more widely, often in very difficult and complex situations and at great personal risk”. It is the first time that a Right Livelihood Award goes to Pakistan.

The Jury awards BASIL FERNANDO/ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (Hong Kong SAR/China) “for his tireless and outstanding work to support and document the implementation of human rights in Asia”.

The Jury recognises BILL McKIBBEN (USA) “for mobilising growing popular support in the USA and around the world for strong action to counter the threat of global climate change”.

Over the weekend the largest climate march in history across 2000 other communities around the world.

More than two million people signed Avaaz's climate change petition, which was presented to Ban Ki Moon in New York.

As world leaders meet there this week for a UN climate summit, check out this incredible interactive map from The Guardian, that shows which nations pollute the most, how this has changed over time, and who is most at risk.

Yesterday, Fifa Executive Committee member Theo Zwanziger, said he believes the 2022 World Cup will not be played in Qatar.

The computer generated image from Qatar's FIFA pitch shows Lusail City that will host the final. However, Lusail City doesn't even exist yet. The picture appears like a metaphor for how the Qatari committee sold the games to the FIFA: a fairytale-like world that actually doesn't exist.

The Qatar games could be the most absurd scenario in the history of the global tournament. Consider for a second the initial idea of these world spanning sport events: to battle against each other in a peaceful manner. However, more than 1,500 workers died so far during the ongoing construction process - and this number will most likely increase.

The Business Insider impressively presents 17 reasons why the Qatari World Cup is already a disaster - from modern day slavery, homophobic laws, enormous numbers of bribe to serious medical concerns due to totally inappropriate climate conditions.

Theo Zwanziger's belated de facto rejection of the games primarily relates to climate conditions without any reference to the dubious political nature of Qatar as a host country.

However, according to the Guardian, there is evidence that “Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra”, an al-Qaida group operating in Syria. While there is no evidence to suggest Qatar’s regime is directly funding Isis, "powerful private individuals within the state certainly are, and arms intended for other jihadi groups are likely to have fallen into their hands. According to a secret memo signed by Hillary Clinton, released by Wikileaks, Qatar has the worst record of counter-terrorism cooperation with the US."

This week the Australian parliament is debating changes to national security laws with the aim of countering terrorism.

However, the proposed laws risk criminalising the work of whisteblowers, journalists and human rights activists, argues Elain Pearson in an opinion piece for Human Rights Watch.

The proposed changes are being debated less than a week after the Australian police foiled an Islamist terror plot which would have seen an Australian civilian chosen at random and beheaded on camera.

Australia is one of the Western nations with the highest proportion of Muslims having left to fight in Syria and, more recently, join ISIS.

While the timing of these two events is merely coincidence, the Australian public, having so recently faced a serious terrorist threat, is likely to be supportive of measures that aim to ramp up security.

But Pearson says the parliament shouldn't be too hasty to adopt the laws, which would see people imprisoned for five years for disclosing information related to special intelligence operations.

"Punishing those who leak security information or publish it can be problematic because it suppresses information that may be vital for the exercise and protection of human rights, accountability and democratic governance", she writes.

"Some of the most significant revelations of human rights violations come from disclosures of once-secret information relating to the misconduct of security agencies. If this amendment passes, lawyers, journalists and activists could be prosecuted simply for doing their jobs of holding the government to account."

Intelligence, whistleblowing and human rights are all a theme in Oceania right now.

Just last Monday, New Zealand saw whistleblower Edward Snowden andWikileaks' Julain Assange attend a election rally via video conference to give evidence that the New Zealand government is spying on its citizens, which it denies.