The Speaker News Journal

In recent battles between the South Sudan’s government army and opposition forces, the army has used child soldiers–a violation of South Sudanese and international law–and has drawn the condemnation of Human Rights Watch.

“South Sudan’s army has returned to a terrible practice, once again throwing children into the battlefields,” said the Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Daniel Bekele.

The government began using child soldiers in battles for control of the capital of Unity State this month. Child soldiers were also used in nearby Rubkona, according to Human Rights Watch.

Dozens of military-clad child soldiers were reported to have been fighting in the Bentiu and Rubkona battles.

Child soldiers in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) have been interviewed by Human Rights Watch in the past week, and have detailed their experiences being ordered to fire on opposition forces.

Child soldiers also told Human Rights Watch that the government had begun stationing child soldiers around Bentiu weeks ago.

Read more: UN Should Establish Peace First, Human Rights Later in South Sudan – Foreign Minister

The South Sudanese government has admitted to human rights authorities that they have used children under 18 in their army, but have justified this with claims that children have come to the government seeking protection and work since the fighting broke out.

Authorities have estimated that the government is currently using approximately 60 children in Bentiu and Rubkona. Child soldiers are also being used as government bodyguards, reportedly.

Opposition forces have also used child soldiers since fighting broke out in December of last year. Opposition forces have forcibly recruited hundreds of children from schools and other locations, according to authorities.

“Tens of thousands of children are living in hell inside the UN base because they are not safe outside from attacks on civilians or from being forcibly recruited,” Bekele said. “Both sides should urgently end their attacks on civilians and their recruitment and use of children as soldiers.”

South Sudan has legislation dealing with child soldiers, including a 2008 Child Act that forbids the use of child soldiers and a 2012 action plan signed with the United Nations committing South Sudan to end all recruitment of children under the age of 18 for war. The SPLA also issued a general order forbidding the recruitment of child soldiers last summer.

Rebel leader Riek Machar also signed a commitment in May with the UN to prevent harm against children, including recruitment.

Although recruitment increased upon the outbreak of fighting, the South Sudanese government in June made a new commitment to having a “child-free army.”

Under the international laws of war, also, the recruitment of children under 15 for war is a crime.

Shortly before the outbreak of violence in South Sudan last December, the UN secretary-general had reported that the nation had made tangible progress in ending its recruitment of child soldiers.

“Civilian and military leaders should immediately remove all children from their ranks and return them to their families,” said Bekele.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Warsaw has asked the European Commission to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding Russia’s ban on EU food imports. The impact of the Russian embargo is being analyzed by the EU and preliminary EU consultations about the case are already underway.

“Regarding the WTO, the Commissioner informed the minister (Poland’s Marek Sawicki) that the Commission is actively preparing a procedure for a possible launching of a request for consultations under the WTO dispute settlement procedure,” European Commission spokesman Peter Stano stated.

The Russian ban has affected the Polish market in particularly. Poland’s exports to Russia amounted to $1.5bn last year. The Polish minister of economy sent a request to the European Trade Commissioner, who represents EU members in all WTO cases.

Preliminary EU consultations were already underway in the lawsuit, according to Polish officials, who also have stated that the US, Australia and Canada will also be important to the case, and that Polish Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski is expected to engage those nations.

The Russian ban was ordered as a response to economic sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment for Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and further incursions in Ukraine over the past months.

The EU Commission is carefully analyzing the impact of the Russian embargo, according to Stano, and the first decisions about the lawsuit could be made around September 12, according to the Polish agriculture minister.

Russia would be liable to pay fines for violating regulations in open markets, should the WTO find for the Polish cause.

The case is uncertain however. Although the EU justifies its sanctions against Russia as a response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and arming, advising and promoting conflict in Easter Ukraine, Russia argues that it has acted legally and is not aiding pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Instead of a group of technocrats, such as is expected to serve South Sudan as an interim government, South Sudan’s Citizens for Peace and Justice society group has proposed a “consociation” government and atypical power sharing as an alternative that may be more amenable to bringing together the conflicting factions participating in South Sudan’s civil unrest.

“Power sharing is a type of consociation,” said the secretary of the Citizens for Peace and Justice, David Deng.

In a consociation government power is shared differently from common governments, Deng explained.

“Typically, power sharing is between the two parties that have military power.

“For example, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was a power sharing arrangement where the national government in Sudan and the [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] SPLM in the south shared power amongst themselves.”

A consociation government is an atypical system of government wherein various–sometimes antagonistic–social groups are brought together in cooperation on the basis of shared power.

“A consociation is more inclusive and it will involve the different stakeholders.

“The opposition political parties would be involved. The former political detainees would be involved in addition to the two warring parties, and then civil society would be given a robust role in terms of monitoring the implementation of the agreement, in terms of emphasizing the principles and values.”

South Sudanese civil society groups are also proposing that the transition period should be two to three year, according to Deng.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

 

Russian police blocked demonstrations in Novosibisrk and several other locations of Russia Sunday. The demonstrations had been organized to call for the Russian government to observe constitutional rights in Russia.

The “March for the Federalization of Siberia” was set to take place Sunday in Siberia and parts in the south of Russia, but was banned in advance by Russian authorities. Demands of the demonstrators included deomcratically elected officials and a more fair distribution of Siberian revenue.

Despite the ban, around a dozen activists picketed in Novosibirsk. Signs displayed by the activists read “Putin, stop stealing from Siberia!” and “Bring taxes back to Siberia, bring elections back!”

A primary complaint of the federalists is that although gubernatorial elections were reinstated in 2013, the Russian government maintains a “municipal filter” system, by which they can rule out candidates they do not want to run for office. Another main complaint regards revenue generated in Siberia, which is transferred to Moscow and does not return, allegedly.

At least nine pro-Siberia activists were detained. Six organizers were arrested in Novosibirsk and a neighboring region. Another organizer was arrested in Kuban in southern Russia. Two activists were detained at a pro-federalization picket in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

Four Novosibirsk organizers were held as part of a potential criminal case, and another two were detained on suspicition of stealing a mobil phone and held in custody during the protest day. The Kuban woman was detained for 14 days on charges of hooliganism after unknown men began arguing with her on the street. The Yekaterinburg activists were charged with resisting police, reportedly.

In Omsk, Siberia a pro-Siberian rally was barred from the central square by police, who claimed that the central square was already occupied by another rally purposing to gather aid for Eastern Ukraine.

Critics have pointed out that the same support for federalism banned by the Russian government in Siberia is supported by the Russian government in Eastern Ukraine. Pro-Siberia activists have said that the two movements are different in that the Siberian federalists do not want to separate–they want only more rights and economic freedoms for the regions.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron will speak on a change to UK policy making Sunday. Cameron is expected to officially admit that legislation has caused children and parents to suffer, while introducing mandatory impact assessments whereby the government must formally consider the effects of policies on families, in addition to considerations regarding cost effectiveness and the environment.

The Prime Minister will use the speech to admit that children and parents have often suffered as a result of legislation.

From October, Whitehall impact assessments for policies will be instituted to formally consider effects on families, along with factors such as cost effectiveness and the environment.

“I want every government department to be held to account for the impact of their policies on the family,” Cameron is expected to say.

“The reality is that in the past the family just hasn’t been central to the way government thinks, so you get a whole load of policy decisions which take no account of the family and sometimes make these things worse.

“Whether it’s the benefits system incentivizing couples to live apart or penalizing those who go out to work or whether it’s excessive bureaucracy preventing loving couples from adopting children with no family at all.

“We can’t go on having government taking decisions like this which ignore the impact on the family.

“I said previously that we would introduce a family test into government. Now that test is being formalised as part of the impact assessment for all domestic policies.

“Put simply, that means every single domestic policy that government comes up with will be examined for its impact on the family.”

The new impact assessment measures will become part of the formal Whitehall process in October.

The speech is part of a campaign by the UK government to help troubled families. The new phase of the program will target 500,000 families–a quadrupling of the initial phase of the project. The new phase will be started first in the 50 local authorities which have so far been most successful in implementing the initial stages of the project.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

China has reportedly paid tens of thousands of protesters to march against Hong Kong’s democratic movement. The rally’s organizers, Alliance for Peace and Democracy, demonstrated Sunday against Hong Kong’s Occupy Central with Love and Peace–which is proposing a change in Hong Kong’s electoral system.

Eighty to 90 thousand participants took part in the Sunday afternoon protest march, according to Hong Kong University’s Public Opinion Program.

However, strong allegations that organizers paid the protesters immediately emerged.

A reporter for Now News, a Hong Kong TV news channel, attended the protest and received $50 and a meal for his participation. When the reporter returned the money and identified himself, he was told that the money was that of one of the protest organizers.

In addition, many of the marchers were said to have been mainland Chinese–not Hong Kong residents.

The Alliance for Peace and Democracy protest was a response to a movement in Hong Kong to change the electoral system. Currently, the Chinese Communist Party has the prerogative to filter out candidates for the chief executive office of Hong Kong. A recent Hong Kong Occupy protest that took place July 1 saw over 150,000 protesters turn out.

By Day Blakely Donaldson