2016 must be Women, peace and security year, ICAI HOKOK defend both female , and male human rights, also any other human rights , but as we notice that many countries started to change some rules for women for example, at the end of 2015 , women in Saudi Arabia began registering to vote for the first time in the nation’s history.
World has witnessed tremendous progress case the number of women in the work force has increased, we notice that there is almost gender parity in schooling at the primary level, and more women are in leadership positions. Importantly, governments talk about women’s rights as human rights and women's rights and gender equality are acknowledged as legitimate and indispensable goals.
HOKOK seeks- through its actions and activities- to be part of civil society movements that work to create a world in which peace, freedom and dignity are the norm, not the exceptions. In addition to conducting conferences, training to human rights defenders, and workshops, HOKOK has also filed a number of complaints before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Holland, the European Court of Human Rights as well as other international courts. Most of the filed complaints pertain to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in: Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain, CAR, Turkey and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
SYRIA
ICAI HOKOK has filed complaints concerning a new kind of crimes committed in the Republic of Syria and especially Aleppo; these crimes are classified under the economic crimes.
Although the main purpose of these crimes shall be economic; but to reach their aim, the criminals have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A number of Syrian citizens, owners of factories and plants in Aleppo and belonging to different religious sects, pro- and anti-government supporters, have referred to our organization as a result of the criminal acts committed by the terrorist groups sent and supported by Turkey, Israel, USA and some Arab countries.
The said countries are facilitating the entry of non-Syrian mercenaries and armed forces from different nationalities in the purpose of stealing those people’s factories, including all the equipment and tools, killing the owners and the security guards, and burning all the equipment that are impossible to be transferred outside Syria.
Then, the organization has made a study regarding all the war crimes, massacres, genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the terrorist groups in Syria, in which states the rules and legal analyses in accordance with the international standards.
ICAI/HOKOK also sheds the light on the western support of mercenaries:
“The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups, irregulars or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force against another State” is a crime of aggression.
Although the main purpose of these crimes shall be economic; but to reach their aim, the criminals have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A number of Syrian citizens, owners of factories and plants in Aleppo and belonging to different religious sects, pro- and anti-government supporters, have referred to our organization as a result of the criminal acts committed by the terrorist groups sent and supported by Turkey, Israel, USA and some Arab countries.
The said countries are facilitating the entry of non-Syrian mercenaries and armed forces from different nationalities in the purpose of stealing those people’s factories, including all the equipment and tools, killing the owners and the security guards, and burning all the equipment that are impossible to be transferred outside Syria.
Then, the organization has made a study regarding all the war crimes, massacres, genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the terrorist groups in Syria, in which states the rules and legal analyses in accordance with the international standards.
ICAI/HOKOK also sheds the light on the western support of mercenaries:
“The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups, irregulars or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force against another State” is a crime of aggression.
LEBANON
After July 2006 war on Lebanon, ICAI HOKOK held many conferences, wrote reports and filed several complaints regarding the gruesome crimes committed by Israel against civilians in Lebanon.
While gruesome images have been released by accredited news agencies including Reuters, Agence France Press and the Associated Press, they are casually dismissed; they are not considered as “reliable evidence” of war crimes.
There is, in this regard, a deliberate media cover-up of Israeli sponsored crimes and atrocities. Civilian casualties continue to be presented in media reports as “collateral damage”.
Laser guided missiles and “smart bombs” are very precise. They rarely miss their target. When residential buildings, schools or hospitals are targeted, this means civilians will be killed. These actions, ordered by Israel’s IDF are quite deliberate. They are carried out with meticulous accuracy.
The atrocities are beyond description. Israel has being using, quite deliberately, deadly “weapons of mass destruction” in the real sense of the word against Lebanese civilians.
Israel is involved in crimes against humanity and the so-called international community unreservedly supports Israel’s right to “self defense”.
Moreover, in providing a green light to Israel to continue its criminal bombings, the Bush administration was directly responsible for these atrocities.
No compassion on the part of Western leaders. “War is good for business”. The killings are for profit and political gain.
The entire Western media was silent, focusing ad nauseam on the alleged terrorist actions of Hezbollah, its “links to Iran and Syria”, the rescue of Western expatriates, etc. But not a word on the destruction of an entire nation. What Israel was doing, in a very concrete sense, is “wiping Lebanon off the face of the map”, to use a familiar expression.
By destroying its civilian infrastructure and killing its people, Israel “questions Lebanon’s right to exist” as a sovereign nation.
Is this what is called “the clash of civilizations”?
We are dealing with the criminalization of the Western media. If atrocities of this nature are not reported or acknowledged, what are the implications? The end of “civilized society”?
It is time for the real war criminals, the real terrorists to be prosecuted. Extensive sanctions should be adopted against the Israeli government.
Political leaders and diplomats who endorse the Israeli sponsored killings must understand that they too can be prosecuted within their respective jurisdictions.
While gruesome images have been released by accredited news agencies including Reuters, Agence France Press and the Associated Press, they are casually dismissed; they are not considered as “reliable evidence” of war crimes.
There is, in this regard, a deliberate media cover-up of Israeli sponsored crimes and atrocities. Civilian casualties continue to be presented in media reports as “collateral damage”.
Laser guided missiles and “smart bombs” are very precise. They rarely miss their target. When residential buildings, schools or hospitals are targeted, this means civilians will be killed. These actions, ordered by Israel’s IDF are quite deliberate. They are carried out with meticulous accuracy.
The atrocities are beyond description. Israel has being using, quite deliberately, deadly “weapons of mass destruction” in the real sense of the word against Lebanese civilians.
Israel is involved in crimes against humanity and the so-called international community unreservedly supports Israel’s right to “self defense”.
Moreover, in providing a green light to Israel to continue its criminal bombings, the Bush administration was directly responsible for these atrocities.
No compassion on the part of Western leaders. “War is good for business”. The killings are for profit and political gain.
The entire Western media was silent, focusing ad nauseam on the alleged terrorist actions of Hezbollah, its “links to Iran and Syria”, the rescue of Western expatriates, etc. But not a word on the destruction of an entire nation. What Israel was doing, in a very concrete sense, is “wiping Lebanon off the face of the map”, to use a familiar expression.
By destroying its civilian infrastructure and killing its people, Israel “questions Lebanon’s right to exist” as a sovereign nation.
Is this what is called “the clash of civilizations”?
We are dealing with the criminalization of the Western media. If atrocities of this nature are not reported or acknowledged, what are the implications? The end of “civilized society”?
It is time for the real war criminals, the real terrorists to be prosecuted. Extensive sanctions should be adopted against the Israeli government.
Political leaders and diplomats who endorse the Israeli sponsored killings must understand that they too can be prosecuted within their respective jurisdictions.
PALESTINE
The International Coalition against Impunity has started its works by filing complaints over Israeli crimes against Palestine. Until now, the organization has put before the international courts more than 17 complaints to defend the Palestinian people. Once again, the Israeli authorities refused to cooperate with requests to provide information on children in the Palestinian territories and occupied Syrian Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war, since its last review in 2002, and Israel’s failure to implement most of its recommendations from earlier investigations.
The last 10 years include the violent suppression of the second Intifada that started in September 2000, the assault on the West Bank in 2002, and several military campaigns against Gaza, including in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012 and most recently in 2015.
Israeli soldiers arrested Palestinian youth regularly during night-time raids, tying the children’s hands painfully and blindfolding them, and often transferring them to detention centers without informing their parents. Israeli soldiers testified to the often arbitrary nature of the arrests.
The arrested Palestinian children were systematically subjected to physical and verbal abuse and threatened with death, physical violence and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, as well as having limited access to toilets, food and water.
The organization was deeply concerned about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police.
These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pre-trial detention. As well, Palestinian children arrested by [Israeli] military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they do not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released.
In no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights. All children prosecuted for offences they allegedly committed should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards, which provide them with special protection.
Many were brought in leg chains and shackles before military courts, while youths were held in solitary confinement, sometimes for months.
In its complaints, the organization highlighted the large number of Palestinian children who have been held in Israeli jails—an estimated 7,000 aged from 12 to 17 years, but sometimes as young as 9, have been arrested, interrogated and detained since 2002—an average of two per day. Most of them were detained after being accused of throwing stones at Israeli security forces and settlers, an offence that can carry a 20-year penalty.
To give this some perspective: with a Palestinian population of 3.5 million in the occupied territories, it means that 1 in 50 Palestinian families have had their youngsters imprisoned in the last 10 years. There can be few people on earth for whom child detention been such a central issue in their lives and the lives of their families.
HOKOK reposted as well the continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants; 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013 alone. The Israeli soldiers had used Palestinian children to enter potentially dangerous buildings ahead of them and to stand in front of military vehicles to deter stone-throwing.
Almost all those using children as human shields and informants have remained unpunished, and the soldiers convicted for having forced at gunpoint a nine-year-old child to search bags suspected of containing explosives only received a suspended sentence of three months and were demoted.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed and thousands injured over the reporting period as a result of the state party [Israel] military operations, especially in Gaza where the state party proceeded to conduct air and naval strikes on densely populated areas with a significant presence of children, thus disregarding the principles of proportionality and distinction.
It attributed the increasing levels of poverty and chronic malnutrition, and the acute water shortage faced by Palestinian children and their families, to the Israeli occupation and the measures taken by Israel to expand the settlements on Palestinian land, construct the Security Wall within the West Bank, and maintain the six-year-long blockade on Gaza.
Such inhumane practices—and Israel’s response—are the necessary concomitant of its occupation and land grab, both of which are illegal under international law and are opposed by the Palestinians.
The silence from the US and European as well as regional powers—including those who have long used the plight of the Palestinians to boost their own tattered credentials —and media outlets, apart from brief summaries of the report, has been deafening.
The last 10 years include the violent suppression of the second Intifada that started in September 2000, the assault on the West Bank in 2002, and several military campaigns against Gaza, including in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012 and most recently in 2015.
Israeli soldiers arrested Palestinian youth regularly during night-time raids, tying the children’s hands painfully and blindfolding them, and often transferring them to detention centers without informing their parents. Israeli soldiers testified to the often arbitrary nature of the arrests.
The arrested Palestinian children were systematically subjected to physical and verbal abuse and threatened with death, physical violence and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, as well as having limited access to toilets, food and water.
The organization was deeply concerned about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police.
These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pre-trial detention. As well, Palestinian children arrested by [Israeli] military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they do not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released.
In no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights. All children prosecuted for offences they allegedly committed should be treated in accordance with international juvenile justice standards, which provide them with special protection.
Many were brought in leg chains and shackles before military courts, while youths were held in solitary confinement, sometimes for months.
In its complaints, the organization highlighted the large number of Palestinian children who have been held in Israeli jails—an estimated 7,000 aged from 12 to 17 years, but sometimes as young as 9, have been arrested, interrogated and detained since 2002—an average of two per day. Most of them were detained after being accused of throwing stones at Israeli security forces and settlers, an offence that can carry a 20-year penalty.
To give this some perspective: with a Palestinian population of 3.5 million in the occupied territories, it means that 1 in 50 Palestinian families have had their youngsters imprisoned in the last 10 years. There can be few people on earth for whom child detention been such a central issue in their lives and the lives of their families.
HOKOK reposted as well the continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants; 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013 alone. The Israeli soldiers had used Palestinian children to enter potentially dangerous buildings ahead of them and to stand in front of military vehicles to deter stone-throwing.
Almost all those using children as human shields and informants have remained unpunished, and the soldiers convicted for having forced at gunpoint a nine-year-old child to search bags suspected of containing explosives only received a suspended sentence of three months and were demoted.
Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed and thousands injured over the reporting period as a result of the state party [Israel] military operations, especially in Gaza where the state party proceeded to conduct air and naval strikes on densely populated areas with a significant presence of children, thus disregarding the principles of proportionality and distinction.
It attributed the increasing levels of poverty and chronic malnutrition, and the acute water shortage faced by Palestinian children and their families, to the Israeli occupation and the measures taken by Israel to expand the settlements on Palestinian land, construct the Security Wall within the West Bank, and maintain the six-year-long blockade on Gaza.
Such inhumane practices—and Israel’s response—are the necessary concomitant of its occupation and land grab, both of which are illegal under international law and are opposed by the Palestinians.
The silence from the US and European as well as regional powers—including those who have long used the plight of the Palestinians to boost their own tattered credentials —and media outlets, apart from brief summaries of the report, has been deafening.
BAHRAIN
The International Coalition against Impunity (HOKOK), has filed lawsuits against Bahrain's ruling al-Khalifa family at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, over the severe suppression of peaceful anti-government protesters in the country.
The members of the organization deem, in this case, that the world should not turn a blind eye on the human rights violations that are continuously taking place in Bahrain against unarmed civilians.
HOKOK’s lawsuits were brought against Bahrain's ruling family at the international criminal court over the Manama regime's heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful Bahraini protesters because what is happening in Bahrain really are crimes against humanity, it's very dangerous and nobody is talking about these crimes. The regime is bombarding civilians with heavy artillery and even airplanes.
ICAI HOKOK criticized the international community, particularly the Western countries, over the silence on Bahrain, and urged who call themselves democratic institutions to accelerate efforts against the crimes committed in Bahrain.
The coalition is backed by documents and undeniable pieces of evidence that the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime has carried out harsh army attacks on protesters, killing dozens of people, including rights' activists that died under torture. Hundreds of others have also been arrested and are being interrogated and forced to sign declarations under torture. Regime forces have also shamelessly attacked dozens of mosques, schools, holy sites, and even graveyards in their efforts to suppress the opposition movement. The efforts of ICAI HOKOK turned successful, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay censured the Bahraini government for arresting hundreds of anti-government protesters and even putting doctors and nurses on trial at military court.
The members of the organization deem, in this case, that the world should not turn a blind eye on the human rights violations that are continuously taking place in Bahrain against unarmed civilians.
HOKOK’s lawsuits were brought against Bahrain's ruling family at the international criminal court over the Manama regime's heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful Bahraini protesters because what is happening in Bahrain really are crimes against humanity, it's very dangerous and nobody is talking about these crimes. The regime is bombarding civilians with heavy artillery and even airplanes.
ICAI HOKOK criticized the international community, particularly the Western countries, over the silence on Bahrain, and urged who call themselves democratic institutions to accelerate efforts against the crimes committed in Bahrain.
The coalition is backed by documents and undeniable pieces of evidence that the Saudi-backed Bahraini regime has carried out harsh army attacks on protesters, killing dozens of people, including rights' activists that died under torture. Hundreds of others have also been arrested and are being interrogated and forced to sign declarations under torture. Regime forces have also shamelessly attacked dozens of mosques, schools, holy sites, and even graveyards in their efforts to suppress the opposition movement. The efforts of ICAI HOKOK turned successful, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay censured the Bahraini government for arresting hundreds of anti-government protesters and even putting doctors and nurses on trial at military court.
TURKEY
The International Coalition against Impunity (HOKOK) has denounced the policy of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who used to claim the adoption of democracy while he is leading his country in a terrorist manner and destroying the Turkish civilization and profits. HOKOK has also condemned the corruption spread all over the family of Erdogan himself, who distributed the national donations and wealth to his sons, sons-in-law, relatives and senior officials of the Turkish army, security forces, and his party as well as in his government in order to gain their loyalty.
The organization reveals in its complaints filed against Erdogan the crackdown on protesters recently by beating them and using rubber and live bullets as well as asphyxiant and blazing gas against peaceful protesters. The heads of the Bar Association and Doctors’ Union stated that the security forces has arrested thousands of people and has caused the injury of more than 2000 people as well as the death of people, after more than 60 Turkish metropolis held protests against Erdogan. The organization also mentioned the great pressure exerted on anti-government media in order to prevent it from broadcasting the pictures and news of the latest developments over the last three days.
ICAI-HOKOK sees that these acts represent Erdogan’s passion to acquisition and hegemony throughout his rule, which was very clear in the recent events, after Erdogan’s government has put journalists in jail, tapped their phones and e-mails and pursued them by the security services, as well as the interference of Erdogan and his party in the personal affairs of people.
In this context, HOKOK has stressed that Turkey is one of the countries the most condemned by the European Court of Human Rights regarding several matters, including the Turkey’s violation of the European Convention of Human Rights, the inhuman or degrading treatment while dispersing a protest hold in Istanbul in 2001 by using force, the exile of an Iraqi Kurdish family unlawfully, the assassination of the journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 as Ankara failed to protect this journalist of Armenian origin, the Turkish violation of Article III (prohibition of torture and inhumane or degrading treatment) and Article V, the third paragraph (the right to liberty and security) of the European Convention of Human Rights, as well as the maltreatment of women during their arrest.
Most recently, HOKOK is working on a lawsuit to be filed before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, against Turkish authorities for its support to terrorist organizations, including IS, to achieve its political targets.
The organization reveals in its complaints filed against Erdogan the crackdown on protesters recently by beating them and using rubber and live bullets as well as asphyxiant and blazing gas against peaceful protesters. The heads of the Bar Association and Doctors’ Union stated that the security forces has arrested thousands of people and has caused the injury of more than 2000 people as well as the death of people, after more than 60 Turkish metropolis held protests against Erdogan. The organization also mentioned the great pressure exerted on anti-government media in order to prevent it from broadcasting the pictures and news of the latest developments over the last three days.
ICAI-HOKOK sees that these acts represent Erdogan’s passion to acquisition and hegemony throughout his rule, which was very clear in the recent events, after Erdogan’s government has put journalists in jail, tapped their phones and e-mails and pursued them by the security services, as well as the interference of Erdogan and his party in the personal affairs of people.
In this context, HOKOK has stressed that Turkey is one of the countries the most condemned by the European Court of Human Rights regarding several matters, including the Turkey’s violation of the European Convention of Human Rights, the inhuman or degrading treatment while dispersing a protest hold in Istanbul in 2001 by using force, the exile of an Iraqi Kurdish family unlawfully, the assassination of the journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 as Ankara failed to protect this journalist of Armenian origin, the Turkish violation of Article III (prohibition of torture and inhumane or degrading treatment) and Article V, the third paragraph (the right to liberty and security) of the European Convention of Human Rights, as well as the maltreatment of women during their arrest.
Most recently, HOKOK is working on a lawsuit to be filed before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, against Turkish authorities for its support to terrorist organizations, including IS, to achieve its political targets.
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
ICAI/HOKOK has filed a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. In the complaint, the organization has denounced the violence against four princesses from the Royal Family and their deprivation of their freedom, in addition to their simplest human rights to obtain their rights in accordance with the Islamic Shariaa, like their brothers and sisters, and forcing them to live under hard conditions.
HOKOK has called on His Majesty Abdullah Ben Abdel Aziz Al Saoud to take the decision to put an end to the oppression and injustice against the Princesses, and to stop psychological and material violence against them; and therefore, give them their rights after releasing them.
The coalition was represented by 25 lawyers from around the globe in order to condemn The Kingdom's officials responsible for the scolding and oppression of the four princesses. Just in time when His Highness, the King of Saudi Arabia, issued a decree permitting Saudi Women to work and participate in the Shura Council, the Attorney At Law and President of HOKOK May El Khansa, was contacted by the mother of those princesses to initiate a wide spread global campaign to save her daughters, raising this cause in front of Arab and International courts of justice. "Praising His Highness's' decision, the coalition noted that there are Four first line princesses are being held in custody and subjected to psychological and physical violence, deprived of their human rights. Therefore, the mother of those four princesses raised her concern to the king, asking him about her daughters' human rights while they haven't been allowed to see her for 10 years, even though they are all adults.
HOKOK has called on His Majesty Abdullah Ben Abdel Aziz Al Saoud to take the decision to put an end to the oppression and injustice against the Princesses, and to stop psychological and material violence against them; and therefore, give them their rights after releasing them.
The coalition was represented by 25 lawyers from around the globe in order to condemn The Kingdom's officials responsible for the scolding and oppression of the four princesses. Just in time when His Highness, the King of Saudi Arabia, issued a decree permitting Saudi Women to work and participate in the Shura Council, the Attorney At Law and President of HOKOK May El Khansa, was contacted by the mother of those princesses to initiate a wide spread global campaign to save her daughters, raising this cause in front of Arab and International courts of justice. "Praising His Highness's' decision, the coalition noted that there are Four first line princesses are being held in custody and subjected to psychological and physical violence, deprived of their human rights. Therefore, the mother of those four princesses raised her concern to the king, asking him about her daughters' human rights while they haven't been allowed to see her for 10 years, even though they are all adults.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
ICAI/HOKOK has filed a complaint before the International Criminal Court regarding the ongoing attacks on civilians and the widespread human rights abuses in CAR, and it constantly urged the United Nations to investigate war crimes committed in the Central African Republic and prosecute perpetrators of such crimes in the war torn country; thus, the United Nations Security Council members visited, on March 09, for the first time the Central African Republic to investigate these crimes. HOKOK has called on them to denounce these attacks against civilians, including Muslims trapped and to remind all sides that those responsible for the crimes will be held to account, in addition to improving protection for civilians and ensuring justice for the brutal killings that have ravaged the country.
YEMEN
The International Coalition against Impunity (HOKOK) has defended the Yemeni people before the ICC COURT against the Saudi-US military aggression on Yemen.
