United Nations

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has dismissed a UN panel’s ruling that Julian Assange should be allowed to go free, saying that their ruling is “ridiculous”.  The UN panel said that Assange had been “arbitrarily detained” and should receive compensation from the British government. BBC News reports: Philip Hammond rejected the decision, accusing Mr Assange of evading justice. Mr Assange hailed it as a “significant victory”, but the UK government insisted the ruling was not legally binding and the report “changes nothing”.

UN Rules Julian Assange is “Arbitrarily Detained”

Paul Craig Roberts

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that Wikileaks’ Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the “democratic” governments of Sweden and the UK and is entitled to his freedom and compensation for detention by the two “democratic” governments.

U.S. officials have said they intend to continue working on a $1.29 billion sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia, which are to be used on civilians in Yemen.  A Saudi-led coalition is using U.S. missiles in its fight against Yemen which the UN says constitutes a crime against humanity due to their use on the civilian population. Allgov.com reports: The report by the U.N.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki- moon of encouraging terrorists. The remarks followed Ban Ki-moon’s condemnation of Israel’s “provocative” settlements, when he said that the attacks by Palestinians (which he also condemned) are a natural reaction to the occupation. Referring to the Palestinians, Mr Ban said it was human nature for oppressed peoples to react to occupation.

According to a United Nations report released on Tuesday, ISIS are holding around 3,500 people as slaves in Iraq. The report issued jointly by the UN human rights office and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq says that most of those being detained are women and children from Iraq’s Yazidi community. The report said the scale of “systematic and widespread violence” perpetrated by ISIS from May to October 2015 was “staggering, with the enslavement of the Yazidi people being among the worst atrocities documented.