DAWN

“Just days before her imprisonment, Narges… was facing serious health issues and, despite her lack of fear about going to jail, she doubted she could endure this sentence. It is abundantly clear that the security and prison authorities have deliberately obstructed her medical treatment to put pressure on her, a situation that could severely endanger Narges’s life.” said DAWN’s Omid Memarian, re imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.

“In the past few weeks, we saw the US moving dozens of military assets to Israel, including the THAAD [missile defence] system. For me, that is the most important part about the attack: the United States’ blind support that enabled Israel to continue its belligerence around the region,” said DAWN's Raed J..

Join DAWN today, October 28, at 1 PM EST on X Spaces (formerly Twitter) for a timely discussion on "The U.S. Role in the Expanding War in the Middle East," with expert panelists including: Michael Lynk, Annelle Sheline, PhD, Matt Duss, and DAWN's Raed J., Michael Omer-Man and Sarah Leah Whitson. X Spaces Link for today's 1 PM EST event: https://lnkd.in/gyyrsn6w

“Far from being a stabilizing force, the deployment of these [THAAD] missiles raises the stakes for everyone involved, including American military personnel and bases stationed in the region,” writes DAWN’s Raed J.. “Instead of sending more weapons and further fueling escalation, the U.S. should push for a ceasefire in Gaza, which remains the key to defusing the broader regional conflict."

UN member states must secure an immediate ceasefire across Gaza, Lebanon, Israel and the region, and end the impunity that has allowed atrocities by Israeli forces against civilians to continue and escalate, 150 organizations, including DAWN, said in a joint statement. "Governments must do everything in their power to end this growing catastrophe and cycle of impunity. It is not only a moral imperative but a legal obligation. All Member States must prevent further atrocities and ensure that those responsible for any violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, are held accountable," the organizations said. The full statement:

US Senators should vote for resolutions to suspend several arms transfers to Israel in light of repeated apparent violations of international and US law and policy, said 111 organizations, including DAWN, in a joint letter. The letter noted that the resolutions "would block certain sales of joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs) and tank shells, which the Israeli military has repeatedly used in attacks that have killed civilians in densely populated areas." "The Senate will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate that it opposes further suffering and stands for the rule of law and the protection of civilians by supporting the joint resolutions of disapproval introduced on September 25. We endorse Senator Sanders, Welch, and Merkley's resolutions and urge all Senators to cosponsor and vote in favor of their passage," the letter concluded. Read the full letter to US Senators:

U.S.: End Hazardous Military Presence in Jordan The U.S. government should establish a timetable for withdrawing all of its 3,813 military personnel from Jordan, in line with the the recent agreement between Iraq and the U.S. for a withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2026, said DAWN today. Since the outbreak of the Gaza War in 2023, the U.S. has significantly expanded its combat operations in the region to support Israel, inviting escalating counterattacks on U.S. forces in Jordan, harming civilian property there, and endangering Jordanian civilians. "U.S. military forces in Jordan are endangering the country's citizens, as the Biden administration's combat operations to support Israel are inviting retaliatory attacks on U.S. forces in Jordan," DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson said. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ehrqaNZV

DAWN and 18 other organizations have joined forces to support Representative Jim McGovern and his colleagues in urging the Biden-Harris administration to call on Israel to grant independent access to Gaza for U.S. and international journalists. While more than 4,000 international journalists have traveled to Israel to cover the ongoing war, Israel continues to deny them access to Gaza. This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on Palestinian reporters in Gaza to document an ongoing war through which they are living. More than 128 journalists have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Those who remain in Gaza are working in conditions of extreme deprivation and face intimidation, violence, and arrest by Israeli authorities. The full letter to the White House and the State Department:

Invoked against apartheid South Africa, Article 25 is the cornerstone provision in the UN Charter for ensuring international compliance with the decisions of the Security Council. Former UN Special Rapporteur and DAWN fellow Michael Lynk examines how Article 25 can be used to impose accountability on Israel. “Tying Israel’s standing as a UN member state to its full compliance with both international law and the UN Charter itself—hardly a biased standard—should become the test for Israel’s continued role within the world body,” Lynk writes. “The Security Council’s meek approach in confronting the Israeli occupation of Palestine—a multitude of resolutions and statements followed by complete inaction—has created a sustained crisis of confidence in the UN.” Read more from Michael Lynk in DAWN’s Democracy in Exile on why “Article 25 can be a significant part of the answer” to the U.N.'s failure “to bring Israel into full compliance with its obligations as a U.N. member state.”

"President el-Sissi has taken advantage of the crisis created by Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon to position [himself] as an essential mediator in the conflict and really just to distract from Egypt's own disastrous human rights crisis and very deep state corruption," DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson told Deutsche Welle. More about why governments have been ignoring Egypt's dismal human rights record: