The next chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, laid out plans on Friday for tougher action against faith leaders who spew hate and promote violence between religious groups.
Mr Khan, who will replace the current court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda when she steps down in June, called for new ways to tackle "hate preachers" in the Middle East, who he said should be barred from politics.
He currently heads the UN’s investigative team helping Iraq’s government to prosecute ex-members of ISIS who followed former spiritual leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi’s call to kill and enslave Yazidis and other minorities.
“One cannot preach hate and then be involved in peace,” Mr Khan told the UN Security Council on Friday.
“It is obviously a requirement upon decision-makers, UN member states and the council to involve in peace processes where possible those that have either renounced violence and hate or have never been involved in it in the first place.”
As well as pushing hate preachers out of the public sphere, Mr Khan called for better systems to monitor rising levels of religious bigotry and discrimination and for stiffer penalties against those who build careers peddling sectarianism.
“We need to have a greater understanding than perhaps we currently do and to devise methodologies to ensure that freedom of religion, freedom of worship is not considered merely a human right but an essential pillar of national security,” said Mr Khan.
The 50-year-old British lawyer was elected last month as the next chief prosecutor of the court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, and is set to start his nine-year term on June 16.
Based in The Hague in the Netherlands, the court was established in 1998 to prosecute those behind genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including leaders who attack groups because of their religion.
The court is currently undertaking more than a dozen formal investigations, including into Afghanistan, Georgia and Bangladesh/Myanmar, where the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority group suffered death and displacement in a security crackdown in 2017.
The court has a further 13 so-called preliminary examinations, including in Ukraine, Venezuela and the Philippines.
The court last month ruled it has jurisdiction over crimes committed on Palestinian land, angering Israel. An investigation into atrocities by Americans in Afghanistan led the US Trump administration to slap sanctions on Ms Bensouda and other court officials last year.
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THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
Comment on Coronavirus
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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Results
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Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
Dunki
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Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
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