Human Rights

There is truly no safe place for women when patriarchy is normalized as a culture and violence is silenced as a family matter in their own country. A United Nations (UN) report shows that every 10 minutes, a woman is murdered by her own partner or family member. These facts and figures reflect a structural crisis that is still being ignored by many countries. This issue is no longer just about criminality; rather, it indicates a failure in security governance, a failure of protection policies for women, and ultimately, a state failure to break the cycle of gender-based violence. Viewing this phenomenon, it can be assessed that femicide must be understood as a national and international strategic issue that requires a systemic state response, not just symbolic campaigns like the use of the Purple Profile Picture (PFP) that recently became popular in South Africa. Therefore, the author will highlight an analysis of three arguments, namely the failure of the legal structure, the need for a structured prevention strategy, and the cultural normalization that allows violence against women to persist.

Failure of the Legal Structure Due to Half-Hearted Enforcement

Femicide does not, in fact, occur suddenly without warning signs. Global research has shown a consistent pattern: threats, injuries, social isolation, and even domestic violence reports that are not followed up on. This is further reinforced by the fact that in many cases, the victim had already shown these patterns, but there was no system for cross-sector reporting, and the state only responds after a life has been lost. This is the major loophole that keeps femicide repeating in the same pattern. This crisis reflects the weakness and failure of a country’s law that cannot serve as a shield of protection for its citizens, especially women. In Mexico, for instance, femicide is recognized as a separate category of crime, but weak legal implementation keeps the number of women murdered there persistently high. Slow court proceedings, police lacking gender sensitivity, and a culture of impunity reduce legal protection to mere text without meaningful power.

A similar situation is also felt in South Africa, which is a country notorious for gender-based violence, even holding the highest rate on the continent. Although the country launched the Purple Profile Picture (PFP) Campaign as a symbolic form of solidarity in response to femicide, the use of this symbol cannot replace the urgency of improving the legal system and structure that often fails to save women before it is too late. Without structural reform that prioritizes women’s safety, the law will continue to lag behind the escalating violence. UN data proves that 60% of femicides are committed by someone close to the victim; therefore, law enforcement must be directed not just at punishing perpetrators but at saving women before the risk turns into death.

The Need for Systemic, Not Just Symbolic, Prevention Strategies

The viral campaign in several countries, particularly South Africa, the Purple Profile Picture (PFP), certainly plays a role in building public awareness, and that is important. However, a symbol alone cannot replace the state’s strategies or policies. Therefore, what we need is systemic prevention that works before the victim is murdered, not just solidarity after the tragedy has occurred. This systemic prevention can begin with the provision of integrated public services. The state needs to provide responsive emergency hotlines, safe and adequate shelters, and even 24-hour specialized gender police units operating with high standards of care regarding this issue.

Many femicide cases originate from threats that are ignored by the public and authorities. If initial violence reports were handled decisively and with a risk-based mechanism, the potential for murder could be curtailed. Good examples are seen in several countries, such as Oslo, which has begun using risk-based policing algorithms based on previous police reports. The result is that preventive intervention can be carried out before fatal violence occurs. Furthermore, the education and health systems should also be involved. Teachers, health workers, and social workers need to be trained to recognize the signs of femicide risk, which can then be disseminated for systemic prevention efforts.

The Still-Rooted Normalization of Patriarchal Culture

However, regardless of the forms of systemic prevention that can be implemented as mentioned above, no policy will be effective if the source of the problem remains entrenched. That root is the culture that still places women as the party who must accept, bear the blame, remain silent for the family’s sake, or forgive violence that is considered “normal.” This is the main structural root that makes femicide difficult to eradicate. Patriarchy works not only through institutions but also through social norms that regulate daily behavior, such as who is allowed to speak, who is trusted, and who is considered worthy of being saved.

In Indonesian society itself, pressure from family to “save face” often makes it difficult for women to leave dangerous relationships. In South Africa, the legacy of violence, economic inequality, and aggressive masculinity norms play a major role in the high rate of women’s murder. Meanwhile, Mexico faces a deeply rooted culture of “machismo,” complicating efforts to change social norms. When violence is considered a private matter, the state loses the social legitimacy to intervene.

Considering this crucial situation, cultural change cannot be achieved with short-term campaigns. It requires knowledge and awareness about gender from an early age, the involvement of men in anti-violence movements, and the state’s courage to push for curricula and public policies that challenge harmful patriarchal norms. The state must participate in grassroots communities, such as through women’s organizations, local advocacy institutions, and community groups, because cultural change can only happen if the community becomes the agent of change itself.

The three arguments above show that femicide is a structural failure rooted in a weak legal system, minimal systemic prevention, and the cultural normalization of patriarchy that allows violence against women to be considered commonplace. When a state chooses to respond to violence with symbolism without a tangible strategy, women’s lives will continue to be victims. If one woman is still being murdered every 10 minutes, the world is not yet safe for women, and the state has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure the security of its citizens, especially women. Femicide is not a calamity but a strategic failure that can and must be stopped. The state can only save women if it dares to move beyond visual campaigns towards firm policies, a strong prevention system, and sustainable cultural transformation. Women must no longer die in silence while the state merely watches from afar.

Authorities also designate Anti-Corruption Foundation as ‘terrorist’ group and consider total ban on WhatsApp.

Russian authorities have outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organisation”, a label that, under a 2015 law, makes involvement with it a criminal offence.

Friday’s designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organisation to prosecution.

HRW has repeatedly accused Russia of suppressing dissenters and committing war crimes during its ongoing war against Ukraine.

“For over three decades, Human Rights Watch’s work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms,” the executive director at Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said in a statement.

“Our work hasn’t changed, but what’s changed, dramatically, is the government’s full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies, its staggering rise in repression, and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine.”

The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in a crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate statement on Friday, the office said it was opening a case against Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot that would designate the group as an “extremist” organisation.

Separately, Russia’s Supreme Court designated on Thursday the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by the late opposition activist Alexey Navalny as a “terrorist” group.

The ruling targeted the foundation’s United States-registered entity, which became the focal point for the group when the original Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government in 2021.

Russia’s list of “undesirable organisations” currently covers more than 275 entities, including prominent independent news outlets and rights groups.

Among those are prominent news organisations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, think tanks like Chatham House, anticorruption group Transparency International, and environmental advocacy organisation World Wildlife Fund.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors human rights violations in various countries across the world.

WhatsApp might be ‘completely blocked’

Meanwhile, Russia’s state communications watchdog threatened on Friday to block WhatsApp entirely if it fails to comply with Russian law.

In August, Russia began limiting some calls on WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, and on Telegram, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of refusing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and “terrorism” cases.

On Friday, the Roskomnadzor watchdog again accused WhatsApp of failing to comply with Russian requirements designed to prevent and combat crime.

“If the messaging service continues to fail to meet the demands of Russian legislation, it will be completely blocked,” Interfax news agency quoted it as saying.

WhatsApp has accused Moscow of trying to block millions of Russians from accessing secure communication.

Russian authorities are pushing a state-backed rival app called MAX, which critics claim could be used to track users. State media have dismissed those accusations as false.

16-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim is recovering after spending 9 months in an Israeli prison, for allegedly throwing rocks. The Palestinian American boy’s plight sparked widespread outrage and condemnation at Israel’s abuses in the occupied West Bank.

Humanitarian group says at least 400 children reached Tawila without their parents after Rapid Support Forces’ advance.

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s western Darfur region without their parents since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of el-Fasher last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila but that the real number was likely much higher.

“Children are reaching Tawila exhausted and deeply distressed, often after days of walking through the desert,” the group said.

“Many arrive terrified of the armed groups they fled from or might have encountered on the road. Many became separated from their parents during the chaos of flight, while others’ parents are believed to have gone missing, been detained or killed.”

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state – on October 26 after an 18-month siege that cut residents off from food, medicine and other critical supplies.

The paramilitary group, which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan since April 2023, has been accused of committing mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence in its takeover of the city.

The RSF has denied targeting civilians or blocking aid, saying such activities are due to rogue actors.

But United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in mid-November that the “atrocities” that have unfolded in el-Fasher “constitute the gravest of crimes”.

More than 100,000 people have fled el-Fasher since the RSF’s takeover last month, according to the latest figures from the UN, with many seeking refuge in nearby Chad.

Meanwhile, the NRC said on Thursday that it had registered at least 15,000 new arrivals in Tawila, about 60km (37 miles) from el-Fasher, since October 26. More than 200 children are being registered each day on average, it added.

Nidaa, a teacher with the humanitarian group’s education programme in Tawila, said children arrive showing “signs of acute trauma”.

“When we first started our classes, some of the children could not speak at all when they arrived. Others were waking up with nightmares,” she said. “They describe hiding for hours, travelling at night to avoid attacks, and becoming separated from family in the chaos.”

Fears of human trafficking

Humanitarian groups have said the already heavily populated displacement camps in Tawila are becoming overwhelmed with the influx of new arrivals from el-Fasher and its surrounding villages.

The Sudanese American Physicians Association estimated in early November that more than 650,000 internally displaced people from el-Fasher and other parts of Darfur had sought refuge in Tawila amid months of fighting in the region.

Nearly three-quarters of displaced residents – 74 percent – lived in informal sites without adequate infrastructure, the group said in a November 5 report, while less than 10 percent of displaced households had reliable access to water or latrines.

“These conditions mean Tawila has effectively become a stand-alone crisis epicentre, not merely an overflow from el-Fasher,” the report said.

At the same time, a group of UN experts warned on Thursday that the deteriorating situation in the region has opened Sudanese women and girls up to a heightened risk of sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Displaced children are also increasingly vulnerable to being recruited to fight in the escalating conflict, the experts said.

“We are deeply concerned at the alarming reports of human trafficking since the takeover of el-Fasher and surrounding areas by the [RSF],” they said in a statement.

“Women and girls have been abducted in RSF-controlled areas, and women, unaccompanied and separated children are at elevated risk of sexual violence and sexual exploitation.”

Noting that families have been left without shelter, humanitarian aid, and access to basic services, including healthcare and education, the experts called for “urgent action to end the human rights violations driving this suffering”.

The UN has documented nearly 3,000 settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, driving communities from their land in what Palestinians say is a deliberate, violent campaign to displace them.

At a UN Security Council meeting, members urged Israel to abide by the ceasefire and open more border crossings to ease Gaza’s deep humanitarian crisis. Palestinians say they are still struggling to access food, water and shelter as aid flows remain far below what is needed.

About 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide last year – 60 percent of them at the hands of partners or relatives.

More than 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members around the world in 2024, the equivalent of one every 10 minutes or 137 per day, according to a new report.

Released to mark the 2025 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday, the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women warned that femicide continues to claim tens of thousands of lives each year with “no sign of real progress”.

Overall, 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide last year – 60 percent of those deaths were at the hands of partners or relatives.

By way of comparison, just 11 percent of male homicide victims were killed by family members or intimate partners.

The report warns that many killings are preventable, but that gaps in protection, police responses and social support systems leave women and girls at heightened risk of fatal violence.

At the same time, it is thought that the figures are likely an underestimate, due to poor data collection in many countries, survivors’ fear of reporting violence, and outdated legal definitions that make cases difficult to identify.

Experts say economic instability, conflict, forced displacement and limited access to safe housing can worsen the risks faced by women trapped in abusive situations.

“The home remains a dangerous and sometimes lethal place for too many women and girls around the world,” said John Brandolino, acting executive director of UNODC.

He added that the findings underline the need for stronger prevention efforts and criminal justice responses.

Sarah Hendriks, director of UN Women’s policy division, said femicides often sit on a “continuum of violence” that can start with controlling behaviour, harassment and online abuse.

“Digital violence often doesn’t stay online,” she said. “It can escalate offline and, in the worst cases, contribute to lethal harm.”

According to the report, the highest regional rate of femicide by intimate partners or family members was recorded in Africa, followed by the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Europe.

UN Women says coordinated efforts involving schools, workplaces, public services and local communities are needed to spot early signs of violence.

The campaigners also called on governments to increase funding for shelters, legal aid and specialist support services.

The findings were released as the UN’s annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign started.

Israeli forces have killed at least four Palestinians and wounded several others across Gaza despite a six-week ceasefire, as a Palestinian armed group announced recovering the body of another captive in the war-torn territory.

The victims on Monday included a Palestinian man who was killed in a drone attack in the southern town of Bani Suheila, in an area controlled by Israeli forces beyond the so-called “yellow line”.

Separately, a Palestinian child was also killed in northern Gaza City when ordnances left behind by Israeli forces exploded, according to the territory’s civil defence.

The group said several more children were wounded, with some in critical condition.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza City, said Israeli attacks also continued throughout the day, with artillery, air raids and helicopter strikes reported in both northern and southern parts of the enclave.

In Beit Lahiya, Israeli fire hit areas outside the yellow line. In the south, tanks and helicopters targeted territory northeast of Rafah and the outskirts of Khan Younis.

“There are extensive Israeli attacks beyond the yellow line that have led to the systematic destruction of Gaza’s eastern neighbourhoods,” Abu Azzoum said.

Testimonies gathered by families, he added, point to a “systematic attempt to destroy Gaza’s neighbourhoods and create buffer zones, making these areas completely uninhabitable, which complicates a return for families”.

In central Gaza, civil defence teams, operating with police and Red Cross support, recovered the bodies of eight members of a single family from the rubble of their home in the Maghazi camp, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, which was struck in an earlier Israeli attack.

The Gaza Government Media Office said the number of bodies retrieved since the ceasefire began has now reached 582, while more than 9,500 Palestinians remain missing beneath the ruins of bombed-out districts.

Captive’s body recovered

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group allied with Hamas, meanwhile, announced it had recovered the body of an Israeli captive in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

If the body is identified, two more will have to be recovered under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel is supposed to return the bodies of 15 Palestinians in exchange for each captive’s body.

Hamas has previously said the widespread destruction has hampered efforts to locate the remaining bodies.

Also on Monday, the GHF, a US-backed entity that operated parallel to United Nations aid structures, announced the end of its activities in Gaza.

The organisation cited provisions in the October ceasefire as the reason for its withdrawal.

UN experts say at least 859 Palestinians were killed around GHF distribution points since May 2025, with Israeli forces and foreign contractors regularly opening fire on crowds desperately seeking food.

The scheme drew widespread condemnation for bypassing established humanitarian channels.

Israeli attacks on the West Bank

Across the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces stepped up raids overnight, arresting at least 16 Palestinians, according to Wafa. Arrests were reported in Iktaba near Tulkarem, in Tuqu southeast of Bethlehem, in Kobar near Ramallah, and in Silat al-Harithiya west of Jenin.

Israeli troops also detained residents in Tubas and the surrounding areas.

Violence escalated further on Sunday night when Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old law student, Baraa Khairi Ali Maali, in Deir Jarir, north of Ramallah.

Wafa reported that clashes erupted after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes on the village’s outskirts. Fathi Hamdan, head of the local council, said troops entered the village to protect the settlers, then opened fire on Palestinians confronting them.

Maali suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and died shortly after arrival at hospital. His killing follows the fatal shooting of another young man by settlers in Deir Jarir last month.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers injured two Palestinian women and detained two brothers during a raid in Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya.

Settler attacks also continued. Fires were set on agricultural land between Atara and Birzeit, north of Ramallah, destroying farmland belonging to residents.

In a separate incident in Atara, settlers from a newly established outpost torched olive trees and stole farming equipment.

Israeli settler violence has surged over the past two years; since October 7, 2023, at least 1,081 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, including 223 children, with more than 10,614 wounded and more than 20,500 arrested.

Israeli ceasefire violations in Lebanon

In Lebanon, Hezbollah held a funeral for senior commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai, assassinated by Israel on Sunday.

Images from Beirut’s southern suburbs showed mourners carrying his coffin, wrapped in yellow and green, as Hezbollah flags lined the streets. The group has not yet announced how it will respond.

Mahmoud Qmati, vice president of Hezbollah’s Political Council, called the killing “yet another ceasefire violation”, accusing Israel of escalating the conflict “with the green light given by the United States”.

Security analyst Ali Rizk said Hezbollah is weighing its options carefully, warning that the group is unlikely to “give Netanyahu an excuse to launch an all-out war against Lebanon”, which he said could be more devastating than the current limited exchanges.

Geopolitical analyst Joe Macaron said the US is “no longer restraining Israel” and is instead supporting Israeli operations in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said that Hezbollah, in turn, faces a strategic dilemma: retaliation could risk a massive Israeli assault, yet inaction could erode its deterrence.

Imad Salamey of the Lebanese American University said any Hezbollah response could be met with a “severe” Israeli reaction.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, he added that Israel’s right-wing government “is eager to escalate because escalation will serve that government staying in power”.

Salamey argued that Hezbollah’s deterrence capacity has been “severely damaged” and that the group “no longer has the support it used to have or the logistical routes it used to utilise via Syria”.

Snapchat has begun asking children and teenagers in Australia to verify their ages, including with software owned by the country’s banks, according to a company spokesperson.

The move on Monday comes as Australia prepares to enforce a world-first social media ban for children under the age of 16 starting on December 10.

The law, which threatens social media platforms with a fine of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($31.95m) for noncompliance, is one of the world’s toughest regulations targeting Big Tech.

In addition to Snapchat, the ban currently applies to YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Twitch and Kick.

In a statement on Saturday, Snapchat said users will be able to verify their age through the ConnectID application, which links to their bank accounts, or by using software owned by Singapore-headquartered age-assurance provider, k-ID.

ConnectID, which is owned and used by most major Australian banks, said it would send the tech platform a “yes/no” signal about whether the person was over 16 based on their account details, without making them upload sensitive information.

“The goal here is to protect young people online without creating new privacy risks,” said ConnectID managing director Andrew Black in a statement.

In the k-ID option, users can upload government-issued identification cards to verify their ages or submit photos, which the application will then use to estimate an age range.

‘Keep lines of communication open’

Snapchat has previously said it believes about 440,000 of its users in Australia are aged between 13 and 15.

Snapchat added that it “strongly disagreed” with the Australian government’s assessment that it should be included in the social media ban, claiming its service provides a “visual messaging app”.

“Disconnecting teens from their friends and family doesn’t make them safer – it may push them to less safe, less private messaging apps,” it warned.

Some other apps have been able to secure an exception from the ban, including Discord, WhatsApp, Lego Play and Pinterest. But Australian authorities have reserved the right to update the list of banned platforms as required.

A number of young people and advocates have expressed concerns about the potential consequences of the new ban, including 18-year-old journalist and founder of youth news service 6 News Australia Leo Puglisi, who told an Australian Senate inquiry that the ban will affect young people’s access to information.

UNICEF Australia has also expressed concerns about implementation, saying the changes proposed by the Australian government “won’t fix the problems young people face online”.

“Social media has a lot of good things, like education and staying in touch with friends,” UNICEF Australia said in a statement.

“We think it’s more important to make social media platforms safer and to listen to young people to make sure any changes actually help.”

Katrina Lines, the CEO of children’s therapy provider Act for Kids, said that parents should start having conversations with children as soon as possible about how they can stay connected as the ban comes into effect over the coming weeks.

“It’s important to keep the lines of communication open in the lead up to and even long after these changes take effect,” Lines said.

Act for Kids said it surveyed more than 300 Australian children aged 10 to 16, and found 41 percent would prefer to connect with family in real life compared to only 15 percent who preferred to spend time online. But Lines said families still need to work out how to improve in-person connections.

“One way of starting this conversation could be by asking them how they would like to stay connected to friends and family outside of social media,” she said.

Global concern

The Australian ban comes amid growing global concern over the effects of social media on children’s health and safety, and companies including TikTok, Snapchat, Google and Meta Platforms – the operator of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – are facing lawsuits in the United States for their role in fuelling a mental health crisis.

Regulators around the world are closely watching whether Australia’s sweeping restrictions can work.

Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Sunday that the Malaysian government also plans to ban social media for users under the age of 16, starting from next year.

He said the government was reviewing the mechanisms used in Australia and other nations to impose age restrictions for social media use, citing a need to protect youths from online harms such as cyberbullying, financial scams and child sexual abuse.

“We hope by next year that social media platforms will comply with the government’s decision to bar those under the age of 16 from opening user accounts,” he told reporters, according to a video of his remarks posted online by local daily The Star.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is also planning to introduce a similar bill to restrict children’s social media use, while Indonesia, too, has said it is preparing legislation to protect young people from “physical, mental, or moral perils”.

In Europe, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece are jointly testing a template for an age verification app, while the Dutch government has advised parents to forbid children under 15 from using social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat.

Slovenia’s parliament had approved a law in July, allowing assisted dying after a 2024 referendum supported it.

Slovenians have rejected in a referendum a law that allowed terminally ill adults to end their lives, after critics mounted a campaign against the legislation.

About 53 percent of 1.7 million eligible voters voted against the law that proposed legalising assisted dying, according to preliminary results released by the election authorities on Sunday.

The results mean the law’s implementation will be suspended for at least one year. Slovenia’s parliament had approved the law in July, allowing assisted dying after a 2024 referendum supported it.

But the new vote was called after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition, gathered more than the 40,000 signatures required for a repeat.

Ales Primc, head of Voice for the Children and the Family, the NGO that organised the no vote campaign, reacted to the results, saying “solidarity and justice” had won.

“We are witnessing a miracle. The culture of life has defeated the cult of death,” Primc said after the vote.

Under the disputed law, terminally ill patients would have had the right to aid in dying if their suffering was unbearable and all treatment options had been exhausted.

It would also have allowed for assisted dying if treatment offers had no reasonable prospect of recovery or improvement in the patient’s condition, but not to end unbearable suffering from mental illness.

Prime Minister Robert Golob had urged citizens to back the law “so that each of us can decide for ourselves how and with what dignity we will end our lives”.

But the Catholic Church has said allowing assisted dying “contradicts the foundations of the Gospel, natural law and human dignity”.

In June 2024, 55 percent had backed the law.

Turnout at Sunday’s referendum was 40.9 percent – just enough for the no vote to meet the threshold.

Several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, allow terminally ill people to receive medical help to end their lives. However, it remains a crime in others, even in cases of severe suffering.

In May, France’s lower house of parliament approved a right-to-die bill in a first reading. The British parliament is debating similar legislation.

Slovenia is voting on whether to legalise assisted dying for some terminally ill adults after other European countries have made the change.

The parliament of the small European Union nation passed a euthanasia bill in July, but a citizens initiative, led by right-wing politician Ales Primc, forced the referendum on Sunday.

The law will be rejected if at least 20 percent of participating voters oppose the bill. Slovenia has an electorate of 1.69 million people.

Supporters of the bill said it will alleviate unnecessary pain. Those against said society should care for the sick, not help them die.

Several European countries – including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland – already allow terminally ill people to receive medical help to end their lives.

What are the Slovenes proposing?

Under the disputed law, which was set to take effect this year, lucid but terminally ill patients would have had the right to die if their suffering had become unbearable and all other treatment options had been exhausted.

The legislation is similar to the assisted dying bill passed by the United Kingdom Parliament in June. Britain’s bill allows assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live, the approvals of two doctors, judicial oversight and self-administration of the medication.

Slovenia’s law would require the approval of two doctors but also cooling-off periods and self-administration of the medication.

About 54 percent of citizens back the legalisation of assisted dying, almost 31 percent oppose it and 15 percent are undecided, according to a poll published this week by the Dnevnik daily based on 700 responses. In June 2024, 55 percent backed the law.

What are supporters saying?

Prime Minister Robert Golob urged citizens to back the law “so that each of us can decide for ourselves how and with what dignity we will end our lives”.

Marijan Janzekovic, an 86-year-old who lives in the town of Sveti Tomaz near the capital, Ljubljana, also supports the bill.

His wife, Alenka Curin-Janzekovic, was in pain from diabetes-related illnesses before she ended her life at a suicide clinic in Switzerland in 2023.

“She was in a wheelchair … and in pain so bad my heart hurt just by watching her,” he told the Reuters news agency.

What do opponents think?

The main political group opposing the law, called Voice for the Children and the Family, has accused the government of using the law to “poison” ill and elderly people.

Opponents said the law is inhumane and violates Slovenia’s Constitution, which declares human life inviolable.

Elsewhere, Slovenian Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Zore said the state should focus on palliative care instead.

“Let’s care for the sick and dying but not offer them suicide,” he said. The Catholic Church is opposed to euthanasia.

What other countries practise assisted dying?

Assisted dying is already permitted in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, several states in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

In Australia, New Zealand, Canada and several US states, assisted dying laws are generally framed around medical aid. These jurisdictions typically require that patients be terminally ill, mentally competent and assessed by two independent doctors.

In many of these countries, the patient must self-administer lethal medication rather than have a doctor provide it directly. These regimes prioritise patient autonomy and strict procedural safeguards, such as waiting periods.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal, the approach to assisted dying is permissive. Active euthanasia or doctor-administered treatment is legal under defined conditions of unbearable suffering, even if the patient is not terminally ill.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, only assisted suicide is legally tolerated as opposed to active euthanasia. Switzerland is an outlier insofar as there is no dedicated regulatory regime for euthanasia, meaning nonresidents may access the service via organisations.

Which other countries are currently debating assisted dying laws?

In May, France’s National Assembly approved a “right-to-die” bill. The legislation would allow adults over 18 who are citizens or residents and suffer from incurable illnesses and “intolerable” physical or psychological suffering to request lethal medication.

Under the bill, a medical team must assess the patient’s condition before a mandatory reflection period before the prescription of a lethal substance. If the patient is physically unable to self-administer, a doctor or nurse may assist.

The proposal excludes people with severe psychiatric conditions or neurodegenerative disorders like advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The bill now has to go to the Senate and must return to the National Assembly for a second reading before it could become law.

Elsewhere, Britain’s lower house voted to legalise assisted dying in June. The House of Commons narrowly voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, marking a major step towards legalising assisted dying in England and Wales.

The bill would allow mentally competent adults with a prognosis of less than six months to live to request medical help to end their lives, subject to assessments by two doctors and a panel including a psychiatrist, a lawyer and a social worker.

The legislation is not yet law. It must still get through the House of Lords, where it will be further scrutinised and may be amended. If it does become law, the timeline for implementation may not be until 2029.

In early November, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election in a landslide, a victory that sent shockwaves across United States politics and galvanised the country’s political left.

It was a dramatic turnaround for a campaign that – less than a year earlier – had been polling at 1 percent support.

Among those who were most surprised was Zohran’s own father, Mahmood Mamdani.

“He surprised me and his mother,” Mahmood told Al Jazeera Mushaber reporter Allaa Azzam in an interview this week. “We wouldn’t expect him to become mayor of New York City. We never thought about it.”

But Mahmood, an anthropology professor and postcolonial scholar at Columbia University, framed his son’s electoral success as evidence of a shifting political landscape.

Zohran, for instance, campaigned heavily on questions of affordability and refused to back away from his criticisms of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians, long considered a taboo subject in US politics.

He is the first Muslim person to become mayor of the country’s largest city by population, as well as its first mayor of South Asian descent.

“There were certain things that were near and dear to him,” Mahmood explained. “Social justice was one of them. The rights of Palestinians was another.”

“These two issues he has stuck by. He’s not been willing to trade them, to compromise them, to minimise them.”

Inside the Mamdani family

The son of Mahmood and Indian American director Mira Nair, Zohran first emerged as the frontrunner in the mayoral race in June, when his dark-horse campaign dominated the Democratic Party primary.

He earned 56 percent of the final tally, besting former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

When Cuomo ran as an independent in the November 4 election, Zohran once again beat him by a wide margin, with more than 50 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 41 percent.

Mahmood told Al Jazeera that, while his son’s sudden political ascent came as a surprise, his resilience did not.

“It didn’t surprise us, with his grit and determination,” he said of the election. “I don’t think he joined the race thinking that he was going to win it. I think he joined the race wanting to make a point.”

He traced back some of Zohran’s electoral finesse to his upbringing. Zohran, Mahmood explained, was not raised in a typical US nuclear family but instead shared his home with three generations of family members.

Living with a diverse age range allowed Zohran to expand his understanding and build his people skills, according to Mahmood.

“He grew up with love and patience. He learned to be very patient with people who are slower, people who were not necessarily what his generation was,” Mahmood said.

“He was very different from the American kids around here who hardly ever see their grandparents.”

A ‘mood of change’

Mahmood also credited his son’s victory to a shifting political landscape, one where voters are fed up with the status quo.

“There’s a mood of change. The young voted like they never voted before,” Mahmood said.

“Sections of the population which had been completely thrown into the sidelines – Muslims, recent immigrants whether Muslim or not – he gave them enormous confidence. They came out and they voted. They mobilised.”

Local media outlets in New York reported that turnout for November’s mayoral race was the highest in more than 50 years. More than two million voters cast a ballot in the closely watched race.

Mahmood cast his son’s upcoming tenure as mayor as a test of whether that voter faith would be rewarded.

“America is marked by low levels of electoral participation, and they’ve always claimed that this is because most people are satisfied with the system,” Mahmood said.

“But now the levels of political participation are increasing. And most people, it’s not just that they are not satisfied, but they no longer believe – or they begin to believe that maybe the electoral system is a way to change things. Zohran’s mayoral term will tell us whether it is or it is not.”

Mahmood was frank that his son faces an uphill battle as mayor. He described politics as a sphere dominated by the influence of moneyed powers.

“ I am not sure he knows that world well,” Mahmood said of his son. “He’s a fast learner, and he will learn it.”

He noted that significant resources were mobilised during the mayoral election to blunt Zohran’s campaign.

“ He’s taking on powerful forces. He’s being opposed by powerful forces. They failed during the campaign,” Mahmood said. That defeat, he added, “exposed the failure of money” as a defining force in the race.

A focus on Palestine

Mahmood also addressed the role of Zohran’s advocacy on the campaign trail.

Though faced with criticism from his mayoral rivals, Mamdani has refused to retreat from his stance that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

That position, though widely affirmed by rights groups and experts, including at the United Nations, is relatively rare in mainstream US politics, where opposition to Israel is a political third rail.

Still, voters appear to be shifting on the question of US support for Israel.

A March poll from the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of US respondents with an unfavourable view of Israel has increased from 42 percent in 2022 to 53 percent in 2025.

While unfavourable views were most pronounced among Democratic voters, they have also increased among conservatives, especially those under the age of 50.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 69,500 Palestinians since its start in October 2023, and there has been continued outrage over widespread Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank as well.

Mahmood said the undeniable human rights abuses are causing a shift in public perception – and not just in the US.

“The real consequence of Gaza is not limited to Gaza. It is global,” said Mahmood. “Gaza has brought us a new phase in world history.”

“There will never be a return to a period when the world believes that what Israel is doing is defending itself.”

The family of Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian American boy who has been detained by Israel since February, is demanding that an independent doctor assess the teenager’s condition amid alarming reports about his situation in prison.

Mohammed’s uncle, Zeyad Kadur, said an official from the United States embassy in Israel visited the 16-year-old last week at Ofer Prison.

The official told the family afterwards that Ibrahim had lost weight and dark circles were forming around his eyes, Kadur told Al Jazeera.

The consular officer also said he had raised Mohammed’s case with multiple US and Israeli agencies.

“This is the first time in nine months that they showed grave concern for his health, so how bad is it?” Kadur asked in an interview on Wednesday.

Despite rights groups and US lawmakers pleading for Mohammed’s release, Israel has refused to free him, and his family said the administration of President Donald Trump is not doing enough to bring him home.

Israeli authorities have accused Ibrahim of throwing rocks at settlers in the occupied West Bank, an allegation he denies.

But the legal proceedings in the case are moving at a snail’s pace in Israel’s military justice system, according to Mohammed’s family.

Rights advocates also say that the military court system in the occupied West Bank is part of Israel’s discriminatory apartheid regime, given its conviction rate of nearly 100 percent for Palestinian defendants.

Adding to the Ibrahim family’s angst is the lack of access to the teenager while Mohammed is in Israeli prison. Unable to visit him or communicate with him, his relatives are only able to receive updates from the US embassy.

The teenager has been suffering from severe weight loss while in detention, his father, Zaher Ibrahim, told Al Jazeera earlier this year. He also contracted scabies, a contagious skin infection.

The last visit he received from US embassy staff was in September.

Israeli authorities have committed well-documented abuses against Palestinian detainees, including torture and sexual violence, especially after the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

“We hear and see people getting out of prison and what they look like, and we know it’s bad,” Kadur said.

“Mohammed is an American kid who was taken at 15. He is now 16, and he’s been sitting there for nine months and hasn’t seen his mom, hasn’t seen his dad.”

He added that the family is also concerned about Mohammed’s mental health.

“We’re requesting that he gets sent to a hospital and evaluated by a third party, not by a prison medic or nurse. He needs some actual attention,” Mohammed’s uncle told Al Jazeera.

Mohammed, who is from Florida, was visiting Palestine when in the middle of the night he was arrested, blindfolded and beaten in what Kadur described as a “kidnapping”.

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the latest consular visit to Mohammed.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Israel last month, he appeared to have misheard a question about Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti and thought it was about Mohammed’s case.

“Are you talking about the one from the US? I don’t have any news for you on that today,” Rubio told reporters.

“Obviously, we’ll work that through our embassy here and our diplomatic channels, but we don’t have anything to announce on that.”

But for Kadur, Mohammed’s case is not a bureaucratic or legal matter – it is one that requires political will from Washington to secure his freedom.

Kadur underscored that the US has negotiated with adversaries, including Venezuela, Russia and North Korea, to free detained Americans, so it can push for the release of Mohammed from its closest ally in the Middle East.

The US provided Israel with more than $21bn in military aid over the past two years.

Kadur drew a contrast between the lack of US effort to free Mohammed and the push to release Edan Alexander, a US citizen who was volunteering in the Israeli army and was taken prisoner during Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Alexander was released in May after pressure from the Trump administration on Hamas.

“The American government negotiated with what they consider a terrorist organisation, and they secured his release – an adult who put on a uniform, who picked up a gun and did what he signed up for,” Kadur said of Alexander.

“Why is a 16-year-old still there for nine months, rotting away, deteriorating in a prison? That’s one example to show that Mohammed – and his name and his Palestinian DNA – [are] not considered American enough by the State Department first and by the administration second.”

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Shahina Begum broke down in tears the moment a special court in capital Dhaka sentenced deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aide, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, to death for crimes against humanity.

Begum’s 20-year-old son Sajjat Hosen Sojal was shot and his body burned by the police on August 5, 2024, hours before a student-led uprising forced Hasina to resign and flee the country she had ruled with an iron first for 15 years.

Prosecutors allege that six student protesters were killed that day in Ashulia, a readymade garments hub on the outskirts of Dhaka: five shot and their bodies burned, while another was allegedly burned alive inside the police station.

The killings, allegedly ordered by Hasina in a desperate bid to hang on to power, were part of a brutal crackdown by security forces on what is referred to in Bangladesh as the July Uprising, during which more than 1,400 protesters were killed, according to the United Nations.

After a months-long trial held in absentia as Hasina and Khan had fled to neighbouring India, Dhaka’s International Crimes Tribunal on Monday sentenced the two to death, while a third accused – former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun – was given a five-year jail term because he had turned a state witness.

“I cannot be calm until she [Hasina] is brought back and hanged in this country,” Begum told Al Jazeera on Monday night, as the historic verdict triggered a surge of emotions across the country of 170 million people.

“My son screamed for help inside that police station. No one saved him. I will not rest until those who burned him can never harm another mother’s child again.”

But as hundreds of families who lost their loved ones during last year’s uprising come to terms with Monday’s landmark sentencing, many wonder if Hasina will actually face justice.

There are questions around whether India, a close ally of Hasina during her 15 years of rule, would extradite her and Khan, or whether it might instead help them escape justice.

“They took five minutes to burn my son alive, but it took almost a year and a half to deliver this verdict,” said Begum from her ancestral home in Shyampur village in the northern Gaibandha district.

“Can this government really bring her back from India? What happens if the government changes and the next one protects Hasina and her collaborators? Who will guarantee that these killers won’t escape?”

‘Sentence must be carried out’

As hundreds gathered outside the tribunal building in Dhaka on Monday, Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho – whose brother Mir Mugdho was shot dead during the uprising – said Hasina “deserves the maximum penalty many times over,” urging the authorities to bring her back to Bangladesh to enforce the judgement.

Standing close to him was Syed Gazi Rahman, father of killed protester Mutasir Rahman. He called for the sentence to be carried out “swiftly and publicly,” accusing Hasina of “emptying the hearts of thousands of families”.

Some 300km (186 miles) away, at Bhabnapur Jaforpara village in the northern district of Rangpur, family members of Abu Sayeed also welcomed the death sentence against the former prime minister.

Sayeed was the first casualty of the July Uprising, which started with mainly student-led protests against a controversial quota system for government jobs that disproportionately favoured the children of people who fought in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

On July 16, 2024, Sayeed, a student leader, was shot dead by the police while demonstrating in Rangpur.

“My heart has finally cooled down. I am satisfied. She must be brought back from India and executed in Bangladesh without delay,” said his father, Mokbul Hossain.

“My son is gone. It pains me. The sentence must be carried out,” added his mother, Monowara Begum. She said the family distributed sweets to those visiting them after the verdict.

Sanjida Khan Dipti, mother of Shahriar Khan Anas, a 10th-grade student who was shot dead in Dhaka’s Chankharpul neighbourhood on August 5, 2024, told Al Jazeera the verdict is “only a consolation”.

“Justice will be served the day it is executed,” she said.

“As a mother, even 1,400 death sentences would be insufficient for someone who emptied the hearts of thousands of mothers. The world must see the consequences when a ruler unleashes mass killing to cling to power. God may grant you time, but He does not spare.”

Dipti said she was not satisfied with the verdict against former police chief al-Mamun.

“Abdullah al-Mamun should have received a longer sentence because, as part of the nation’s security force, he became a killer of our children,” she said.

‘No dictator should rise again’

Several processions were taken out in Dhaka and other parts of the country on Monday after Hasina was sentenced to death.

During a march inside the campus of the Dhaka University, Ar Rafi, a second-year undergraduate student, said they will rally to demand Hasina’s extradition from India.

“We are happy for now. But we want Hasina brought back from India and executed. We, the students, will remain on the streets until her sentence is carried out,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, a group called Maulik Bangla staged a symbolic enactment of Hasina’s execution at Dhaka’s Shahbagh intersection area after the tribunal’s verdict.

“This is a message that no dictator should rise again,” said Sharif Osman bin Hadi, spokesperson for Inquilab Manch (Revolution Front), a non-partisan cultural organisation inspired by the July Uprising.

Political parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, also welcomed the verdict.

“This judgement proves that no matter how powerful a fascist or autocrat becomes, they will one day have to stand in the dock,” BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters on Monday.

Jamaat leader Mia Golam Porwar said the ruling proves that “no head of government or powerful political leader is above the law”, and that the verdict offers “some measure of comfort” to families of those killed during the uprising.

The United Nations human rights office said while it considered the verdict was “an important moment for the victims”, it stressed that a trial held in absentia and resulting in a death sentence may not have followed due process and fair trial standards, as it reiterated its opposition to capital punishment.

Rights group Amnesty International also raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, saying the victims “deserve far better” and warning that rushed proceedings in absentia risk undermining justice.

“Victims need justice and accountability, yet the death penalty simply compounds human rights violations. It’s the ultimate cruel, degrading and inhuman punishment and has no place in any justice process,” it said.

But the families of the victims say the verdict was a recognition of the brutality of the crackdown, and raises hopes for a closure.

“This verdict sends a message: justice is inevitable,” said Atikul Gazi, a 21-year-old TikToker from Dhaka’s Uttara area who survived being shot at point-blank range on August 5, 2024, but ended up losing his left arm.

A selfie video of him smiling – despite missing an arm – went viral last year, making him a symbol of resilience. “It feels like the souls of the July martyrs will now find some peace,” Gazi told Al Jazeera.

Montreal, Canada – Canadian human rights activists are demanding answers from their government after a former United Nations special rapporteur who investigated Israeli abuses against Palestinians was interrogated at the Canadian border on “national security” grounds.

Richard Falk, 95, was stopped at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday and questioned for several hours. He said a security official told him that Canada had concerns that he and his wife, fellow legal scholar Hilal Elver, posed “a danger to the national security of Canada”.

The treatment of the couple has sparked anger and calls for an explanation from Ottawa.

“We need answers – and from the highest levels of government,” said Corey Balsam, national coordinator at Independent Jewish Voices-Canada, a group that supports Palestinian rights.

Despite the outcry, Canadian authorities have not publicly addressed the incident. But the office of Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree, who oversees the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), has acknowledged the case in a statement to Al Jazeera, saying he is seeking more information about what happened.

“National security safeguards are an integral part of our immigration and border-management framework and, while we cannot comment on specific cases, we are committed to ensuring that our border screening processes respect due process and international obligations,” Simon Lafortune, a spokesperson for Anandasangaree, told Al Jazeera in an email.

“To that end, Minister Anandasangaree has asked the CBSA to provide more specific details on how this particular incident occurred.”

Falk told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he and Elver were asked about their work on Israel, Gaza and genocide as well as about their participation in an event in Ottawa looking into Canada’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza, which a UN inquiry and numerous rights groups have described as a genocide.

After more than four hours of questioning, the pair – both US citizens – were allowed to enter Canada and take part in the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility.

‘Patently ridiculous’

Alex Paterson, senior director of strategy and parliamentary affairs at the advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, called the government’s treatment of the couple “patently ridiculous”.

“I think it just lays bare for everyone the reality that they wanted to hamper the tribunal’s work and try and keep Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocide … in the shadows,” Paterson told Al Jazeera on Monday.

He added that the Canadian government “has been trying to avoid questions of its complicity in arming the genocide, and that’s reason enough to do this”.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, Canadian human rights advocates have been calling on the government to apply pressure on Israel, a longstanding ally, to end its attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

Those calls for concrete action from Canada have grown as Israel’s military assault and restrictions on aid have killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Gaza into a humanitarian crisis.

Last year, the Canadian government announced it was suspending some weapons export permits to Israel amid the atrocities in the territory.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March, also voiced opposition to Israel’s blockade on aid to Gaza and a surge in Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, along with several allies, Carney’s government recognised an independent Palestinian state in September.

But researchers and human rights advocates said loopholes in Canada’s arms export system have allowed Canadian-made weapons to continue to reach Israel, often via the United States.

They have also urged Canada to do more to stem continued Israeli attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and to support efforts to hold Israel accountable for serious abuses, including at the International Criminal Court.

‘Climate of governmental insecurity’

In his interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Falk, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory from 2008 to 2014, said he believed his interrogation was part of a wider push to silence those who speak the truth about what is happening in Gaza.

“It suggests a climate of governmental insecurity, I think, to try to clamp down on dissident voices,” he said.

Al Jazeera has contacted multiple relevant Canadian government agencies to ask whether Ottawa views the 95 year old as a threat to national security – and if so, why.

A CBSA spokesperson said in an email on Monday that the agency could not comment on specific cases, but stressed that “secondary inspections are part of the cross-border process”.

“It is important to note that travellers referred to secondary inspection are not being ‘detained,’” spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said.

“Foreign nationals seeking entry into Canada can be subjected to a secondary inspection by an officer to determine admissibility to Canada. In some instances, the inspection may take longer due to information being gathered through questioning.”

Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry, has not yet responded to a request for comment from Al Jazeera sent on Saturday.

Balsam of Independent Jewish Voices-Canada said treating someone like Falk as a security threat sends a message that “actually none of us are safe from the suppression of dissent and crackdown on voices that are critical of the Israeli regime“.

“We all deserve an answer and an explanation from the government as to this incident, which casts a chill for all Canadians that are speaking out about human rights in general and Palestine in particular,” he told Al Jazeera.

For Palestinians, the olive harvest is both an essential source of income and a treasured cultural tradition. Each year, families gather beneath the groves to pick olives, press oil, and celebrate a connection to the land that spans generations. But this season has seen increasing attacks from settlers and Israeli troops, damaging or uprooting thousands of trees. With tens of thousands relying on olives for their livelihoods, each loss carries economic and emotional weight. This episode examines the harvest as a means of livelihood, a celebration, and a form of resistance.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Sami Huraini – Palestinian activist
Sarah Sharif – Palestinian American food blogger

From communities in the Philippines battling climate-driven displacement and devastating floods, to solemn mass burials of Palestinians in Gaza, and demonstrations in Brazil as it hosts COP 30 – here is a look at the week in photos.

Israeli air raids have taken place in southern Gaza as well as Gaza City; one young Palestinian killed in occupied West Bank raid.

Palestinian families call for help as Israel’s two-year military assault has left hundreds of thousands vulnerable.

Cold temperatures and heavy rainfall have worsened already dire conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian families across the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues to block deliveries of tents and other critical shelter supplies to the besieged territory.

Humanitarian groups have been warning for weeks that Palestinians living in tent camps and other makeshift shelters do not have what they need to withstand blistering winter conditions in the coastal enclave.

Many have been forcibly displaced multiple times as a result of Israel’s two-year bombardment of Gaza, which damaged and destroyed more than 198,000 structures across the Strip, according to United Nations figures.

“I have been crying since morning,” a displaced Palestinian mother of two told Al Jazeera from Gaza City on Saturday, pointing to her family’s tent, which had been flooded as a result of heavy rainfall overnight.

The woman, who did not provide her name, said she was struggling to provide for her children after several members of her family, including her husband, were killed in Israel’s genocidal war, which began in October 2023.

“I am asking for help to get a proper tent, a mattress and a blanket. I want my children to have suitable clothes,” she said. “I don’t have anyone to turn to … There is no one to help me.”

The UN and other humanitarian groups have urged Israel to lift all restrictions on aid to the Strip, where more than 69,000 people have been killed in more than two years of Israel’s war.

But the Israeli government has maintained its severe restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid despite a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian group Hamas that came into effect on October 10.

Aid groups said earlier this month that about 260,000 Palestinian families in Gaza, totalling almost 1.5 million people, were vulnerable as the cold winter months approached.

‘Misery on top of misery’

At the same time, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said it has enough shelter supplies to help as many as 1.3 million Palestinians – but cannot bring them into Gaza due to the Israeli restrictions.

On Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said deliveries were more critical than ever as this winter coincides with Gaza’s displacement crisis.

“It’s cold and wet in Gaza. Displaced people are now facing a harsh winter without the basics to protect them from the rain and cold,” he said in a social media post.

Describing the humanitarian toll as “misery on top of misery”, Lazzarini noted that Gaza’s fragile shelters “quickly flood, soaking people’s belongings”.

“More shelter supplies are urgently needed for the people,” he added.

Reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary also said many Palestinians have no other option but to remain in flooded and flimsy tents since their neighbourhoods were destroyed by Israel and shelters are full.

“Parents are unable to [buy] their children winter clothes, shoes and slippers,” she said. “Families are left helpless, without knowing what to do.”

Late on Saturday, the Israeli military fired flares in areas southeast of Khan Younis city, sources in southern Gaza told Al Jazeera. Armies generally launch flares to highlight enemy positions and indicate incoming attacks.

Earlier, Israel launched air strikes inside Gaza ceasefire’s “yellow line” demarcation near Khan Younis as well as Gaza City in the north.

Sydney, Australia – Ju-rye Hwang grew up assuming her parents in South Korea were dead and that she was alone in the world after being adopted to North America at about six years of age.

That was until a phone call from a journalist in Seoul turned her world upside down.

“He told me that I was not an orphan,” Hwang said.

“And it was most certain that I was illegally adopted for profit,” she said.

The journalist went on to tell Hwang about the notorious Brothers Home institution in South Korea, a place where thousands had endured horrific abuse, including forced labour, sexual violence, and brutal beatings.

Hwang discovered that she had spent time at the institution as a child, before being offered for overseas adoption.

The journalist also explained how his investigative team had uncovered a file from the home’s archives containing a list of international adoptions, and among the clearly printed names was that of her adoptive mother.

Hearing “the truth”, Hwang said, “made me break down and lose my breath”.

“I felt physically ill,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I believed that my parents were not alive.”

‘Beggars don’t exist here’

Hwang is now a successful career woman in her mid-40s. But her origins link back to South Korea during the 1970s and 80s, when government authorities in the rapidly industrialising nation cracked down brutally on those considered socially undesirable.

Kidnapping was rampant among the children of the poor, the homeless and marginalised who lived on the streets of Seoul and other cities.

Children as well as adults were abducted without warning, bundled into police cars and trucks and hauled away under a state policy aimed at beautifying South Korean cities by removing those designated as “vagrants”.

By clearing the streets of the poor, South Korea’s government sought to project an image of prosperity and modernity to the outside world, particularly in the lead-up to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

The then-president and military leader, Chun Doo-hwan, famously boasted of South Korea’s economic success when he told reporters: “Do you see any beggars in our country? We have no beggars. Beggars don’t exist here.”

The president’s push to “cleanse” the streets of the poor and homeless combined toxically with a police performance system based on the accumulation of points that propelled a surge in abductions.

At the time, police earned points based on the category of suspects they apprehended. A petty offender was worth just two performance points. But turning in a so-called “beggar” or “vagrant” to institutions such as the Brothers Home could earn an officer five points – a perverse incentive that prompted widespread abuse.

“The police abducted innocent people off the streets – shoe shiners, gum sellers, people waiting at bus stops, even kids just playing outside,” Moon Jeong-su, a former member of South Korea’s National Assembly, told Al Jazeera.

Brothers Home of horrors

Located in the southern port city of Busan, Brothers Home was founded in 1975 by Park In-geun, a former military officer and boxer.

It was one of many government-subsidised “welfare” institutions across South Korea, established at that time to house the homeless and train them in vocational skills before releasing them back into society as so-called “productive citizens”.

In practice, such facilities became sites of mass detention and horrific abuse.

“State funding was based on the number of people they incarcerated,” said former Busan city council member Park Min-seong.

“The more people they brought in, the more subsidies they received,” he said.

At one stage, up to 95 percent of the Brothers Home’s inmates were delivered directly by police, and as few as 10 percent of those confined were actually “vagrants”, according to a 1987 prosecutor’s report.

In a recent Netflix documentary dealing with the events at Brothers Home, Park Cheong-gwang, the youngest son of the facility’s owner, Park In-geun, admitted that his father had bribed police officers to ensure they sent abducted people to his facility.

Records reviewed by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established to investigate historical abuse at Brothers Home and similar centres, revealed that an estimated 38,000 people were detained at the home between 1976 and its closure in 1987.

Brothers Home reached peak capacity in 1984, with more than 4,300 inmates held at one time. During its 11 years of operation, 657 deaths were also officially recorded, though investigators believe the toll was likely much higher.

The home was known among inmates as Park’s “kingdom”. It was a place where the founder wielded absolute control over every aspect of their lives. The compound had high concrete walls and guards stationed at the towering front gate. No one was permitted to leave without express permission.

Inside, children were forced to work long hours in on-site factories producing goods such as fishing rods, shoes and clothing, while adults were sent out for gruelling manual labour at construction sites.

Their labour was not supposed to be free.

A 2021 investigation by Al Jazeera’s 101 East investigative documentary series revealed that Park and members of his board of directors at Brothers Home had embezzled what would amount to tens of millions of dollars in today’s value, and which should have been paid to inmates for their work.

Those operating Brothers Home also profited from the country’s lucrative international adoption trade, with domestic and foreign adoption agencies frequently visiting the facility.

Former inmate Lee Chae-shik, who was held for six years at the home, told 101 East that young children, just like Hwang, would simply disappear overnight.

“Newborns, three-year-olds, kids who couldn’t yet walk … One day, all of those kids were gone,” Lee said.

‘The child said absolutely nothing’

Hwang’s intake form at the Brothers Home states that she was found in Busan’s Jurye-dong neighbourhood and “admitted to Brothers Home at the request of the Jurye 2-dong Police Substation on November 23, 1982”.

A black-and-white photo of a very young Hwang is affixed to the top corner of the document, which was seen by Al Jazeera.

Her head is shaved. The form is stamped with her identification number: 821112646, with a line in the comments section: “Upon arrival, the child said absolutely nothing.”

The document notes Hwang’s “good physique”, “normal face shape and colour”, and she is marked on the form as “healthy – capable of labour work”.

At the bottom of the page are Hwang’s tiny fingerprints. She was about four years old at the time.

“That girl is probably scared and in shock,” said Hwang, looking at her own intake document and the picture of her childhood self. Her voice quivering as she spoke, she referred to the “innocent” child who already “has a mugshot”.

“I 100 percent believe that I was kidnapped,” she said. “I know I was never supposed to be at Brothers [Home] as a four-year-old.”

A deeply unsettling discovery was also made in her adoption records: Her name, Ju-rye, was given to her by the home’s director, Park, who named her after the Jurye-dong neighbourhood where police say she was found – the same neighbourhood where the Brothers Home was located.

“I felt violated. I felt sick in the stomach,” she said, recalling the origins of her name.

Growing up, Hwang said she had fragmented memories of South Korea.

Of the few she could recollect, one was of a towering iron gate. The other was of children splashing in a shallow underground pool. For years, she dismissed those memories as probably imagined. Then, in 2022, six years after the call with the journalist, she finally mustered enough courage to investigate her past with the help of a fellow adoptee from South Korea, who had sent her links to a website detailing what the Brothers Home once looked like.

“I was just toggling through the different menus of that website when two vivid images clicked for me,” Hwang said, snapping her fingers.

“The large iron gate – that was the entrance. The underground pool was inside the facility,” she said, matching her unexplained dreams with the images featured on the website.

“It was overwhelming to know that I was not imagining my memories of Korea,” she said.

Hwang would discover that she was kept at the Brothers Home for nine months before being sent to a nearby orphanage, where she was deemed a “good candidate” for international adoption.

In the consultation notes for eventual adoption, the circumstances of Hwang’s so-called abandonment and her admission to Brothers Home, as well as details of her health, were all provided by Park. She was recorded as being in good health, weighing 15.3kg (33.7lb), measuring 101cm (3.3ft) in height, and having a full set of 20 healthy teeth.

Adoption records also described her as an outgoing and well-behaved young girl. Hwang was noted for her intelligence: she could write her own name “perfectly”, was able to count in numbers, recognised different colours, and was also capable of reciting verses from the Bible from memory.

“It seems odd that I had those skills and was well nourished, and yet the police claimed I was a street kid. It just doesn’t add up,” said Hwang, who is convinced she was well looked after before she was taken to the Brothers Home.

In 2021, Hwang submitted her DNA to an international genetics registry and was immediately matched with a fully-related younger brother who had also been adopted to Belgium. She describes her first video call with her long-lost brother as “surreal”.

“For an adopted person who has never had any blood relatives their entire life, coming face-to-face with a direct sibling was jaw-dropping,” Hwang recalled.

“There was no denying we were related,” she said.

“He looked so much like me – the shape of his face, the features, even our long, slender hands.”

Hwang soon learned that she had another younger brother, and both had been adopted to Belgium in early 1986.

Their adoption files, also seen by Al Jazeera, state the brothers were “abandoned” in Anyang, a city about 300km (186 miles) from Busan, in August 1982, about three months before Hwang was taken to Brothers Home.

The timing of her brothers’ adoptions made her wonder whether her parents may have temporarily left her with relatives in Busan, a common practice in Korean families, possibly while they searched for their missing sons, who may also have been taken off the streets in similar circumstances.

Among the few vivid memories that Hwang still retains from her very early childhood, before the Brothers Home, is of a woman she believes may have been her biological mother.

“The only image that stayed with me,” she said, her eyes filling with tears, “is of a woman with medium-length permed hair. I only remember her from the back – I have no memory of her from the front.”

Hwang still holds on to hope that one day she will be reunited with her mother and will discover her true identity.

“I would love to know my real name – the name my parents gave me,” she said.

Truth and Reconciliation

In 2022, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission declared that serious human rights violations had occurred at Brothers Home. This included enforced disappearances, arbitrary confinement, forced labour without pay, sexual violence, physical abuse, and even deaths.

In the report, the commission stated the “rules of rounding up vagrants to be unconstitutional/illegal”, that “the process of inmates being confined to be illegal”, and “suspicious acts” were discovered “in medical practices and the process of dealing with dead inmates”.

Most children at the home were also found to have been excluded from compulsory education.

The commission concluded that such acts had violated the “right to the pursuit of happiness, freedom of relocation, right to liberty, the right to be free from forced or compulsory labour, and the right to education, as guaranteed by the Constitution”.

The government, the commission said, was aware of such violations but “tried to systematically downscale and conceal the case”.

The commission also confirmed for the first time earlier this year that Brothers Home had collaborated with other childcare centres to facilitate illegal overseas adoptions.

Although many records were reportedly destroyed by the home’s former management, investigators verified that at least 31 children had been illegally sent abroad for adoption. The inquiry eventually identified 17 biological mothers linked to children sent for adoption overseas.

In one case, the commission uncovered evidence of a heavily pregnant woman who had been forcibly taken to Brothers Home. She gave birth inside the facility, and her baby was handed over to an adoption agency just a month later and then sent overseas three months after that.

Investigators found a letter of consent to adoption signed by the mother. But the adoption agency had taken custody of the baby the very day the form was signed, leaving no opportunity for the mother to reconsider or withdraw consent.

The commission noted the high likelihood of the mother being coerced into consenting to the overseas adoption of her child while held inside the Brothers Home, from which she could neither leave nor care adequately for her newborn under the home’s oppressive conditions.

Brothers Home’s former director, Park, died in June 2016 in South Korea. He was never held accountable for the unlawful confinement that occurred at his facility, nor did he ever apologise for his role in it.

The commission’s 2022 report strongly recommended that the South Korean government issue a formal state apology for its role in the abuses committed at the home. To date, neither the Busan city government nor the South Korean national police have apologised for involvement in the abuses or the subsequent cover-up, and, despite mounting pressure, no president of the country has issued a formal apology.

In mid-September, however, the government withdrew its appeals against admitting liability for human rights violations that occurred at the facility, following a Supreme Court ruling in March. The move is expected to expedite compensation for a number of the victims who had filed lawsuits against the state over the abuse they suffered.

Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho described the decision to drop the appeals as a “testament to the state’s recognition of the human rights violations [that occurred] due to the state violence in the authoritarian era”.

This week, the Supreme Court further ruled that the state must also compensate victims who were forcibly confined at Brothers Home before 1975, when a government directive officially authorised a nationwide crackdown on “vagrants”.

The court found that the state had “consistently carried out crackdowns and confinement measures against vagrants from the 1950s onwards and expanded these practices” under the directive.

Hwang submitted her case to the commission for investigation in January 2025, and she received an official response confirming that, as a child, she was subjected to “gross human rights violations resulting from the unlawful and grossly unjust exercise of official authority”.

‘Child-exporting nation’

In the decades after the 1950-53 Korean War, more than 170,000 children were sent to Western countries for adoption, as what started as a humanitarian effort to rescue war orphans gradually evolved into a lucrative business for private adoption agencies.

Just last month, President Lee Jae Myung issued a historic apology over South Korea’s former foreign adoption programme, acknowledging the “pain” and “suffering” endured by adoptees and their birth and adoptive families.

Lee spoke of a “shameful chapter” in South Korea’s recent past and its former reputation as a “child-exporting nation”.

The president’s apology came several months after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released another report concluding that widespread human rights violations had occurred within South Korea’s international adoption system.

The commission found that the government had actively promoted intercountry adoptions and granted private agencies near total control over the process, giving them “immense power over the lives of the children”.

Adoption agencies were entrusted with guardianship and consent rights of orphans, allowing them to pursue their financial interests unchecked. They also set their own adoption fees and were known to pressure adoptive parents to pay additional “donations”.

The investigation also revealed that agencies routinely falsified records, obscuring or erasing the identities and family connections of children to make them appear more “adoptable”. This included altering birthdates, names, photographs, and even the circumstances of abandonment to fit the legal definition of an “orphan”.

Under laws in place at the time of Hwang’s adoption, South Korean children could not be sent overseas until a public process had been conducted to determine whether a child had any surviving relatives.

Adoption agencies, including institutions such as the Brothers Home, were legally required to publish public notices in newspapers and on court bulletin boards, stating where and when a child had been found. This process was intended to help reunite missing children with their parents or guardians, and to prevent overseas adoption while those searches were still under way.

However, the commission found that in cases involving the Brothers Home, such notices were published only after formal adoption proceedings had begun. This indicated that the search for an orphan’s relatives was considered a procedural formality rather than a genuine safeguard to protect children who still had family.

The notices were also published by a district office in Seoul rather than in Busan, where the children had originally been reported as found.

The commission concluded that the government had failed “to uphold its responsibility to protect the fundamental human rights of its citizens” and had enabled the “mass exportation of children” to satisfy international demand.

‘Right your wrongs’

Hwang now lives in Sydney, Australia, and her new home is coincidentally the same city where some of the extended family of the late Brothers Home director, Park, now live.

An investigation by 101 East revealed that the director’s brothers-in-law, Lim Young-soon and Joo Chong-chan, who were directors at the Brothers Home, migrated to Sydney in the late 1980s.

Park’s daughter, Park Jee-hee, and her husband, Alex Min, also moved to Australia and were operating a golf driving range and sports complex in Sydney’s outer suburbs, 101 East discovered.

Noting the coincidence of living in the same city as relatives of the late Brothers Home director, Hwang said she believed “things happen for a reason”.

“I’m not sure why, but maybe there’s a reason I’m here,” Hwang told Al Jazeera, adding that if she ever had the opportunity to speak with the Park family, her message would be simple: “Right your wrongs.”

Park’s son, Park Cheong-gwang, admitted in the Netflix documentary series about Brothers Home – titled “The Echoes of Survivors” – that abuses had taken place at the centre.

But he insisted that the South Korean government was largely responsible and that his father had told him that work at the home was carried out under direct orders from the country’s then-President Chun, who died in 2021.

Park Cheong-gwang also used his appearance in the Netflix show to issue the first formal apology of any member of his family.

He apologised to “the victims and their families who suffered during that time at the Brothers Home, and for all the pain they’ve endured since”.

Other relatives living in Australia have dismissed the reported abuses at the home.

Hwang said their lack of remorse “was sickening”.

“They’re running away from their history,” she said.

“It’s not only the adoption, but it’s the fact that everything in my life was erased,” she added.

“My identity, my immediate family, my extended family, everything was erased. No one has the right to do that.”