News Highlights: Calls for protest in Belgium after refugee suicide, Documentary on corruption in South Sudan war, MEPS vote for humanitarian visas

In this week’s news highlights: Indefinite national service in Eritrea still in place; indigenous Afar group from Eritrea calls for rights to be restored; further opposition to Eritrea’s desire to join UN Human Rights Council; eyewitness report about torture in Eritrean prisons; UAE reportedly violating Somali arms embargo; neighbouring countries allegedly financing South Sudanese civil war, states new documentary; millions of Ethiopians require international assistance, states OCHA; NGOs call for protests after Eritrean commits suicide in Belgian detention centre; European Parliament demands European humanitarian visas, Italy’s PM Conte visiting Ethiopia and Eritrea; Climate Change will cause large migratory flows; and Italian minister Salvini claims growing support for closing ports for migrants.

UN: ‘Member States should fulfill their obligations to save lives and stop criminalizing humanitarian aid actors’

The United Nations published a report by Agnes Callamard, the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The report, entitled “Saving lives is not a crime”, describes that the States’ actions to fight terrorism and deter migration, and the subsequent criminalization of humanitarian services, constitute a violation of their obligations. The report urges States to cease the criminalisation of those trying to assist and/or save migrants and refugees.