Nadia Rahman Khan

Interim Deputy Director South Asia at @amnesty and Co-Founder of @FunoonLondon. Non-practicing Attorney/ Creative Producer/ Infrequent tweeter. Views personal.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

UNRWA is separate from the UN’s main refugee agency, the UNHCR, and deals only with Palestinian refugees.

Although Israel does not want you to know it, the reason for there being two UN refugee agencies is because Israel and its western backers insisted on the division back in 1948.

Why? Because Israel was afraid of the Palestinians falling under the responsibility of the UNHCR’s forerunner, the International Refugee Organisation. The IRO was established in the immediate wake of the Second World War in large part to cope with the millions of European Jews fleeing Nazi atrocities.

Israel did not want the two cases treated as comparable, because it was pushing hard for Jewish refugees to be settled on lands from which it had just expelled Palestinians. Part of the IRO’s mission was to seek the repatriation of European Jews. Israel was worried that very principle might be used both to deny it the Jews it wanted to colonise Palestinian land and to force it to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes.

So in a real sense, UNRWA is Israel’s creature: it was set up to keep the Palestinians a case apart, an anomaly...

Israel’s efforts to get rid of UNRWA are not new. They date back many years. For a number of reasons, the UN refugee agency is a thorn in Israel’s side – and all the more so in Gaza.

Not least, it has provided a lifeline to Palestinians there, keeping them fed and cared for, and providing jobs to many thousands of local people in a place where unemployment rates are among the highest in the world.

It has invested in infrastructure like hospitals and schools that make life in Gaza more bearable, when Israel’s goal has long been to make the enclave uninhabitable.

UNRWA’s well-run schools, staffed by local Palestinians, teach the children their own history, about where their grandparents once lived, and of Israel’s campaign of dispossession and ethnic cleansing against them. That runs directly counter to the infamous Zionist slogan about the Palestinians’ identity-less future: “The old will die and the young forget.”

But UNRWA’s role is bigger than that. Uniquely, it is the sole agency unifying Palestinians wherever they live, even when they are separated by national borders and Israel’s fragmentation of the territory it controls.

UNRWA brings Palestinians together even when their own political leaders have been manipulated into endless factionalism by Israel’s divide and rule policies: Hamas is nominally in charge in Gaza, while Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah pretends to run the West Bank.

In addition, UNRWA keeps alive the moral case for a Palestinian right of return – a principle recognised in international law but long ago abandoned by western states.

Even before October 7, UNRWA had become an obstable that needed removing if Israel was ever to ethnically cleanse Gaza. That is why Israel has repeatedly lobbied to stop the biggest donors, especially the US, funding UNRWA.

Back in 2018, for example, the refugee agency was plunged into an existential crisis when President Donald Trump acquiesced to Israeli pressure and cut all its funding. Even after the decision was reversed, the agency has been limping along financially.

You can read more from my latest article In waging war on the UN refugee agency, the West is openly siding with Israeli genocide here:
https://t.co/31iUb2ZLUd

[amnistia . org @amnistia]

#Asia

La discriminación da lugar a que la inmensa mayoría de las personas trans trabajen en el sector informal

"Deben abordar las condiciones y las desigualdades que afectan a la vida cotidiana de esta comunidad”, @NadiaRahmanK

https://t.co/S93d7v0k2B

[Usama Khilji @UsamaKhilji]

“Free speech and artistic expression are key to telling local stories about human lives and struggles, particularly of those communities that are marginalized.” - @NadiaRahmanK @amnestysasia #ReleaseJoyland https://t.co/rpZzeWyqy5

[amnestypress @amnestypress]

OUT NOW: The dire state of transgender people’s rights to healthcare, housing, and employment in Asia and the Pacific Islands worsened at height of the pandemic, @amnesty said today in new report 👇

DM or email [email protected] for interview requests

https://t.co/uJwW5O698s

[Nadia Rahman Khan @NadiaRahmanK]

#Joyland is a beautiful, complex film about human relationships. It's an important exploration of gender, sexuality, patriarchy, familial obligations, and love. It is art. This transphobic ban does the film, audiences and artists in Pakistan a major disservice. #ReleaseJoyland

[Chiara Liguori @LiguoriChiara]

👋@amnesty publishes a new briefing illustrating the devastation of the #ClimateCrisis. It features the stories, voices and demands of marginalized communities from around the world. These stories are a call to action for states at #COP27 and beyond! https://t.co/bZONjUKSp4

[Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office @amnestysasia]

PAKISTAN: Amnesty International is alarmed by news of journalist Imran Riaz Khan’s arrest and urges authorities to stop punishing dissenting voices, as has been a worrying trend in Pakistan for many years.

[Nadia Rahman Khan @NadiaRahmanK]

@ZohaWaseem @beajauregui8 @Laurent_Gayer @MrOllyOwen @unsafeknowledge @PoCoSecurity @HurstPublishers @MikeDwyerMike @jaffrelotc @LievenAnatol @SocioWarwick @WarwickCJC Woohoo! Congrats Zoha!

[Nadia Rahman Khan @NadiaRahmanK]

@ymania Good luck! Supporting remotely.

[Openly 🏳️‍🌈 @Openly]

🔴 Pride isn’t a celebration for everyone.

✒️ For those living alongside the threat of violence, attending an event can be an act of extraordinary bravery, writes @NadiaRahmanK of @amnesty.

https://t.co/tmL4puQxRD

[monica costa 🍉🍉 @mcostariba]

Poland: Ahead of the court hearing tomorrow, @amnesty is calling on the Polish authorities to drop all charges against Justyna, a well known activist who is accused of aiding an abortion #IAmJustyna #JakJustyna
https://t.co/gAkqWUP2aL

[Nadia Rahman Khan @NadiaRahmanK]

For #transvisibility day tomorrow, @amnesty, @ILGAOceania, @OHCHR_Pacific are hosting a roundtable discussion with some of the leading trans activists in the region. #TDOV2022

[UNHumanRightsPacific @OHCHR_Pacific]

LGBTI #HumanRights defenders across the Pacific are at risk of homophobic and transphobic violence and severe retaliation because of their work. Tomorrow, on Transgender Day of Visibility #TDoV2022, we honour their courage &leadership with @amnestyOz @ILGAOceania @KhameleonFiji🏳️‍⚧️

[Oksana Pokalchuk @OPokalchuk]

Today, @amnesty global movement is taking the streets around the world and demand #StopRussianAggression ✊
https://t.co/YZsG4nkiMj

[🇺🇦 Валерія Voshchevska @Val_Voshchevska]

Dear friends, we, Ukrainians, stand with all people who have gone through war, colonisation, occupation and suffering across the whole world. This treatment of people anywhere can not continue full stop, Ukraine included.

[Nadia Rahman Khan @NadiaRahmanK]

Mixed feelings. Relieved to see #ZahirJaffer convicted for his reprehensible crime. But equally conscious that the death penalty verdict only counters violence with more violence, trapping us in a vicious loop, where Pakistan's women & girls still remain fair game. #NoorMuqaddam

[Livia Saccardi @LivSaccardi]

New @Amnesty report documents civilian casualties in #Afghanistan, including those caused by US military air strikes.

"The people of Afghanistan have suffered for too long, and victims must have access to justice and receive reparations" - @AgnesCallamard

[Amnesty International USA @amnestyusa]

Omicron is a stark reminder that we won’t beat this pandemic until everyone has access to the vaccine.

A comprehensive TRIPS waiver will remove the legal obstacles for the global manufacture of Covid-19 products and help end this pandemic for good!

[Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office @amnestysasia]

PAKISTAN: Amnesty International is deeply alarmed by the disturbing lynching and killing of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot, allegedly due to a blasphemy accusation. (Thread)

[Mark Dummett @MarkDummett]

Anniversary of the Bhopal disaster.

There's still been no effective clean up
People still drinking poisoned water
@DowNewsroom - a massive US multinational - still claims it has nothing to do with them