Civil rights groups PROTEST against BRICS Summit
Protests against BRICS and world leaders in attendance at the Summit are currently taking place in Johannesburg and Durban.
With the worlds spotlight firmly on South Africa, as various world leaders attend the ongoing BRICS Summit, civil organisations have taken advantage of that by holding protests near the Sandton Convention Centre.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Association of South Africa along with the Helen Suzman Foundation and Amnesty International began with the peaceful protests outside the Sandton Convention Centre before law enforcement moved them to Innes Park.
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Different civil rights organisations and NGO’s joined in on Wednesday as they showed support to Ukraine as well as venting their frustrations as leaders in attendance.
UKRAINIAN ASSOCIATION CALLS FOR AN END TO WAR
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The association has called on the BRICS leaders to uphold human rights by demanding that Russia remove their military forces from Ukrainian territory and an end to the war.
Other demands include:
- Demand Russia to stop bombing of the Ukrainian agricultural infrastructure and ports and stop blocking the trade via the Black Sea
- Call on the Russian authorities to immediately provide information on whereabouts and return all forcefully deported Ukrainian children;
- To denounce the special legislation that allows providing children with Russian citizenship and changing their personal data without consent.
PROTEST AGAINST CHINESE FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION
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NGO Stop East African Crude Oil Pipeline (StopEACOP) have directed their demands to the Chinese delegate and Chinese investors to stop their exploration of fossil fuels in East Africa.
The $5 billion pipeline is led by French energy and petroleum company TotalEnergies, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the Uganda and Tanzania National Oil Companies.
StopEACOP says, “Africa has abundant renewable potential to meet its energy needs in cleaner, cheaper ways that uplift the vulnerable – this is the direction we want China to take rather than funding projects that only serve to siphon capital away from health, education and climate adaptation.
MODI MUST GO!
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Other protesters includes those those sympathetic to the on going war in Kashmir have called for the removal and arrest of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They demand Modi be arrested for war crimes.
The Kashmir region has been a contested territory between Pakistan and India since Britain exited the sub-continental country in 1947.