Briefs | IRAQ – UN cites alleged war crimes, genocide by Islamic State group

The United Nations says Islamic State militants are suspected of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In a report released yesterday, the UN Human Rights Office documents testimonies from 100 people who survived attacks by the militant group in Iraq between June 2014 and February 2015. The report documents abuses committed by the Sunni militants including killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery, forced religious conversions and the conscription of children. The UN report also details cases of killings, torture and abductions allegedly carried out by Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias battling the Islamic State militants. The UN is calling on the Iraqi government to ensure that all accusations are investigated in line with international human rights standards and to publicize the results of the investigations.

FRANCE – Surveillance bill would legalize data monitoring

France’s government pressed a surveillance bill yesterday that would give French intelligence services legal backing to vacuum up metadata in hopes of preventing an imminent terror attack. The measure has already prompted an outcry from some privacy advocates, human rights groups and the Paris bar association, despite the government’s efforts to distance itself from U.S.-style mass surveillance. The bill “would pave the way for extremely intrusive surveillance practices with no judicial pre-authorization,” the organization Amnesty International said in a statement. The bill presented yesterday was proposed long before the deadly Paris attacks by Islamic extremists earlier this year, but the government says it takes on added urgency with each person who radicalizes and turns against France. It would notably force communications firms to give intelligence services access to connection data of people suspected of involvement with terrorist groups. Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve went to San Francisco last month to discuss the measure with Internet giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter. France’s parliament starts debating the bill next month.