The U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has raised concerns about the treatment of people with disabilities in China and Ukraine. The two countries are among nine whose records came under review by the 18-member monitoring group during its latest session.

The committee said it is deeply concerned about the reported detention of people with disabilities from Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in so-called vocational education and training centers in China. It said their special needs are not being met and urges China to release them and meet all their disability-related needs while in detention.

The United Nations, human rights groups and many governments have sharply criticized China’s forcible internment of more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang province, accusations China vigorously denies.

Committee member Risnawati Utami said a Chinese government delegation did not agree with the committee’s observations and conclusions.

“There is denial of some recommendations,” Utami said. “But, again, we work on the consensus with our committee based on the reporting that we have. … So, basically, we are trying to state what we have in the concluding observations and hope that the Chinese government will accept our concluding observations without any reservations.”

The committee held a special session about people with disabilities in Ukraine. Vice chair of the committee Jonas Ruskus said the panel heard testimony that people trapped in conflict zones had been denied evacuation and access to basic services. He said at least 12 disabled people reportedly had died in residential institutions.

“We received information that persons with disabilities, they are in institutions in territories under control of Russian Federation,” Ruskus said. “They have been kept in inhuman conditions, subjected to ill treatment and used as human shields by Russian Federation armed forces.”

Ruskus said the committee also has received reports about persons with disabilities who have been forcibly transferred to the Russian Federation or to territories under Russian control.

The committee is urging both Ukraine and Russia to immediately evacuate people with disabilities who are institutionalized in conflict zones in Ukrainian territory under their respective control.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address that he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an unannounced visit Thursday to Kyiv, talked about a variety of topics, including designating Russia as a terrorist state.

“The legal reality must always correspond to the actual reality. And it is a fact that Russia has become the biggest source of terrorism in the world,” Zelenskyy said.  “The world must receive an unequivocal signal that Russian terror will not be forgiven.”

Also in his daily address, Zelenskyy said, “More than a thousand square kilometers of our territory have been liberated since September 1.”  The president said, “I am grateful to everyone who made it happen. I am grateful to the army, intelligence officers, and special services for every Ukrainian flag that has been hoisted these days.”

“Ukraine’s extraordinary front-line defenders continue to courageously fight for their country’s freedom,” Blinken said in a statement after meeting with Zelenskyy. The top U.S. diplomat reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s commitment to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Meanwhile, the United States said Thursday it plans to send $2.2 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine and 18 other European countries threatened by Russian aggression, and another $675 million directly to the Kyiv government in a new munitions package to fight Moscow’s invasion.

A news pool report said Blinken “entered Ukraine’s fortified presidential administration building through a series of dark hallways with sandbags stacked over windows that eventually led to a white room with gold trim and crystal chandeliers.”

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for the “enormous support” the United States has sent Ukraine, praising Biden and the U.S. Congress for helping Ukraine “return our territory and lands.”

Overall, the new U.S. assistance would bring its Ukraine-related aid total to $15.2 billion since Biden took office in January last year. The $675 million in military assistance includes heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles.

Blinken said the $2.2 billion in long-term aid would “bolster the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including many of our NATO allies, as well as other regional security partners potentially at risk of future Russian aggression.”

In a separate statement, the State Department said the aid would help those countries “deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity” by bolstering their military integration with NATO, the U.S.-dominated Western military alliance.

Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of $2.2 billion would go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the State Department said.

In New York, Russia called a U.N. Security Council meeting to criticize the West for sending military support to Ukraine in what its envoy said has become a proxy war.

“NATO basically manually directs Kyiv in the theater of war,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia claimed.

He said it is “empty fantasies” that Western weapons will bring the Ukrainians victory on the battlefield.

“New weapons will not change the balance of forces and will only extend agony of the Zelenskyy regime,” he said.

Washington’s envoy said Moscow had nerve to suggest countries should step aside as it seeks to destroy another U.N. member state.

“The United States is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their lives, their liberty and their democracy. We are not hiding this support,” Ambassador Richard Mills said. “Ukraine and all U.N. member states have every right to defend themselves, and we won’t stop our support to Ukraine just because Russia is frustrated that its attempt at regime change has not gone to plan.”

Earlier, at a meeting of Western officials in Germany coordinating support for Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “the war is at another key moment,” with Ukrainian forces in the midst of a counteroffensive to try to reclaim lost territory in the south of the country. He said, “Now we’re seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield.”

Even so, U.S. officials indicated diplomatic talks between Ukraine and Russia do not appear to be a top priority for Ukraine.

“Right now, the Ukrainians do not have a viable map from which to negotiate,” one senior State Department official said. “Twenty percent of their territory has gone, something like 30% of their industrial and agricultural potential is gone. That’s why they’re launching this counteroffensive.”

Defense ministers from Germany and the Netherlands said on the sidelines of the meeting with Austin that their countries would provide new training for Ukrainian forces on how to deactivate Russian mines and send demining equipment to the Kyiv government.

In addition to fighting in the southern reaches of Ukraine and the eastern industrialized Donbas region, shelling continued near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

Both sides have blamed each other for the attacks, even as the United Nations atomic energy watchdog agency has called for the creation of a safe zone around the facility to prevent a catastrophe akin to the nuclear plant disaster at Chernobyl in 1986.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96 at her Balmoral residence in Scotland. She was Britain’s longest-serving monarch and this year celebrated 70 years on the throne.

Elizabeth was the only monarch most living Britons have ever known: a symbol of her nation, its empire and its Commonwealth.

Early life

Her teenage years were overshadowed by World War II, which she and her sister largely spent in the relative safety of Windsor Castle, west of London.

She personified British strength and character long before she even knew she would be queen.

In 1947, on her 21st birthday — then seen as the beginning of adulthood — she gave a now-famous televised address on her first official overseas tour in South Africa. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong,” she said.

That same year she married the Greek-born Prince Philip. He was a distant cousin, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and the great-great-grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria.

Coronation

In February 1952, Princess Elizabeth and her husband were in Kenya when news broke of the death of her father, King George XI. She returned to London as Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation, at the age of 27, took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

She saw a thorough transformation of society and technology during her reign of more than seven decades, a time in which she warned about the dangers of throwing away ageless ideals while embracing the advantages of new inventions. She sent out her first tweet in 2014.

Record-breaking

There are few royal records she did not break: she was Britain’s most traveled, oldest, longest-reigning monarch.

“As head of the Commonwealth, the queen has links with the past. Sometimes it’s a past that’s difficult to come to terms with because you think of empire, you think of colonial exploitation for example,” royal author and broadcaster Richard Fitzwilliams told VOA. “But so far as the queen is concerned, you think of her dedication to the organization.”

As head of state, Queen Elizabeth II represented Britain in friendships with those who held in common the British values of freedom, equality and democracy — and with dignity she faced those who did not. She traveled to more than 100 countries and met countless prime ministers, presidents, kings and queens — hosting many of them in lavish state visits to London.

State visits

Among the dozens of world leaders to visit Buckingham Palace during her reign were Ethiopian Emperor Haile Salassie; French President Charles de Gaulle; Emperor Hirohito of Japan; President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe; Russian President Vladimir Putin; U.S. Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump; and Xi Jinping of China.

The queen was not immune to criticism in her own country. Some targeted her as a symbol of an institution out of step with a postmodern, neo-liberal and democratic world – and a burden on the British taxpayer.

Diana

The death of the popular Princess Diana in 1997 was an opportunity for critics who accused her of being coldly slow to react. When she did address the nation, it was heartfelt. “What I say to you now, as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being,” Elizabeth said.

The marriage of her grandson Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011 brought youthful glamour to the ancient institution.

When Prince Harry married American actor Meghan Markle seven years later, Queen Elizabeth II was at the head of a family that appeared to be moving with the times: popular, diverse and global.

Family troubles

But there were painful times ahead. Her second son, Prince Andrew, was investigated for links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Harry and Meghan fell out with the royal family amid accusations of racism.

The passing of Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, in 2021 left an enduring image: a queen mourning alone — as the coronavirus pandemic swept across her nation.

In June 2022, Britain celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70th year on the throne.

On Sept. 6, just two days before her death, she appointed Liz Truss the 15th prime minister of her reign. It would be her last major public duty.

Legacy

Queen Elizabeth remains a giant in the history of one of the planet’s most influential nations; a bridge between Britain’s colonial past and its future as a global player in a world vastly different from the one in which she was born.

Visiting Germany in 2015, addressing President Joachim Gauck, she spoke of the vast changes she had witnessed. “In our lives, Mr. President, we have seen the worst but also the best of our continent. We have witnessed how quickly things can change for the better, but we know that we must work hard to maintain the benefits of the post-war world,” she said.

Elizabeth will be remembered for her dedication, says royal biographer Matthew Dennison. “I think the importance of the length of her reign is simply that throughout that period she went on doggedly doing the job to the very best of her ability with total conviction — and I think with love,” Dennison told Reuters.

Britain’s royal tradition, of which Elizabeth was a steward, is now in the hands of her heirs, as her first son, King Charles III, ascends the throne. The Britain they inherit is a drastically different one in terms of demographics, culture and economics.

In a globalized, pluralistic world, their job of projecting an image of greatness is no less complicated.
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When Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne in 1952, the British Empire had recently lost the proverbial “Jewel in the Crown,” India, and the subcontinent was still reeling from the bloodshed of the partition that had led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

Despite the bitter history of colonialism in South Asia, Ayesha Jalal, professor of history at Tufts University, told VOA, it’s “remarkable” that the queen “was not a controversial figure in the otherwise fairly dense annals of South Asian anti-colonial nationalism.”

Jalal credits “good PR [public relations].”

Salima Hashmi, a Pakistani artist and art historian, remembers as a schoolgirl waving at the queen’s motorcade in Lahore when the British monarch visited the young country for the first time in 1961.

Hashmi recalled to VOA that years later, as the principal of the National College of Arts in Lahore, she hosted Queen Elizabeth during her second and final visit to Pakistan.

Hashmi said she was impressed by the queen’s “great ease with every kind of person, and her ability to make other people feel comfortable.”

Analyzing the queen’s legacy in South Asia, Hashmi told VOA that “as someone who had inherited the idea of the empire,” Queen Elizabeth “tried very hard to make the Commonwealth viable,” but the concept faded over time.

Queen Elizabeth ruled during a period of waning British influence in South Asia.

Jalal said that despite America emerging as the powerbroker, the royals “have been able to keep a rather balanced view of South Asia. They’ve kept their cultural presence, if not their political presence, to the same extent.”

The queen visited India three times and Pakistan twice during her 70-year reign.

While Britain could have done more to address the differences between the rival nations, Jalal said the queen was “an icon, who was seen as able to do good or to try and do good in the world.”

By the time of her death, Hashmi said, the queen was a “fading imprint” for South Asia, and people would be “intrigued to know how the Prince of Wales [now King Charles III] sees his role ahead, and whether he will have that kind of ceremonial clout.”
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The United States mourned the death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch Thursday, as presidents and politicians acknowledged the singular life and achievements of Queen Elizabeth II.

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons,” President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement Thursday.

Buckingham Palace announced Thursday afternoon that the 96-year-old monarch had passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles, now king.

Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, also remembered the queen in a statement Thursday.

“Like so many, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majesty’s dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service,” they said.

During the queen’s 70-year reign, she worked with 14 U.S. presidents, starting with Harry S. Truman. She was welcomed in the United States on official visits multiple times, including a visit in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial; in 1991. when she addressed a joint session of Congress; and in 2007, when she visited Virginia to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. It was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

“Queen Elizabeth offered a master class in grace and strength, power and poise. Her extraordinary life and leadership will continue to inspire young women and girls in public service, now and for generations to come,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

“Personally, it was an honor to be on the floor of the House during her historic address to the Congress in 1991 and to welcome her as speaker on her important visit to the United States in 2007, which deepened the special relationship between our nations,” Pelosi added.

Resolution planned

The House of Representatives will pass a bereavement resolution honoring the queen next Tuesday. Pelosi ordered that flags over the U.S. Capitol be flown at half-staff for the monarch’s passing.

“For 70 long years, from the aftermath of World War II well into the 21st century, across 15 different prime ministers, through great triumphs and great challenges, the queen’s steady leadership safeguarded the land she loved. Despite spending nearly three-quarters of a century as one of the most famous and admired individuals on the planet, the queen made sure her reign was never really about herself,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

“The queen embodied the essence of British leadership for over seven decades and leaves a proud legacy of service to her people and of steadfast friendship and respect for the United States,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said in a statement Thursday.

Many members of Congress had personally met the queen and remembered her fondly in statements on Thursday.

“I remember well her visit to San Francisco in 1983 when I was mayor,” said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. “I spent time with the queen at the Davies Symphony Hall and found her to be gracious and kind, a wonderful representative of her nation. Queen Elizabeth will be fondly remembered and missed by many, and my thoughts are with her family and the people of the U.K.”

The queen’s work on a global scale was also applauded in New York at the United Nations.

“Queen Elizabeth II was widely admired for her grace, dignity and dedication around the world. She was a reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change, including the decolonization of Africa and Asia and the evolution of the Commonwealth,” Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said in a statement.

“Queen Elizabeth II was a good friend of the United Nations, and visited our New York Headquarters twice, more than fifty years apart. She was deeply committed to many charitable and environmental causes and spoke movingly to delegates at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.”
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