Under the Geneva Conventions, journalists working in conflict zones are regarded as civilians, meaning targeted attacks against them constitute war crimes. Earlier this month, a team of journalists with Britain’s Sky News came under a suspected Russian ambush despite repeatedly identifying themselves. Correspondent Stuart Ramsay was shot and wounded, and the crew was subsequently evacuated to the UK.
Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director with the Committee to Protect Journalists, on Sunday condemned Renaud’s killing and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of US journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. This kind of attack is totally unacceptable, and is a violation of international law,” Martinez de la Serna said in a statement. “Russian forces in Ukraine must stop all violence against journalists and other civilians at once, and whoever killed Renaud should be held to account.”
In 2015, Renaud and his brother, Craig, won a Peabody Award for their Vice News documentary Last Chance Highwhich was praised for its “uncompromising look at school violence and its compassionate depiction” of troubled public school students with severe emotional disorders.
Renaud, who was from Little Rock, Arkansas, was also made a Nieman Fellow in 2019 by Harvard University. Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, said the Nieman community was heartsick to learn of his death. “Our Nieman Fellow Brent Renaud was gifted and kind, and his work was infused with humanity,” she wrote on Twitter
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The statement from Ventosilla’s family “raises very serious questions that deserve clear and accurate answers,” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said. “Harvard Kennedy School supports the family’s call for an immediate and thorough investigation and for public release of all relevant information, and the School stands with all of Rodrigo’s friends and colleagues and with the LGBTQ+ community.”
Ventosilla’s family has asked the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to push for an investigation into Indonesian authorities’ conduct. But in a statement issued this week, the ministry appeared to side with Indonesian officials’ account of the events.
In a news release on Aug. 22, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Indonesian authorities’ actions amounted to discrimination and anti-trans violence. The ministry said that the arrest happened because customs officers found pills with a medical prescription and “objects that contained traces of cannabis, as well as various products made with said substance.”
“As is public knowledge, Indonesia maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding the possession of drugs and their derivative products, for which one of the detained nationals would have committed a serious crime under the strict laws of that country,” the ministry said.
It also said that the Peruvian Consulate was in touch with local authorities throughout to ensure that they worked within local law and respected Ventosilla and Marallano’s rights.
Gianna Camacho, a spokesperson for Ventosilla’s family, told BuzzFeed News that they reject the ministry’s statement, calling it an “offense against the families” and “biased” against Sebastian and the
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The Ukrainian leader not only used his UN speech to call for Russian fighters and officials to be prosecuted for war crimes, but to lambast the Security Council as an essentially useless body that, thanks to its design, had failed for decades to uphold peace around the world.
“Where is the security that the Security Council is supposed to be guaranteed?” he asked incredulously.
The veto power Russia enjoys as one of the five permanent members of the 15-member Security Council has enabled the country to carry on its campaign of violence and mass death in Ukraine without fear of international intervention, Zelensky said.
He called for the Security Council to either be immediately reformed to ensure fairer global representation and for Russia’s veto to be removed, or for the body to be dissolved altogether.
“Are you ready to close the UN?” he said. “Do you think that the time of international law is gone? If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately.”
Zelensky offered to host a global conference in Kyiv in order to determine how to reform the global security system so as to prevent future violence elsewhere in the world.
“We must do everything in our power to pass on to the next generation an effective UN with the ability to respond preventively to security challenges,” he said.
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