the style and the language which president micron used in that speech was interesting was that he's sort of not going to say he was begging for forgiveness but he used quite an emotional tone with the people how do you think it went down yes absolutely and i mean one of the main criticisms against the french president is that he is too arrogant he's too aloof he's not in touch with most ordinary people think or feel the protests have said over the past few weeks look we're out here we are here to voice our anger because the cost of living is too high we are struggling to make ends meet and here we have a president who doesn't know how to respond to us he doesn't reach out in fact he's barely even talked about the protests so i think about all michael's very careful in his speech to look as if you know someone who had heard who had listened and really was a very emotional plea he looked visibly moved he was staring rather intensely into the camera saying i take responsibility i made mistakes i'm listening to you now

and then he rolled out a series of concessions and tax breaks encouraging employers to give people bonuses boosting the minimum wage and this was a man to listen to you say you want more money in your pockets right now and that's why he said many of those concessions are going to come into effect as soon as possible not in a few years time so there's no doubt that he was trying to appeal to one of the main demands of the vest protesters which is really they want more money in their pockets now and what of the protest movement for one speech doesn't stop them. no you're absolutely right and of course. the yellow vest protesters across the country say they will continue they will continue to demonstrate but whether or not we will end up seeing the sort of scenes of violence we've seen over the past two weeks is another question it's hard to predict but then this whole movement has

been so hard to predict because it started as a complaint over rising fuel prices it spiraled into wide to concerns of rising cost of living and then as i said we saw thousands of people on the streets of paris and and some of the violence that shocks many people around the country but we've heard also from opposition politicians who say this movement must continue because the president simply didn't address many other concerns that cause people hardship he didn't for example reinstate a wealth tax which has been a very unpopular move in on all my courses it's important to attract the wealthy and investors to france because that creates jobs but his critics say look this is simply the president pandering to the rich and that's why they call him the president of the rich but emanuel marco knows that this speech was really meant to appeal to the more moderate supporters of the movement try and sway them what he hopes is that people come to the negotiating table to till be able to have some sort of discussion i'll stop the violence the problem is there are no real leaders

of this movement is very hard to negotiate when you don't know you're negotiating with and that's what we'll have to see will have to see what happens in the coming days who will amount to michael be able to reach out to and that is natasha butler with a live update from paris thank you. now turkey's foreign minister says the country is in talks with the united nations about launching an investigation into the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi this comes as president reject tiber one renewed his call for the case to be tried under international law earlier riyadh rejected on career request to extradite the eight hundred suspects to stand trial in turkey over the killing of. meanwhile in the u.s. some congressmen are also planning to launch a full review over foreign policy with saudi arabia so we'll talk to kimberly how could in washington about that in just a moment let's start though with mohammed violinist in istanbul outside the saudi

consulate and international investigation with the u.n. this would be a big win for turkey. that's right. turkey is reminding saudi arabia many times there is no day that goes by without turkish officials reminding saudi arabia that it's now time for some serious steps to be taken to give to infuse a new energy a new life in this investigation and to help come to a conclusion the foreign minister just awhile ago spoken i care about this and he said that now we are in talks with the u.n. about moving this file to international investigation and he said the reason why we did this is because all we are going to do this is because saudi arabia is not responding to our demands those four points that turkey has been insisting on one of them is to extradite suspects and the other one is to see who was

behind the order to give who gave the order to keep them out. the whereabouts of the remains of. and who is the local collaborator saudi arabia talked about and who is said to have disposed of the body here inside turkey none of those demands have been responded to favorably by saudi arabia we understand that. where the foreign minister just two days ago he said there is no way saudi arabia is going to hand over those suspects to turkey turkey thinks according to the minister today that it's within the framework of the law and that it is a legal step to make because these men came here to turkey to commit these heinous crime and the only legal process to do is to hand them over to turkey to be tried here inside the country where they have committed the crime so i mean turkey is in talks interesting that he said we he expressed kind of you know feeling inside turkey that we gave enough time to saudi arabia as if he was saying we don't like

to move to this is that but we are obliged to do it because there is no other choice now he hasn't said that the. it is a decision on that but preparation is going on yesterday the justice minister made a statement about this all. going to come out otherwise have been completed he's only waiting for a political decision to be taken to the suspect so that's my home involved with an update on the developments from istanbul to washington now with kimberly congressman talking about. basically a top to toe review of relationship with saudi arabia that sounds tension quite dramatic. it sounds dramatic but in many ways it's watered down compared to what many in the congress were pressing for even just a few weeks ago but the legislative body often moves very slowly incrementally and so this is seen as an important first step essentially top republicans like bob

corker in the u.s. senate are pushing to invoke the war powers act essentially they'll be a vote on a motion to proceed and then the vote but there does appear to be enormous support for at least this version of the non-binding measure what it would do kamau is it would essentially call for saudi arabia to cease aggression in yemen it would call for an end to the blockade in qatar and also for an end to the jailing of dissidents including human rights activists now what this won't do is it won't put in place sanctions it won't allow for halting of weapons transfers between the united states and saudi arabia and it also won't officially condemn any of the actions in yemen but certainly what this is seen is a rebuke on the white house that many in the u.s. congress feel have donald trump the u.s. president has been dragging his heels in terms of response to the killing of. kimberly thanks for that update from washington. well grab

a break on al-jazeera when we come back on oil workers are walking off the job again this is the latest strike to hit one of africa's largest produces. and iran when to settle down now for the korean peninsula and japan the temp is really dropped when it first came in and they've started to rise a little bit now clouds sweeping through it's in the code to bring more snow to her car to just catch the high ground nor the home sure the temperatures are hovering around about zero mark after the korean princes so they've come up still modest seven in front of us or for the skies above beijing which are largely clear we're just above freezing and it's pretty war in iran but our relatively speaking it's minus thirteen is a max on wednesday that is warmest still brandy's be here on thursday the temperature hovering round the same figures else which the east and the stars

reduced to somewhat rain for the size in some parts of honshu but mostly it's generally fine take you at any ten degrees that cost the winter's coming into china as well the snow start forming the tempest around seven shanghaied eight and hong kong eighty mostly sunny skies so they will classify thing to degree in the coast of vietnam still looks pretty wet and showers will start to return now to the northern philippines where it's been dry recently but the heaviest rain will still be further south. but it's humid eyes here a bit further south singapore and beyond where it really went. my name's phil novell and i an addict i'm on my phone all day every day and my tablet is never really more than a few feet away the use of the internet elevates dopamine just like gambling and

just like cocaine goes i will experience my own unusual digital detox i feel like i don't want to how this thing is there all the time anymore my digital addiction an al-jazeera. top stories for you here on al-jazeera and the european commission president john called yoga says there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to renegotiate u.k.'s brands that deal a minister to resign is meeting european leaders trying to salvage her unpopular agreement which should lead to breaks in march of next year. france's president is

promising to raise the minimum wage and to cut taxes but some demonstrators say his concessions don't go far enough in his first national direct address since the yellow vest rallies began last month amanda micron's says that he does shoulder some of the responsibility for the anger. and turkey's foreign minister says he is in talks with the united nations about launching an investigation into the murder of saadi journalist jamal khashoggi president at times heard about this also renewed his call for the case to be tried under international law earlier riyadh had rejected uncle his request to extradite the eighteen suspects to stand trial in turkey. to libya where rebel groups loyal to the warlord khalifa haftar mobilizing in the oil crescent region that's after rival factions announced an offensive to recapture the area is oil crisis that includes four major oil ports on the mediterranean in central libya and it's been under the control of half the us forces since two hundred sixteen. meanwhile oil workers in gap on have started

a three day strike in protest at the sacking of six colleagues the walkout is that the french company total produces about two hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day thousands of workers that have been laid off as the oil prices fell workers demanding higher pay and better working conditions held another strike back in july we have money on such about this chief executive of rich management an emerging markets economist who told us the strike shows how opaque is losing its influence in the global oil industry. i think the important message there is a similar message. and it's essentially telling the go go days opec would shape that money. and it's dealt pronouncements already meaningful it's telling us that opec is using rubber you environment like they did you know you take cattle you take out all in that context that's the way the population is very small are. kept.

quite high obviously it's not. and it's a little bit like that sense of course because sixty or use at the present and suck at the earth in saudi arabia is currently. so it's a very fragile situation for the thai government is lifting its ban on opposition parties for a general election early next year for twenty fourth is the date set for the vote which has been postponed five times already it'll be the first since the military coup four years ago despite the lifting of the ban the rights groups doubt whether this election will be fair scott high has more from bank. the countdown to thailand's election continues the announcement on tuesday coming lifting the ban on political activity this imposed by the military government when they staged their coup back in twenty fourteen in september they lifted the ban on political parties

organizing now on tuesday they say that they can go a step further and that is to fundraise and also to hold gatherings before this announcement on tuesday any gathering of a political party more than five people was illegal that now is being allowed now the next step we're expecting in this process going toward the election that's supposed to take place on february twenty fourth and that is on january second the lifting of campaigning that is when these political parties can really start to reach out to the people and start to send their messages of why they should be elected also around that time in the beginning of the year twenty one thousand we also see these political parties and now it's who they want to put forward as prime ministerial candidate each party will have three and that will move forward also it's going to be interesting when that starts that happens what's going to be the political future of the current prime minister approach and which i know he led the coup back in twenty fourteen he has said he wants to remain a politics but he hasn't really said exactly what so those next steps are going to

be coming in just the next couple of weeks now three poor trophy builds which were taken by u.s. troops in the philippines during their war back in one thousand and one has been returned to try to improve relations between the countries the bills iran to manila and i repacked ceremony will be held on saturday the u.s. military took the bills after a counterattack to the killing of dozens of its soldiers the pregnant girls in tanzania are being forced to abandon their education president john mug of food he says the law which bans teenage mothers from returning to public schools must be strictly enforced reports from the northern region of which has the country's highest teen pregnancy rates. to know the origin of man i history lesson on a hot dusty afternoon open knowledge school the nonprofit sentencing younger rescues girls from early marriages and shelters pregnant teenagers it's even more important now after the government enforced

a policy banning teenage mothers from going back to public schools when their baby's born sixteen year old sofia has a twelve month old baby she says she was raped by a brother in law a teacher who has since gone into hiding after she went to the police. after the incident i told my sister his wife or she would not believe me she started mistreating me beating me saying i must have been promised cure jacqueline is seventeen years old and six months pregnant she says she was attracted to the baby's father by his generosity. he give me money and gifts. i could not bring myself to ask my parents because they don't have much money and they are burdened with taking care of my other five siblings government statistics estimates there were nearly seventy thousand teenage pregnancies in twenty sixteen she younger has the highest rate in the country president cream not to allow pregnant girls to return to school highlights the skill not only of teen pregnancies but also child

marriages they account for more than thirty five percent of all weddings nationally this is not a new policy there is an existing law on next felling teenage girls who get pregnant and school and up to thirty years for those who get them pregnant but that law is not strictly enforced human rights campaign as we talked to said the president's directive holds back the gains that have been made in ensuring that girls remain in school. girls are allowed to go to vocational centers or private schools after birth but these few non profit one satyrs a copy and others are too expensive for many. we had made good progress with the ministry officials toward working out of more middle and outside girls to go back to school the presidential degree means those plans are now on. some human rights campaigners say women's rights laws in tanzania are vague

conflicting and discriminatory we have kargil have a tradition we have practices and to have laws. what is the best foot and then. again. in terms of education i think that is an area we have to see should we see and revise our. policies. to me and say he is sitting pensively or has school desk back in session younger sophia tells us if she could have a charter the president should tell him that she didn't want to become pregnant she was raped and she deserves a second chance catherine so she younger northwest. to her the headlines this hour on al-jazeera the european commission president jiang called younger says there is absolutely no room whatsoever to renegotiate the

u.k.'s briggs it deal but its prime minister theresa may is meeting european leaders to try to salvage the unpopular agreement which should be leading to the bridge that happening in march of next year. are the headlines france's president is promising to raise the minimum wage and to cut taxes but some demonstrators say his concessions don't go far enough this was his first national address since the yellow first rallies began last month and the new micron did say he was some responsibility for the aca. turkey's foreign minister is in talks with the united nations about launching an investigation into the murder of saudi journalists. this comes as president reject type heard over and renewed his call for the case to be tried under international law earlier riyadh rejected on his request to extradite the eighteen suspects to stand trial in turkey over these killing meanwhile in the u.s. some congressmen are planning to launch a full review over foreign policy with saudi arabia. we have requests from

state leaders from the united nations and the chairman of the human rights committee said that a u.n. investigation must be started we have spoken to our counterparts at the u.n. and others about this topic and we continue to consult each other it will be necessary for this to go through to the u.n. security council however a commission can be set up by the secretary general to investigate the human rights aspects of this matter. oil workers in bonn have started a three day strike in protest of the sacking of six colleagues the wall counties that the french oil company total government produces about two hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day but thousands of workers have been laid off as the oil prices fall and workers demanding higher pay and better working conditions held enough to strike back in july. funny time government is lifting its ban on opposition parties for a general election next year voting has been repeatedly postponed in the nationwide poll in february will be the first since the military coup in thailand four years

ago it's my lot for today thanks for your company more news right after inside story. a universal declaration of human rights it's been seventeen years since the document was adopted to ensure equality and justice without discrimination but as it made the world a better place and what of the human rights issues facing the world today this isn't.

hello welcome to the program on imran khan december tenth marks the seventieth anniversary of the un's universal declaration of human rights the document outlines the fundamental rights that should form the basis of democratic societies the u.n. says it's as relevant today as it has always been but with multiple examples of genocide war crimes and crimes against humanity just how enforceable is it mike hanna takes a look at the birth of the declaration and whether it still holds any influence. borne out of recession the devastation of war and an act of genocide executed on industrial scale the declaration was passed by the un general assembly in one nine hundred forty eight with the us ambassador eleanor roosevelt a guiding force its intention to ensure that such tragedies did not occur again

but in the decade since the declaration has been marked more by transgressions and example the key problem the lack of enforcement the body established to protect these rights is a un security council and often divided body in which national agendas rather than individual rights remain supremum. the syrian state that carries out chemical attacks against its own people is shielded from sanction by a russian veto which is joined by china in blocking any action against north korea and in threatening a veto to hold the myanmar military to account for what the un own investigators call a genocide. any attempt to take action against israel or even condemn a transgression in occupied territory is routinely blocked by a u.s. veto and even former champions of the declaration do not live up to their promise the u.s. president insists the maintenance of trade is more important than seeking accountability

for a murdered journalist. the killing of jamal khashoggi contravened a number of articles of the declaration yet despite what many including u.s. senators maintain is compelling evidence of guilt the crown prince of saudi arabia remains unsanctioned. she is one of those cases where you look at it and you go you know what is the point of fighting for human rights when you know a man can walk into an embassy and be cut up into pieces and tortured and there's no accountability i mean article fourteen states everyone has a right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. but in what he describes as putting america first president trump is in daily transgression of the document a u.s. ambassador helped draft seventy years ago as you know mark lateralus my son that attack and and there are some pushbacks and human rights too it gives it gives me

the impression that sometimes when some leaders of the world speak. relativizing human rights and say that or multilateralism other feel like that's a license to say it also seventy years on in the world may not be the better place the drafters envisaged and yet the universal declaration of human rights remains as testament to what should be a living realigned of the philosophy that individual rights are intrinsic and cannot be indulged or taken away michaela al-jazeera united nations. don't to say mr mark chairwoman of the afghan independent human rights commission thank you for joining the program not only are you a medical doctor but you're also a passionate defender of human rights i just want to begin by asking you when did you become such an advocate of human rights thank you fit very mad for having me and to prove that born in afghanistan as

a female and seeing all of this current mission at this moment in our service that there is in minority groups in afghanistan and the continuing conflict in the country a sense for tears as you not if put me in a position to fight for equality and human rights now it's the seventieth anniversary of the un declaration on human rights that decoration gave a framework towards human rights when did you become aware of the declaration of human rights and how much of an impact it has it had on your work in afghanistan and became aware of the human condition of human rights and i was quite candid maybe around seventy five and i think the equality in and put their human dignity in the focus was a reason for me to fight for it and use it as a tool for fighting for equality and human rights and i think it's a it's

a document i believe that. draw a clear line between aggression violence and civilized tolerance work of course focusing on human dignity in equality between any person without ignition off their geographical position or color religion believe their language and so on. so that is true to be used for promotion of you want me to. everywhere in particular in my country not funds if people are prosecuted for war crimes for crimes against humanity in conflict zones do they feel that they can get away with doing more and more violations against human rights of course not at think that's why i am saying that it should be a mechanism in order to deal with those things because if you really. continue like

this without any accountability in me see more and more a commission of poor crimes and crimes against humanity around the word and nobody is keeping him accountable and i think in order to see if you match amity in order to save the human dignity we need access to justice and my view access to justice is not collection access to justice enhance it living in jest society it's a basic human right and everybody has a very to look at that election go to zero some are thank you very much for joining us on the program thank you. let's bring in our panelists in bangkok we're joined by benjamin is wacky and human rights researcher in cult test jeff gilbert professor of international human rights and humanitarian law at the university of essex and in stockholm you had this mosque and director of communications at the right livelihood award foundation

welcome to the program let me begin with you benjamin so wacky in bangkok first is the universal declaration of human rights a gold standard or is that is it the baseline the bare minimum countries should be adhering to. well it was intended as a baseline minimum in ah seventy years ago in the wake of roadwork to the world was perhaps more memorable than it is seventy years on to consider in these rights in a green almost universally across the board you look at the number committee that drafted the declaration to accepting these rights and agreeing to hear them seventy years on they're being seen now as in almost an hour and now it was always a declaration it was never an forcible convention or trees that were not sense it would be difficult to press a legal case to begin with although these days even conventions retreat or not it seems were they were seventy years ago either let me bring in our legal experts

have them call test professor jeff gill but jeff we've heard a lot in the last few minutes about accountability about enforceability because this is a declaration it doesn't have any real legal teeth to take in international law is that right the feed declaration like any other general assembly declaration does not in and of itself have binding legal qualities but over the seven see is the declaration has come to reflect customer international which is binding on states the problem as always with international law is enforceability it's all well and good to have documents treaties or declarations that sets out rights the difficulty is always trying to get those rights are held by states and that requires states to stand up and be accountable and to hold the states to account it requires mechanisms for individuals to make complaints and it requires the international

community as a whole to put in place procedures so that rights can be. verified and commented upon and although systems are now in place that were never there back in seventy years ago what i think the universal declaration of human rights has done more than anything is that it's made it unquestionable that states are held to account when those rights are seem to be violated nobody would expect silence anymore when rights are violated what we now need is of course for greater accountability greater enforceability and for mechanisms to be respected and for the rule of law to be upheld let me bring in stockholm here and you had this mosque and is that right are states paying attention to the universal declaration of human rights are prosecutions taking place it feels like the we are in

a place now where human rights violations are simply seen more because of the twenty four hour news cycle because of social media because of the media landscape that we're in right now but things seem much more bleak when it comes to human rights globally than ever before perhaps well i think the answer is not as you know black and white yes we see accountability and yes we see how important the universal declaration on human rights has been and how important is everyday. advancing a more just peaceful and sustainable growth but of course at the same time i remember much you know i agree also with the picture you're painting with lots of states getting away with with you know the most horrible violations of human rights within their own countries and also abroad so i guess the major thing lacking is political willingness and courage to actually make sure that the. human

rights are being respected. now let me bring in bangkok and benjamin so ok is there a structural problem hit with the way the united nations works because it doesn't have an enforcement policy or is this simply the states all paying lip service to the universal declaration of human rights but actually they're not really pushing forward within their own countries to prosecute those responsible well it's a combination of both un has suffered from from a structural deficiency ever since the security council was founded in the wake of world war two and of course seventy years on it's not most anachronistic now when you look at its composition i think more importantly what you have to do twenty first century in contrast to the middle of the twentieth century is number one a situation in united states in which it's an executive chief executive ever since the turn of the century has either.