Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Saudi Arabian activist who helped start a women's right-to-drive campaign in the kingdom said she is receiving death threats now that the driving ban is about to be lifted.

With the lives of over two million civilians at risk in Syria’s Idlib and Daraa governorates, world leaders should abstain from attending the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Moscow, on June 14, 2018, unless the Kremlin takes meaningful steps to protect them from chemical and conventional attacks, Human Rights Watch said on May 21. Russia, host of the 2018 World Cup, is providing weapons, military support, and diplomatic cover to the Syrian government despite evidence that Syrian forces have deliberately and indiscriminately targeted civilians since 2013.

The Chinese authorities’ baseless prosecution of a Tibetan language rights activist demonstrates the government’s contempt for the rights of minority peoples, Human Rights Watch said On May 22, 2018. On the same day, a court in Yushu prefecture, Qinghai province, sentenced Tashi Wangchuk to 5 years for “inciting separatism.”

Armed Islamist groups in Burkina Faso have executed suspected government collaborators, intimidated teachers and spread fear among civilians throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 21, 2018. In response, Burkinabè security forces conducted counterterrorism operations in 2017 and 2018 that resulted in extrajudicial killings, abuse of suspects in custody and arbitrary arrests. The Burkinabè government has promised to investigate these allegations.

California has a clear interest in monitoring dire health and safety conditions in immigrant detention centers in the state, three human and immigrant rights groups said on May 18, 2018 in a friend-of-the-court brief.

Saudi authorities since May 15, 2018, detained a total of seven prominent women’s rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said on May 18, 2018. The activists have long advocated ending the ban on women driving and abolishing the discriminatory male guardianship system. Among those arrested are Eman al-Nafjan and Lujain al-Hathloul, along with two male activists, but authorities have not revealed the reason behind the arrests.

OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

Human Rights Council special session on “the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem” on 18 May 2018, United Nations Office in Geneva.

Burundi’s security services and ruling party youth league members killed, raped, abducted, beat, and intimidated suspected opponents in the months leading up to a constitutional referendum on May 17, 2018, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 18. The country has faced a political, human rights, and humanitarian crisis since April 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a disputed third term.

Recent violence in the Central African Republic makes the country’s new Special Criminal Court especially important as a means to offer justice to victims of brutal crimes committed during the country’s conflicts, Human Rights Watch said on May 17, 2018. A new report by Human Rights Watch finds that the court will need more support from the United Nations and government donors to prosecute grave crimes, including widespread killings, rape and sexual violence, and destruction of homes.