Human Rights | WPN World People News

EU export controls should be extended to cyber-surveillance tools to avoid human rights violations, MEPs said in a vote on Wednesday.

Vietnam should drop charges of violating probation against the veteran human rights activist Nguyen Van Oai and allow him to go home, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 14. The People’s Court of Nghe An province will hear his appeal on January 15, 2018.

The Islamist armed group Al-Shabab has threatened and abducted civilians in Somalia’s Bay region to force communities to hand over their children for indoctrination and military training in recent months.

The Indian government’s mandatory biometric identification project, Aadhaar, could lead to millions of people being denied access to essential services and benefits in violation of their human rights, Amnesty International India and Human Rights Watch said on Jan 13. The large-scale collection of personal and biometric data, and linking it to a range of services, also raises serious concerns about violations of the right to privacy.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir welcomed the ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court to release two journalists, calling it a step of vital importance in improving media freedom and freedom of expression in the country.

On January 11, on the 16th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), reiterated her Office’s calls for the facility’s prompt closure.

Mozambique’s government has failed to hold anyone to account for serious abuses by both state security forces and the opposition Renamo in the year prior to a December 2016 ceasefire, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Jan 12, 2018.

Burmese authorities should not pursue a criminal complaint brought under Burma’s privacy law against a Facebook user for posts critical of a state chief minister, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 12, 2018.

Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today voiced serious concerns regarding the arrest and detention of Oyub Titiev, Director of the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Chechnya, in the North Caucasus republic of the Russian Federation, on January 20.

New reports of deaths in detention in Iran raise grave concerns about the treatment of thousands of people arrested during the widespread protests by government forces, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 09. On January 7 and 8, 2018, activists reported at least two deaths of detainees arrested during the recent protests in cities of Tehran and Arak. Iranian authorities should ensure that all deaths in detention and allegations of ill-treatment are swiftly and independently investigated, and that anyone responsible is brought to justice.