Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are conducting thousands of trials of Islamic State suspects without a strategy to prioritize the worst abuses under Iraqi and international law, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Dec 05. The haphazard approach and rampant due process violations are likely to deny justice to the victims of the worst abuses during ISIS control of parts of Iraq.

A Rohingya refugee holds an infant in his arms as he stands alongside children and women on a makeshift raft after they crossed the Naf River, which demarcates the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The killing of former longtime Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on December 4, 2017, underlines the need for governments to support the new United Nations expert panel to investigate abuses by all sides to Yemen’s war, Human Rights Watch said on Dec 05. Saleh, implicated in numerous abuses during his 33-year-long rule of Yemen and during the current conflict, was reportedly killed by Houthi forces while trying to leave the capital, Sanaa.

Senior security force officers in the Democratic Republic of Congo mobilized over 200 former M23 rebel fighters from neighboring countries to quash protests against President Joseph Kabila in December 2016, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Dec 04. Kabila has since strengthened his hold on power and delayed elections, raising concerns that planned protests will be met with further violence and repression.

The opening ceremony of the 8th International Conference on Human Rights Education (ICHRE) took place at the Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Armed groups loyal to Libyan National Army forces (LNA) appear to have summarily executed dozens of men in the LNA-controlled town of al-Abyar, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 29.

The Venezuelan government has systematically used brutal treatment, including torture, against anti-government protesters and political opponents, Human Rights Watch and the Penal Forum, a Venezuelan rights group, said in a report released on Nov 29.

The European Union should press the Vietnamese government to release all political prisoners and detainees; end repression of freedom of speech, association, and assembly; and take steps to end police brutality, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 28. The EU and Vietnam will hold their 7th annual bilateral human rights dialogue in Hanoi on December 1, 2017.

The Bangladesh government should agree to new trials meeting international standards for members of the former Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) accused of mutiny and murder, including 139 whose death sentences were upheld on November 27, 2017, by the High Court, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 28. The court also upheld life sentences for another 146 people.