Human Rights | WPN World People News

Thai authorities should immediately drop charges against a prominent academic and four conference participants for violating the military junta’s ban on public assembly at a conference at Chiang Mai University in July 2017, Human Rights Watch said on August 16, 2017. The International Conference on Thai Studies included discussions and other activities that the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta deemed critical of military rule.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Erkin Musaev, a United Nations employee and former government official, tortured and unjustly jailed for 11 years in Uzbekistan, was finally freed on August 11, 2017, according to his family, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 14. Musaev had been imprisoned since 2006 and was granted early release on orders of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the family said.

Egyptian authorities should immediately provide appropriate health care to the imprisoned journalist Hisham Gaafar, whose health, including his eyesight, is deteriorating in detention, Human Rights Watch said on August 14. If prison authorities are unable to provide him necessary health care, they should allow him to seek care in private health facilities.

Saudi security forces have surrounded and sealed off the predominantly Shia town of Awamiya in July 2017 as they confronted an armed group hiding in a historic neighborhood slated for demolition, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 13.

Kenyan security forces should exercise restraint in the face of protests that take place in response to election results, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 12. In any situations where security force personnel use force, they should take care to ensure that it is proportionate.

The Philippine government’s plan for mandatory drug testing for all college students and applicants seriously threatens their safety and right to education, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 11. On August 2, 2017, the official Commission on Higher Education, which produces “plans, policies and strategies” for higher education under the office of the president, approved a memorandum order to be implemented at the start of school next year.

Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee.

In July, 18-year-old Tulasi Shahi died after a snake bit her while she slept in a shed where she had been banished – because she was menstruating. The shed, unlike her home, was open to snakes and other animals.

Fourteen members of the Saudi Shia community are at imminent risk of execution after Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court in mid-July 2017 upheld their death sentences from an unfair trial for protest-related crimes, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 10. Courts convicted the 14 based on confessions they had repudiated in court, saying that they were coerced.