Human Rights | WPN World People News

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued an April 17, 2017 order to all government agencies that women should not be denied access to government services because they do not have a male guardian’s consent unless existing regulations require it, Human Rights Watch said on May 09. Government agencies will have to provide a list within three months of procedures that require male guardian approval.

South Korean President-elect Moon Jae-In should place human rights at the heart of his domestic and foreign policies, Human Rights Watch said on May 09. Moon replaces President Park Geun-Hye, who was impeached in December 2016 and formally removed from office on March 10.

Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion, is one of the rights experts calling on Maldives hold the killers accountable.

Two police officers guard one of the closed madrasas in Thaketa Township, Rangoon, after authorities inspected the building, April 29, 2017.

New evidence has emerged of dangerously subpar medical care in United States immigration detention at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to increase its use, Human Rights Watch and Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), a group seeking to end immigration detention, said in a report released on May 07.

A military tribunal in the separatist-held area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region convicted a professor with pro-Ukrainian views on trumped-up charges of illegal weapons possession on May 3, 2017, Human Rights Watch said on May 06. The court sentenced the academic, Ihor Kozlovsky, to 32 months in prison. The de facto authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) should immediately annul the sentence and free Kozlovsky.

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump on May 4, 2017, opens the way to overriding regulations that protect women’s health, Human Rights Watch said on May 05. While media attention has largely focused on the order’s efforts to roll back limits on political speech by religious leaders, its other and less sensational provisions could harm the rights of millions of women.

Algerian and Moroccan border authorities appear to be blocking two groups of Syrian asylum seekers from leaving the border area near the Moroccan city of Figuig, Human Rights Watch said on May 05. The Syrians, including women and children, have been trapped there since April 18, 2017, in abysmal conditions, Human Rights Watch said.

Morocco’s recent overhaul of its speech laws leaves intact the country’s famous red lines on critical speech, as well as other provisions that could land people in prison solely for peaceful expression, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 04.

An Indonesian police raid targeting gay men in Surabaya, Indonesia, on April 30, 2017, threatens the rights of the country’s already beleaguered lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, Human Rights Watch said on May 04. The police ordered 14 men to undergo HIV tests and arrested eight of those men on charges of violating the country’s draconian and discriminatory anti-pornography law.