Human Rights | WPN World People News

Children at the protection of civilians (POC) site in Malakal town, South Sudan.

The European Commission should pursue enforcement action against the government of Poland under the Article 7 of the EU treaty, as the government continues to undermine the rule of law, Amnesty International, FIDH, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society European Policy Institute, and Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to the Commission on Feb 16. The European Union and its member states need to show resolve to halt Poland’s backsliding from the common values of the EU, the organizations said.

The apparent decision by Iranian authorities to allow women to attend the Kish Island Open volleyball tournament is a positive, if small, step in the right direction, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 16. Recent media reports said that female spectators will be allowed to attend the four-day beach volleyball competition, from February 15 through 18, 2017. Women had been barred from attending volleyball tournaments under a 2012 decree, in violation of international rules.

Many homes on the front line in Ukraine have been so badly damaged by shelling that they remain abandoned.

Armed forces fighting Islamic State (also known as ISIS) to retake a town and four villages near Mosul looted, damaged, and destroyed homes, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 15. There was no apparent military necessity for the demolitions, which may amount to war crimes and which took place between November 2016 and February 2017.

Children from Bakala in a displacement camp in Grimali, Central African Republic, January 24, 2017. Approximately 10,000 people have fled fighting between the UPC and the FPRC in Ouaka province since late November 2016.

OHCHR human rights officers speaking with a member of the Chepang indigenous community in Nepal.

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

New York State’s legislators and governor should back a proposed law to help end child marriage in New York, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to New York lawmakers on Feb 14. In the period from 2001 to 2010, 3,850 children under the age of 18 married in New York State.