Human Rights | WPN World People News

Donald Trump takes office having vowed to enact policies that would threaten rights at home and abroad if actually implemented, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 20. Human rights advocates, elected officials, and members of the public should press the new United States president to abandon those proposals and should call out government actions that violate rights. Congress, the courts, and the people of the United States should demand transparency and hold the administration accountable for policies and actions that threaten rights.

Croatian police are forcing asylum seekers back to Serbia from inside Croatia, in some cases using violence, without giving them an opportunity to lodge claims for protection, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 20.

Parliament condemns growing intolerance towards ethnic, religious and sexual minorities in Indonesia, attacks against peacekeepers in Central African Republic and breaches of human rights in Burundi, in three resolutions voted on Thursday.

Nigerian authorities should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into the January 17, 2017 airstrikes that hit a settlement for displaced people who had fled Boko Haram, killing at least 70 people, including nine aid workers, and wounding at least 120, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 19. The government, which has stated that the Nigerian air force accidentally carried out the strikes, should compensate those who were injured and the families of those killed as a result of any violation of international humanitarian law or the right to life.

Tunisia’s parliament should amend the draft drug law currently before it to strengthen its human rights provisions, Human Rights Watch, Avocats sans Frontières, and the Tunisian League for Human Rights said in a joint letter to parliament on Jan 19.

Members of the Burundi ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, have brutally killed, tortured, and severely beaten scores of people across the country in recent months, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 19. The killings and other ill-treatment reflect the widespread impunity for Imbonerakure members and the government’s unwillingness to prosecute or rein in the group.

President Yahya Jammeh’s declared state of emergency in Gambia provides no justification for a crackdown on peaceful dissent around the January 19, 2017, deadline for the new government to take office, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said on Jan 18.

Yasami and Ali Habibi from Afghanistan, their 6-year-old twins and 2-year-old son, and Ali's 14-year-old brother, have all lived in this tent at Eiliniko camp in Athens when Human Rights Watch visited them in October 2016. Their 6-year-old son has a learning disability and difficulties walking. Photograph by Emina Cerimovic.

An order from Ukrainian authorities banning the Russian independent television channel Dozhd TV (TV Rain) from broadcasting on Ukrainian cable networks violates freedom of expression and should be revoked, Human Rights Watch said on Jan 18. In Russia, Dozhd TV is accessible only by streaming it over the internet since the Russian authorities orchestrated its cutoff from satellite and cable providers in 2014, as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on independently owned television channels.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.