Human Rights | WPN World People News

Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers issued a sweeping new regulation on April 13, 2016, curtailing the powers of the country’s religious police. The council removed the authority of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or religious police, to arrest, pursue, or request documents or ID cards from suspects.

The suspicious death in custody of opposition political leader Solo Sandeng and the arrest of his party leader, Ousainu Darboe, and other party members in recent days underscore the repressive nature of the Gambia’s government, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and ARTICLE 19 said on April 18.

Three Saudi men are awaiting execution for alleged, protest-related crimes committed while they were children. Saudi judges based the capital convictions primarily on confessions that the three defendants retracted in court and said had been coerced. The courts did not investigate the allegations that the confessions were obtained by torture. Saudi Arabia’s announcement on March 11, 2016 that it will execute another four men for terrorism offenses raises fears that one or all three of the sentences could be carried out.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Nepal government should immediately stop all intimidation and harassment of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and its staff and respect its independence in line with international standards, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said on April 14. The attempts to intimidate the NHRC are a direct contradiction of the United Nation’s Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (the Paris Principles) as well as Nepal’s constitution, the rights organizations said.

As North Korea prepares to celebrate the birthday of the country’s late founder and perpetual president, Kim Il-Sung, on April 15, the world should urgently demand an end to the systematic and pervasive human rights abuses taking place today in North Korea, Human Rights Watch said on April 12. Kim Il-Sung’s birthday is known as the “Day of the Sun” and is the most important national holiday of the year in North Korea, traditionally celebrated with events throughout April which include song and dance performances, athletic competitions, exhibitions, firework displays, and paying respect to the ubiquitous monuments to Kim Il-Sung.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should use his first official visit to China to speak out about human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said on April 12, in releasing a letter to Turnbull.

Rwandan refugees, who fled the genocide, returning in July 1994 from Goma, Zaire, (now the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC).

The Malaysian government should reject a proposal made during parliamentary debates that the attorney general head the independent Bar Council, Human Rights Watch said on April 10, 2016. Such an action would give the government effective control over an institution that has long been an outspoken defender of human rights and the rule of law, and would threaten the independence of the country’s legal profession.