Human Rights | WPN World People News

Refugee Jaqueline Umutesi works to prevent sexual and gender violence in Gihembe camp in Rwanda .

A handful of countries were blocking human rights references in important parts of the climate change agreement as ministers gathered in Paris on December 7, 2015, to continue climate change negotiations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said on December 7.

Two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch documented, in detail, attacks by masked men on boats with asylum seekers and migrants in the Aegean Sea. We gathered nine witness accounts of eight separate incidents in which armed men in speed boats wearing black clothes and ski masks intercepted and disabled boats carrying asylum seekers and migrants from Turkey toward the Greek islands. I had hoped that reporting on these incidents would have mobilized Greece, Turkey, and the European Union’s external border force, Frontex, to put a stop to such attacks, to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to protect the asylum seekers and migrants.

Student protests are spreading throughout Ethiopia’s Oromia region, as people demonstrate against the possibility that Oromo farmers and residents living near the capital, Addis Ababa, could be evicted from their lands without appropriate – or possibly any – compensation. Social media is filled with images of bloodied protesters; there are credible reports of injuries and arrests in a number of towns; and local police have publicly acknowledged that three students have died so far.

“The surviving, present day youth in Northern Sri Lanka face a grim future. Society is just recovering from three decades of devastating civil war. In the current post war context, the future of the community depends on rebuilding broken social structures in which youth can play a crucial role”, writes Dr. Daya Somasundaram, a well-known Sri Lankan scholar on Psychiatry in the cover story of Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives.

People with disabilities face added risks of abandonment, neglect, and lack of equal access to food and healthcare during conflict and displacement, Human Rights Watch said on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

This week, Nigeria’s senators moved a bill designed to muzzle free speech on social media one step closer to becoming law. The proposed law could affect an estimated 15 million plus Nigerians who use social media, not to mention the doubtless high numbers of Nigerians who send text messages.

The 29 November EU-Turkey summit, aimed at reinvigorating the partnership and finding common responses to refugee crisis and Syrian war was very timely, said most MEPs in Wednesday’s debate with Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Nicolas Schmit for the Council Presidency. However, in view of Turkey’s human rights and democracy record, many argued that EU funding for Turkey must be thoroughly scrutinised and questioned the decision to restart EU accession talks with it.