Human Rights | WPN World People News

Attacks on medical facilities, health workers, and patients have occurred in at least 17 countries undergoing conflict and civil unrest since January 2014, Human Rights Watch and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition said in a joint report issued on 20 May, 2015. The report was released at the annual meeting of health ministers from around the world in Geneva from May 18-26, 2015.

Indonesian fishermen have rescued hundreds of Bangladeshis and Rohingya from Myanmar in May, including these children.

Separate Israeli Supreme Court decisions issued on May 5, 2015, open the way for state authorities to forcibly evict residents of two Arab villages from their homes. The inhabitants of both villages, one in Israel and the other in the occupied West Bank, have previously been displaced following actions by Israeli authorities.

Turkmen authorities have expanded their campaign to remove private satellite dishes from private homes in residential areas even where the satellites are not readily visible, Human Rights Watch said on 19 May.

UNICEF is distributing critical humanitarian aid for hundreds of thousands of children and affected civilians across Yemen during a five day humanitarian pause. Despite reports of heavy fighting in certain parts of the country, lifesaving supplies are reaching hospitals, health centres, affected communities and displaced people. These include medicine for childhood illnesses like diarrhea and acute respiratory infections, nutrition supplies, midwifery and hygiene kits and water tanks.

Approximately 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom are women and children, have fled violent clashes in Burundi to neighbouring Great Lakes countries including Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These number of refugees is expected to rise, as the situation in Burundi remains volatile.

Discrimination still takes place very often.

“Young LGBT people must never be made to feel afraid to express their sexual orientation and gender identity,” Jonas Gunnarsson (Sweden, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT people, said today, on the eve of the International Day against Homophobia (17 May). “Sexual orientation and gender identity are matters that are indissociably linked with personal identity, and no one should ever be pressured to conform to other individuals’ or society’s expectations in this field.”

OSCE parliamentarians led by Kyrgyzstan’s Roza Aknazarova joined government and parliamentary leaders and representatives of international organizations and civil society in Bishkek on May 15-16, calling for improvements in women’s rights and opportunities, exchanging experiences and best practices and discussing how to fully harness the power of legislatures to help achieve gender equality.

UNICEF is very worried about the situation of children and their families stranded on boats in the seas of South East Asia. These children need, and they have a right to, urgent help and protection. UNICEF shares the Secretary-General’s sense of alarm at reports that some countries are refusing entry to boats carrying refugee and migrant children.