Human Rights | WPN World People News

Azerbaijan’s international partners should insist on the release of wrongfully detained and imprisoned critics as the country prepares to host the first European Games, Human Rights Watch said on 20 April. Human Rights Watch released a new video on April 20, 2015, featuring prominent activists and journalists detained in the months leading up to the games.

Medics carry a young man on a stretcher off the Italian Coastguard vessel Gregoretti when it reached Palermo in Sicily after rescuing people from the Mediterranean.

More than twenty million women, children and men are estimated to be victims of human trafficking worldwide. The Parliament's human rights subcommittee holds a hearing on Thursday 16 April to discuss what the EU can do to tackle the issue when dealing with other countries. They will be joined by representatives from NGOs and international organisations.

Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Ben Emmerson.

Azerbaijan’s conviction on April 16, 2015, of a leading human rights activist and government critic, Rasul Jafarov, reflects the government’s relentless crackdown against independent voices, Human Rights Watch said on 16 April. The authorities should immediately release Jafarov and vacate his politically motivated conviction. The authorities should also end their ongoing harassment of the country’s human rights community and allow human rights groups to function freely.

Thai authorities should drop criminal proceedings against two journalists for reporting on trafficking of ethnic Rohingya “boat people,” Human Rights Watch said on 16 April. Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian, the editor and correspondent of the news website Phuketwan, were charged one year ago, on April 17, 2014, with criminal defamation and the Computer Crimes Act based on a complaint filed by the Thai navy.

Parliament called for more efforts to end discrimination, hate crime and hate speech against Roma people and for 2 August to be recognised as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, to commemorate the Roma genocide in World War II, in a resolution passed on Wednesday.

The Khanke IDP camp outside of Dohuk is home to more than 18,000 Yezidis and other Iraqi families who were displaced by the conflict.

Reports of 400 lives lost in the Mediterranean between April 11-13, 2015, should force the European Union to implement a vast search-and-rescue operation, Human Rights Watch said on April 15. Eleven bodies have been recovered so far from one confirmed shipwreck over the past few days.

Saudi Arabia, other coalition members, and the United States should ensure that coalition forces take necessary steps to minimize harm to civilians during military operations in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said on 13 April, releasing letters to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Sa`ud of Saudi Arabia and US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The coalition and the US should investigate alleged laws-of-war violations by coalition forces and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to populations at risk.