Human Rights | WPN World People News

Attacks by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram killed more than 1,000 civilians in 2015, based on witness accounts and an analysis of media reports. Boko Haram fighters have deliberately attacked villages and committed mass killings and abductions as their attacks have spread from northeast Nigeria into Cameroon, Chad, and Niger since February.

Authorities denied many prisoners contact with their families for up to 13 days in the aftermath of violent unrest at Jaw Prison on March 10, 2015. Bahraini authorities should order an investigation into overcrowding at the prison and the circumstances of the violence.

A close-up from the memorial on the legacy of slavery.

An Oman court on March 8, 2015, sentenced a human rights activist to three years in prison for his writings. Said Jaddad, 48, a prominent pro-reform blogger, is being held at the detention facility in the southern city of Salalah.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and United States President Barack Obama should make human rights issues a key agenda item during meetings the week of March 23, 2015, Human Rights Watch said. Both the US and Afghan governments have a legacy of human rights violations to address, from abusive militias in Afghanistan to the mistreatment of detainees at Bagram and Guantanamo.

Opposition armed groups in Syria have indiscriminately attacked civilians in government-held territory with car bombs, mortars, and rockets, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on March 23. The attacks have killed and maimed hundreds of civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure in violation of the laws of war.

Houthi forces and others in Yemen have committed a spate of attacks and other abuses against the media amid deteriorating political and security conditions.

Marietta Karamanli (France, SOC), general rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on abolition of the death penalty, condemned the death sentence issued on 18 March by the Rechytsa district court against Siarhei Ivanou at the end of a trial which had been held in camera.

Damage seen on Saturday 14 March 2015 in Port Vila, capital of Vanuatu, after Cyclone Pam moved through the Archipelago.

Save the Children has been chosen by NBC and the “Red Nose Day” organization to be one of 12 poverty-fighting non-profits that will benefit from its three-hour comedy television event in May.