Human Rights | WPN World People News

Proposed new courtroom rules could block the ability of defense lawyers to call witnesses for trials in Egypt. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi should reject the new rules.

21 March 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD).

"Equal treatment in access to justice has to become a reality and Council of Europe member States need to remove existing obstacles and ensure that their citizens have equal access to justice, irrespective of their wealth or status.," said the members of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination meeting in Paris on March 20.

At a hearing on 'equality and shared parental responsibility: the rights of fathers', participants stressed the importance of ensuring parental equality both in law and in practice. The rapporteur of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination Françoise Hetto-Gaasch (Luxembourg, EPP/CD) also would like to see mediation expanded as a means of easing tension between parents, in the best interest of children, who all too often become a pawn in the dealings between their parents. "Mediation allows couples to focus on their relationship as parents after their conjugal relationship has come to an end", she added.

Leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, and Switzerland should raise pressing human rights concerns and seek commitments to address them from Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambaev, Human Rights Watch said on March 22. The Kyrgyzstan leader is visiting Brussels and European capitals from March 22 to April 1, 2015.

Up to 250 child soldiers including four girls, one as young as nine, were released on 21 March in South Sudan from an armed group, the Cobra Faction. Another 400 are being released over the next two days.

The Afghan government should investigate the failure of police in Kabul to prevent a mob from beating to death a woman with a reported psychosocial disability, Human Rights Watch said on March 20. On the morning of March 19, 2015, a group of a dozen or more men near the Shah-Do Shamshira shrine claimed the woman, Farkhunda, had burned a copy of the Quran and then beat her to death while police stood by. Media reports state that Farkhunda’s parents have said that their daughter had a mental health condition for many years.

On March 20, U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement agreement between the United States, the Greenbrier Village Homeowner’s Association Inc. (Greenbrier), Gassen Company Inc. (Gassen) and an individual Gassen employee to resolve a lawsuit filed on Nov. 25, 2013. The lawsuit alleged that Greenbrier and Gassen unlawfully discriminated against residents with children by issuing and enforcing rules regarding the use of common areas at the Condominiums of Greenbrier Village. The settlement includes a commitment from Greenbrier to establish a new non-discrimination policy in accordance with the Fair Housing Act, pay a $10,000 penalty to the United States and pay $100,000 to six families that suffered as a result of the discrimination.

A submunition impact crater and fragmentation damage on the wall where two people died in Kramatorsk during an attack with cluster munitions on February 10.

Children from the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced perform traditional dances at the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, El Fasher, Sudan.