Human Rights | WPN World People News

Children are increasingly vulnerable to recruitment and use by armed groups as conflicts around the world become more brutal, intense and widespread, UNICEF and the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said to mark the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers on 12 February.

A sign welcoming visitors to Murwi, a commune in Burundi’s northwestern province of Cibitoke. Burundian military and police summarily executed at least 47 members of an armed group who had surrendered in Murwi and Bukinanyana communes between December 30, 2014, and January 3, 2015.

Venezuela has granted powers to the military to use force to control peaceful demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said on 12 February. On January 23, 2015, the Defense Ministry issued a resolution authorizing the Armed Forces to maintain “public order” and “social peace” during “public meetings and demonstrations.”

Sudanese army forces raped more than 200 women and girls in an organized attack on the north Darfur town of Tabit in October 2014, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 11 February. The United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) should take urgent steps to protect civilians in the town from further abuses.

Iran’s judiciary immediately should halt plans to execute a man convicted at age 17 of terrorism-related crimes for an armed opposition group and vacate his death sentence.

A gathering to promote the rights of girls and education for all in Barrod village of Rajasthan’s Alwar district (2012).

Serious concerns about workers’ rights have not been resolved for a high-profile project in Abu Dhabi that will host branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums and a campus of New York University (NYU), Human Rights Watch said in a report released on February 10. These institutions should make their continued engagement with the Saadiyat Island project contingent on the developers’ commitment to more serious enforcement of worker protections and the compensation of workers who suffered abuses, including those arbitrarily deported after they went on strike.

Female genital mutilation has affected some 140 million women and girls around the world and in Europe alone half a million of them live with the physical and psychological consequences of this practice. To raise awareness 6 February has been designated the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. The EP, which has long fought to end all violence against women, will debate what should be done about it in plenary on 10 February. Follow the debate live on our website.

The Cambodian government should abide by its international obligations not to return Vietnamese and other asylum-seekers to countries where they face persecution. On February 4, 2015, a government official in Rattanakiri province announced that a family of five who were reportedly facing religious persecution in Vietnam had been sent to Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

Justine Greening and The Prince of Wales at a WFP supermarket in the Zaatari refugee.