Human Rights | WPN World People News

The recent clampdown on an NGO, media freedom and the potential for the EU to monitor the fundamental rights situation in member states were among the main issues raised at a public hearing on human rights in Hungary. The hearing took place on 22 January in the Parliament's justice committee with representatives of NGOs, international organisations and the Hungarian government in attendance.

Burundian authorities arrested a prominent journalist on January 20, 2015, days after his radio station broadcast a series of investigative reports into the September 2014 murder of three elderly Italian nuns in the country. The broadcasts included allegations about the involvement of senior intelligence officials in the attack on the convent.

Thai agricultural workers in Israel face serious labor rights abuses because Israeli authorities are failing to enforce their own laws, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on January 21, 2015. Israeli authorities should take immediate steps to improve its enforcement mechanisms and investigate whether unsatisfactory living and working conditions have contributed to a troubling pattern of deaths among migrant workers from Thailand.

Violence and threats against Afghanistan’s journalists by the government and security forces are increasing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on January 21. These attacks put at risk the gains in media freedom in Afghanistan since 2001.

As the world enters into the 26th year of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Somalia has become the 195th state party to ratify the Convention, setting a course to improve the lives of its youngest citizens.

Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium)

Lebanon’s religion-based personal status laws discriminate against women across the religious spectrum and don’t guarantee their basic rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on January 19, 2015. Lebanon has 15 separate personal status laws for its recognized religions but no civil code covering issues such as divorce, property rights, or care of children. These laws are administered by autonomous religious courts with little or no government oversight, and often issue rulings that violate women’s human rights.

Violence and threats against Afghanistan’s journalists by the government and security forces are increasing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on January 20, 2015. These attacks put at risk the gains in media freedom in Afghanistan since 2001.

Bahrain should immediately release the head of the country’s leading political opposition group having failed to present any evidence that justifies his detention. Sheikh Ali Salman, the secretary general of Al Wifaq, a legally recognized political society, has been in detention since his arrest on December 29, 2014, and has been charged with various criminal offenses, which include the promotion of violence and defamation of a “statutory body.”

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović at the conference on shaping policies to advance media freedom on the Internet, Vienna, 14 February 2013.