Human Rights | WPN World People News

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities should fully and impartially investigate threats and violence against Virunga National Park rangers and local activists, Human Rights Watch said. The government should examine whether the incidents are linked to plans to explore for oil within and near Virunga Park by SOCO International, a British oil company operating in eastern Congo.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay addresses the opening of the twenty-fifth regular session of the Human Rights Council.

Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Heiner Bielefeldt.

African peacekeepers from Congo-Brazzaville during fighting between the Seleka and antibalaka militias in Bossangoa, on December 5, 2013.

The Cambodian government should quash the convictions of 25 human rights activists, factory workers, and others for lack of evidence, Human Rights Watch said. On May 30, 2014, the Phnom Penh municipal court convicted the defendants in three cases of committing violence during recent demonstrations and imposed suspended sentences of up to four-and-a-half years. While none received prison time, their convictions incur penalties such as a prohibition on serving as union leaders.

On June 5th, 2013 the Guardian newspaper published the first of a series of government documents released by Edward Snowden. Over the weeks and months that followed, a continuous stream of stories proved what many privacy advocates had suspected for a long time: the world’s digital communications are being continuously spied upon by nation states with precious little oversight.

UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) welcomed the first African Union campaign to end child marriage launched in Addis Ababa.

UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) welcomed the first African Union campaign to end child marriage launched in Addis Ababa.

25 years after the Tiananmen Massacre of June 4, 1989, popular demands for accountability, the rule of law, freedom of expression, and other basic human rights in China have continued to grow. A new multimedia feature discusses the impact of the bloodshed, and also the repercussions from Beijing’s efforts to silence news of the event.

Burma’s parliament should scrap a proposed religion law that would encourage further repression and violence against Muslims and other religious minorities, Human Rights Watch said. The draft law on religious conversions, published in the state-run media on May 27, 2014, would impose unlawful restrictions on Burmese citizens wishing to change their religion.