Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Philippine government failed to match its rhetoric in support of human rights in 2013 with meaningful action to end impunity for extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2014.

Australia undermined its leadership role on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region by failing to uphold international refugee protections, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2014. Successive Australian governments have engaged in populist politics in 2013 at the expense of the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.

Five human rights priorities should be central to the discussions between the Syrian government and opposition delegations ahead of the opening of the first direct negotiations between the warring parties in Syria. The priorities should be justice, humanitarian aid access, rights-respecting treatment of detainees, security sector reform, and an end to the unlawful use of weapons.

"We need the US authorities to put an end to current discrimination whereby European citizens have lower levels of privacy rights than US citizens, including less privacy protection in US courts.

Peaceful protest at the Independence Square, in Kiev, Dec 2013.

The European Parliament’s hearing on human rights in Papua in Indonesia is an important opportunity to raise concerns and press for improvements in the area’s grave human rights situation, Human Rights Watch said. The hearing of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on West Papua and Papua provinces is scheduled for January 23, 2014 in Brussels.

The Ukrainian parliament should immediately repeal new legislation that requires some independent groups to register as “foreign agents” and introduces numerous restrictions on public demonstrations, media, and the Internet. The legislation, which consists of dozens of amendments to numerous laws, was rammed through parliament in two days.

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomás Ojea Quintana.

The US government risks undermining important policy objectives unless it urgently reins in US electronic surveillance practices and stops violating the privacy rights of millions of people at home and abroad, Human Rights Watch said. In a letter to President Barack Obama ahead of a much-anticipated speech on electronic surveillance that he will give on January 17, 2014, Human Rights Watch set out specific reforms that the president should swiftly adopt.