Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Cambodian government’s refusal to pay local staff at the Khmer Rouge tribunal is the latest attempt to undermine efforts to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice, Human Rights Watch said.

The discussion about Syria when G20 leaders meet in St. Petersburg on September 5 and 6, 2013, should address the member countries’ abysmal response to the Syrian crisis as a whole over the past two years. While G20 leaders are unlikely to agree on the response to the alleged chemical attack on Syria’s suburbs or the big picture for Syria, they should at least agree on concrete measures that can provide protection, justice and assistance to Syria’s victims.

The Syrian government is still using cluster munitions in its conflict even as nations that have joined the treaty banning the weapons are rapidly destroying their stockpiles, Human Rights Watch said at the release of Cluster Munition Monitor 2013, a global report reviewing adherence to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai should take urgent action to fight child marriage and domestic violence or risk further harm to development and public health in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the president.

Improved seed is distributed to farmers in the Sahel.

A Syrian girl in a makeshift Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon.

A groundbreaking global treaty on the rights of domestic workers goes into legal effect on September 5, 2013, offering vital protections to millions of workers around the world, Human Rights Watch said. Governments should promptly act to ratify and enforce the Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (the Domestic Workers Convention), Human Rights Watch said.

The Azerbaijani government is engaged in a deliberate, abusive strategy to limit dissent. The strategy is designed to curtail opposition political activity, limit public criticism of the government, and exercise greater control over nongovernmental organizations. The clampdown on freedom of expression, assembly, and association have accelerated in the months preceding the presidential elections, scheduled for October 9, 2013.

The United States Justice Department’s decision not to prevent the states of Washington and Colorado from legalizing the use, production, distribution and sale of recreational marijuana should reduce the human rights costs of current drug control policies, Human Rights Watch said. The announcement was coupled with the release of a Justice Department memorandum offering new guidance to all federal prosecutors concerning marijuana enforcement.