Human Rights | WPN World People News

The World Bank’s “vision” statement will be undermined if it fails to recognize the importance of human rights, nine organizations warned. The human rights and development groups called on President Jim Kim to make a firm commitment to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights in all of its activities.

Malian children take shelter from a dust storm in Burkina Faso's Goudebou refugee camp. The needs for displaced Malians remain great.

The World Bank Group should uphold human rights as it works to create a world free of poverty and economic exclusion, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Group’s president, Dr. Jim Kim, that was released today.

Foreign ministers and central bankers are gathering in Washington DC, April 19 through 21, for the spring meeting of the joint World Bank, International Monetary Fund Development Committee. The Bank’s new vision document, ‘A Common Vision for the World Bank Group,’ will be at the center of the deliberations.

A decade of conflict.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, today condemned an attack on the Greek sports journalist George Tselika and called for a swift investigation by the authorities.

“It is of great importance that the Greek authorities publicly condemn this and every case of violence against journalists, which would send a clear message to the public that such assaults are not tolerated,” Mijatović wrote in a letter to the Greek Foreign Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

In a video message, Roza Otunbayeva, the former President of Kyrgyzstan, addressed participants of a OSCE/ODIHR roundtable discussion in Bishkek on increasing the role of women in political parties in Kyrgyzstan.

Delivering food to people like these kids in Syria is getting harder and more dangerous every day.

The adoption of a new media law by Burundi’s National Assembly on April 3, 2013, is an attempt to curtail free speech and independent journalism. The Senate and president should reject this version of the draft law, which would undermine Burundians’ hard-won struggle for fundamental freedoms.

A displaced Malian woman prepares dinner for her family in the capital, Bamako.

Saudi authorities need to lift the many obstacles facing the first woman to train as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia before she can enter the profession on an equal basis with men. The Justice Ministry on April 8, 2013, licensed Arwa al-Hujaili, a King Abdulaziz University graduate from Jeddah, as a legal trainee, which allows her to practice law and, after a three-year apprenticeship, to become a fully licensed lawyer.