Human Rights | WPN World People News

Limited competition in elections for the United Nations Human Rights Council undermines membership standards set for the body by the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Watch, FORUM-ASIA, and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project said today. Although the General Assembly elected 18 countries to the Human Rights Council on November 12, 2012, only three faced challengers in their bids for a seat.

With no end in sight for the conflict in Syria, United Nations officials today warned that over four million people may be in need of humanitarian relief by the start of next year and appealed for urgent funds for aid operations, particularly as temperatures begin to drop in the region.

When I talked to a Sri Lankan friend about the killings of prisoners which happened yesterday and tried to convince him that people should demand justice, his instance reply was, “ Dhang justice naah” (now there is no justice) . In the past, this expression meant that there were serious concerns about justice. However, now it has come to mean literarily what it says. It is a statement of fact, of which no one has any doubt.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, speaking at the seventh UN Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, 8 November 2012. (OSCE)

The successful ballot initiatives on same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington State on November 6, 2012, were major victories for gay rights both in the United States and globally, Human Rights Watch said.

The government of Sudan should urgently investigate an attack on a village in North Darfur on November 2, 2012, that killed 13 civilians, Human Rights Watch said . The authorities should allow African Union/United Nations (UNAMID) peacekeepers prompt and full access to the site.

Voters’ approval of Proposition 36, which limits the reach of California’s “three-strikes” statute, is an important step toward a more humane sentencing system in the state, Human Rights Watch said.

People lining up to vote at a polling station in a police headquarters in the Anacostia area of Washington, D.C., 6 November 2012.

Members of the United Nations Security Council should send a strong message to Libya to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said. The Council should also press the recently appointed Libyan authorities on accountability for serious and ongoing crimes.The new ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, will brief the Security Council on her Libya investigation on November 7, 2012.