Human Rights | WPN World People News

A new government commission investigating human rights abuses in Myanmar's Rakhine state is being criticized by skeptics a day after it was announced.

United Nations work with local communities in Kavumu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to sensitize the population on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Brazil’s abortion laws are incompatible with its human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said on Jul 31, releasing a video about the issue. Human Rights Watch will speak at a public hearing on August 3 and 6, 2018, as part of a Supreme Court case challenging the criminalization of abortion in Brazil in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Human Rights Watch will urge the court to consider Brazil’s obligations under international law in reaching its ruling.

The Indian authorities should ensure that documenting and updating the names of citizens in the northeastern state of Assam is transparent and nondiscriminatory, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International India said. The potential exclusion of over 4 million people, many of them Muslims, raises concerns over arbitrary detention and possible statelessness without due process.

Chinese authorities are using an ostensible anti-mafia campaign to target suspected political dissidents and suppress civil society initiatives in Tibetan areas, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Jul 29, 2018. The authorities are now treating even traditional forms of social action, including local mediation of community or family disputes by lamas or other traditional authority figures, as illegal.

Approximately 28 per cent of identified victims of trafficking globally are children, UNICEF and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking (ICAT) said on Jul 29 on the eve of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. Across regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, children account for an even higher proportion of identified trafficking victims, at 64 and 62 per cent respectively.

Two journalists and two human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo have gone into hiding over threats following the release of a documentary about mass evictions from land claimed by the presidential family.

Bahraini authorities should restore citizenship to hundreds of nationals whose citizenship they revoked through executive orders or court decisions since 2012, rendering most of them stateless, Human Rights Watch said on Jul 27, 2018.

Families, fleeing unrest in English-speaking Cameroon, seek refuge in Utanga, Obanliku, Nigeria. Ongoing clashes between Cameroonian State forces and armed separatists have raised concerns of human rights violations.

Australia’s proposed modern slavery law needs revisions to be effective in preventing and ending labor rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a submission on Jul 25, 2018 to Australia’s Parliamentary Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.