Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Myanmar and Bangladesh governments should suspend plans to repatriate Rohingya refugees until returns are safe, voluntary, and dignified, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 20, 2019. With new repatriations set to start on August 22, 2019, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camps protested that they will face the same violence and oppression in Myanmar that they fled.

Australia’s parliament should scrap a new rule that allows nursing homes to overmedicate and restrain older people, a group of organizations working for older people’s rights in Australia said on Aug 19, 2019. On August 20, 2019 in Sydney, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights will hold a hearing on human rights concerns relating to the new rule. Human Rights Watch, Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia (ADA Australia), and others will appear.

Thai authorities should carry out an effective investigation, open to public scrutiny, into the abduction and intimidation of Eakachai Itsaratha, a community rights activist in Phatthalung province, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 15,2019.

A journalist and an opposition member from Rwanda are still missing one month after disappearing in separate incidents. Their loved ones have not heard from them, and the authorities have revealed nothing about investigations.

Armed groups in Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Kivu provinces have killed 1,900 civilians and abducted more than 3,300 others between June 2017 and June 2019, Human Rights Watch and the New York University-based Congo Research Group said in a report released on Aug 14, 2019. The Kivu Security Tracker, a joint project of the two organizations, logged more than 3,000 violent incidents by more than 130 armed groups.

The Hong Kong police should stop using excessive force against pro-democracy protesters in the city and abide by international standards governing the policing of assemblies, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 14, 2019. Authorities should also allow an effective, independent investigation into the policing of protests.

The Australian government should press the Lao government to take serious steps to remedy its poor human rights record at the 6th Australia-Laos human rights dialogue on August 12, 2019, in Canberra, Human Rights Watch said on July 11, 2019.

Lebanon’s ministerial committee tasked with solving Lebanon’s waste management emergency has yet to act despite a four-month trash crisis in the north, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 10, 2019. The crisis has resulted in trash in the streets and harmful open burning of waste.

Egyptian authorities should investigate the conditions of US citizen Khaled Hassan who attempted suicide in July 2019 while in pretrial detention in Tora prison, Human Rights Watch and The Freedom Initiative said on Aug 09, 2019. An independent inquiry is needed into Khaled Hassan’s allegations that he was tortured in detention, as well as other violations of prisoners’ rights in Egyptian prisons.

Problematic Australian national security provisions and sweeping law enforcement powers threaten free speech, Human Rights Watch said on August 7. Human Rights Watch made a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the impact of law enforcement and intelligence powers on press freedom.