Human Rights | WPN World People News

Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), called on the Spanish authorities to ensure respect for fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression.

Efforts to bring those responsible for atrocities in Syria before European courts are starting to bear fruit, notably in Swedish and German courts, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Oct 03. While various authorities in Europe have opened investigations of serious international crimes committed in Syria, Sweden and Germany are the first two countries that have prosecuted and convicted people for these crimes.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has recruited Afghan immigrant children living in Iran to fight in Syria, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 01. Afghan children as young as 14 have fought in the Fatemiyoun division, an exclusively Afghan armed group supported by Iran that fights alongside government forces in the Syrian conflict. Under international law, recruiting children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime.

Jordanian authorities have been summarily deporting Syrian refugees – including collective expulsions of large families, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Oct 02. The Syrians are not being given a meaningful chance to challenge their removal and Jordan has not assessed their need for international protection.

New arrivals in Bangladesh’s Ukhiya area right after crossing the border with Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state.

Rwandan authorities have arrested, forcibly disappeared, and threatened political opponents since the August 2017 presidential elections, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 29. The incumbent, Paul Kagame, won the election with a reported 98.79 percent of the vote.

Two elderly men from Sayhat Othman village show researchers the blisters on their wrists caused by handcuffs.

Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, delivering opening remarks at a conference on the human dimension of security in Ukraine organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Trafficked sex worker in Cambodia.