Human Rights | WPN World People News

Turkmenistan’s appalling human rights record undermines the possibility of a free and fair presidential election on February 12, 2017, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 07. The election climate in Turkmenistan denies its citizens the ability to choose their president freely or enjoy freedom of expression or access to information.

Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, a prominent ethnic Karen activist, was last seen in government custody at Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi province in April 2014.

Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng.

Protestors raise their hands in front of police in the Musaga neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, on 4 May 2015.

It would take another 70 years for women to earn the same as men with the current pace of progress, according to the European Commission. Europe might be one of the world's leaders when it comes to gender equality, but in the EU women still get on average lower salaries and pensions and continue to be underrepresented in political and economic positions of power and decision-making. A report adopted by the women's rights committee urges the EU to step up its efforts on February 6.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of peaceful dissident writers and human rights advocates in 2017, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 06. In January, a Saudi court sentenced two prominent activists to long jail terms, accusing them of being in contact with international media and human rights organizations. The authorities jailed two others, one of whom remains in detention while under investigation.

Burmese government forces committed rape and other sexual violence against ethnic Rohingya women and girls as young as 13 during security operations in northern Rakhine State in late 2016, Human Rights Watch said on Feb 06. The Burmese government should urgently endorse an independent, international investigation into alleged abuses in northern Rakhine State, including into possible systematic rape against Rohingya women and girls.

The safety of journalists in Ukraine can be improved through legislative amendments and a better response from law enforcement agencies, said speakers at a conference which opened in Kyiv on 3 February, organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, UNESCO and the Institute for Mass Information.

Iraqi families flee east Mosul through the recently liberated Mosul University complex.

Following the Trump administration’s appointment of Gina Haspel as Deputy Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said: