Human Rights | WPN World People News

Malawi’s government has failed to protect the rights and livelihoods of people living in nascent mining communities, Human Rights Watch said today in a report released on eve of the International Right to Know Day. Families living near coal and uranium mining operations face serious problems with water, food, and housing, and are left in the dark about health and other risks from mining.

The 2016 US presidential election has generated a great deal of debate on human rights issues—from torture to paid family leave, immigration to policing—on which Human Rights Watch has been working for years.  In the lead-up to the vote, our experts will examine some of the key issues being debated, as well as others that should be top priorities for the next president.

On September 20, the Asian Legal Resource Centre, sister organisation to the Asian Human Rights Commission, held a side event during the 33rd Session of the Human Rights Council on the systematic killings of lawyers and human rights activists in oppressed regions of Pakistan.

“Nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are once again with no running water through the public network.

Amid reports of raging battles in and around war-torn Aleppo, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called this a “dark day” for the global commitment to protect civilians, and stressed that the use of 'bunker buster' bombs and other indiscriminate weapons in densely populated areas may amount to war crimes.

Sudanese authorities have yet to provide justice to victims of a violent crackdown on anti-austerity protesters in Khartoum in September 2013, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said on Sep 22.

Chinese authorities should credibly and impartially investigate an explosion in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and ensure due process rights for suspects, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 22. On September 10, 2016, a local police chief was killed and other officers injured when they raided a home where stored explosives were detonated, according to media reports.

Participants in the International Women's Day March for Gender Equality and Women's Rights, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre right).

The Malaysian authorities should end their relentless prosecution of rights activist Lena Hendry for her role in showing a documentary film without censorship board approval, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 21. On September 21, 2016, the High Court reversed Hendry’s acquittal and ordered a resumption of the case after the government appealed.

Governments and intergovernmental organizations should denounce the worsening human rights crisis in Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said in a video released during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Sep 21. The United States and the European Union and its member countries, as well as the United Nations and the OSCE, should press for targeted sanctions absent immediate reform.