Human Rights | WPN World People News

The report of the five-member group appointed by President Barack Obama to review US surveillance practices cast doubt on the claimed necessity for some US government surveillance programs, and underscored the need for urgent change. With their report released on December 18, 2013, the panel joined a growing chorus of policymakers, rights organizations, and security experts calling for critical reforms to US government surveillance programs.

Thailand’s government should urgently send ethnic Rohingya children from Burma and their families to safe and open family shelters. New research documents abuses by Thai authorities, who should take action against camps in southern Thailand used for trafficking Rohingya and punish officials complicit in abuse.

No evidence has been presented by the Israeli authorities that a 15-year-old boy fatally shot in the back by Israeli soldiers near his school on December 9, 2013, posed any threat to life that would justify such a killing. It was the second incident involving the lethal shooting of a child running from Israeli forces deployed near a school in 2013.

Iraqi authorities should immediately order a transparent and impartial investigation into violence between security forces and antigovernment protesters in the western city of Ramadi. The fighting on December 30, 2013, left 17 people dead.

Special Representative Hilde Johnson (right) visits a hospital operated by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Thein Sein, President of the Union of Myanmar.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah should reject a new counterterrorism law that criminalizes virtually any speech critical of the government or society. The Council of Ministers passed the Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing (the “terrorism law”) on December 16, 2013, and it awaits King Abdullah’s promulgation by royal decree to go into effect.

Threat of all-out civil war not yet allayed.

The humanitarian tragedy in the Central African Republic continues to unravel in front of our eyes. The entire population of 4.6 million people is affected. 800,000 people are internally displaced. Since early December in the capital Bangui alone, the number of internally displace people (IDPs) has grown from 30,000 to now over 370,000. 230,000 people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, underlining the regional dimension of the disaster.

The Middle East remains the world's most dangerous place for reporters, according to a leading journalism organization.