Human Rights | WPN World People News

The government of Ethiopia should commit to an in-depth, independent fact-finding mission into many years of rights abuses and violations of the laws of war in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali region, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 20, 2018. This should include specific investigations into the responsibility of senior Somali region officials, including the former regional president, Abdi Mohamoud Omar, and the current head of the region’s paramilitary Liyu police force, Abdirahman Abdillahi Burale.

Basic humanity and the public conscience support a ban on fully autonomous weapons, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Aug 21, 2018. Countries participating in an upcoming international meeting on such “killer robots” should agree to negotiate a prohibition on the weapons systems’ development, production, and use.

A boy rests against a woman in a camp of people displaced from Srebrenica, at the Tuzla airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel should raise critical human rights issues when she meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Meseburg, Germany, on August 18, 2018, Human Rights Watch said the day before. The chancellor’s spokesperson has said that they will discuss the war in Syria, the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and energy policy.

Mozambique’s government should cancel recently imposed exorbitant fees on local and foreign media operating in the country. The new fees are a huge setback for press freedom and access to information in Mozambique.

Teenage boys deported back from Mexico arrive at the governmental reception shelter "Nuestras Raices" ("Our Roots", in English) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on May 3, 2018.

The Maldives government’s intimidation of the political opposition and media threatens prospects for free and fair elections in September 2018, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Aug 16, 2018. The government of this Indian Ocean archipelago has also interfered with the judiciary and the national electoral commission in order to tighten its grip on power.

The Egyptian authorities have arrested over a dozen people in a crackdown against artists, apparently prosecuting them for exercising their freedom of speech, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 16, 2018. The government also has issued new decrees to severely curtail freedom of expression. Security agencies and recently created government entities have added layers of censorship to silence criticism of the government on television and in movies, theaters, and books.

Bangladesh authorities are tracking social media accounts and have detained dozens of people across the country for criticizing the government over its violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said on Aug 15, 2018. The recent wave of arrests, targeting student protesters and journalists, has created an atmosphere of fear, putting a serious chill on free speech.

Electoral officials count votes during the electoral process to choose members of the Lower House of the Federal Parliament in Baidoa, Somalia in November 2016.