Human Rights | WPN World People News

Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) have failed to protect the well-being of hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers sent to Manus Island under Australia’s mandatory offshore processing policy, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 25. About 770 men remain stuck in PNG, where many have suffered assaults and robberies and received inadequate health care, according to new interviews by Human Rights Watch.

Medical professional associations should enact standards of care for intersex children that rule out medically unnecessary surgery before patients are old enough to consent, Human Rights Watch and interACT said in a report released on Oct 26, 2017. After decades of controversy in the medical community over the procedures, the lack of centralized care standards allows doctors to continue operating on children’s gonads, internal sex organs, and genitals when they are too young to participate in the decision, even though such surgery is dangerous and could be safely deferred.

A report released on October 23, 2017, by the French administration and security forces’ internal investigations departments has found convincing evidence that police used excessive force and committed other abuses against child and adult migrants in Calais, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 24. The French report comes almost exactly one year after authorities demolished the large migrant camp there, known colloquially as the “Jungle.”

The Polish government has used its majority in parliament to pass laws that weaken checks and balances on the executive, undermine the rule of law and threaten a broad range of human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Oct 24, 2017.

Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media , speaking at the opening of the Internet Freedom Conference, 13 October 2017, Vienna.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras should end the Greek government’s “containment policy” of confining asylum seekers to the Aegean islands, 19 human rights and humanitarian aid organizations said in an open letter released on Oct 23.

The French government should ensure that human rights are central to its relationship with Egypt, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 23. France should stop ignoring serious abuses, including Egyptian security services’ widespread and systematic use of torture, which likely constitutes a crime against humanity. President Emmanuel Macron will hold his first meeting with President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi in Paris on October 24, 2017. Al-Sisi will also meet with the heads of the French National Assembly and Senate.

The Chinese government is collecting “voice pattern” samples of individuals to establish a national voice biometric database, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 22, 2017.

Russia should not block the extension of the inquiry into who is responsible for chemical weapons use in Syria, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 20.

Apparently indiscriminate firing during fighting on October 16, 2017, in a town near Kirkuk involving the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Peshmerga forces and various Iraqi government forces left at least 51 civilians wounded and five dead, Human Rights Watch said on Oct 20, 2017. Iraqi forces in control of the town, Tuz Khurmatu, subsequently let civilians loot property unimpeded for at least a full day before taking action. Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government forces should take all feasible steps to minimize civilian casualties and prevent looting.