Human Rights | WPN World People News

Pregnant at 11, a girl raped by her own father, will have no choice but to give birth. Equally, a woman at high risk of dying in childbirth or of carrying a dead baby, will not be able to seek a termination. This will be the impact of new legislation due to be debated on in the Polish parliament later this week which, if passed, would usher in an almost complete ban on abortion.

Just days before the 19 September Summit for Refugees and Migrants, at a ceremony in New York on 16 September, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted a 1.3 million signature-strong petition that expressed solidarity with millions of refugees.

Vietnamese authorities should drop all charges and unconditionally release a prominent land rights activist facing trial for peacefully exercising her rights, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 20, 2016, a court in Hanoi will begin the trial of Can Thi Theu for “disrupting public order” under article 245 of the penal code after she and others staged peaceful protests against land confiscation.

The Philippine government should invite an independent investigation involving the United Nations into allegations of direct involvement by President Rodrigo Duterte in extrajudicial killings, Human Rights Watch said on September 16. On September 15, 2016, an admitted former “hit man,” Edgar Matobato, testified at a Philippine Senate hearing about the alleged killings of about 1,000 people in Davao City involving Duterte, who was the city’s mayor for more than two decades.

In its latest report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances expressed deep concern and frustration at the rising number of cases, and underlined the need to prevent such acts and hold the perpetrators to account.

Human Rights Watch has created a dedicated webpage on access to education for Syrian refugee children, whose school year begins this month, in advance of the New York summits on the global refugee and migration crisis. In addition to the latest Human Rights Watch findings, statistics, and recommendations, the webpage contains numerous links to videos and photos for journalistic use.

Forced displacement is a crisis centered in developing countries, which host 89 percent of refugees and 99 percent of internally displaced persons, says a new World Bank report. At its root are the same 10 conflicts which have accounted for the majority of the forcibly displaced every year since 1991, consistently hosted by about 15 countries – also overwhelmingly in the developing world.

A long-awaited new law maintains restrictions over the construction and renovation of churches and discriminates against the Christian minority in Egypt. The law, passed by Egypt’s parliament on August 30, 2016, applies only to Christian houses of worship.

As instability and violence persist in the world’s newest country, the number of South Sudanese seeking safety and shelter in neighbouring countries has crossed the one million mark, the United Nations refugee agency said on 16 September.

Many schools in the United States are putting the safety and health of transgender students at risk by barring them from bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities matching their gender identity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on SEPTEMBER 14. At the end of August 2016, federal guidance instructing schools to provide that access was blocked pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s action, leaving transgender students vulnerable to discriminatory policies as the school year begins.