Human Rights | WPN World People News

Burma’s new government should use its parliamentary majority to repeal or amend the many military and colonial-era laws used to criminalize peaceful speech and assembly, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on June 29.

The United States and France supported Hissène Habré, the former Chadian dictator who was convicted of atrocity crimes on May 30, 2016, throughout his rule, Human Rights Watch said in two reports released on June 28.

Egyptian authorities have banned the prominent director of a women’s rights organization from traveling outside the country. On June 27, 2016, Interior Ministry passport control officers at Cairo International Airport stopped Mozn Hassan, the director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, from boarding her flight to Beirut, where she planned to attend a meeting of regional women human rights defenders.

Members of a special anti-crime unit in the Central African Republic unlawfully executed at least 18 people and possibly more between April 2015 and March 2016, Human Rights Watch said on June 26.

Singers wearing hats advocating “No Torture” line up before performing at a Human Rights Day event outside of Mogadishu Central Prison in Somalia on 10 December 2013.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) and François Hollande, President of France, brief the media following their meeting in Paris.

The China-founded Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) should create a robust, independent accountability body to investigate right on June 24. The AIIB, established in June 2015, convenes its first annual general meeting in Beijing on June 25-26, 2016. It is set to approve a new round of projects at the meeting.

Egyptian authorities should drop their investigation into six young men who posted satirical videos commenting on Egypt’s politics on YouTube and release four of them, who have been detained since May 10, 2016. The investigation appears to be based purely on their satirical videos and violates the right to free speech.

The United States Supreme Court’s split decision in United States v. Texas leaves millions of undocumented immigrants at continued risk of serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said on June 23.

The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, accepted the 2016 Theodore Wanner Award in Berlin on June 21, 2016. The prize was awarded to Human Rights Watch for 38 years defending and advancing human rights around the world.