Human Rights | WPN World People News

The most senior United Nations officials are urging the world to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030, calling it a “violent practice” that scars girls for life, endangering their health, depriving them of their rights, and denying them the chance to reach their full potential.

Tunisia’s parliament made a significant breakthrough for human rights by approving proposed changes in detainee rights, Human Rights Watch said on February 4. Provisions to grant suspects the right to a lawyer from the onset of detention, and to shorten the maximum pre-charge detention are included in a revision of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) adopted by the parliament on February 2.

Multiple serious due process violations in pretrial detention make it highly unlikely that four Libyans charged with links to armed and political groups in Libya can receive a fair trial in the United Arab Emirates, Human Rights Watch said on February 4. No fair trial will be possible when defendants do not have full access to their lawyers or to the evidence against them, or if evidence obtained by torture is used to convict them.

An estimated 400 women showed up in support of the safe abortion bill wearing “children by choice, not by force” T-shirts on December 8, 2015 outside of Sierra Leone's Parliament.

UN Free and Equal postage stamps – promoting LGBT equality worldwide.

In December 2015, Nigeria’s government announced a “technical defeat” of extremist group Boko Haram. The claim of victory in the six-year-old conflict was based on alleged expulsion of Boko Haram by government forces from territory it previously held in the northeast.

Halim A. says his reputation and business were ruined after police placed him under house arrest on November 15, 2015 during France’s state of emergency. A judge suspended the house arrest on January 23, 2016, and ordered the authorities to pay Halim €1,500 compensation.

India’s Supreme Court agreed on February 2, 2016, to hear an appeal of its 2013 decision that upheld a discriminatory law criminalizing same-sex relations, Human Rights Watch said. The Indian government should file an affidavit with the court to set aside the country’s “sodomy” law and uphold the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The South Korean parliament should pass legislation on human rights in North Korea that promotes human rights protections and accountability for the most serious international human rights crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli prisons similar to this one.