Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Chinese authorities’ formal arrest of at least 11 human rights lawyers, legal assistants, and activists on political subversion charges is an unprecedented and grave escalation of attacks on rights defenders in China, Human Rights Watch said on January 14. Authorities should immediately drop the charges and release the 11, as well as other lawyers and human rights advocates in custody for political reasons.

The Thai government should immediately act to end enforced disappearances in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said Thursday in a letter to Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha. The government should make enforced disappearance a criminal offense and take serious steps to bring those responsible for this human rights violation to justice.

The raid by a Pakistani paramilitary force on a journalist’s house is just the latest attempt by Pakistan’s security agencies to intimidate journalists who criticize the government and military, Human Rights Watch said on January 13.

It marks another grim milestone for the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay – the 14th anniversary since the first detainees arrived there, hooded and shackled. On his first full day in office in 2009, United States President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the facility within one year, but the prison remains open, with 104 men still detained.

Lebanese authorities, in violation of their international obligations, sent hundreds of Syrians traveling through the Beirut airport back to Syria without first assessing their risk of harm upon return there. Authorities should halt the forcible return of Syrians attempting to flee the deadly conflict in their country.

Saudi courts are sentencing prominent reform advocates, activists, and writers to lengthy jail terms – and even death – on vague charges related to the peaceful exercise of free expression.

Ugandan government and ruling party officials are intimidating and threatening journalists and activists in an effort to limit criticism of the government, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on January 10, 2016. Uganda will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on February 18, 2016.

Environmental and community groups from five states that sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July over the agency’s failure to take action on civil rights complaints are calling for the agency to significantly strengthen a rule it proposed last month to revise the way the agency handles civil rights complaints.

Houthi authorities in Yemen have arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of people in the capital, Sanaa. The Houthi authorities should safeguard the rights of everyone in detention, immediately release all those held arbitrarily, and grant family members, lawyers, and independent monitors immediate access to detention sites to reduce the risk of abuse.