Human Rights | WPN World People News

A house in Rakhine State, Myanmar destroyed by the flooding.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Special Representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom.

Brazilian authorities should ensure a prompt, thorough, and independent investigation into the killing of the radio host Gleydson Carvalho at the radio station where he worked on August 6, 2015, Human Rights Watch said on August 7.

This week, China and the United States convened another counterterrorism dialogue in Beijing. On the surface, their expressed intentions are positive: joining forces to counter terrorism, partly by encouraging peace and economic development.

The government of President Nicolás Maduro and its political supporters in parliament are misusing the criminal justice system to punish people for criticizing its policies, Human Rights Watch said on August 6. In addition to the well-publicized arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of opposition politicians, Venezuelan authorities have brought criminal charges or threatened to open criminal investigations against dozens of lesser-known critics over the past year.

Shafqat Hussain was allegedly 14 or 15 years old when sentenced in 2004 for kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old boy. But the possibility of his having committed the crime while a child and allegations that his confession was a result of police torture didn’t save him from the gallows at Karachi Central Jail earlier on August 4. Hussain’s legal team at Justice Project Pakistan had dismissed as “a sham” the December 2014 inquiry to clarify Hussain’s age and the circumstances of his conviction, concluding, “[t]here was no inquiry conducted at all.” But the Islamabad High Court’s May 21 rejection of an appeal from Hussain’s lawyers to conclusively address concerns about his age sealed his fate.

The Thai authorities should end efforts to cover-up abuses committed by soldiers during the 2010 political violence and prosecute all sides responsible for rights violations, Human Rights Watch said on August 5.

People demonstrate in Bujumbura against a decision by Burundi’s ruling party to nominate President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term (April 2015).

A newsstand displays the day’s papers on October 1, 2014, including headline coverage of a pre-trial hearing then underway in a case before the International Criminal Court stemming from Cote d’Ivoire’s 2010-2011 post-election violence.