Human Rights | WPN World People News

Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia should end their pushbacks of boats with Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants and asylum seekers, and instead bring them ashore and provide desperately needed aid, Human Rights Watch said on 14 May, 2015.

The Houthi armed group in Yemen has intensified its recruitment, training, and deployment of children in violation of international law. Since September 2014, when the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, took control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, they have increasingly used children as scouts, guards, runners, and fighters, with some children being wounded and killed.

Jail and prison staff throughout the United States have used unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force against prisoners with mental disabilities, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released on 12 May, 2015.

Turkey must do more to fight corruption and enforce respect for media freedom, free expression and judicial independence, said Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Monday. In a resolution on the progress of reform in Turkey in 2014, MEPs also urge the EU to back Turkey’s efforts to build solid, democratic institutions and ensure respect for fundamental freedoms, human rights and the rule of law. Finally, it advocates stepping up EU/Turkey foreign policy cooperation.

The Government of Paraguay has failed in its responsibility to protect a 10-year old sexual abuse survivor and provide her with critical and timely treatments, including a “safe and therapeutic” abortion, a group of United Nations experts said on 11 May, 2015.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s move to grant clemency to five Papuan prisoners ignores the dozens of political prisoners who remain behind bars in Papua and the Moluccas islands, Human Rights Watch said on May 9.

Saudi authorities have conducted a concerted campaign since 2013 to detain and deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrant workers, resulting in abuses against many of them, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 10.

The conflict in Yemen is taking a dreadful toll on civilians. Since mid-March 2015, over 1,400 people have been killed and close to 6,000 people injured, roughly half of whom have been civilians. Even civilians across the border in Saudi Arabia’s frontier towns have been caught up in the fighting.

Fishing boats such as these, beached on a strip of coast in Teknaf, Bangladesh, are often used to ferry passengers to larger vessels in the Bay of Bengal bound for Thailand or Malaysia.

Urban-search-and-rescue members of USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) at work in Nepal.