Human Rights | WPN World People News

Reports of 400 lives lost in the Mediterranean between April 11-13, 2015, should force the European Union to implement a vast search-and-rescue operation, Human Rights Watch said on April 15. Eleven bodies have been recovered so far from one confirmed shipwreck over the past few days.

Saudi Arabia, other coalition members, and the United States should ensure that coalition forces take necessary steps to minimize harm to civilians during military operations in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said on 13 April, releasing letters to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Sa`ud of Saudi Arabia and US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. The coalition and the US should investigate alleged laws-of-war violations by coalition forces and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to populations at risk.

Israeli settlement farms in the West Bank are using Palestinian child labor to grow, harvest, and pack agricultural produce, much of it for export, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 13 April, 2015. The farms pay the children low wages and subject them to dangerous working conditions in violation of international standards.

Empty market stalls that catered to tourists near Star Wharf in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila.

Aid distribution for displaced persons in Khost province, Afghanistan.

An estimated 400,000 people are displaced across Libya, including this man at a site near the capital, Tripoli.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidated key claims in the so-called “podcasting patent” after a petition for review from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)—a decision that significantly curtails the ability of a patent troll to threaten podcasters big and small on April 10.

OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

A mother and child in Yarmouk, Syria.

It was with great shock that I learned about the murder of five staff working for the international humanitarian NGO Save the Children in Afghanistan. This appalling act calls for the strongest condemnation. My thoughts go to the families and colleagues of the victims.