Human Rights | WPN World People News

Female genital mutilation (FGM) violates the human rights and undermines the health and well-being of some 3 million girls each year. More than 130 million girls and women in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is concentrated today have undergone some form of FGM – and the impact on their lives is enormous.

With no end in sight to politically motivated violence and other abuses in Bangladesh, state authorities need to ensure their response respects the rights of all and avoids arbitrary use of force, arrests, and disappearances, Human Rights Watch said on 6 February.

Qatari authorities should implement labor reforms to protect migrant workers from serious human rights abuses; proposed reforms in 2014 are a welcome step but need to go further, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2015 on 5 February.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should press Thailand’s junta leader to improve human rights and restore democratic civilian rule, Human Rights Watch said on 6 February.

Migrants arriving on Italy’s Lampedusa Island after crossing the Mediterranean on a dilapidated boat.

Draft EU rules to ensure that children suspected or accused of a crime are assisted by a lawyer at all stages of criminal proceedings in any EU country were approved by the Civil Liberties Committee on Thursday. MEPs also made sure that children will be individually assessed by qualified staff, can be heard and state their views in a trial and are kept separate from adult inmates, even, in some cases, after they are 18 years old.

The Zimbabwe government has used violence, harassment, and the deliberate restriction of humanitarian aid to coerce an estimated 20,000 flood victims to resettle on tiny land plots where the government plans to establish a sugar cane plantation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 3 February.

Egyptian judicial authorities should investigate allegations that police tortured an economics professor and his brother. Abdallah Shehata, a former Finance Ministry advisor, and his brother As’ad have been held since they were detained on November 28, 2014.

The National Assembly of Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina should reject a draft law to criminalize free expression online, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the president of the RS National Assembly on February 2, 2015. The RS National Assembly is scheduled to vote on the draft law on February 3.

Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova.