Human Rights | WPN World People News

The prominent Syrian human rights defenders Razan Zaitouneh, Samira al-Khalil, Wael Hamada, and Nazem Hammadi – the Douma Four – remain missing a year after their abduction, 54 organizations said on December 9,2014. The four were abducted in Douma, a city near Damascus under the control of armed opposition groups. They should be released immediately, the groups said.

Indonesian authorities should promptly and impartially investigate the apparent use of unnecessary lethal force by security forces against peaceful protesters in Papua on December 8, 2014, Human Rights Watch said on December 12, 2014.

The year 2014 has been one of horror, fear and despair for millions of children, as worsening conflicts across the world saw them exposed to extreme violence and its consequences, forcibly recruited and deliberately targeted by warring groups, UNICEF said. Yet many crises no longer capture the world’s attention, warned the children’s agency.

Jordanian authorities on December 3, 2014, deported to Syria nine Syrians working to facilitate medical treatment in Jordan for war-wounded Syrians. These forcible returns violate the customary international law principle of nonrefoulement, which forbids governments from returning people to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened.

At least 70 Ethiopians drowned on the Red Sea Saturday when a migrant boat, bound for Yemen, capsized in rough weather, adding to what was already a record year for maritime smuggling deaths.

Jim Sheridan (United Kingdom, SOC), rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on “the humanitarian situation of Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons” will be visiting Moscow and Rostov-on-Don on 8-9 December 2014, in the context of the preparation of his report.

After months of delay, the United States completed the transfers of six detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Uruguay on December 7, 2014. The transfers lower the number of prisoners being held at Guantanamo from 142 to 136.

Jennelyn, 44, and her granddaughter Frinkelle at Tacloban Convention Center, one of the city's evacuation sites

Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens on Saturday to mark the sixth anniversary of a police killing of an unarmed teenager in the capital.

“The suspension of the UN Food Programme to Syrian refugees is a genuine disaster, as it will seriously threaten their health and safety and could even cause fresh tensions in the host countries,” declared Jean-Marie Bockel, in his capacity as PACE rapporteur on “Syrian refugees: how to organise and support international assistance”. He continued “Tens of thousands of families are almost entirely dependent on this aid and this decision can only make them more vulnerable.”