Human Rights | WPN World People News

The Luxembourg House of Representatives, in approving a bill on June 18, 2014, to legalize same-sex marriage, has moved to guarantee marriage equality and diminish discrimination based on sexual orientation, Human Rights Watch said. The vote was 56 to 4. Luxembourg is the seventeenth country to pass legislation providing for the right to same-sex marriage in its national laws.

Iran’s judiciary should halt the execution of a woman convicted of murdering her husband when she was 17. The woman, who has admitted to shooting her husband while he was asleep, was married at 14 and is the mother of a 6 year old. Authorities have announced that she is at imminent risk of execution. International law strictly prohibits the execution of child offenders.

Girls in Yemen continue to lag behind boys, with fewer chances to go to school and reach their potential and increased vulnerability to early marriage and maternal mortality, according to new research by UNICEF and the Government of Yemen launched.

Senior UN human rights officials at a United Nations Human Rights Council side-event on June 17, 2014, called for immediate efforts to end caste-based rape and violence against women.

Ecuador should revoke a presidential decree that includes provisions that violate basic rights of refugees under international law, Human Rights Watch said.

The Italian coast guard says it has rescued nearly 300 Syrian migrants from a fishing boat adrift in the Mediterranean Sea.

A Palestinian autopsy has confirmed that a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli forces during a protest in the West Bank on May 15, 2014, died from injuries caused by live ammunition. The June 11, 2014 autopsy of Nadim Nuwarah, 17, found bullet entry and exit wounds and metal bullet fragments.

Elderly woman refugee.

Blood on the floor of a house in al-Taliliya, where ISIS apparently executed at least 15 civilians.

Egyptian authorities should act quickly to combat all forms of violence and harassment against women, Human Rights Watch said today. After a spate of sexual assaults during post-election celebrations, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi told the prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab on June 11, 2014, to form a committee to address harassment. The committee is a positive step, but effective, comprehensive action needs to follow, Human Rights Watch said.