Human Rights | WPN World People News

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken important steps to persuade the Russiangovernment to investigate persistent claims of nonpayment of wages to workers who helped build Olympicvenues and infrastructure.

Traffickers have kidnapped, tortured, and killed refugees, most from Eritrea, in eastern Sudan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, according to dozens of interviewees said Human Rights Watch. Egypt and Sudan have failed to adequately identify and prosecute the traffickers and any security officials who may have colluded with them, breaching both countries’ obligation to prevent torture.

Ukrainian border officials barred a prominent Russian human rights defender from entering the country, Human Rights Watch said. The Ukrainian government should reverse the decision and allow Andrei Yurov to enter Ukraine and carry out his human rights work.

Moroccan security forces commonly beat, otherwise abuse, and sometimes steal from sub-Saharan migrants in the northeastern part of the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report released.

Cambodian authorities should release 21 activists and workers held since early January 2014, 12 international human rights and labor rights organizations said in an open letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 21 are among 23 people detained during and after a crackdown on strikes and social unrest in Phnom Penh, the capital. The government should also lift its total ban on public gatherings.

Presidential candidates’ positions on human rights should be a central focus in the run-up to the April 2014 presidential elections in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said in releasing candidates’ responses to a new human rights questionnaire.

OCHA's Valerie Amos visited Syria in March 2013 with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to Homs and parts of Baba Amr to assess the impact of the fighting. Ms. Amos said she was horrified by what she saw.

A view of the deserted streets in the town of Malakal, in the Upper Nile State of South Sudan, with Government troops on patrol in late January 2014.

The ICC in The Hague.

UNAMA human rights chief, Georgette Gagnon, pays a visit to a boy who was seriously injured by an IED explosion in February 2013.