Human Rights | WPN World People News

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomás Ojea Quintana.

The US government risks undermining important policy objectives unless it urgently reins in US electronic surveillance practices and stops violating the privacy rights of millions of people at home and abroad, Human Rights Watch said. In a letter to President Barack Obama ahead of a much-anticipated speech on electronic surveillance that he will give on January 17, 2014, Human Rights Watch set out specific reforms that the president should swiftly adopt.

Syrian refugees queue to be registered on the outskirts of the Lebanese town of Arsal.

Bangladeshi authorities should immediately drop criminal charges against two senior members of the leading human rights organization Odhikar, and end the surveillance and harassment of its workers both in Dhaka and around the country, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists said.

The bomb blast in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, on January 14, 2014, illuminates the price citizens are paying in the intensifying unrest in northern Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said. The bombing, which appears to have been directed at local residents by the Islamist insurgent movement, Boko Haram, is an assault on the basic tenet of the right to life. It killed about 40 people and wounded 50.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

Egyptians are voting Wednesday on the final day of a two-day referendum to decide whether to adopt a new constitution supported by the military-backed interim government.

The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill signed into law on January 7, 2014, by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is a sweeping and dangerous piece of legislation, Human Rights Watch said. The law criminalizes public displays of affection between same-sex couples and restricts the work of organizations defending gay people and their rights. President Jonathan should immediately repeal the draconian law.