Human Rights | WPN World People News

Iraqi government forces appear to have used indiscriminate mortar fire in civilian neighborhoods in Anbar province, and al-Qaeda fighters and armed men from local groups have deployed in and attacked from populated areas. Apparently unlawful methods of fighting by all sides have caused civilian casualties and severe property damage. A government blockade of Fallujah and Ramadi has resulted in limited access to food, water, and fuel for the population.

The Cambodian authorities should protect the rights of 23 people arrested after a violent crackdown by security forces on striking garment workers in Phnom Penh on January 2- 3, 2014, Human Rights Watch said. Authorities detained the group incommunicado and without medical care at the remote CC3 prison at Trapeang Phlong in Kampong Cham province near the border with Vietnam.

The report of the five-member group appointed by President Barack Obama to review US surveillance practices cast doubt on the claimed necessity for some US government surveillance programs, and underscored the need for urgent change. With their report released on December 18, 2013, the panel joined a growing chorus of policymakers, rights organizations, and security experts calling for critical reforms to US government surveillance programs.

Thailand’s government should urgently send ethnic Rohingya children from Burma and their families to safe and open family shelters. New research documents abuses by Thai authorities, who should take action against camps in southern Thailand used for trafficking Rohingya and punish officials complicit in abuse.

No evidence has been presented by the Israeli authorities that a 15-year-old boy fatally shot in the back by Israeli soldiers near his school on December 9, 2013, posed any threat to life that would justify such a killing. It was the second incident involving the lethal shooting of a child running from Israeli forces deployed near a school in 2013.

Iraqi authorities should immediately order a transparent and impartial investigation into violence between security forces and antigovernment protesters in the western city of Ramadi. The fighting on December 30, 2013, left 17 people dead.

Special Representative Hilde Johnson (right) visits a hospital operated by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Thein Sein, President of the Union of Myanmar.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah should reject a new counterterrorism law that criminalizes virtually any speech critical of the government or society. The Council of Ministers passed the Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing (the “terrorism law”) on December 16, 2013, and it awaits King Abdullah’s promulgation by royal decree to go into effect.

Threat of all-out civil war not yet allayed.