Human Rights | WPN World People News

Eleven Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu have written a joint letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin offering their support to twenty eight Greenpeace International activists, a freelance photographer and a freelance filmmaker who are being detained in a Russian prison whilst they are investigated for allegations of piracy.

Commonwealth foreign ministers should not award Sri Lanka the two-year chairmanship of the Commonwealth after it hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013. The Committee of the Whole, made up of Commonwealth foreign ministers, will meet on October 17-18 in London to finalize the agenda for the meetings in Colombo on November 15-17.

Pope Francis should condemn violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Holy See. The pope should ensure that Catholic officials act in accordance with church teachings.

A general view of the Human Rights Council in session.

The Russian authorities should grant bail to all detained defendants on trial for a 2012 mass protest, and investigate allegations of abuse and denial of medical treatment.

Tunisian legislators should electqualified, independent experts to a new body created to combat and prevent torture. Authorities should give the new authority sufficient resources and the political support it needs to carry out its mandate effectively.

EU-listed companies should aim to ensure, by 2020, that at least 40% of their non-executive board members are women, so as to promote gender equality in economic decision making, say draft rules proposed by the European Commission and backed by the Women's Rights and Gender Equality and Legal Affairs committees on Monday. In 2012, only 15% of non-executive board members at the EU's largest companies were women.

The captain of the Greenpeace International ship Arctic Sunrise and one other activist have been refused bail in Russia.

On 6 March 2013, UNICEF released a briefing paper titled “Children in Israeli military detention” which outlined practical measures to improve the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military custody. The paper stated that there appeared to be a pattern of ill-treatment during the arrest, transfer and interrogation of child detainees in the West Bank.

The climate of impunity surrounding EU member states' complicity in the CIA's secret "rendition" and detention programmes has allowed violations of fundamental rights to continue unchecked, as revealed by mass surveillance programmes run by the US and some EU member states, said the European Parliament. MEPs want Parliament's right to investigate such violations in the EU to be reinforced, and again urge EU institutions and member states to investigate the CIA operations in depth.