Human Rights | WPN World People News

President Jair Bolsonaro is putting Brazilians in grave danger by urging them not to comply with social distancing and other measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 from state governments and his own Health Ministry, Human Rights Watch said on April 10,2020. He has also acted recklessly by disseminating misleading information about the pandemic.

Future COVID-19 relief packages in the United States should be targeted to meet the basic needs of those most in distress, Human Rights Watch said on April 10, 2020.

Migrants in a detention centre in Tripoli.

Sudan’s transitional government should accelerate efforts to investigate and prosecute crimes against protesters by government security forces since December 2018, Human Rights Watch said on April 10, 2020. December 2018 was the start of the wave of protests triggered by price increases that forced president Omar al-Bashir to step down on April 11, 2019.

European governments’ actions to close their ports to people rescued at sea puts lives at risk and cannot be justified on public health grounds, Human Rights Watch said on April 09, 2020. The imperative to protect the right to health in a pandemic can be met without blocking life-saving rescue.

The COVID-19 crisis has a potentially far-reaching, long-term negative impact on children around the world, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on April 09, 2020. The impact is likely to be devastating, even though children who contract COVID-19 appear to have less severe symptoms and lower mortality rates than other age groups.

The International Monetary Fund should include transparency and anti-corruption measures in coronavirus-related emergency relief programs to ensure that the billions of dollars it is disbursing to dozens of countries help the most vulnerable, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch, and Global Witness said in a letter on the April 09,2020 to the IMF Executive Board.

Rwandan refugees who fled the country during the genocide are pictured returning home in 2005.

Millions of Lebanon’s residents are at risk of going hungry due to pandemic-related lockdown measures unless the government urgently puts in place a robust, coordinated plan to provide assistance, Human Rights Watch said on April 08, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already devastating economic crisis and exposed the inadequacies of Lebanon’s social protection system.