Human Rights | WPN World People News

Jordanian authorities are seeking to limit protests over austerity policies throughout 2019 by targeting protest leaders, participants, and other critics for harassment and arrest, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 28, 2019. At least seven activists have been detained since September.

United Nations member countries offered strong criticism and scores of recommendations addressing Egypt’s human rights crisis at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on November 13, 2019, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 27, 2019.

Security forces for Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have arbitrarily imposed restrictions on movement for most residents of Makhmour refugee camp for Turkish Kurds since mid-July 2019, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 27, 2019.

Iranian authorities are deliberately covering up the scale of the mass crackdown against protesters, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 27, 2019. The government should immediately announce the number of deaths, arrests, and detentions from the recent protests and permit an independent inquiry into alleged abuses.

Violence against women and girls is among the most widespread, and devastating human rights violations in the world, but much of it is often unreported due to impunity, shame and gender inequality, the UN highlighted ahead of Monday’s World Day to stamp out abuse of women and girls.

Four European development banks are financing a palm oil company in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is violating workers’ rights and dumping untreated waste, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Nov 24, 2019. The company, Feronia, will hold a shareholders meeting with the four banks in London on November 25, 2019 to discuss the company’s environmental and social track record.

Australia’s health and aged care ministers should immediately revise an aged care regulation to prohibit chemical restraint, Human Rights Watch and Aged & Disability Advocacy Australia said in a letter to the two ministers on Nov 24, 2019. Chemical restraint involves giving older people with dementia drugs to control their behavior.

The Ortega government’s use of repressive tactics to prevent hunger strikes should prompt increased international efforts to demand accountability for abuses in Nicaragua, Human Rights Watch said on November 22.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Executive Board should delay a planned December 2019 vote on a US$280 million loan agreement with Equatorial Guinea, eight human rights and good governance organizations and eight prominent experts said in a letter to the IMF Executive Board on Nov 21, 2019. The program preceding the loan agreement and planned conditions for the loan are insufficient to address deep-rooted rights violations, corruption, and related impunity in Equatorial Guinea in line with IMF requirements.

Vietnamese authorities should drop all charges against the blogger Pham Van Diep and immediately release him, Human Rights Watch said on Nov 20, 2019.