Human Rights | WPN World People News

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (l) and Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Asma Mohamed Abdalla sign an agreement to open a UN Human Rights Office in Sudan.

Global leaders should ensure that human rights concerns and accountability are integral to talks for a political settlement between warring factions in Libya, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 25, 2019 in a letter to the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian. The ministerial meeting convened by France will be held during the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2019.

UN-GLOBE marches in the 2019 World Pride parade in celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people everywhere.

In Lagos, Nigeria, residents navigate the polluted waters of Makoko, a fishing community mostly made up of structures on stilts above Lagos Lagoon, as smog spreads throughout the canals.

The Trump administration has drastically expanded its “Remain in Mexico” program while undercutting the rights of asylum seekers at the United States southern border, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 25, 2019. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) – known as the “Remain in Mexico” program – asylum seekers in the US are returned to cities in Mexico where there is a shortage of shelter and high crime rates while awaiting asylum hearings in US immigration court.

Rwanda’s international partners and the UN secretary-general should demand transparent and credible investigations into recent deaths and disappearances of opposition members when they meet with President Paul Kagame, Human Rights Watch said. Kagame is scheduled to speak at the 74th United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2019.

A sign language interpreter during the opening of the Ministerial segment of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Bangkok’s Criminal Court acquitted six prominent pro-democracy activists in an important verdict for protecting free expression in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 23, 2019. The court ruled that a 2018 rally demanding a free and fair election was a peaceful exercise of fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Thai constitution.

World leaders gathering for the United Nations General Assembly should reject the abusive policies of autocratic populists and promote greater respect for human rights worldwide, Human Rights Watch said on Sep 23, 2019.

The Indonesian government is failing to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples who have lost their traditional forests and livelihoods to oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan and Jambi provinces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Sep 22, 2019. Loss of forest occurs on a massive scale and not only harms local indigenous peoples but is also associated with global climate change.