Cycle of human rights violations continues in Myanmar
14/6/2022: The UN Human Rights Council has been briefed that Myanmar is still suffering from the devastating consequences of the February 2021 military coup, with at least 1,900 killings by the military and one million internally displaced people. Many experts are critical of the international community for its inadequate financial and ethical response.
Source: UN News
Cambodia convicts opposition figures in mass trial
14/6/2022: A Phnom Penh court has convicted around 60 opposition figures as long-serving leader Hun Sen cracks down on dissent ahead of national elections next year. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, in exile in France, had another eight years added to his existing sentence.
Source: CNA
UN mission in China fails to address crimes against humanity
28/5/2022: Amnesty International remains unconvinced that two days spent by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region will result in acknowledgement of the scale and gravity of human rights violations being committed by the Chinese government.
Source: Amnesty International
Executions increased 20% in 2021
24/5/2022: Amnesty International's annual review of the death penalty reports that at least 579 executions were known to have been carried out across 18 countries last year. Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day in March. The figures exclude the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China.
Source: Amnesty International
UN High Commissioner’s credibility at stake in China visit
19/5/2022: Michelle Bachelet's itinerary later this month includes the first visit to China by a UN human rights commissioner since 2005. Bachelet has previously asserted that she would require “unfettered” access to Xinjiang, the Uyghur region, but the terms of her visit have not been disclosed.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Human rights must be at heart of solution to Sri Lanka crisis
17/5/2022: The UN is working to ensure that any solution to the severe economic crisis in Sri Lanka must recognize the broader political and systematic root causes that have perpetrated discrimination, and undermined human rights.
Source: UN News
Call to freedom for millions of children trapped in child labour
13/5/2022: There are 160 million child labourers worldwide, an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years , according to the UN's most recent global estimates. How to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal to eliminate child labour by 2025 will be the subject of the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour now in progress in Durban, South Africa.
Source: Inter Press Service
Elon Musk, Twitter, and human rights
10/5/2022: A director of Human Rights Watch assesses the implications of the potential acquisition of Twitter by an individual owner calling himself a “free speech absolutist.” There is a fine line between protecting free speech and addressing online content and behaviour that threatens people’s rights.
Source: Human Rights Watch
How the Taliban are ‘eliminating women’ in Afghanistan
9/5/2022: The Taliban have further curbed women's rights with their latest veil compulsion decree. Stricter rules are announced almost every day. With the West currently dealing with the Ukraine war, Afghan civil society has been left on its own to confront the Taliban's harsh decrees.
Source: DW
A free press in Africa is essential for democratic rule
7/5/2022: In Africa, the press freedom picture has become complicated, with a vast swathe of grey territory in which seemingly progressive democracies are getting away with media repression. The outcome is a chilling effect which prevents media from effectively playing their watchdog role.
Source: The East African