The UK government’s Bill of wrongs
22/6/2022: The UK government has proposed legislation to replace the Human Rights Act with a so-called “British” Bill of Rights. Designed to reduce constraints of the European Convention on Human Rights, the new Bill would significantly weaken rights across the board for all.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Is Tunisia’s democracy slipping away?
16/6/2022: President Saied has been running Tunisia unilaterally for almost a year. The July referendum will further strengthen his rule without resistance.
Source: African Arguments
Ethiopia’s invisible ethnic cleansing
16/6/2022: The Executive Director of Human Rights Watch chronicles the largely invisible campaign of ethnic cleansing that has played out in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray since the civil war began in November 2020.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Statement to the Human Rights Council on Eritrea
13/6/2022: Eritrea’s Human Rights Council membership has not led to greater respect for international standards, according to Human Rights Watch. The government has taken no steps to end its widespread forced labor and conscription and continues to severely restrict basic freedoms.
Source: Human Rights Watch
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