UN human rights expert Michel Forst on Tuesday urged the Hungarian government to “stop stigmatising and intimidating human rights defenders.” Forst said that defenders of human rights have been working in “polarised and politicised environment” and that there have been attempts to delegitimize the movement through criminal defamation and financial pressure. He also noted that [...]
EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to lift most of the EU’s economic sanctions against Belarus, citing improvements by human rights organizations, the Council urged Belarus to follow recommendations made by UN treaty bodies and work with the Special Rapporteur, and offered the country assistance to meet its obligation towards democratization and “full respect for [...]
Moroccan authorites’ approach and response to domestic abuse is insufficient and “tepid” across the board , Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a letter to the Moroccan government on Monday. The report cites a study done by HRW in September as well as a national survey by the Moroccan High Commission for Planning that studied [...]
Bahraini authorities arrested four US journalists covering the five-year anniversary of the nation’s 2011 uprising and formally charged them on Tuesday. The journalists were charged with unlawful obstruction of vehicles and attending unlawful gatherings for their alleged participation in a riot that attacked police on Sunday. The public prosecutor announced that all four, journalist Anna [...]
A UN human rights expert on Monday urged the UK and Sweden to accept the recent decision which determined that Julian Assange , founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks , has been arbitrarily detained since 2010. Assange was initially arrested in December 2010 following rape allegations in Sweden. Assange was placed on house arrest in [...]
The UN rights office on Tuesday condemned Monday’s airstrikes in Syria, which hit hospitals and schools in the region, saying they may constitute war crimes. The airstrikes resulted in 45 deaths and dozens of more injuries as missiles hit four hospitals and one school. Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday expressed concern over China’s recent crackdown on lawyers and activists. The commissioner stated that civil society workers should be protected by the state, not harassed. He stated that during their meeting in Geneva, China’s response to his concerns indicate that they are confusing [...]
Bosnian police arrested three former policemen, including previously-convicted Darko Mrdja, on new charges of war crimes against non-Serb detainees during the Bosnian War. The three suspects have been accused of killing at least 10 non-Serbs as part of a massacre of over 150 detainees scheduled for transfer to nearby detention camps in 1992. Mrdja was [...]
A group of UN human rights experts on Monday demanded the immediate release of five foreign-national detainees that have been held by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the past 18 months. The prisoners were incarcerated for suspected terrorist activity under a new counter-terrorism law and have reportedly been subjected to torture, leading them to [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Marzuki Darusman is asking the UN to provide North Korea with notice that Kim Jong Un may be investigated for crimes against humanity. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council made public Monday, Darusman outlines that North Korea’s leader is ripe to be [...]
