At the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and several other rights groups called for the release of imprisoned rights defenders in Venezuela, noting the prevalence of enforced disappearances used to silence opposition. Venezuela’s Bolívar Law gives the state wide discretion to impose prison sentences of 25-30 years [...]
In a letter addressed to Nepal Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, rights groups on Sunday urged Nepal to protect the rights of children by accounting for an expansion of the child grant program in the forthcoming budget. The groups represented a coalition of 24 Nepali and international rights organizations that included the Human Rights Watch [...]
The UK government imposed sanctions Monday on four individuals held responsible for serious human rights abuses during Sri Lanka’s civil war. The 26-year conflict, which ended in May 2009, claimed an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 lives according to UN figures, with an estimated 40,000 Tamil civilians killed during the final stages of the war. The [...]
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders requested Monday the urgent intervention of Chinese authorities regarding the arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. Zhang Zhan is accused of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.” Currently, there is no information about Zhang Zhan’s situation at the Pudong Detention Center in Shanghai [...]
The international Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) called upon UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to urgently intervene in the repression of peaceful protests in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The group urged Guterres to secure the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other members of the Baloch Yekjehti Committee, a local rights group. The BHRC [...]
The chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, James Boasberg, issued an opinion on Monday, denying the Trump administration’s request to lift the two-week deportation ban on Venezuelans. He stated: “There is…a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to [...]
The South Korean Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was Illegitimate as his conduct, while partially unconstitutional, did not constitute a “betrayal of public trust.” The decision effectively reinstates Han as acting president. While one of the eight justices voted to uphold the impeachment, four voted for dismissal [...]
Amnesty International has called on Ecuador’s presidential candidates to address human rights concerns if elected. The call came in an open letter released Friday ahead of the tie-breaking run-off vote due to take place on April 13. In recent years, many international bodies have raised concerns around potential human rights violations in the country. February [...]
The US State Department designated former Argentine president Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner and her former minister of planning Julio Miguel De Vido as ineligible to enter the US on Friday, claiming that they had been involved in “significant corruption.” The entry ban affects both Kirchner and De Vido and their immediate families. According to [...]
A UN expert on Friday expressed concern over increased inequalities in Hungary’s education system for underserved communities and backsliding on academic freedom. In a statement released after she visited Hungary, Farida Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, noted that while Roma individuals are given equal rights to education under the law, [...]
