Some civilians in Fallujah have reportedly turned to suicide and killing their own children amid the Iraqi military’s offensive to retake the city from brutal Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists who are allegedly using “hundreds” of residents as “human shields.”
Unaccompanied Central American minors leaving their home countries to migrate north are turning down Mexico’s offer of refuge and instead seeking to make it all the way to the United States, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
The Communist Party’s campaign to eradicate the iconic Christian symbol from China’s landscape continued in full force this past week, with authorities demolishing a dozen church crosses and beating protesters bloody. The religious freedom group China Aid reported that government
Contents: Latest Syria peace plan officially fails; Shifting alliances across the Mideast
Iranian officials have organized the “Sixth National Children’s Memorial,” an event to train children for possible war against the United States and Israel.
Contents: Mass exodus from Aleppo continues amid reports Russians are using cluster bombs; United Nations demands that Turkey admit tens of thousands of Syrian refugees; Turkey border ‘buffer zone’ could result in clash with Syrian army
The Jerusalem Post reports: David Keyes, a pioneer in using online crowdsourcing platforms to promote human rights around the world, will become Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s next English language spokesman, The Jerusalem Post has learned from senior government officials. Keyes
Contents: HRW: Bahrain’s Sunni government continues abusing and torturing Shia majority; NATO formally invites Montenegro to join the alliance
The Nigeria-based Boko Haram, a jihadist organization that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) earlier this year, has been named the world’s deadliest terrorist group in a new study.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a report accusing Shiite militias in Iraq of using child soldiers to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). The terrorist group is widely known for also using this practice.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has published a report blasting the Malaysian government for clamping down on free speech in order to silence critics.
According to Human Rights Watch, violence against women in PNG “is rampant,” and often involves charges of sorcery. In February, 2013, a mob in Western Highlands Province accused 20-year-old Kepari Leniata of witchcraft after a six-year-old child died in her city. The mob stripped her and burned her to death as a witch. Eight other women reportedly were victims of such attacks during the course of the year.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that the Russian government used advanced cluster munition in an airstrike near Aleppo, Syria.
Contents: Violence resurges in Central African Republic crisis war; Central African Republic canceling elections and Pope’s visit
According to the groups — which include the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, NAACP, La Raza, and MALDEF — the prosecution of illegal border crossing is the most prosecuted federal crime in the U.S. but, they charge, it does not meet the Justice Department’s standard for enforcement priorities.
Human Rights Watch has released a report alleging that China has developed a two-tiered passport system designed to prevent the nation’s Tibetans and ethnic Uyghur population from leaving the country. Both groups, internationally known for their resistance to the central government in Beijing, suffer up to five-year delays in passport processing without explanation.
According to Anthony Lake, the executive director of The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), children in South Sudan face brutal violence in their everyday lives as the world’s newest country continues to fight a civil war.
Indonesia is facing international backlash after it was revealed the government requires female military recruits to undergo virginity tests. It is the second time in the past 6 months human rights organizations put pressure on the country to drop these tests.
Ken Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch, spoke exclusively with the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) network earlier this week about the ongoing conflict in Yemen, blaming the United States for Saudi Arabia’s alleged use of cluster munitions.
A new Human Rights Watch report accuses China law enforcement authorities of dodging new government measures designed to minimize the use of torture and abuse in the police system. Police still routinely use beatings, sleep deprivation, and hanging prisoners by the walls to force confessions, the organization alleges.
Members of the Afghanistan Volunteers Foundation organized a march through Kabul to protest for women’s rights, just days before International Women’s Day. The twenty men wore burqas, which is the traditional clothing for women in the country. https://twitter.com/trustlaw_women/status/573468380604334080 https://twitter.com/AntDeRosa/status/573854582184476672 The
Xinhua, China’s state news outlet, has published a scathing rebuke of Human Rights Watch following HRW’s criticism of Chinese authoritarianism, and its opinion that a proposed Chinese counter-terrorism law would “legitimate ongoing human rights violations and facilitate future abuses.”
In a new video, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau took responsibility for the massacre in Baga, Nigeria, in early January, claiming that God told them to do it. Local officials and human rights groups put the death toll at 2,000, but the Nigerian army reported only 150 deaths.
Amnesty International has released a report detailing the horrors of Boko Haram’s attack on the Nigerian town of Baga between January 2 and 7. Among the atrocities witnesses recount is the particularly gruesome killing of a woman while she was in labor, who was slaughtered along with an estimated 2,000 others in the town.
