Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society
- A car bomb in Kiev killed a journalist who was often critical of the government leaders in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. [The Guardian]
- Four Kenyan police officers were charged with the murder of human rights defender, Willie Kimani. [The Jurist]
- In the midst of anti-government demonstrations, several armed men have been holding policemen as hostages for four days in the Armenian capital to demand the release of opposition supporters and political prisoners. [The Guardian]
Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises
- UN Human Rights High Commissioner released a statement urging both sides of the conflict in Syria to ensure the safety of civilians. [UN News Centre]
- Peace talks continue in Yemen aimed at complete cessation of violence in light of an attack in early June that left 18 civilians dead. [UN News Centre]
- After UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently supported an arms embargo in South Sudan, President Museveni of Uganda announced that he opposed the plan. [Al Jazeera]
- The UN Children’s Fund warned that children are starving in areas of north-eastern Nigeria that are under Boko Haram’s control. [UN News Centre]
- North Korea continues to test launch ballistic missiles claiming that they are rehearsing an attack on South Korean airports and ports. [Washington Post]
Human Rights Bodies’ Activities
- Morocco asked to rejoin the African Union after 32 years since it left the regional organization, refusing to support the membership of Western Sahara as a member of the AU. [Al Jazeera]
- The UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the political and civil rights records of Denmark, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Ecuador, Burkina Faso, and Argentina. [OHCHR Press Release]
- The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that China is arbitrarily detaining an American citizen. [IJRC]
- Helen Clark, contender to take over Ban Ki-moon’s position as United Nations Secretary General, said the UN must do more to fight violent extremism. [The Guardian]
International & Domestic Courts
- Bangladeshi court charged 38 people with murder in the case of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse that killed 1,135 people. [The Guardian]
- A Colombian court approved a referendum for a peace deal with leftist rebels. [Washington Post]
- A Canadian man alleged a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights where he argued the Hague Convention was not appropriately applied by Polish authorities in a custody dispute, and the European Court of Human Rights awarded him 23,000€. [Human Rights Europe]
- The International People’s Tribunal in The Hague recently reported its findings that Indonesia is responsible for the genocide in 1965 during which about 400,000 civilians died. [Al Jazeera]
Migrants and Refugees
- A new Oxfam report found that the world’s six wealthiest countries host less than nine percent of refugees in the world. [Al Jazeera]
- In a dinghy off the coast of Libya that held hundreds of refugees, 22 people were found dead at the bottom. [Al Jazeera]
States’ International Commitments
- The UN special envoy on climate change criticized both the UK and Germany for not upholding the Paris climate deal due to subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industry. [The Guardian]
- A day after declaring a state of emergency, Turkey announced that it will temporarily suspend observation of its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights. [abcnews]