News Clips- October 14, 2016

Civil Society

• The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over intimidation of human rights defenders in Kyrgyzstan. [United Nations in the Kyrgyz Republic]
• Demonstrators in Colombia are demanding that the peace deal between the government and FARC is upheld. [BBC]
• The Ethiopian government this week denied the use of extreme force against protesters in the country. [Al Jazeera]
• Miao Deshun, a participant in the pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China in 1989 and the last prisoner from the Tiananmen Square demonstration, is due to be released on Saturday. [Washington Post]

Humanitarian Crises and Conflict

• Due to Russian air raids this week, at least 56 people in Aleppo were killed. [Al Jazeera]
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned this week of a growing humanitarian crisis due to 7,400 Afghans returning from Pakistan each day. [UN News Centre]

International Criminal Law

• Burundi politicians voted this week in support of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court. [Guardian]
• Jean-Pierre Bemba has filed his appeal against his earlier conviction before the International Criminal Court. [International Justice Monitor]

Politics

• A draft bill that the German government approved this week excludes European Union citizens from the country’s welfare system for the first five years of residence in Germany. [Guardian]
• The United States Supreme Court is due to hear a case against John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, for allegedly racially profiling and illegally detaining immigrants after September 11, 2001. [Washington Post]

Women and Girls

• Over twenty of the 276 schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria two years ago were released this week. [Guardian]
• A recent report from civil society indicates that a girl under 15 years of age gets married every seven seconds in the world. [Washington Post]
• Additional women have come forward this week claiming Donald Trump, a United States presidential candidate, sexually assaulted them. [Guardian]

United Nations

• • The United Nations General Assembly appointed António Guterres as Ban Ki-moon’s successor for the position of UN Secretary General. [Reuters]
  • United Nations experts, including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, called on the Ethiopian government to allow a UN commission of inquiry into the country to investigate the violence used against protesters. [OHCHR Press Release]