News Clips- July 21, 2017

Civil Society

• Around the world, people went to the ocean this week to commemorate the death of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident who recently died in custody, after his ashes were spread in the sea. [Guardian]
• A journalist in Russia reported this week that he received threatening text messages demanding he halt his current work. [CPJ]
• A court in Turkey issued an order this week for the formal arrest of six human rights defenders, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director. [Washington Post]
• Opposition parties in Venezuela hosted a vote on Sunday in which Venezuelans opposed President Nicolás Maduro’s constituent assembly. [New York Times]

Activities of Supranational Bodies

• The United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories announced this week that the evidence it has gathered indicates that practices by the Israeli authorities negatively impact human rights in Occupied Palestinian Territories. [UN News Centre]
• United Nations experts this week called on Bahrain to comply with its international human rights obligations in relation to the detention and alleged ill-treatment of Ebtisam Alsaegh, a human rights defender currently being held in solitary confinement, according to reports. [OHCHR Press Release]
• This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights congratulated Mexico on its recently enacted legislation that aims to eliminate torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. [IACHR Press Release]

Environment

• The bank HSBC referred information for investigation to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil on Noble Plantations’ potential plan to clear 18,000 hectares of rainforest. [Guardian]
• Human Rights Watch released a report this week that finds a future outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil is possible despite the government’s recent declaration that the virus is no longer a threat. [Guardian]