In response to the continued suppression of protests in Ethiopia, international and regional human rights bodies as well as political figures have voiced their concerns and called for investigations into the government’s use of force. These observers question police tactics against anti-government peaceful protesters, who have been demonstrating during the last year against the expansion of the capital’s borders and
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On Sunday, October 2, 2016 Colombians headed to the polls to vote on a peace agreement to end the 52-year war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerillas. [The Guardian: Voters] Contrary to what the polls had predicted, the peace deal referendum was rejected by a 0.4 percent margin. [The Guardian: Voters] The deal was the result of
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Civil Society A court in China sentenced three activists to three years imprisonment in one case and over a year for the other two individuals. [Jurist] The Facebook accounts of Palestinian journalists who work in occupied Palestinian territories were frozen last week. [Al Jazeera] United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association called
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In response to the ongoing crisis in Burundi, the United Nations Independent Investigation on Burundi (UNIIB) presented its final report to the Human Rights Council on September 27, 2016, which documented evidence of gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the government and its affiliates. [OHCHR Press Release] UNIIB was formed in light of increasing instability in Burundi, which was prompted
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Migrants and Refugees Amnesty International reported that tens of thousands of refugees have been cut off from humanitarian aid for the last two months in an area between Syria and Jordan. [Al Jazeera] The hunger strike of a former Guantanamo detainee currently residing in Uruguay as a refugee prompted a judge this week to order a medical evaluation. [Washington Post]
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Civil Society United Nations human rights experts showed concern for the harassment, detention, and torture of six human rights activists in Sudan who now may also face the death penalty. [OHCHR Press Release] With tens of millions of workers on strike in India, 150 million people were involved in protests on Friday. [Guardian] Girls at a high school in Pretoria,
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Civil Society A member of the United Democratic Party, an opposition political party in Gambia, died while in detention last Saturday, prompting the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to condemn the death and conditions of detention. [UN News Centre] The Ethiopian government announced this week that it will not prosecute the Olympic athlete who publically
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Civil Society Ahead of a constitutional referendum scheduled for September, Azerbaijani authorities have arrested several activists critical of the government within the last week. [RSF] In order to make room for civil society members arrested after the coup, Turkey announced that it will release inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses from its prisons. [NYT] Following the recent re-election of Zambia’s president,
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The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recently published a report on the upswing in civilian casualties in the first six months of 2016. [UNAMA Press Release] More than 5,000 civilians were killed or maimed, the highest number of such casualties in Afghanistan in a six-month period since 2009 and one that includes significant numbers of women and children.
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Following a May 2016 conviction for crimes against humanity, the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) issued an order on July 29 for Hissène Habré to pay monetary reparations to thousands of victims. The former president of Chad was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes including murder, summary executions, kidnapping, rape, and sexual slavery committed during his 1982 – 1990 rule. [Guardian] Although
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