Citizens for Justice and Peace
UN rights experts say Assange’s arrest exposes him to major rights violations
12-Apr-2019
United Nations human rights experts said that the arrest of Julian Assange, who co-founded Wikileaks, “exposed him ‘to the risk of serious human rights violations’, if extradited to the United States,” UN News reported. On Twitter, Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said, “By expelling #Assange from the Embassy, #Ecuador allowed #GB to arrest him,…
South Korean court says ban on abortion is unconstitutional
12-Apr-2019
On Thursday, April 11, South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s ban on abortion is unconstitutional, and that the law must be changed by the end of 2020, BBC News reported. Abortion was banned in South Korea in 1953, and, per the law, women who undergo abortions can be subject to fines and imprisonment,…
In landmark judgment, UK Supreme Court says Zambian villagers can proceed with pollution claim in English courts
12-Apr-2019
On Wednesday, April 10, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that more than 1,800 villagers in Zambia, who have alleged that their water supply has been polluted due to toxins from an opencast mine, can proceed with their claim in English courts, the Guardian reported. 1,826 villagers in Zambia’s Chingola region, in the Copperbelt province,…
Countries involved in Yemen war pledge more than $1 billion in aid for Yemen
27-Feb-2019
$2.6 billion was pledged in humanitarian aid in Yemen at a special one-day summit, with more than half coming from countries that are fighting in the war or selling arms to those who are fighting, the Guardian reported. The main pledges were $500 million each from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, £200 million…
Almost half of all children with cancer are not diagnosed or treated: Study
27-Feb-2019
According to a study published in the Lancet Oncology journal, nearly half of all children with cancer worldwide are not diagnosed or treated, the Guardian reported. The study indicates that the children’s location has an effect: an estimated 57% of childhood cancer cases were missed in western Africa; this figure was 49% in South Asia,…
Effects of conflict could be killing 300 babies per day: Save the Children
27-Feb-2019
According to recent a Save the Children report released earlier this month, “starvation, disease and a lack of aid” may be resulting in the deaths of 300 babies per day in conflict zones around the globe, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. The organisation analysed United Nations data from 2013-2017. Save the Children stated in its…
Peaceful critics of the government face widespread prosecution in Myanmar: HRW
04-Feb-2019
In a recently released report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Myanmar’s “first democratically elected civilian government in decades has prosecuted large numbers of peaceful critics in violation of basic human rights,” according to the announcement of the report, which explained that the report “documents the use of broad and vaguely worded laws against activists,…
More than 7,000 dissidents arrested in Iran in 2018: Amnesty
04-Feb-2019
According to Amnesty International, authorities in Iran arrested more than 7,000 dissidents in 2018, the Guardian reported. The efforts at repression including several hundred people being imprisoned or flogged, the deaths of at least 26 protesters, and those of nine people in custody, who died under suspicious circumstances. Those who were detained when protests were met…
Mother found guilty of FGM in historic case in Britain
04-Feb-2019
On Friday, February 1, a Ugandan mother from London was convicted of “subjecting her 3-year-old daughter to female genital mutilation…in Britain’s first conviction for FGM,” the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. FGM was made illegal in the country more than thirty years ago. The woman, who for legal reasons must remain unidentified, could be sentenced to…
UN criticises Cameroon’s forcing back of thousands of Nigerian refugees
21-Jan-2019
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said it was “extremely alarmed” by Cameroon’s forcing back of several thousand Nigerian refugees to northeast Nigeria, where civilians remain under threat from militant group Boko Haram, the Guardian reported. This incident followed a similar one on January 16, when 267 Nigerian refugees were forcibly returned, according to the…