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Activists Harassed and Assaulted for Discussing Rights

The Vietnamese authorities should stop impeding and abusing people trying to hold “human rights picnics” in public spaces. Despite government abuse and bullying, some people did succeed in holding informal gatherings and discussed the day’s events online.

On Sunday, May 5, 2013, a group of Vietnamese rights activists made a public call for people to meet and discuss human rights issues at public parks in Hanoi, Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh City. The authorities employed various devices to prevent people from attending and dispersed those who arrived at the parks in Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese rights activists are calling…

The international community must act to stop the conflict in Syria and ensure those responsible for human rights violations are held accountable, the United Nations human rights chief said today following reports of massacres in Baniyas, as well as displacement of civilians due to military build-up in Qusayr.

“We should not reach the point in this conflict where people become numb to the atrocious killing of civilians,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “The increasingly brutal nature of the conflict makes international efforts to halt the bloodshed imperative but we need a much greater sense of urgency.”

Images of piles of bloodied and burned bodies, including of…

The detention of a female lawyer in Sudan, whose whereabouts are still unknown, is the latest in the authorities’ brutal campaign against human rights activists in the context of the conflict in the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, Amnesty International said.

Asma Ahmed, a lawyer and member of the banned opposition party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), was arrested on 4 May when she reported to the office of the Sudanese National Security Services (NSS) in Khartoum.

Two days earlier, NSS officers had gone to her house demanding that she report to them.

Asma Ahmed has been held incommunicado since her arrest, without charge, placing her at high risk of…

Congolese armed forces, known by the French acronym FARDC, raped more than 102 women and 33 girls, some as young as six years old, as they fled the advance M23 rebels in country’s restive eastern region in November 2012, according to a joint UN report released today.

The report, which details victim and eyewitness accounts of mass rape, killings, arbitrary executions and other gross violations of human rights, was authored by the UN Joint Human Rights Office comprised of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the DRC.

While the report also cites M23 rebels…

The Zambian authorities must immediately release two young men who have been denied bail after being arrested on charges of having sex “against the order of nature”, Amnesty International said.

According to state media, police in Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia on Monday arrested Phil Mubiana and James Mwansa, both aged 21, in Ndeke village.

Sources have told Amnesty International that one of the men’s neighbours reported them to the police, resulting in the arrest – their second for alleged same-sex sexual conduct, considered a crime under Zambia’s penal code.

“The arrest of the two men solely for their real or perceived sexual orientation amounts to discrimination and it…

(Nairobi) – All warring parties in northern Mali are obligated to abide by the laws of war in the event of a Malian military offensive against opposition armed groups in the Kidal region, Human Rights Watch said today. Past abuses have heightened concerns about the need for all armed forces to minimize harm to civilians and ensure the humane treatment of all prisoners, in accordance with the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch said.

The Malian government should ensure an adequate presence of gendarmes who are mandated to question detainees during military operations and respond to disciplinary lapses by soldiers. The government should also adequately…

A Roma community in Poland are being threatened with imminent eviction and homelessness in a blatant violation of international human rights law, Amnesty International said today.

In a rare move for Poland, the city of Wroclaw in the west of the country is planning to force around 60 Romanian Roma from an informal settlement on municipal land, while offering no alternative homes for them.

“Forcibly evicting up to 60 people is utterly unacceptable behavior by a government with very clear obligations to uphold human rights,” said Marek Marczyński, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Program Director at Amnesty International.

“Alternative accommodation must be offered before 60 people, 35 of whom…

Israel’s military response to protests in the West Bank is failing to respect the human rights of Palestinians, Amnesty International said today as the number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli fire in the area since the beginning of 2013 reached eight.

Ongoing Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation have further escalated this week following renewed anger over detention conditions of Palestinian political detainees and prisoners, including the death in custody of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, a Palestinian prisoner with cancer held by Israel since 2002.

The protests look set to continue following the deaths of two Palestinian teenagers who were killed by Israeli forces at a military post near the settlement…

Today, we honor the anniversary of the passing of former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. Secretary Brown was a dedicated public servant whose untimely death during a trade mission to Croatia on April 3, 1996 ended his life far too soon. His vision continues to be important and today’s work at the Department of Commerce builds on his legacy.

Secretary Brown served his country in Korea as a soldier in the U.S. Army and in the halls of Congress as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also broke down barriers – becoming the first African American chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the first African…

Over 200 people, mostly Romanian Roma, were forcibly evicted this morning from an informal settlement in greater Paris in a move Amnesty International has labelled shameful and callous.

Police evicted around 230 people at 7:00 am from their huts and caravans in Ris-Orangis on the outskirts of Paris, citing public health and safety concerns. It is the latest in a resumed wave of forced evictions of Roma across France over the past few weeks.

“Evicting hundreds of people without offering any adequate alternative housing or support is a shameful and callous action that totally ignores France’s international human rights obligations,” said Marek Marczyński, Europe and Central Asia Program Deputy…