Brazil has passed two grim landmarks, as deaths from Covid-19 passed 251,000 and the country saw its highest daily toll since the coronavirus was first detected there one year ago.
A total of 1,582 Brazilians died from Covid-19 on Thursday as the country struggles with a slow vaccination rollout, new variants of the disease and an uncoordinated government response.
Continue reading...A roundup of the best photography on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Algeria to Uganda
In a country where pneumonia, malaria and TB are much bigger killers, doctors say ‘resource-intensive’ Covid-19 is diverting precious resources
When stocks of medical equipment in the general ward of Tengandogo University hospital in Ouagadougou ran low as resources flowed to the coronavirus unit, medical staff bought the essentials themselves.
Blood pressure monitors, glucose monitors and oximeters were needed. Even the ink in the printers had to be replaced.
Continue reading...Ban on violence against children will only apply in Islamabad, but campaigners hope rest of the country will follow suit
Pakistan has passed a bill banning corporal punishment for children in a move described as “historic” by rights activists.
It comes amid a number of high-profile cases of schoolchildren being badly beaten and even killed in schools, religious institutions and workplaces.
Continue reading...Instances of violence pointed to ‘structural and systematic’ abuses within the police force and sparked calls for reform
Police officers in Colombia killed 86 people last year, according to a local NGO which reported “structural and systematic” abuses in the South American nation’s police force.
Temblores, an non-governmental organization that monitors state violence, also documented 7,992 cases of assault and 30 cases of sexual violence, with migrant communities and Afro-Colombians often the victims.
Continue reading...Law would widen strict rules in country where thousands suffer complications from unsafe terminations
A bill to liberalise Malawi’s abortion laws will be debated by MPs today in the face of opposition from faith groups.
If passed, the termination of pregnancy bill would allow abortions when a woman’s mental or physical health is in danger, in cases of rape and incest, and when there are serious foetal abnormalities.
Continue reading...Founder says community centre in Accra was closed pre-emptively to protect its staff
A community centre for LGBTQ+ people in Ghana has been closed, following a wave of protest against the rights of sexual minorities in the country.
In recent weeks government ministers and religious groups had demanded the closure of the centre, intended to be a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to meet and find support. Yet since the opening in January of the centre in the capital, Accra, many people have received death threats and online abuse.
Continue reading...At least two people stabbed after pro-junta demonstrators march through central Yangon
Supporters of Myanmar’s military armed with iron rods, catapults and knives have attacked anti-coup protesters in Yangon after weeks of rallies calling for the return of democracy in the country.
At least two people were stabbed in the attacks, which occurred after hundreds of pro-military demonstrators marched through central Yangon towards the main railway station. Pro-democracy supporters met them with crossed wrists, banging pots and pans.
Continue reading...Amlo again clashes with women’s rights activists as he dismisses complaints against Félix Salgado Macedonio, candidate for governor
A growing row over a gubernatorial candidate facing accusations of rape has once again pitted Mexico’s populist president against women’s rights campaigners.
Félix Salgado Macedonio has registered to run for governor in southern Guerrero state with the ruling Morena party, despite accusations of sexual violence and rape by five women dating back as far as 1998.
Continue reading...Villages in southern Afghanistan have become frontline of conflict as peace talks stall and uncertainty surrounds US withdrawal
The people who lived in Spairwan village spent two days huddled in their homes, besieged by fighting, before the Taliban came and told them all to leave the area. Qayoom and his family were among 10,000 families pushed out of their homes as government and Taliban forces battled for territory in southern Afghanistan last month.
Qayoom found his new home was to be a couple of large sheets propped up over cold, bare earth, a shelter among many others in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of Kandahar city. But the shelter barely checks the icy blasts of bitter winter winds.
Continue reading...Survivors of Islamic State brutality are pushed further into the margins as the pandemic causes the world to turn inward
Staring at the same four walls day after day, unable to find work, reunite with relatives, or send your children to school. The Covid pandemic has rendered this bleak picture a reality for many people across the globe. Yet for many who have survived or are living through conflict, these hardships are hardly novel.
For the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq, Islamic State’s 2014 genocide created adversity long before the pandemic ever did. For more than six years, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) staring at the same four walls of their tents. They are unable to find work because Isis razed their farms and businesses. They cannot reunite with relatives still in Isis captivity or attend the burials of family members whose bodies remain in mass graves.
Continue reading...Civil rights groups say situation ‘getting worse on a daily basis’ as UN human rights chief expresses alarm over deepening impunity
Sri Lanka could descend swiftly back into violence and human rights abuses unless decisive international action is taken, the UN high commissioner for human rights and civil rights groups warned.
In a speech to the human rights council on Wednesday, Michelle Bachelet is expected to issue a stark warning that the Sri Lankan government has “closed the door” on ending impunity for past abuses and is facing a return to state repression of civil society and a militarisation of public institutions.
Continue reading...Studios report surge in requests for tattoos of the deposed civilian leader – and some are using their profits to support protesters
In the last three weeks, Ye, 37, has inked more images of Aung San Suu Kyi than throughout his 19 years of tattooing.
“We love and respect her because she has sacrificed so much for us,” he says, showing a photo of his latest artwork – a lifelike rendering of the deposed Myanmar leader, complete with jasmine flowers, on a woman’s back.
Continue reading...President urged to act as rival gangs use death and intimidation in their brutal turf war for control of Buenaventura
Clenching a fist, Tatiana Angulo talked about the killings of her neighbours’ two teenage sons.
“They got mixed up in it,” said Angulo, 34, who runs a peace theatre group, reenacting the stories of local victims. “We used to be able to hang out and have a laugh on the street corners, but now that’s where the killings happen.”
Continue reading...Coverage of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala criticised by group who say such attitudes ‘discourage women from taking on leadership positions’
Senior African leaders at the UN have criticised the “sexist and racist” language used in coverage of the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the new president of the World Trade Organization.
Okonjo-Iweala, a graduate of Harvard University, was confirmed as the new head of the WTO last week, making her the first woman and the first African to lead the organisation.
Continue reading...Guardian analysis indicates shocking figure likely to be an underestimate, as preparations for 2022 tournament continue
More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal.
The findings, compiled from government sources, mean an average of 12 migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when the streets of Doha were filled with ecstatic crowds celebrating Qatar’s victory.
Continue reading...Protesters compare date – 22.2.2021 – to 8 August 1988, when military cracked down on pro-democracy rallies
Protesters across Myanmar have held a general strike, taking to the streets across the country and shutting many businesses, in one of the largest nationwide shows of opposition to the military since it seized power three weeks ago.
Crowds assembled in Yangon, Naypyidaw, Mandalay and elsewhere on Monday, despite an apparent threat from the junta that it would again use deadly violence against demonstrators.
Continue reading...Civil war has drastically cut support services for women already at high risk of violence while displacing others who are now vulnerable to armed groups
Rima* was married the year civil war erupted in Yemen. She was 15 and for much of the time over the next five years, her husband kept her chained to a wall in their home in central Yemen. “He didn’t treat me as a wife, he treated me as a slave,” says the 21-year-old.
An aunt eventually took pity on Rima, taking her to a psychosocial support centre in the town of Turba, 90 miles (145km) north-west of Aden. According to a doctor there, Rima now suffers from a neurological disorder brought on by the constant beatings.
Continue reading...Fleeing to Kyrgyzstan in the 1960s, communities established mosques and villages but the local leaders, or dzhigit-beshchis, are a dying breed
Dzhigit-beshchi is the name Uighur people in Kyrgyzstan give to the leader they elect for their mahallah – or community. Usually it’s a respected person, mostly an elderly man.
Pushed out of China during the repressions of the 1960s, tens of thousands of Uighurs went to the former Soviet Union when these ageing leaders were just young men. Sticking closely to relatives and acquaintances who had come to Soviet cities and villages in previous waves, they built mosques and mahallahs, each with its own dzhigit-beshchi.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Freedoms have been crushed and free speech impeded by governments around the world, says António Guterres
The world is facing a “pandemic of human rights abuses”, the UN secretary general António Guterres has said.
Authoritarian regimes had imposed drastic curbs on rights and freedoms and had used the virus as a pretext to restrict free speech and stifle dissent.
Continue reading...