Category Archives: Human rights

Fast fashion: Pakistan garment workers fight for rights amid Covid-19 crisis

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Protesters demand wages at factory supplying global fashion brands, as coronavirus leads to layoffs in textile industry


Police in Karachi last week allegedly shot at hundreds of unarmed garment workers protesting outside a factory supplying denim for global fashion brands.

Garment workers such as Abdul Basit, 35, claimed to have been charged by police with batons outside a factory which is reported to have fired more than 15,000 workers since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nasir Mansoor from the National Trade Union Federation. He said some workers had been terminated without written notice.

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UK behind Yemen and Sudan in global index of children’s rights, report finds

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Report also warns of ‘dire impact’ of pandemic worldwide with large number of children failing to return to school after lockdowns ease

The suspension of vaccination programmes, school closures and a surge in domestic violence during coronavirus lockdowns are likely to derail a decade’s worth of progress for children, according to new global research.

The Kidsrights Foundation on Tuesday published its annual rankings of children’s rights in 182 countries with Iceland scoring top for the second year running followed by Switzerland, Finland and Sweden.

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Relatives of Armenian axed to death by Azeri officer call for justice

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ECHR is examining actions of Hungary and Azerbaijan over release of killer Ramil Safarov

Relatives of a murdered Armenian army officer killed with an axe by an Azerbaijani counterpart on a Nato training programme in Budapest are hoping the European court of human rights will hand down rulings against Hungary and Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

Gurgen Margaryan was murdered in February 2004 by Ramil Safarov, while both men were attending a three-month Nato English-language training course in the Hungarian capital.

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Lockdown gives asylum seekers reprieve and hope for change in policy

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After Covid 19 pauses threat of detention and deportation, campaigners call for rethink on UK immigration

As Britain takes its first small steps out of lockdown, there is one group of people quietly wishing that it wouldn’t.

For many asylum seekers, the two-month hiatus has meant reprieve. Freed from detention centres, liberated from the threat of imminent deportation and no longer obliged to report to the Home Office, many have welcomed the relief. And all this at a time when the general population have learned something of what it is like to live with severe curbs on civil liberties.

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Myanmar army accused of new atrocities in attack on Rakhine village

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Less than three years since a crackdown against Rohingya, troops are again accused of war crimes – this time against Rakhine Buddhists


Kyaw Thu* waited until night fell before taking his family to the bank of a river not far from their village. While millions across the world were told to remain at home to stay safe from the coronavirus pandemic, he and his neighbours were forced to flee.

That night in March, he recalls, residents from Tin Ma village, in Rakhine state, clambered anxiously into boats, crossed the river, then trekked through foothills to seek refuge in the relative safety of a nearby town. No one switched on a torch or even lit a cigarette for fear of drawing the attention of Myanmar’s army.

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Global outrage erupts over China’s ‘draconian’ security law for Hong Kong

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Top lawyers and politicians from 23 countries express grave concerns over ‘assault’ on city’s rights and freedoms

Senior foreign policy lawmakers and senior politicians from 23 countries, among them the former Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten, have warned that a new Chinese security law for the city is a “comprehensive assault” on its rights and freedoms and “cannot be tolerated”.

In a strongly worded statement, the 186 signatories said they had “grave concerns” about the legislation and feared it would jeopardise the city’s future.

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Hong Kong’s security laws: what are they and why are they so controversial?

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Campaigners object to Beijing’s proposed laws against ‘treason and subversion’, which follow months of protests

Beijing’s parliament has announced that it will discuss controversial national security laws for Hong Kong in a dramatic escalation of China’s efforts to place the semi-autonomous territory under its control and curtail pro-democracy protests.

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Hungary votes to end legal recognition of trans people

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Activists say new law will increase discrimination, especially as Hungarians must often display their ID cards

Hungary’s parliament has voted to end legal recognition for trans people, passing a bill that rights activists say pushes the country “back towards the dark ages”.

The new law defines gender as based on chromosomes at birth, meaning previous provisions whereby trans people could alter their gender and name on official documents will no longer be available.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Australian’s family deny she attempted suicide in Iran jail

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Family’s first statement on Moore-Gilbert, who has been held in Tehran since September 2018, says she is in good health ‘considering her situation’

The family of detained Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert have denied reports she has attempted suicide in an Iranian prison, or that she has been tortured by the country’s Revolutionary Guards.

Moore-Gilbert’s family have not spoken publicly since the Cambridge-educated Melbourne University lecturer was summarily arrested at Tehran airport in September 2018.

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‘A bloody method of control’: the struggle to take down Europe’s razor wire walls

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Spain is removing lethal razor wire from its borders in north Africa, but elsewhere the controversial ‘concertinas’ stay put


You could barely see that it was a finger. “The wound was large, with several deep cuts into the flesh. He had tried to climb the fence and was up there when he was caught by police in the middle of the night,” says András Léderer, advocacy officer for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a Budapest-based NGO.

“He lost his balance. The wound was so horrific because as he fell, he tried to grab the razor wire – and also, he said, touched the second layer of the fence, which is electrified.”

The unnamed Pakistani refugee in his 30s had attempted to cross the fence near Sombor, Serbia, to get into Hungary in 2016. The coils of metal that lacerated his finger are ubiquitous at the perimeters of “Fortress Europe” and can be found on border fences in Slovenia, Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain and France.

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Egypt says film-maker died in cell after drinking hand sanitiser

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Shady Habash had been held in Cairo’s Tora prison for more than two years without trial

Egypt’s public prosecutor has said a young film-maker who died in prison had mistakenly drunk hand sanitiser in his cell, thinking it was water.

Shady Habash died inside Cairo’s Tora prison complex on 2 May. He had been held for more than two years without trial, accused of membership of a terrorist group and “spreading false news” after he produced a music video critical of Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

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Covid-19 could trigger ‘media extinction event’ in developing countries

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Critical reporting under threat as revenue losses leave independent news outlets hostage to government subsidies or whims of billionaires

Fake news laws and political interference along with growing financial pressures has left many independent media groups in developing countries fighting to survive during the pandemic.

News outlets around the world have faced measures to muzzle critical reporting in an environment that has already seen dozens of journalists harassed, arrested and censored by governments, according to editors and press freedom groups.

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Pollution causing birth defects in children of DRC cobalt miners – study

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Researchers link exposure to mining pollutants to greatly increased risk of conditions such as spina bifida and limb abnormalities

Thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxic pollution that is causing birth defects in their children as they mine for cobalt used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric cars, a new medical study has found.

Research published in the Lancet last week found that local people working in mines in the African “copperbelt”, a mining region stretching across Zambia and the DRC, are at significantly higher risk of having children born with serious birth defects.

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Greta Thunberg and children’s group hit back at attempt to throw out climate case

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Brazil, France and Germany say UN can’t hear complaint against five countries of flouting child rights to clean air

Greta Thunberg and a group of other children have pushed forward their legal complaint at the UN against countries they accuse of endangering children’s wellbeing through the climate crisis, despite attempts to have it thrown out.

The 16 children, including the Swedish environmental activist, lodged a legal case with the UN committee on the rights of the child against Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey last September.

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Rohingya refugees sent to remote Bangladeshi island after weeks at sea

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Hundreds more refugees still stranded on boats after being turned away by Malaysia

Rohingya refugees believed to have spent weeks stranded on cramped boats at sea have been sent to a remote, uninhabited island by Bangladesh, while hundreds more remain adrift.

Dozens of Rohingya landed on the coast of southern Bangladesh on Saturday, an official said, with some sent to Bhasan Char, a silt island in the estuary of Bangladesh’s Meghna river.

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Malaysia cites Covid-19 for rounding up hundreds of migrants

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In move condemned by UN, refugees including Rohingya arrested amid rising climate of xenophobia

Malaysian authorities have rounded up and detained hundreds of undocumented migrants, including Rohingya refugees, as part of efforts to contain coronavirus, officials said.

Authorities said 586 undocumented migrants were arrested in a raid in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday. Armed police walked people through the city in a single file to a detention building, according to activists. The UN said the move could push vulnerable groups into hiding and prevent them from seeking treatment.

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‘Let the boats in’: Rohingya refugees plead for stranded relatives to be saved

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Two boats still stranded at sea as Malaysia accused of using Covid-19 as an excuse to turn them back

Rohingya refugees whose relatives, including children, have been stranded for weeks on cramped boats have urged international governments to act before they perish at sea.

Two boats carrying around 500 people were last spotted off Bangladesh about a week ago, but are believed to have returned to the high seas. The refugees on board, who were fleeing desperate conditions in camps in Bangladesh, had attempted to reach Malaysia but appear to have been turned away. Bangladesh has also said it will not allow the boats to dock.

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Fears for Nigerian humanist held for blasphemy in sharia state

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Mubarak Bala, head of humanist association, taken to Kano after Facebook posts criticising Islam

A prominent Nigerian humanist accused of blasphemy has been arrested and taken to the northern city of Kano, according to figures close to him.

Mubarak Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was taken from his home on 28 April in neighbouring Kaduna state and taken to Kano, where a warrant for his arrest was issued, Leo Igwe, a fellow Nigerian humanist and human rights advocate, said.

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UK increases arms sales to repressive regimes

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Campaigners condemn government and defence exporters accused of selling weapons to states with poor human rights records

UK arms sales to repressive regimes increased by £1bn last year compared with 2018.

The increase, of more than 300%, has been condemned by arms control campaigners, who accuse the government of putting profits before human rights.

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Leading Saudi activist dies in detention, say campaigners

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Reported death of Abdullah al-Hamid puts spotlight back on kingdom’s human rights record

A leading activist serving an 11-year prison sentence has died in detention in Saudi Arabia, campaigners have said, highlighting the kingdom’s human rights record.

Abdullah al-Hamid, 69, died after a stroke in his prison cell earlier this month, according to multiple rights groups, including Amnesty International.

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