Category Archives: Human rights

Botswana urged to abolish death penalty after latest execution

Posted on by

Rights groups condemn hanging of Mooketsi Kgosibodiba and call on president to bring country into line with the rest of Africa

The new president of Botswana is facing pressure to abolish the country’s death penalty after last week’s surprise execution of a 44-year-old man for murder.

Mooketsi Kgosibodiba, a bricklayer, had been on death row since 2017 after strangling his employer in a row over stolen cement. Last week the government made the unexpected announcement that he had been hanged in Gaborone central prison.

Continue reading...

Whistleblowers on school paedophile ring in Afghanistan arrested

Posted on by

Human rights defenders alleged that teachers and social workers were involved in abuse of more than 500 boys

Two people have been detained by Afghanistan’s intelligence services after they exposed a paedophile ring operating in some of the country’s schools.

Human rights organisations and the former president Hamid Karzai have called for the immediate release of Mohammed Mussa and Ehsanullah Hamidi, both well-known human rights defenders from Logar province, who were picked up by the National Directorate of Security last week when they were on their way to meet with the EU ambassador in Kabul.

Continue reading...

UK development bank accused of failure to safeguard Congolese workers

Posted on by

British-backed plantation firm vows to address claims that underpaid palm oil workers have been exposed to toxic chemicals

The UK development bank has been accused of failing to protect workers from exposure to dangerous pesticides and paying “extreme poverty” wages on palm oil plantations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Human Rights Watch said the CDC group, along with three other European development banks, had failed to properly oversee its investments in Feronia, one of Africa’s largest palm oil companies.

Continue reading...

Rights activist Almaas Elman shot dead in Mogadishu

Posted on by

Peace campaigner’s car struck by stray bullet while passing airport, security officials say

Almaas Elman, a prominent rights activist, was shot dead in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.

Almaas, who came from a leading family of peace campaigners, was travelling by car inside the heavily fortified airport compound when she was hit.

Continue reading...

Children as young as five make up most of Madagascar’s mica mining workforce

Posted on by

Investigation finds thousands of children are scavenging in deadly conditions for mineral widely used by car and electronics firms

Children as young as five make up more than half the number of miners scavenging for mica in Madagascar, according to a leading child rights group.

A year-long investigation by Terre des Hommes Netherlands found that at least 11,000 children between the ages of five and 17 are employed in quarrying and processing the shimmery, heat-resistant mineral, which is used in everything from makeup to car paint and hugely prevalent in the automotive and electronics industry.

Continue reading...

Uganda bans thousands of charities in ‘chilling’ crackdown

Posted on by

Government critics fear purge of sector as more than 12,000 organisations lose registered charity status

More than 12,000 charities have been told they can no longer operate in Uganda as critics raised fears that government regulatory measures effectively amounted to a purge.

The government said a review that took place in August and September would root out poorly performing organisations and create “a reliable data bank on all NGOs” in the country.

Continue reading...

UK criticised for its treatment of worker ‘tortured’ in China

Posted on by

Simon Cheng, a former UK consular employee, has only been offered a two-year visa

Questions have been raised about Britain’s treatment of a former UK consular worker from Hong Kong, who said he was asked to resign after being detained and allegedly tortured on a work trip to mainland China.

Simon Cheng has been offered a two-year UK visa, but sources said it is a “working holiday” type, which only allows him to spend 12 months employed and leaves him without a path to permanent residency.

Continue reading...

‘The clock is ticking’: race to save 2 million from statelessness in Assam

Posted on by

A team of volunteer paralegals are fighting to stop Indians without proof of citizenship being sent to detention camps

When she was one, Suro Devi was rescued by a sewer cleaner from a rubbish dump in Assam, northeast India. When the state of Assam started a massive exercise to register its citizens in 2015, Suro Devi did not have a birth certificate, information about her parents, a voter list with her name on it, or anything to prove that she had lived in Assam before 25 March 1971. She seemed destined to be left off the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and become stateless, and perhaps spend the rest of her days in a detention camp.

But Zamser Ali, a citizenship rights activist based in Assam’s capital, Guwahati, heard about Devi’s case. He knew that documents were not the only thing that could prove your origins. He managed to track down five eyewitnesses to her rescue from the dump. And in August, when the draft NRC was published, Devi’s name appeared on it.

Continue reading...

Behrouz Boochani calls Christchurch welcome a ‘reminder of kindness’

Posted on by

Official reception highlights New Zealand’s differences with Australia over immigration

The city of Christchurch has welcomed Behrouz Boochani with a civic reception and a traditional Māori mihi whakatau – a formal welcome – as his presence, and liberty, in New Zealand once again underscores the country’s political differences with Australia over immigration.

Boochani was formally greeted from the plane by the mayor of Christchurch and the city’s Māori leaders, who told him he was welcomed by the mountains, the rivers, and the people of the city.

Continue reading...

UK-educated Russians are upholding Putin’s regime, says dissident

Posted on by

Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov gives stark assessment of leader’s dictatorial rule

The children of Russian oligarchs learn about freedom in the UK only to return to Moscow to reinforce Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial rule, Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian dissident jailed for five years by Russia, has warned in a stark assessment of Putin’s stranglehold on power.

Sentsov, Russia’s most famous political prisoner, was released with 35 other Ukrainians in a high-profile prisoner swap in September, in which an equal number of Russians were released.

Continue reading...

Norwegian wealth fund blacklists G4S shares over human rights concerns

Posted on by

Sovereign wealth fund cites risk of company contributing to ill-treatment of migrant labour in Qatar and UAE

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has banned all holdings of shares in G4S because of the risk of human rights violations against the British security company’s workforce in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Norway’s Council of Ethics, which monitors investments in the country’s £860bn Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), said there was an “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to systematic human rights violations”. Up to 30,000 staff could be affected.

Continue reading...

UK ministers threaten sanctions on Hong Kong officials

Posted on by

Minister says planned new legislation could be used in response to rights violations

Foreign Office ministers have for the first time threatened to use new sanctions laws against individuals in Hong Kong found guilty of human rights abuses during the government’s efforts to suppress street protests.

The threat, picked up on social media by Hong Kong protesters, was made in a letter from the minister for Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler, setting out the government’s response to the crisis.

Continue reading...

Japanese women demand right to wear glasses at work

Posted on by

Public outcry after TV show exposes businesses imposing ban on female staff

Japanese women on social media are demanding the right to wear glasses to work, after reports that employers were imposing bans.

In the latest protest against rigid rules over women’s appearance, the hashtag “glasses are forbidden” was trending on Twitter in reaction to a Japanese television show that exposed businesses that were imposing the bans on female staff.

Continue reading...

Turkey urged to drop case against LGBT activists charged over Pride march

Posted on by

Human rights organisations defend group of 19 due to stand trial for ‘demanding their rights to dignity and equality’

Human rights organisations have urged Turkey to drop charges against 19 LGBT activists who are due to stand trial on Tuesday.

Eighteen students and one faculty staff member have been charged with “participating in an unlawful assembly” and “resisting despite warning” after attending a Pride march in May at the campus of the Ankara-based Middle East Technical University.

Continue reading...

No woman should be slapped for screaming as she gives birth | Ann Yates

Posted on by

Respect in childbirth is a human right. As a midwife of many years’ experience, I am calling for a global effort towards more compassion in maternity care

Respectful maternity care is a universal human right due to every childbearing woman in every health system around the world. So why do women continue to endure violence, abuse and substandard care during childbirth?

As a midwife with more than 44 years of international experience, I have seen disrespect and abuse in many countries.

Continue reading...

British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods, says QC

Posted on by

Geoffrey Robertson says it should ‘wash its hands of blood and return Elgin’s loot’

The British Museum has been accused of exhibiting “pilfered cultural property”, by a leading human rights lawyer who is calling for European and US institutions to return treasures taken from “subjugated peoples” by “conquerors or colonial masters”.

Geoffrey Robertson QC said: “The trustees of the British Museum have become the world’s largest receivers of stolen property, and the great majority of their loot is not even on public display.”

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia: arrests of dissidents and torture allegations continue

Posted on by

Relaxation of social laws has belied repression since murder of Jamal Khashoggi, says report

Activists, clerics and other perceived critics of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, continue to be arbitrarily detained more than a year after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a report has said.

Bin Salman has overseen the relaxing of a number of the kingdom’s restrictive social laws since assuming a leadership position in the Saudi government four years ago, most recently allowing women over 21 to obtain passports and travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian.

Continue reading...

Human rights in the tobacco fields of Malawi – in pictures

Posted on by

Photographer David Levene visited Malawi with Sarah Boseley, to document the impact of the tobacco industry on the wellbeing of the local farming communities whose livelihood depends on it. Human rights lawyers Leigh Day are working with Malawian translators and paralegals interviewing potential clients to join the watershed legal action against British American Tobacco

Continue reading...

BAT faces landmark legal case over Malawi families’ poverty wages

Posted on by

Exclusive: Lawyers seeking compensation in UK for child labourers and their parents

Human rights lawyers are preparing to bring a landmark case against British American Tobacco on behalf of hundreds of children and their families forced by poverty wages to work in conditions of gruelling hard labour in the fields of Malawi.

Leigh Day’s lawyers are seeking compensation for more than 350 child labourers and their parents in the high court in London, arguing that the British company is guilty of “unjust enrichment”. Leigh Day says it anticipates the number of child labourer claimants to rise as high as 15,000. While BAT claims it has told farmers not to use their children as unpaid labour, the lawyers say the families cannot afford to work their fields otherwise, because they receive so little money for their crop.

Continue reading...

CIA-linked unit accused of atrocities in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Document details 14 deadly raids by pro-government units with support of US intelligence

The Afghan soldiers who swept through Kulalgo village one late August night shot three of Dr Ulfatullah’s relatives carefully, a single bullet through their left eye, faces otherwise untouched as blood pooled below their bodies on the floor of the family home.

The last killing was less precise, and left the face of university student Ansarullah badly disfigured. His family thought perhaps he had heard the muffled gunshot that ended a cousin’s life, and briefly tried to struggle against his captors.

Continue reading...