Pompeo singled out Beijing for detaining members of Muslim minority groups as he unveiled annual human rights report
China is “in a league of its own” when it comes to human rights violations, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday as he unveiled the state department’s annual report on human rights around the world.
Related: 'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam
Continue reading...Britain is Egypt’s largest foreign investor. Yet at the recent Arab-EU summit, Theresa May was oddly quiet on rights abuses
While there may be “a special place in hell” for those who backed Brexit without a plan, regimes that execute people after fundamentally flawed trials get their own summit. Just a fortnight ago, Donald Tusk and the leaders of the EU met with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, at the Arab-EU summit in Sharm el-Sheikh – days after his regime executed nine people.
The summit was co-chaired by Tusk and Sisi. Tusk and other European leaders, including Theresa May, were curiously silent at the summit about the fate of Egypt’s political prisoners. The execution of the nine – convicted after unfair trials in which human rights campaigners say confessions were elicited by torture – was the third consecutive week of executions. In total 15 people were put to death in February in Egypt.
Continue reading...A landmark ruling legalised gay sex in the country in 2018, yet the LGBT community still face stigma and violence
When India’s supreme court announced it was legalising gay sex, people hugged in twos and threes on the lawns outside the Delhi courthouse. They draped themselves in rainbow flags in Bangalore and released balloons into the sky. In Mumbai’s nightclubs, they danced all night.
In Patna, the dusty capital of the east Indian state of Bihar, Roshni did nothing. “We felt good when people were marching in Delhi and Mumbai,” she says. “Everyone wanted to follow [them], but then we feared what other people would think – how they would react.”
Continue reading...Reema and Zara Iqbal – whose husbands died fighting for Isis – said to have five children between them
Two more British women who are being held in Syrian camps with their young children have reportedly had their citizenship removed.
The move comes as the home secretary, Sajid Javid, faces increasing criticism over the case of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old Londoner who was stripped of her British citizenship on his orders, after the death of her three-week-old son.
Continue reading...Former DPP accuses home secretary of treating UK like a ‘banana republic’ over decision to strip Isis bride of citizenship
Syrian camps: vulnerable children of Isis ignored by the outside world
Sajid Javid has been accused of moral cowardice and “treating the UK as a banana republic” in pursuit of his leadership ambitions following the death of Jarrah, the three-week-old son of Isis bride Shamima Begum.
A Church of England bishop and a former director of public prosecutions led the chorus of outrage directed at the home secretary as demand grew for him to review his controversial decision to strip the 19-year-old of British citizenship – a move that left her stateless and her baby in legal limbo.
Continue reading...Scores of high-profile signatories mark International Women’s Day by signing letter calling for stronger global political support
• Letter: Women worldwide must be heard and respected
Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, and Dame Emma Thompson are among 76 actors, writers, business leaders and campaigners calling on governments to increase support and protection of women fighting for their rights around the world.
The letter, published in the Guardian to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, says women risk “backlash, censorship and violence” whenever they defend their rights or speak out over injustice.
Continue reading...Attorney general’s claims met with incredulity as talks to break Brexit deadlock stall
Geoffrey Cox is facing a backlash in Brussels and Dublin after claiming the Irish backstop posed a risk to the human rights of people in Northern Ireland.
In the latest round of negotiations in Brussels, the attorney general told Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, the arrangement could potentially breach the European convention on human rights (EHCR).
Continue reading...Report says aid to displaced people in Africa undermined by Home Office approach to asylum seekers and refugees
The UK government’s migration policy is “disconnected and incoherent” and involves the pitting of one government department against another, a report by MPs has said.
The international development committee (IDC) urged the government to double the number of vulnerable refugees offered resettlement in Britain, up to 10,000 a year.
Continue reading...Amnesty says social media firm must do more to support users who report harassment
Human rights campaigners have called for action after a survey revealed that more than half of the reports that women lodge about harassment on Facebook are met with no action from the social media company.
The Survation poll, commissioned by the feminist campaign group Level Up, found that 29% of the 1,000 women who took part had been harassed on Facebook.
Continue reading...World Wide Fund for Nature launches inquiry into claims that it works with paramilitaries allegedly involved in serious abuses
One of the world’s largest charities has launched an investigation into claims that it funds, equips and works with paramilitary forces accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering scores of people in national parks across Africa and Asia.
Human rights specialists will lead an independent review of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation charity, following allegations of abuse in six countries, published by BuzzFeed news on Monday.
Continue reading...Iran reforms drive 90% fall in death penalty worldwide, but report warns hardline approach to minor cases violates human rights
Global efforts to abolish the death penalty are in danger of being undermined by anti-drug governments that use capital punishment to enforce a zero-tolerance approach, experts have warned.
The caution comes even though the number of people sentenced to death for drug offences around the world has actually fallen by nearly 90% over the past four years, according to a study by Harm Reduction International, with 91 known deaths last year compared with 755 in 2015.
Continue reading...Poland the worst offender as global justice index identifies decline in checks on government power for second successive year
Autocratic rule is on the rise throughout the world, with a growing number of authoritarian leaders “hijacking” laws to consolidate their own power, a study of global justice has found.
Poland demonstrated the most significant turn towards authoritarianism over the past four years, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In all, 64% of 126 countries surveyed made similar moves towards autocratic rule in the past year alone, according to an annual rule of law index published by the World Justice Project.
Continue reading...Inquiry accuses army of killing demonstrators ‘who were not posing an imminent threat’
UN investigators have accused Israeli soldiers of intentionally firing on civilians and said they may have committed war crimes in their lethal response to Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.
The independent Commission of Inquiry, set up last year by the UN’s human rights council, said Israeli forces killed 189 people and shot more than 6,100 others with live ammunition near the fence that divides the two territories.
Continue reading...Economic fears raised as online subscriptions plummet in months following launch of levy created to curb ‘gossip’
Millions of people in Uganda have abandoned the internet after punishing taxes were imposed on social media use and money transactions using mobile phones.
A daily levy, introduced in July to tame “idle talk” online and raise revenue, affects more than 60 online platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. To use such sites, Ugandans are expected to pay a tax of 200 Ugandan shillings (4p) a day.
Continue reading...Bahrain will do anything to hunt down dissident athletes and their families. International sporting bodies must step up to protect the helpless
I can never truly express my gratitude to you all, the Australian people, for bringing me home. There were countless dark moments over the 76 days of my detention, when my future looked nothing but bleak. The prospect of never seeing my wife, family or friends again became too close to reality.
The moment I was reunited with my loved ones, hundreds of supporters made it to the airport to give me a warm welcome that went far beyond my imagination. It is something I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Inquiry follows claims it ignored warning signs before alleged Rohingya genocide
The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority.
UN sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the initially hesitant UN secretary general, António Guterres, decided to proceed with the investigation after a “build-up in pressure” within the organisation.
Continue reading...A coalition of human rights groups is pressing the home secretary to scrap his new measures to tackle knife crime, branding them “deeply counterproductive”.
Sajid Javid’s knife crime prevention orders place a range of curbs and curfews on suspects, but groups working with young people including Liberty, the Runnymede Trust and the Children’s Society, say they have “profound human rights concerns”.
Continue reading...Letter from seven staff admits mistakes after report warns of ‘toxic’ work environment
Amnesty International’s seven-member senior leadership team has offered to resign after a damning report warned of a “toxic” working environment and widespread bullying.
A letter, signed jointly by the human rights group’s leadership team, acknowledged mistakes had been made, adding that the seven senior leaders took shared responsibility for the “climate of tension and mistrust” across the organisation.
Continue reading...Lawyer for family of 19-year-old who joined Isis in Syria is to ask her consent for plan
The family of Shamima Begum are exploring legal and practical options to bring her baby son to the UK without her while she embarks on the potentially lengthy appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, the Guardian has learned.
The lawyer representing the 19-year-old’s family is planning to travel to the refugee camp in Syria where she is living “as soon as possible” to set in motion the legal appeal process, and to ask her consent to bring her newborn son back to Britain while she awaits a resolution of her legally tangled case.
Continue reading...Country at odds with UK over decision to strip 19-year-old of British citizenship
Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is “no question” of her being allowed into Bangladesh, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has insisted, setting up a clash with the UK after Sajid Javid’s move to strip the teenager of her UK citizenship.
“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that [Begum] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship,” Shahriar Alam, the state minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement issued to the Guardian, adding that his government had learned of Britain’s intention to cancel her citizenship rights from media reports.
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