Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 3 March 2015

The strongmen and warlords that the US and Afghanistan helped install after the Taliban’s overthrow have long records of unpunished abuses. When Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, visits Washington later this month, US officials should press him to bring them to justice. Iran appears set to execute six Kurds in the next few hours. Iran’s staggeringly high rate of executions in the past year has drawn immense international outcry. Saudi Arabia has also shown no slowdown in its use of the death penalty, having just executed three men, bringing the number executions in the country in 2015 to nearly 40. Keeping with Saudi Arabia, the country's education minister today announced that there would be no gym class for girls in public schools, dashing hopes that Saudi Arabia might address its long-standing problem of allowing women to participate in sports. The UN Security Council today unanimously approved a sanctions regime for South Sudan, which threatens to blacklist anyone undermining the country’s security. However, the resolution doesn’t call for a necessary and long-awaited arms embargo against the warring parties, and stops short of imposing asset freezes or travel bans on government officials committing abuse. Why won’t the World Bank president meet with human rights officials? The World Bank’s activities have been criticized rights experts recently, but rather than addressing this criticism, President Kim Yong Jim seems to be avoiding rights altogether.