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Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 9 June 2015

Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Eritrea, Egypt, Central Asia, ISIS, Turkey, Thailand, Guantanamo, Israel, Rohingya

Child marriage is "an epidemic" in Bangladesh and if the government doesn't act quickly another generation of girls will be lost, Human Rights Watch warned today as it released a major new report on the issue. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to end child marriage, but at the same time is inexplicably seeking to lower the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 16. Human Rights Watch research suggests climate change as well as poverty is forcing families to marry off their young daughters.
The Brazilian Congress should vote down a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to be tried and punished as adult.
What will Burmese opposition leader, former political prisoner, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi say to Chinese Communist Party leaders when she lands in Beijing on June 10? Plenty.
"North Korea on the Red Sea". That's how some are describing Eritrea, after a new UN report shed light on how the country's become a modern-day police state where the population lives in fear of the secret police. This helps explain why its citizens are fleeing the country en masse and trying to reach Europe by sea.
One year after assuming power in Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a flagrant abuse of human rights and provided near total impunity for security force abuses, says Human Rights Watch. But despite this, Western governments continue to cosy up to the leadership there.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon starts a visit to Central Asia today, a great opportunity for him to raise concerns about rights abuses at the highest levels. Imprisonment of activists, restrictions on NGOs and the press, and impunity for torture top the long list of concerns.
The extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) has committed numerous atrocities including summary executions, public floggings and beheadings. But gay men - or those perceived to be gay - are particularly at risk.

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