Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 18 June 2015

Many details of US drone strikes are still withheld from the public. If the Obama administration is committed to being transparent about the drone program, one big step would be to transfer authority for targeted killings from the CIA to the Defense Department. The Hong Kong Legislative Council has rebuked Beijing by denying a bill that would have stripped some independence from Hong Kong's electoral process. In doing so, it has sent a strong message on its commitment to democracy. From earlier today: Serious human rights abuses in Russia's counter-insurgency campaign in Dagestan risk boosting militant recruitment and the popularity of ISIS, according to a new report. War and persecution have pushed the numbers of refugees and displaced persons to record high levels. A new UN report says there are now nearly 60 million displaced from their homes, or one in every 122 people on the planet. Is seems that Hungary will try to build a wall in response... But the vast majority of refugees from the Middle East's conflicts will never get that far... “The Angolan government is using the courts to silence activists who express their views in print or through peaceful protests,” says Leslie Lefkow of Human Rights Watch, referring to the politically motivated charges against author Rafael Marques de Morais and two other human rights activists. Houthi forces and southern armed groups have committed serious abuses at a hospital in Yemen’s port city of Aden. Kuwait’s Court of Cassation has upheld a six-year sentence for a blogger for tweets criticizing Saudi Arabia.