Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 19 September

In an extensive interview given to the Jesuit magazine, America, Pope Francis makes the point that there is simply too much emphasis within the Church on questions of sexual ethics, including homosexuality, abortion and contraception.  Some Church officials publicly support criminal penalties for consensual same-sex relations, others make statements that fuel a climate of homophobia in which discrimination and violence occur.  Pope Francis is sending a clear message: LGBT people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and violence and discrimination have no place. Handicap International has called the Syrian conflict “a highly disabling crisis,” with a large number of amputations and double the ratio of spinal cord injuries than seen in other crises. 
The Syrian government is obliged to guarantee the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including during armed conflict. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf should seek to revise laws that are undermining press freedom in Liberia. The country's libel laws fail to meet international standards on freedom of expression.  Liberian law on the appeals process threatens media organizations and journalists who face huge civil defamation judgments. In Nepal, the government has effectively dismantled the National Human Rights Commission  at the most critical time since the end of the civil war. At least 13,000 people were killed during a decade-long armed conflict that started in 1996 between Maoists and government forces. It's critical for the one government body dedicated  to protecting human rights to be able to operate.  From this morning: