The fighting between the Muslim rebels and Philippine government forces in Zamboanga City will weigh on the city’s children, who have been arrested and locked up for allegedly being rebel combatants and are living in detention facilities with adults. Some have even been used as human shields.
The conditions of these children’s detention – that they’re sharing facilities with adults – also violate the government’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Doctors have fled Syria in droves. In Pakistan, vaccinators are gunned down by militants. In Bahrain, physicians who treat protesters are thrown in jail. Despite laws protecting medical workers in conflict situations, increasingly, the people on the front line of health care are becoming targets.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva, should strengthen documentation and accountability for those who attack health workers, so that courageous doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers can care for the sick and injured.
The shocking revelations of mass monitoring by the US and UK show how privacy protections have not kept pace with technology.
To guide countries in modernizing privacy protections, Human Rights Watch has endorsed a set of International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, released on September 20, 2013, by more than 250 civil society groups.
Bahraini authorities arrested a leader of a prominent opposition leader, Khalil al-Marzooq, on what appears to be trumped up charges. But instead of denouncing the arrest, a US spokesperson criticized Bahrain’s opposition groups.The best of the best – Human Rights Watch’s most-shared and top-tweeted stories this week.
