Many people today are marking the World Day against the Death Penalty. And many don’t. Belarus, in particular, is the only European country that still holds on to capital punishment.
China also still practices the death penalty, and recently executed a street vendor who allegedly was defending himself from China’s notoriously violent para-police force, the chengguan.
As do parts of the United States. The state of Maryland ended this cruel punishment in May.
Tomorrow, Human Rights Watch will release a report on opposition abuses in Syria.
Tomorrow is the International Day of the Girl. Studies have found that child marriage has a significant impact on whether a girl can enjoy her rights. Girls who marry will most likely be taken out of school. And stillbirths and infant deaths are 50 percent higher when women and girls under age 20 become pregnant.
Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, has won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize, Europe’s top human rights award. But who will win the Nobel Peace Prize, slated to be announced tomorrow?
From earlier today: Hundreds who fled violence in Côte d’Ivoire during the country’s 2010-2011 post-election crisis returned to find that their land has been illegally taken, leaving them without a livelihood or home. Land conflict is at the heart of Côte d’Ivoire’s decade of abuses.
