Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 4 March 2014

Photo: Miners work in the grueling conditions of an open pit gold mine in Watsa, northeastern Congo. © 2004 Marcus Bleasdale/VII The global nature of modern supply chains means that natural resources have fueled some of the world’s most brutal conflicts and human rights violations. Tomorrow, the European Commission has the opportunity to make supply chain due diligence mandatory for conflict minerals, or manufactured products containing these minerals, on the European market.  Mandatory standards are needed because they are the only way of ensuring real, systematic change. Voluntary frameworks and guidance have already been developed and although they have a role to play, they are insufficient. There is growing recognition that the military use of schools should be curbed to prevent further harm to students, teachers and educational facilities. The draft Lucens Guidelines lays out six steps to safeguard education in times of conflict. Individual European Union member states should in upcoming months help finalize and endorse these guidelines, and put them into effect in their own laws and military policies. In Honduras, an opening to tackle the country's daunting human rights problems as a new ombudsman must be chosen by March 14, 2014. The ombudsman directs the National Human Rights Commission (El Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, or CONADEH). Unfortunately, in recent years the CONADEH has too often been viewed as a political body rather than an impartial defender of human rights. In Vietnam, a former journalist has been imprisoned for two years under a controversial new law that has routinely been used to imprison people for peaceful criticism of official policies and practices. From this morning: Moscow has ordered back to base some troops on exercise in Russia, in what some are hoping is a sign of de-escalation of tensions around Ukraine. However, the Russian military still controls the Ukrainian region of Crimea following its deployment there over the past few days, and the stand-off at several military installations, in particular at Sevastopol's Belbek airfield, could deteriorate into an armed conflict at any moment. Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a statement saying that what happened in Ukraine was “an unconstitutional overthrow and armed seizure of power”. Russia's envoy to the UN has told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's ousted president, requested Russia's armed forces to enter Ukraine and establish law and order. US Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to Kiev, and NATO is holding a meeting today at the request of Poland.