Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 7 August 2014

Jordan has been refusing to take in Palestinians fleeing Syria, and has even forcibly deported Palestinian refugees back to Syria. 

The convictions of two former Khmer Rouge leaders -- Nuon Chea, 88, and Khieu Samphan, 83 -- for crimes against humanity are welcome, but are long overdue. But the convictions don't  make up for the fundamental failures of the Cambodian-controlled and United Nations-assisted Khmer Rouge tribunal. The trial followed years of obstruction by Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander. 

When Uganda's Constitutional Court declared the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act "null and void" on August 1, the country's LGBTI community and human rights activists breathed a collective sigh of relief. But the real fight is not over -- not in Uganda, nor in many other countries that have been passing anti-LGBTI measures into law. Late Thursday, airstrikes began in areas of northern Iraq in an attempt to route ISIS militants. Iraq's Kurdish-held area began to falter under the weight of ISIS's offensive, and thousands of people from the Yazidi community have fled from ISIS's advance into the mountains near Sinjar, where they are in desperate need of food and water. Kiev's local government attempted to clear protesters out of Maidan Square, prompting demonstrators to set tires on fire. Protesters have occupied the square since Ukraine's former president, who was perceived as highly corrupt, fled the country in February.   Good news! One of China's most famous human rights lawyers, Gao Zhisheng, was released from prison.