Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 31 October 2014

Gunmen from the Sunni extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) systematically executed some 600 male inmates of a prison near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said today. Horrific first-hand accounts from survivors of the massacre in June told how Shia inmates were first separated and then made to kneel along a ravine, before ISIS gunmen opened fire. Human Rights Watch says the mass summary executions amount to war crimes and likely constitute crimes against humanity. Unrest on the streets of Burkina Faso continues today as protesters in the capital Ouagadougou continue to call for their president, Blaise Compaore, to resign immediately. Compaore agreed not to seek another term in office after angry protesters torched government and parliament buildings yesterday, but has so far refused to step down. The Spanish government should immediately abandon its "abusive" migration plan, under which migrants and asylum seekers entering Spanish enclaves in North Africa are summarily returned to Morocco. Sending people straight back without any procedures to safeguard them is "a clear breach of European and international human rights law", a coalition of international organisations warned today. Somalia's new government faces a massive challenge as it tries to rebuild a country shattered by decades of armed conflict. Challenges include ending sexual abuse of women and girls displaced by conflict, and overhauling the country's justice system. But just looking after the day-to-day running of the country is a massive challenge too. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will play an influential role at an International Labour Organisation summit in Geneva over the next two weeks. But while the UAE happily tackles issues of forced labour on the global stage, at home it's another story where, as Human Rights Watch has documented, migrant domestic workers face exploitation, abuse and harassment. Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán announced this morning on public radio that he is withdrawing plans for a controversial internet tax in the country. Thousands of Hungarians took to the streets in recent days to protest his idea, which critics feared would stifle free speech. Beware the share button in Russia, where activist Konstantin Zharinov is on trial for “inciting extremist activities” after sharing a post on VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Zharinov, a prolific online user and a researcher of radical groups, faces four years in prison for sharing the statement - even though he disagrees with the content of the post, which called for Russians to fight Vladimir Putin's "regime". Staying with internet restrictions, China has said that Facebook will remain banned in the country - no matter how good Mark Zuckerberg's Mandarin is.