Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 21 November 2014

The international community is failing to address the increasing number of Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to a new Amnesty International report, which called it "a crisis of unprecedented proportions". Not only are hundreds of thousands living in destitution, but even crossing into Turkey is fraught with dangers, including push-backs and live fire at the border. “Turkey has shouldered a significant part of the financial burden on its own," said Amnesty's Andrew Gardner, "The reluctance of wealthy countries to take greater financial responsibility for the refugee crisis as a whole and the paltry offers of resettlement are deplorable.” Rights groups have cautiously welcomed US President Barack Obama’s announcement pledging to suspend the deportation of certain unauthorized migrants, saying it will protect millions of people from the corrosive threat of removal. The plan outlined, while deficient in key respects, will keep eligible families intact and help immigrants resist workplace and other abuses without fear of deportation. There's been a spate of horrific attacks on civilians by car and suicide bombs in Iraq. An attack on a village in northern Nigeria has left over 40 dead. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has killed thousands and abducted hundreds of women and girls this year, is suspected to have carried out the attack. The first trial for female genital mutilation in Egypt has incredibly ended in acquittal for the doctor who killed a young girl. One year on from the start of the EuroMaidan protests that would eventually bring about a change of power in Kiev, Ukraine faces an abusive occupation by Russia in Crimea and a conflict in the east, where even during a "ceasefire" an average of 13 people are killed every day. Both pro-Kiev forces and Russia-backed rebels have allegedly violated the laws of war. The Ebola outbreak in Liberia has taken a devastating toll of lives, and it's also had a disastrous effect on the economy... Eritrea's forced conscription drive is unleashing a wave of emigration, according to a new UN report. Rights groups have launched a new tool for people to download to help detect surveillance software governments use to spy on their citizens. The program, called "Detekt", was created by Amnesty International, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy International and Digitale Gesellschaf, and it could help activists and rights defenders in particular.