Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 26 November 2014

Protests have continued overnight across the US following the decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri not to indict a police officer in the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown in August. Many protests were peaceful although some unrest was also reported. Events in Ferguson should serve as a wake-up call for states across the US to reexamine their records on police brutality and accountability. Dozens of people have been forcibly disappeared in Turkmenistan, some for more than a decade, Human Rights Watch said in a new video released today. The government should immediately come clean about where the missing are, and tell their families if they are alive or dead. Evidence continues to grow that the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) practices sexual slavery, especially among the Yazidi women in Iraq. While religious leaders have been quick to speak out against beheadings, they should also condemn the abhorrent practice of sexually enslaving and raping women and girls. Enough of the blank cheques for Afghanistan. That's the message to Afghanistan’s foreign donors, who should be doing much more to press the new government there to address the country’s persistent human rights problems, says Human Rights Watch. The situation for women and girls is particularly alarming. Activists say dozens of civilians have been killed in airstrikes by Syrian war planes on the ISIS-held northern city of Raqqa. Estimates of those killed vary from 36 to as many as 80. Syrian government and US-led coalition aircraft frequently bomb Raqqa, which has become an ISIS stronghold. But activists say most of the casualties from the raids have been civilians. Scores of people have been arrested in Hong Kong as police attempted to dismantle pro-democracy protest camps in the city. Those arrested include leading student activists Joshua Wong and Lester Shum. The United Arab Emirates likes to present itself as a modern country, that's a safe haven for workers and a place where fortunes can be made. But the ugly truth is that its wealth is built on an army of poorly-paid migrant workers who suffer a myriad of terrible abuses. Any opinion - so long as it's ours. That seems to be the message from the ruling military junta in Thailand, which has presided over "unending repression" since seizing power in a coup six months ago.