Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 15 April 2015

Asylum seekers and migrants in Serbia experience harassment and abuse at the hands of Serbian police. Some were turned away and left to sleep in the cold. Last week, LGBTI activists in Moscow tried to hold a “Day of Silence” to protest homophobia, but they were stopped by police. Russia's LGBTI voices are being silenced faster than ever in the two years since the country adopted its anti-LGBTI “propaganda” law. The extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has carried out systematic rape and other sexual violence against Yezidi women and girls in northern Iraq, also subjecting them to sexual slavery and forced marriage. Interviews with survivors describe the nightmare. Human Rights Watch urged the UN Security Council prevent and address sexual violence in armed conflict, following the release of a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on conflict-related sexual violence in 19 countries. The Saudi Arabia­–led bombing campaign in Yemen is off to a dreadful start, at least when it comes to the civilian toll. From earlier today: The extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) has carried out systematic rape and sexual violence against Yezidi women and girls in captivity in northern Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today. The sexual slavery, organised rape and forced marriage that Human Rights Watch documented are war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity. Those who escaped ISIS captivity are now in desperate need of treatment for "unimaginable trauma".