Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 23 December 2015

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by Russian airstrikes in Syria over the past two months, a new report suggests. Amnesty International says bombing raids killed scores of civilians and caused massive destruction in residential areas, in apparent violations of international humanitarian law. Staying with Syria, some evidence suggests that for every civilian killed by the the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), seven to ten have been killed by the Syrian government and its supporters. The killing of hundreds of Shia Muslim members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) by Nigerian army soldiers earlier this month appears to have been wholly unjustified, Human Rights Watch says. Breaking news from Greece, which after "years of political promises" has now become the 26th European country to recognise same-sex partnerships. Staying with LGBT rights, there is welcome news from Malawi too, which has upheld its ban on prosecutions for consensual same-sex conduct. Burma has launched a "brazen bid for presidential immunity" with its proposed law to shield former presidents from crimes they commit in office. Brazil has vowed to improve prison conditions, just weeks after a Human Rights Watch report exposed extreme overcrowding and abysmal treatment in some of the country's jails. Macedonia is locking up migrants and asylum seekers again, after a brief lull in detentions during the summer. The UN, the African Union, and individual governments have failed to properly tackle sexual abuse by peacekeepers and have instead passed the buck "like a hot potato", Human Rights Watch says.