Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 15 January 2016
Shocking attack against lawyers in China; suffering of civilians in Syria; Turkey deports refugees; #OromoProtests in Ethiopia; Switzerland seizes assets from refugees; setback for rights in Tunisia; death sentence for abandoning Islam & PR-fail in Saudi Arabia; #CloseGitmo.
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An unprecedented escalation of attacks on rights defenders is taking place in China, with the formal arrest of at least 11 human rights lawyers, legal assistants, and activists on political subversion charges.
Today the United Nations Security Council will get a briefing on the dire humanitarian situation of 394,000 people living in besieged areas in Syria. The suffering of civilians in the Syrian town of Madaya should be a wake-up call for the international community. Authorities in Turkey have detained and deported refugees back to Syria, according to an investigation by the BBC. Nine weeks after bloody protests broke out in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, the government has made a major concession to the protestors - halting a plan to expand the municipal boundary of Addis Ababa, the issue that sparked the crisis. But many protesters are skeptical. Apparantly Switzerland has joined Denmark in seizing assets from refugees. A setback for individual freedoms and equal rights in Tunisia, where authorities have suspended the activities of the LGBT rights group Shams. Saudi Arabia is trying to get more positive news coverage of developments in the country, while sentencing a poet to death for abandoning islam.
Today the United Nations Security Council will get a briefing on the dire humanitarian situation of 394,000 people living in besieged areas in Syria. The suffering of civilians in the Syrian town of Madaya should be a wake-up call for the international community. Authorities in Turkey have detained and deported refugees back to Syria, according to an investigation by the BBC. Nine weeks after bloody protests broke out in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, the government has made a major concession to the protestors - halting a plan to expand the municipal boundary of Addis Ababa, the issue that sparked the crisis. But many protesters are skeptical. Apparantly Switzerland has joined Denmark in seizing assets from refugees. A setback for individual freedoms and equal rights in Tunisia, where authorities have suspended the activities of the LGBT rights group Shams. Saudi Arabia is trying to get more positive news coverage of developments in the country, while sentencing a poet to death for abandoning islam.