Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 22 January 2016
Dozens die in Mediterranean Sea; European Parliament wants inquiry into Ethiopia killings; abuses in junta-ruled Thailand; Lord’s Resistance Army leader faces ICC; UK weapon sales to Bahrain; Occupation, Inc. & Israel; shocking report from Somaliland; FIFA and human rights.
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Another day, more tragedy in Europe's ongoing refugee crisis. At least 41 people, among them 11 children, have died in the Mediterranean Sea off the Greek islands of Farmakonisi and Kalolimnos, according to news reports. Dozens of others are reported missing after their boats sank early on Friday.
The European Parliament has condemned the repression and killings of protesters and other abuses in Ethiopia in recent months. The resolution calls for a "credible, transparent and independent investigation" and for prosecution of those people who are responsible for the killings.
The abduction and apparent mistreatment of a prominent student activist in Thailand is further evidence that wanton violations of human rights are the norm under the dictatorship that rules the country.
In Uganda, thousands of victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are closely following the second day of an International Criminal Court hearing for Dominic Ongwen, a one-time child soldier who became a senior LRA commander.
Did you know that the United Kingdom is selling weapons to Bahrain, a kingdom that has an appalling human rights record?
Businesses - including those in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories - have responsibilities under international human rights standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Want to know more? Read the new HRW report Occupation, Inc. Or this comment and this Q&A. There's a video too.
The Guardian published a shocking report from Somaliland, where chaining of patients with mental health problems is common practice, as is confinement without consent. This violates the basic international standards prohibiting ill-treatment, and may constitute torture.
And Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa, a native from Bahrain, may replace Sepp Blatter next month as president of the world football federation FIFA. A good idea? “At a time when Fifa is going through the biggest crisis in its history it would seem like an act of institutional suicide for it to appoint as its leader a man who was apparently responsible for sanctioning clubs who failed to show loyalty to a murderous regime,” says Human Rights Watch’s Gulf researcher, Nicholas McGeehan.