Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 19 February 2016
Mali abuses spreading south; EU summit, latest racist low & World Press Photo on refugees; Australia & human rights; Philippines impunity; Uganda elections; Bahrain; cautionary tale on ICC independence; justice for CIA torture in France?; Apple’s Standoff; Obama sells out Liu Xiaobo; #Watch4Women.
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Atrocities by Islamist armed groups in Mali and abusive responses by Malian security forces have spread south in the past year, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
Leaders of the European Union have gathered in Brussels for another summit to discuss the refugee crisis - and decided to organize yet another summit early next month, with Turkey.
Meanwhile the public debate in the EU has reached a new racist low:
A very different image by Australian photographer Warren Richardson has been selected as the World Press Photo of the Year 2015.
Human rights principles, once a core part of Australia’s foreign policy, have been undermined by its single-minded determination to stop boats of asylum seekers and migrants “by hook or by crook.”
A former member of a Philippine police task force linked to serious human rights violations has been deported by the United States, opening the door for the Philippines to address a legacy of impunity for rights abusers.
The situation in Uganda is tense after presidential elections held on Thursday.
The authorities in Bahrain should immediately release opposition political leader Ebrahim Sharif, who's facing a lengthy prison sentence for peaceful criticism of the government.
Here's a must-read by HRW's International Justice-expert Elizabeth Evenson, a cautionary tale about the importance of protecting the independence of the International Criminal Court, a task its member countries seem at risk of failing.