Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 18 May 2016

'Islamic State' horror in Libya; Germany satire & free speech ruling; shocking police brutality in Kenya; China’s encroachment in Hong Kong; Crackdown on environmental protesters in Vietnam; #WatchOurschools.

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Two years after being abducted by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, the first of over 200 captive Chibok schoolgirls has been found and reunited with her mother. The abductions sparked local outrage which ultimately led to the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Mexico seems poised to formally legalize same-sex marriage, as the president this week announced that he has submitted a legalization proposal to Congress. With Mexico and other states recently making advancements, more than 70% of Latin Americans now live in countries where same-sex marriage is permitted.
Staying with LGBT rights, tiny Seychelles has decriminalized same-sex conduct through a vote of parliament and support of the president.
Prisoners with psychosocial disabilities in France are facing added punishment in the form of inadequate mental healthcare and poor prison conditions. A review by the United Nations' Committee Against Torture highlights France's failings in upholding the right to health for prisoners with psychosocial disabilities, failings that France should rectify immediately.
From earlier today: No groceries, doctors or medicine. Spies on every street corner. And executions for 'crimes' such as cursing, spying, sorcery and insulting God. That's what rule by 'Islamic State' looks like, in Sirte, Libya, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.
A court in Germany has banned comic Jan Boehmermann from repeating parts of an obscene poem he wrote about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. “The poem is certainly highly offensive, but it is in situations such as this when we need to stand up for protection of free speech,” commented HRW's Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson earlier.
Shocking images of police violence in Kenya have rekindled memories of government repression in the 1990s. Those who violate the law, including police officers who use excessive force, should be investigated and held to account.