Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 25 May 2016
Child labor in Indonesia's tobacco fields; victims not criminals in Afghanistan; virginity tests debunked; officials who torture in Thailand evade justice; peace talks failing in Burundi; Indonesia to ban domestic helpers from working overseas; Turkey's hidden war; & oppression in Eritrea...
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In fantastic news from Azerbaijan today, the Supreme Court ordered the release of award-winning investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova from prison. Khadija is known for her in-depth pieces on corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, the oil rich Caspian state. Her investigative pieces exposed evidence of corruption networks that pointed to the country’s top elite, including the President Ilham Aliyev and his family.
Egyptian courts have sentenced more than 150 people to prison terms since the beginning of May 2016 for participating in peaceful protests or being accuesd of spreading false information.
For over a year now, the British government has flatly rejected claims that the Saudi Arabian-led coalition has violated the laws of war during its conflict in Yemen, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. All military sales to Saudi Arabia should be suspended immediately.
From this morning: Tobacco companies in Indonesia are "making money off the backs" of child workers, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today, which shows how children as young as 8 years old are falling ill while working on tobacco farms.
For too long, women and girls fleeing violence in Afghanistan have been treated as criminals, and it's now time for President Ghani to honour his pledge not to arrest women who flee abuse.
Staying with women's rights, virginity tests are unscientific, unethical and completely pointless. But certain countries, like Indonesia, Iran and Afghanistan, still seem worryingly in favor of them.