Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 6 June 2016

The 2016 Human Rights Watch Film Festival opens in New York on June 10 featuring a lineup that presents an array of women’s rights issues through inspirational and personal stories of remarkable women. The festival includes three special interactive programs and most screenings are followed by Q&A's with filmmakers and HRW researchers. The Opening Night selection is Nanfu Wang’s Hooligan Sparrow, which documents Chinese activist Ye Haiyan (aka “Hooligan Sparrow”) as she protests against a school headmaster’s sexual abuse of young girls, leading both the director and Sparrow to become targets of government intimidation. Also opening Friday, Jackson takes a close look at the politics of reproductive rights at Mississippi’s last remaining abortion clinic. 125 human rights and civil society organizstions asked President Maduro of Venezuela to revoke the recent “State of Exception and Emergency Decree” that granted the government powers to restrict rights, suspend international cooperation for civil society groups, and limit the constitutional powers of the National Assembly. From this morning: On the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Human Rights Watch called on the Chinese government to cease its denial about the state’s role in the killing of unarmed pro-democracy protesters and citizens around 4 June 1989, and acknowledge the government’s responsibility for the killings, detentions, and persecution associated with suppression of the protests. Today, the US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue restarts: how strong a role will human rights play? Also marking events 27 years ago... On the anniversary of a key election in Poland that marked the country's decisive break with the Communist regime, thousands took to the streets on Saturday to protest the current government's anti-democratic turn. As the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza entered its 50th year, Human Rights Watch called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to open a formal investigation into serious international crimes committed in Palestine by Israelis and Palestinians.