Suffering Children in Aleppo; Bye-Bye to Congo’s President: HRW Daily Brief
Plus: Islamic State fighters putting civilians at risk; Egypt gunning for civil society groups; chance for human rights reforms in Jordan; miscarriage of justice in Kazakhstan; torture & death in Uzbek detention; investigate killings in Uganda; & confronting Morocco's domestic violence.
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While Saudi-led coalition forces bomb homes, schools, hospitals and funerals in Yemen, the United States continues to allow shipments of billions of dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia. By halting further sales during his final months in office, President Obama could save lives.
An Indonesian militant Islamist group with a well-earned reputation for harassment and violence against minorities led police to raid a gathering of men for a so-called “sex party.” That the group prompted such a raid is no surprise; that the authorities followed the their tip is also disappointingly familiar...
From earlier today: They are killed by Syrian-Russian airstrikes, face starvation, have access to almost no hospitals, and face danger just by walking to school - and that's if their school still even exists: The atrocities the children of Aleppo are suffering are almost too many to count.
Eight people, among them a 72-year-old man and his two young grandsons, were killed when airstrikes targeting Islamic State (ISIS) fighters hit a clinic south of Mosul in Iraq. ISIS fighters had forcefully taken over an office at the clinic, putting civilians at risk. Both the US-led coalition and the Iraqi military are conducting airstrikes to retake Mosul, and should conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, HRW said today.
A new law drafted by Egypt’s parliament would effectively ban what remains of the country’s independent civil society groups. If passed, the new law would criminalize a host of broadly-worded activities, like conducting public surveys or field research without government approval. The law will affect 47,000 local and 100 foreign groups working in the country.
Jordan’s peaceful election of a new parliament presents an excellent opportunity to pursue human rights reforms, HRW said today in a letter addressed to the new Prime Minister. Moves to restrict independent groups and media gagging orders have overshadowed the progress Jordan had made on other issues such as access to education for Syrian refugee children.