How dictators get started. Who's the "enemy of the American people"? Trump and what (didn't) happen in Sweden; Women tell of torture & rape by ISIS in Iraq; Award for unjustly jailed Saudi activist; Russia & war crimes in Syria; Largest independent human rights group in Morocco harassed; an apparent massacre in DR Congo; and war on drugs in the Philippines.

Get the Daily Brief by email.
Who's the "enemy of the American people"? United States president Donald Trump voiced his opinion in a tweet with echoes of history's worst tyrants at the end of his first month in power, and opened a heated debate over the weekend.
President Trump was ridiculed after talking at a rally for his supporters about "what happened last night in Sweden"...
Islamic State fighters in Iraq are torturing, raping and forcibly marrying Sunni Arab women and girls, according to new HRW-research released today.
An award for Saudi human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair highlights Saudi Arabia’s brutal repression of peaceful activists and dissidents. Abu al-Khair was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014 for his peaceful human rights advocacy.
The government of Russia appears to be breaking its promises to investigate civilian casualties from airstrikes in Syria. HRW wrote to to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, detailing 16 Syrian-Russian aerial attacks that appear to have deliberately or indiscriminately hit civilians and civilian infrastructure including bakeries, markets and humanitarian objects. The attacks killed a total of 141 civilians between September 2015 and September 2016.
Authorities in Morocco have carried out a two-year campaign of prohibiting and obstructing activities of the country’s largest independent human rights group. The harassment shows no signs of a let-up despite at least four administrative appeals court rulings in favor of the organization...
HRW is investigating a possible war crime in DR Congo, after a video emerged which appears to show a massacre of civilians in Kasaï-Central Province by a group of soldiers.
And authorities in the Philippines should immediately drop politically-motivated charges against Senator Leila de Lima, one of the few lawmakers who is openly critical of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” which has left more than 7,000 people dead...
Region / Country