Thousands of Immigrant Parents Detained in US: HRW Daily Brief

Thousands of immigrant parents detained in US; essay on firing of FBI-director; #MothersDay; sexual abuse in Central African Republic; EU should step up pressure on Poland; torture threat for Snowden helpers; gay men sentenced to flogging in Indonesia; Zika emergency in Brazil; and China’s #OneBeltOneRoad and human rights.

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Yemen's Health ministry has declared a state of emergency in the capital of Sana'a due to a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 100 people. Such a medical emergency is particularly troubling given the severe lack of medical infrastructure due to years of conflict as well as indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.
The US State Department has accused Syria of executing thousands of prisoners over the last few years, then burning the bodies in a crematorium outside of Damascus. Details on the State Department's assertions are still forthcoming, but similar claims have also been put forth by human rights groups. In a recent report, Amnesty International described torture and the execution of as many as 13,000 prisoners in Syria's Saydnaya prison since 2011.
Rape in conflict can have deadly consequences. In the Central African Republic, many rape victims resort to unsafe abortion, which is the leading cause of maternal death there, according to a new United Nations report. Prioritizing access to health services could start saving lives now.
A new National Geographic feature details the work of photographers capturing the under-reported conflict in the Central African Republic, where violence has been raging for more than four years. The civilians trapped there remain vulnerable and at extreme risk.
From earlier today: More than 10,000 parents of United States citizen children are detained by immigration authorities every year in California alone. Read this new HRW report, published today.
The firing of FBI Director James Comey means US president Donald Trump will get to nominate someone who shares his views, and who may be willing to use the tremendous power of the FBI to pursue a political or discriminatory agenda. HRW's Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno is terrified, and wrote this essay.

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