Small Step Towards Justice in Syria - HRW Daily Brief

Plus: Tensions increase on Korean peninsula; abuses in South Sudan; Europe's deadly dithering on migration; from victims to accused in Tunisia; ethnic tensions rising ahead of Kenya's elections; teenage mothers banned from school in Tanzania; young inventors blocked from travelling to the US

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Former French judge and head of chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Catherine Marchi-Uhel, has been appointed to lead a new UN team tasked with investigating serious crimes committed in Syria since 2011. Marchi-Uhel’s appointment is part of a push to bring justice to victims in Syria despite numerous Russian attempts to block UN council action on the conflict.
South Sudan’s conflict has displaced thousands in the country’s fertile Equatoria region, leaving starvation and atrocities in its wake, according to a new Amnesty report.
With North Korea reportedly having successfully conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range that could strike Alaska, tensions heighten on the Korean peninsula.
The European Commission plans to present a set of measures "for reducing flows" of migrants across the central Mediterranean. But the joint statement issued after a meeting of its leadership in Paris on Tuesday was thin on details and angered Italy. Italy has taken in about 82,000 refugees and migrants so far this year, making it the main point of entry to Europe. Meanwhile, Austria is preparing to deploy soldiers along its border with Italy.
Tunisian authorities are using accusations of insulting the police to intimidate citizens who dare to complain about police behavior, Human Rights Watch says. People who allege abuse find themselves facing charges of “insulting a public officer.” The charges are punishable by up to one year in prison.
Threats and intimidation against Kenyan opposition supporters in Naivasha, one of the areas most affected by post-election violence a decade ago, are increasingly prevalent again, Human Rights Watch found. Inter-ethnic rivalries over land and power, stoked by politicians, left over 1,100 people dead in 2007-08. The attacks were never adequately investigated. Fearing a repeat of the bloodshed, people are preparing to flee as voting nears.
Tanzanian president John Magufuli’s threats not to allow adolescent girls who become pregnant to return to school contradict efforts by his own government to adopt a re-entry policy for teenage mothers. Many factors contribute to teenage pregnancies in Tanzania, including child marriage, which is still not prohibited. Forcing thousands of girls out of school will just push them and their children into poverty and exclusion.

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