Kenya Elections Annulled; Burma Atrocities Grow: Daily Brief
Kenya elections annulled; Burma atrocities grow; Trump threatening to expel "dreamers"; Life-saving drug out of reach in US; Human suffering in Libya; Ukraine bars foreign journalists; China set to repeat past abuses; Impunity enshrined in Thailand; Duterte admits "drug war" is unwinnable; Progress towards eradication of cluster munitions.
Get the Daily Brief by email.
Kenya's Supreme Court has annulled the result of the country's recent presidential election. Citing irregularities, the Court said a new poll should be held within 60 days. The August 8 election was marred by serious human rights violations, including unlawful killings and beatings by police during protests and house-to-house operations.
Two dozen corpses believed to be the bodies of Rohingya women and children have washed up on a Bangladesh riverbank, as fears grow of atrocities committed by Myanmar forces against the Muslim minority. The recent surge in violence, which follows a series of coordinated attacks by ethnic Rohingya militants, is the deadliest in decades. Close to 38,000 Rohingya have fled their villages, according to United Nations estimates.
US President Donald Trump seems set to repeal a program protecting immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation. Ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, would expose hundreds of thousands of “dreamers” to deportation without taking into account their deep ties to the country.
Around 91 people die every day of overdoses involving opioids in the United States. Most of these deaths could be prevented, if a safe, generic drug that can reverse a drug overdose, was available over the counter. But restrictive laws and high prices put naloxone out of reach for those who need it most.
For more than a year, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been providing medical care to refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants held inside Libya’s detention centers. Detainees are stripped of any human dignity, suffer ill-treatment and lack access to medical care. Now, MSF has published a moving report on the human suffering caused by detaining people in conditions that are neither humane nor dignified.
Ukrainian authorities have detained and expelled several foreign journalists in recent weeks for allegedly engaging in anti-Ukrainian “propaganda.”
China’s new “super” anti-corruption agency, slated to start work in March 2018, seems set to entrench an abusive system rather than reform it.
Despite overwhelming evidence that Thai soldiers killed protesters, medics, reporters, and bystanders during a deadly crackdown on “Red Shirt” protesters in May 2010, the Thai Supreme Court has dismissed criminal charges against those responsible for the bloody crackdown. The ruling is a serious setback for justice in Thailand, says Human Rights Watch.