Celebrating Liu Xiaobo: Daily Brief

Liu Xiaobo, the late Chinese dissident and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be celebrated today at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. At the same time the 19th Communist Party Congress is taking place in China's capital Beijing, in an atmosphere of repression and control. The service for Liu Xiaobo (at 10:30 a.m. local time) will also renew calls for the release of Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo’s widow, who has been forcibly disappeared since July 15, two days after her husband’s death. Dangerous anti-LGBT policies have reached Tajikistan. “It’s a very scary situation when a government starts to register gays -- putting them on a list and then, usually, forcing them to undergo some kind of medical testing,” says HRW's Boris Dittrich. A courageous victim of Chechnya’s anti-LGBT purge is seeking justice. Maxim Lapunov (30) is the only one who has dared to file an official complaint with the authorities in Russia and then talk to the media, without hiding his face or real name... Disturbing news from Turkey, where police officers have detained businessman and prominent civil society activist Osman Kavala. Kyrgystan's new President-elect Sooronbai Jeenbekov should demonstrate from the outset that he intends to put human rights front and center when he takes office in December, says HRW. The World Bank can convince governments to stop human rights abuses when it chooses to use its leverage. Point in case: Uzbekistan, where the government released 200,000 university students and some teachers and medical workers from forced labor, after World Bank President Jim Yong Kim urged Uzbekistan's new president Shavkat Mirziyoyev to do this. What is the early impact from the Global Gag Rule of the administration of United States President Donald Trump in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe? HRW is participating in a briefing today in Washington, DC, hosted by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Jeanne Shaheen. Thousands of Rohingya refugees keep fleeing the ethnic cleansing campaign of the army in Burma, to find safety in squalid overcrowded camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Check the latest reports from HRW, Amnesty International, BBC and the New York Times.