Amnesty's Chair in Turkey Detained Again: Daily Brief

Amnesty's chair in Turkey detained again; activists targeted in Russia; new bill hampers rights of environmentalist in Poland; court to examine the release of Peru's former President Fujimori; Thai activists risk prison for peaceful protests; Cape Town's water crisis; Philippine's HIV epidemic; and Human Rights Weekend in Amsterdam.

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The decision by a Turkish court to keep the chair of Amnesty Turkey Taner Kılıç in pretrial detention less than 24 hours after ordering his provisional release is an insult to justice.
Russian police in Tula, some 200 km south of Moscow, made door-to-door visits to people who said on social media that they planned to attend rallies in support of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, barred from running for president.
Staying in Russia, two anti-fascism activists went missing for days, only to reappear in court facing terrorism charges. Human rights activists believe the confessions of at least one of the men was extracted under torture.
In mid-January, the Polish parliament passed a government-sponsored bill which, if signed by President Andrzej Duda, will hamper the rights of environmental activists to protest at UN climate talks in December and subject them to government surveillance.
The Peruvian government should revoke the humanitarian pardon granted to former autocratic President Alberto Fujimori. Human Rights Watch submitted an amicus brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the main human rights court in the Americas, which will examine Fujimori’s release during a hearing later today.
Thai authorities should immediately drop criminal charges against 39 activists who peacefully protested military rule at a rally in Bangkok on January 27. If convicted, seven activists charged with sedition face up to seven years in prison.
Cape Town, South Africa has been plunged into a water crisis, and in about two months – a date known as Day Zero – the city will run out of water, and supplies to most suburbs will be cut off. A public debate is raging, but there is little talk on how to protect South Africans’ rights to water, sanitation, and health.
The new Philippines country director of UNAIDS is advocating condom use and comprehensive sexuality education to address the country’s worsening HIV epidemic. But unless the government ensures that these measures are at the core of its HIV prevention strategy, the Philippines’ HIV epidemic is unlikely to abate.
And if you're in Amsterdam this weekend, join us for the sixth edition of the Human Rights Weekend at De Balie.

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