Gaza Killings Unlawful, Calculated: Daily Brief

Thousands of people are dying of opioid-related overdoses across the United States, but the Trump administration is focusing on harsher prosecutions and the use of the death penalty for drug dealers rather than urgently helping people at risk. Their strategy could cost more lives than it saves. Four people have been arrested in Indonesia's Aceh province on charges of same-sex conduct. Under Aceh's draconian Sharia criminal code, they face up to 100 lashes as punishment. The four people were turned over to authorities by vigilantes entering their home and calling the police. Indonesia should release these four people and protect the public from marauding vigilantes who target vulnerable minorities. For the first time in more than 40 years, women turned out in significant numbers to vote in one of Pakistan’s districts. But it could still take 18 years to bridge the gap between men and women voters across the country. From earlier today: Senior Israeli officials who unlawfully called for use of live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrations who posed no imminent threat to life bear responsibility for the killings of 14 demonstrators in Gaza and the injuring of hundreds on March 30, 2018, says Human Rights Watch in new research released on Tuesday. Women and girls with disabilities in India who survive sexual violence face high barriers to access the justice system, according to a new HRW report, published today. “Since 2013, India has made important legal reforms on sexual violence, but women and girls with disabilities still lack equal access to justice,” says Nidhi Goyal, a disability rights activist and co-author of the report. “Indian women and girls with disabilities should no longer remain the invisible victims of sexual violence.” A new law in Poland, threatening the independence of its Supreme Court, takes effect today. The law stirred such controversy following its adoption by the Polish parliament that the European Commission has launched a process to secure restoration of the rule of law.