No Safe Place in Afghanistan: Daily Brief

No safe place in Afghanistan; fighting for detained children in Africa; keeping children safe from attack; still waiting for justice in Côte d’Ivoire; another transgender woman killed in Pakistan; media award organizers arrested in Libya; Italy's collaboration with Libyan coastguard challenged in court; New York City's attorney general resigns over abuse allegations; & African Union to probe its own sexism and discrimination.

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Since early 2016, insurgent groups in Afghanistan have sharply escalated their attacks in Kabul and other major urban areas, killing and injuring thousands of civilians. But Afghan government efforts to help survivors and families of those who died in these indiscriminate attacks have fallen short.

Children’s rights campaigners, defenders and policy-makers are meeting in Addis Ababa this week to discuss access to justice for children in Africa. Up to 28,000 children are detained across the continent, facing torture, sexual abuse and ill-treatment.

Millions of viewers will be drawn this week to the Eurovision Song Contest which started more than 50 years ago to help unite Europe after the devastation of World War II. Meanwhile, countries in Europe are also uniting around another effort to protect and rebuild nations from the devastating effects of war:  the Safe Schools Declaration. But so far, not all those who have found common ground in a singing competition have rallied to the cause of protecting children’s futures.

Côte d’Ivoire’s President, Alassane Ouattara, should do more to fulfill his promise of justice for victims of the country’s 2010-11 post-election crisis. Seven years after serious crimes committed in Côte d’Ivoire, victims are still waiting for justice.

On May 4, assailants shot Muni, a transgender woman, after she could not provide small change for a 1,000 rupee note. It was the 57th killing of a transgender woman in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since 2015, and the fourth this year.

An armed group linked with Libya’s internationally-recognized government arrested two organizers of an annual media award – allegedly because of the nature of the award ceremony, where men and women mingled together, and some women wore clothing that the armed group perceived to be against social values.

Italy’s collaboration with Libya to stop migrants reaching Europe is facing a legal challenge. A lawsuit filed in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) alleges that Italy’s work with the Libyan coastguard has led to grave human rights violations against those crossing the Mediterranean, including torture and slavery.

Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, has resigned after four women accused him of abuse. Schneiderman had become an outspoken figure in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. Now he is facing a reckoning of his own.

And following a report by South Africa’s Mail & Guardian on the ill-treatment, humiliation and discrimination of women at the African Union Commission, the Commission’s Chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has now promised an investigation into the “professional apartheid” experienced by women staffers at the AU.

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