Separating Families at the US Border: Daily Brief

Separating families at the US border; President Trump slams NFL players who protested police violence; nearly half of all Afghan children are out of school (and most of them are girls); free Amnesty's Taner Kilic in Turkey; good luck choosing your own lawyer in Iran; apparent execution by Angola police caught on video; remember North Koreans' plight in Kim-Trump summit; protecting rights in fight against Ebola in DR Congo; and worst hunger crisis "ever" looms in South Sudan. 

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Since early May, the Trump administration has separated over 658 children from their parents at the US border, thanks in large part to its unjust and cruel new “zero tolerance” policy for migrants and asylum seekers. This week the UN’s human rights office denounced the practice, prompting a fierce response from Nikky Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, which entirely misses the point that while the US does have the right to protect its borders, it cannot do so by trampling over the rights of vulnerable children and families. 

Staying with the US, President Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to the White House by Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles, using the incident as a pretext to slam National Football League (NFL) players who have protested police violence and racial injustice.

Disturbing new figures show that nearly half of all children in Afghanistan are out of school due to conflict, poverty, child marriage and discrimination against girls, and the number of kids not in school is rising for the first time since 2002. About 3.7 million children are out of school, and 2.7 million of them are girls.

Today marks one year since Taner Kilic, the chair of Amnesty International Turkey, was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned. He should be freed immediately. 

Iran’s judiciary has reportedly created a very short list of lawyers approved to represent people accused of national security crimes – commonly used to prosecute activists – in Tehran’s courts. Of the 20,000-plus members of Tehran’s Bar association, only 20 lawyers made the list, which, unsurprisingly, excluded women and human rights lawyers.

Angolan authorities should promptly investigate the apparent summary execution of a criminal suspect by police officers in Luanda that was captured on video and shared on social media. The killing is one of dozens of reported cases of killings of young men suspected of crimes by alleged police officers in Angola.

With the much-anticipated summit between the US and North Korean leaders fast approaching, the world would do well to remember the plight of 25 million North Koreans who face a devastating human rights situation at home

The government of DR Congo should ensure human rights protections in controlling the country's recent Ebola outbreak. Since 1976, more than 800 people have died in Congo during eight previous Ebola outbreaks.

And finally, alarm bells about a famine are being sounded - yet again - for South Sudan, where "more civilians are without food in more places than ever before in the history of the country", the UN has warned

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