China abuses under UN spotlight; New report on human toll of Georgia's abusive drug laws; no justice for crimes against humanity in Egypt; 2014 massacre by peacekeepers in Central African Republic; Brazil's pesticide problem; death penalty is wrong response to Iran's economic crisis; and good news from Tajikistan & Azerbaijan.

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The regime in China is responsible for a long list of awful abuses against minorities in the country, according to a new United Nations human rights report. More than one million Uighurs are estimated to be detained in camps. On Monday, China responded with denials and lies during a meeting of the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

The drug laws in Georgia and their aggressive enforcement causes severe and unjustifiable harm, Human Rights Watch says in a report released today.

Authorities in Egypt have failed to investigate or prosecute a single member of the security forces five years after their systematic and widespread killing of largely peaceful protesters in Rab’a Square in Cairo.

In the Central African Republic, peacekeepers of the African Union murdered 12 people in the town of Boali. In an op-ed published by Le Monde, HRW calls on the pan-African organization to finally release its report on the 2014 killings.

 

Congress in Brazil should reject a controversial pesticide bill and lead a national effort to review the impact of pesticides on the health of rural communities. And the agriculture ministry should take the lead on tackling pesticide poisoning in the country.

The decision by Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to select Ma’ruf Amin as his vice-presidential running mate in the 2019 presidential election, raises questions about Jokowi’s commitment to improve human rights protection for all Indonesians.

Senior officials in Iran are attempting to head off a looming economic crisis – triggered by the return of US sanctions – with threats of new rights-abusing policies. Tehran’s prosecutor Jafari Dolatabadi has warned that importers who abuse government subsidies could be charged with “corruption on earth,” which carries a possible death sentence.

There's amazing news from Tajikistan:

And there's more good news from Azerbaijan, where prominent human rights defender Ilgar Mammadov has been released after more than five years in prison.