Jailed for Watching a Video: Daily Brief
Kyrgyzstan's crackdown gets dangerously absurd; Poland's president visits the White House as the authoritarian slide continues... also in Poland; monitoring Burundi's abuses; getting away with mass murder in Myanmar; the #MeToo movement in China; supporting Saudi Arabia's women activists; and some very welcome good news out of the US.
Kyrgyzstan is convicting hundreds of people for possessing videos, pamphlets, and books that it has banned using a dangerously overbroad definition of extremism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. It's a classic case of how not to fight terrorism.
US President Donald Trump meets Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House today. Sadly, neither is expected to say much about human rights and rule of law. Meanwhile, Poland has been suspended from a key judicial organization.
The United Nations Human Rights Council should renew the mandate for the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi during its ongoing session in Geneva.
Another key issue before the UN Human Rights Council in Myanmar, where the authorities are “systematically failing to condemn, investigate and prosecute perpetrators” of mass atrocities.
Is the #MeToo movement changing China?
Human Rights Watch is calling on all our supporters to back a campaign for Saudi women activists...
And finally, some good news out of the US...