Stop Kavanaugh Vote: Daily Brief

HRW calls for halt to vote on US Supreme Court nominee; government forces in Iraq forcibly disappeared scores of men; aid worker convicted for tweet in France; Saudi-led coalition is bombing and starving Yemeni civilians; new low for Italian migration policies; Erdogan visits Germany; and the Maldives’ democratic transition is under threat. 

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The Senate Judiciary Committee in the United States should halt the vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, says Human Rights Watch after a third woman has come forward accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. HRW earlier expressed serious concerns about the lack of transparency in the nomination process, and about the human rights protections at stake given Kavanaugh’s record.

Iraqi military and security forces have disappeared dozens of mostly Sunni Arab males since 2014, including children as young as 9, often in the context of counterterrorism operations, according to a new HRW report that was released today.

 

The conviction in France of humanitarian worker Loan Torondel for an ironic tweet represents a dangerous escalation in official harassment of groups providing crucial aid to migrants, says HRW. It is the first conviction of its kind in France.

Important news coming up on Yemen, as the Human Rights Council in Geneva will soon vote on renewal of the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts, that investigates war crimes by both sides of Yemen’s armed conflict.

The Italian government’s inhumane approach to refugees and migrants has reached a new low...

As Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits Germany on Friday and Saturday, Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel should use this opportunity  to raise numerous human rights concerns, most pressingly the plight of the many journalists, human rights defenders and politicians arbitrarily jailed in Turkey.

And it’s back to dirty tricks in the Maldives...