Businesses Backing Away from Saudi Arabia: Daily Brief
Businesses back away from Saudi Arabia; Philippines and Eritrea don’t belong on UN Human Rights Council; rebels kill civilians in Central African Republic; Court questions activists for helping migrants in Greece; gender pay gap in Brazil; Tajik athlete faces deportation over his beard; Malaysia to abolish death penalty; Czech Republic's transgender sterilization policy violates the right to health; and European medical experts call to defer unnecessary intersex surgeries.
The growing evidence pointing to Saudi responsibility for the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is sparking increasing outrage. Now, leading figures in international companies have announced they will rethink their ties with Saudi Arabia.
United Nations member countries should oppose the candidacies of the Philippines and Eritrea for the Human Rights Council because of their egregious human rights records.
Seleka rebels in the Central African Republic captured and executed at least nine civilians, including seven women, on September 6.
A Greek investigative judge will question humanitarian activists Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder today. They are among the 30 activists whom Greek police accused of being complicit in human trafficking, money laundering, and espionage, after they helped spot and rescue boats with asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
From October 7 until the end of the year, Brazilian women work for free. That’s one way of picturing the gender-based pay discrimination that haunts Brazilian businesses...
A well-known Tajik athlete faces possible torture or ill-treatment if he is forcibly returned from Belarus to Tajikistan. The reason for his deportation: refusing to shave his beard, which he wears as a manifestation of his religious belief.
Some good news from Malaysia, where the cabinet has announced death penalty will be abolished and pending executions halted.
A policy in the Czech Republic forcing transgender people to undergo sterilization surgeries to legally change their gender violates the right to health, according to the European Committee of Social Rights. This judgement should prompt the Czech government to change its law, and it should resonate with governments across Europe as a call to action.
At the same time, a group of European medical experts has just published new treatment guidelines urging the deferral of medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to consent. As the momentum to end medically unnecessary surgeries grows, including patient advocate voices in policy development should be the new normal.