When will the United Nations Security Council finally act on Yemen?; mass arrests of lawyers & activists in Egypt; who's fighting for detainee rights in Syria?; new chance for justice in Central African Republic; authorities in Turkey detain artists and academics; it's blackface season again in The Netherlands; and good news from Uzbekistan.

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When will the United Nations Security Council finally do something about the ongoing conflict in Yemen? "The Saudi sway over some members of the UN Security Council has become a serious liability," says Akshaya Kumar, HRW's deputy UN director in this CNN article. "It's absolutely mind-boggling that the world's most powerful body has chosen silence for months even as warnings of famine have mounted. At this point, vague appeals to 'all parties' to improve their behavior won't work."

The security services in Egypt have conducted a mass arrest campaign, rounding up at least 40 human rights workers, lawyers, and political activists since the past month.

Perhaps it is apt in a country like Syria, where the government has systematically rounded up peaceful protestors, that a protest for detainee rights is happening from prison, with little international outcry and support.

The International Criminal Court has a new opportunity to deliver justice to victims in the Central African Republic as it has taken its first suspect into custody in its investigation of serious crimes committed in the country since 2012.

The dubious arrest in Turkey last week of 13 prominent figures from academia and a nongovernmental group deepens the country's repressive climate and cycle of injustice.

It is 2018 and The Netherlands still hasn't fixed its blackface problem.

And there's good news from Uzbekistan, where the authorities have released more than 35 people who were imprisoned on politically motivated charges, including journalists, human rights defenders, and other activists since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took office in September 2016. But there's also reason for caution.