The Horrors of Solitary Confinement: Daily Brief

Plus: Seeking justice for child rape victims; Pakistan must investigate deaths in North Waziristan; Zimbabwe activists arrested on bogus charges; pro-democracy activists attacked in Thailand and restoring faith in rule of law in India. 

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HRW's Thomas Rachko reflects on the many harsh memories of his father’s incarceration in a New York prison. His father spent a month in solitary confinement, an experience "so dehumanizing and humiliating that he felt as though he was a caged animal," he writes. The New York State legislature should pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, a bill that will limit the ways solitary confinement can be used in state facilities today.

Four young women who became pregnant after being raped as children brought their cases to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva yesterday with the backing of advocates and lawyers from Latin American and international women’s rights organizations. They are seeking justice and urging the committee to demand that their countries guarantee access to safe and legal abortion.

 Pakistan authorities should investigate the deaths of at least three people during violence between Pashtun activists and the army in North Waziristan this week.

State security agents in Zimbabwe arrested seven activists over the past week upon their return from a human rights workshop in the Maldives. Authorities should immediately release these activists and drop fabricated charges of seeking to subvert the government.

Authorities in Thailand should investigate repeated attacks on prominent pro-democracy activists. Two activists - Anurak “Ford” Jeantawanich and Ekachai Hongkangwan - have been attacked on several occasions in and around Bangkok over the past year. In almost all of these attacks, Thai police have not arrested any suspects, raising concerns about possible government involvement in the violence.

 

The recent India general election saw the Narendra Modi-led BJP return to office with a larger mandate than it received in 2014. Ahead of the elections, the Modi government was criticized for failing to stop mob attacks on Muslims, Dalits, and other minorities by its party supporters and affiliated groups, and for divisive politics promoting Hindu majoritarian nationalism. To restore faith in India’s rule of law, the new government should ensure the culture of mob violence – whether attacks to protect cows, punish inter-faith relationships, or stop criticism of the government – has no political patronage.

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