Justice Matters for Rohingya: Daily Brief

Myanmar's abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority are in the spotlight again, as International Criminal Court judges have authorized the prosecutor to investigate the crime of deportation and related current and future crimes.  This "gives Rohingya victims renewed hope that the architects of the brutal scorched earth campaign against them may one day be held to account,” says HRW's Param-Preet Singh. “Rohingya victims may finally get their day in court.”

The authorities in Lebanon have been increasing their reliance on insult and defamation laws to silence journalists, activists, and others critical of government policies and corruption, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Make sure you also check out the video.

A United Nations investigation of hospital bombings in Syria may be undermined by Russian pressure on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. "Keeping silent will only embolden those responsible for war crimes,” says HRW's UN director Louis Charbonneau in The New York Times.

There's some good news: international outrage is growing over China's gross violations of basic rights and freedoms in the western region of Xinjiang. Chinese authorities have arbitrarily detained at least one million Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims there on vague grounds.

Activists and reporters in Nigeria do their work in a climate of fear, as the authorities have intensified a crackdown against dissident voices.

And will the government in Israel really do the wrong thing and deport Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director on November 25?