Kyrgyzstan's authorities responsible for rights defender's death in prison; violence against civilians in Cameroon; ageing supertanker threat in Yemen; demanding labor rights in Lebanon; internet block hampering aid efforts in Myanmar; and challenging the latest authoritarian moves in Hungary and Poland.
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Human rights defender, Azimjon Askarov, has died in prison in Kyrgyzstan. Askarov, 69, was serving a life sentence imposed after an unfair trial on politically motivated charges, for which he was arbitrarily arrested and tortured.

Violence continues despite peace talks between the government and jailed leaders of the separatist group Ambazonia Interim Government.

Houthi authorities in Yemen should immediately permit United Nations experts access to a supertanker moored off Yemen’s coast that risks spilling over a million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea.

Lebanon’s Labor Ministry should urgently adopt a new standard unified contract that respects and protects the rights of migrant domestic workers as a first step toward abolishing the abusive kafala (sponsorship) system.

Myanmar’s government should immediately lift internet restrictions in Rakhine and Chin States that have put civilians at added risk. Government restrictions on the internet have hampered the coordination of aid, collection of accurate information, and monitoring of abuses.

Following the firing of their editor-in-chief, the journalists of Hungary's largest independent news website, Index, have quit in protest at political interference by the dictatorship of prime minister Viktor Orbán

The increasingly authoritarian government of Poland has said it will withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, the international treaty aiming to prevent violence against women.

 

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