Red Cross calls for legally binding rules for fully autonomous weapons; Gaza braces for more Israeli airstrikes; Covid-19 outbreaks in Thailand’s prisons threaten inmates; international inquiry into Tigray massacres needed; Kenya should support not shame teenage mothers; and Germany needs to strengthen supply chain law before vote.

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In a major new development, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called for new legally binding rules for fully autonomous weapons or "killer robots” that target human beings.

 

As Gaza braces for more Israeli airstrikes on the eve of Eid, Hamas rockets continue to pound Israel. Triggered by soaring Palestinian anger over the threatened eviction of families from their homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers, weeks of protests and violence in Jerusalem have since escalated into the fiercest hostilities in the region in years.

Covid-19 outbreaks in Thailand’s prison system threaten to have disastrous consequences for those held, should the authorities not act immediately to ensure that prisoners and detainees have adequate health protections and care.

An independent international inquiry may be the only way to provide justice to the hundreds of victims and their families in Tigray as Ethiopia’s attorney general’s office ignores allegations of massacres of civilians committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in Tigray’s historic city of Axum.

Instead of shaming pregnant girls and their parents, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for education, Professor George Magoha, should champion the important role the education sector can play in preventing unplanned adolescent pregnancies.

And lastly: Before Germany’s parliament votes on a supply chain law next week, it should improve the law and explicitly require companies to assess and address human rights risks along the whole supply chain.

 

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