Riots and Rights Abuses in South Africa: Daily Brief

Security forces in South Africa should respect rights when they deal with riots; criminalizing abortion affects rights & health in Ecuador; Taliban advances threaten Afghans; protests against Cuba regime; crackdown against dissidents in Belarus continues; DR Congo mourns death of ‘Tata Cardinal’; and the world is watching Merkel as she meets Biden to discuss the pandemic.

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Dozens of people have been killed during ongoing riots in South Africa. Human Rights Watch stresses that security forces should respect rights and observe international law enforcement standards during their operations.

Ecuador’s laws criminalizing abortion violate the rights and risk the lives and health of women and girls, HRW says in a report published today.

Activists, reporters, teachers, women and girls are all at grave risk in Afghanistan. Government forces in the country appear to be rapidly collapsing in the face of a Taliban offensive that has seen more than 150 districts fall in just eight weeks.

The regime in Cuba has restricted access to social media and messaging platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp in an attempt to quell protests against its rule. 

The crisis in Belarus is not getting the attention it deserves.

Tributes have been pouring in from all corners of the Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond for Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, a fearless human rights defender who died July 11 at age 81.

And all eyes are on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she's about to meet United States President Joe Biden. Will she finally drop her resistance to a temporary waiver of Covid-related patents, so billions of people worldwide can get a vaccine much quicker, or will she keep protecting Big Pharma profits?