Jailed for Remembering in Hong Kong: Daily Brief

Awful press freedom news from Hong Kong, as media tycoon Jimmy Lai (74) has been sentenced to 13 months in prison for participating in a vigil marking the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China. A total of 8 defenders of democracy in Hong Kong heard their sentences (ranging from 4,5 months to 14 months), including journalist-turned-opposition politician Gwyneth Ho and lawyer Chow Hang Tung. Lai was one of the first high-profile people to be arrested under the draconian National Security Law. 'Evidence' against him apparently consisted of his media interviews and statements on Twitter, none of which espoused violence or other behavior that would constitute a recognizable crime under international law. For background, read Human Rights Watch's June 2021 report Dismantling a Free Society.

When will the shameless International Olympic Committee finally find its voice and do the right things regarding the horrible human rights record of China, host of the 2022 Winter Olympics? All Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, and his colleagues at the top of the organization need to do, is follow the example of the Women's Tennis Association...

United Nations member states are meeting in Geneva this week to discuss killer robots, as a coalition of non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, stresses the need to pre-emptively ban lethal autonomous weapons. “After eight years discussing the far-reaching consequences of removing human control from the use of force, countries now need to decide how to respond to those threats. There’s an urgent need for a dedicated treaty to address the shortcomings of international humanitarian law and update it to deal with the legal, ethical, and societal challenges of today’s artificial intelligence and emerging technologies,” says Bonnie Docherty, senior arms researcher at Human Rights Watch and associate director of armed conflict and civilian protection at the Harvard Human Rights Clinic. You can join the action and make sure further development of killer robots is stopped.

The military junta in Myanmar is blocking desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of displaced people and others at risk. The United Nations, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, and concerned governments should press the junta to urgently allow aid to reach all those in need. “Myanmar’s junta has worsened a self-created humanitarian catastrophe by displacing hundreds of thousands of people and then blocking the critical support they need to survive. The generals are callously denying lifesaving assistance to people affected by conflict since the military takeover, seemingly as a form of punishment,” says HRW's Shayna Bauchner.

In disastrous news for women’s rights, the US Supreme Court decided on Friday to allow an extreme anti-abortion law in the state of Texas to stand for now. This ruling is likely to further embolden several other states around the country, which may move to ban abortion, and means most pregnant people in Texas are without access to this essential health care.

Last month, New York City made history by opening the nation’s first official overdose prevention centers where some of these services are offered, preventing at least nine overdose deaths in their first few days of operation. These approaches put the human rights and dignity of drug users and people with substance use disorders first and will help save lives.  

And some positive news from Germany, where prominent buildings across the country lit up in blue on Friday, celebrating Human Rights Day!