• TotalEnergies joins call to stop Myanmar junta's money flow and announces withdrawal from the country; 
  • Seeking justice for sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo; 
  • Advice for a Dutch university under China's influence; 
  • UN should ban abusive Bangladesh unit from peacekeeping; 
  • Progress for women's rights in Pakistan. 
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After months of effort from Myanmar civil society groups and labor organizations, TotalEnergies took an important turn in their position, joining the call for the implementation of targeted sanctions on natural gas revenues, and deciding to withdraw from its remaining activities in the country. Total’s welcome announcement to pull out was quickly matched by Chevron, both highlighting the critical importance of avoiding complicity in the military regime’s atrocity crimes. As our Executive Director Ken Roth told the press, "The next step is to ensure that gas revenues don’t continue to fund those atrocities." There can now be no excuses for the French and US governments to delay action on targeted sanctions any further. If anything, sanctions on gas revenues are now more essential than ever to prevent new, unscrupulous entities from entering the market.

More than a year ago, a massive prison riot in the Democratic Republic of Congo, triggered mass rape and other abuses that had a devastating impact on women prisoners. Yesterday, a court in Lubumbashi sentenced ten prisoners to 15 years for rape but left survivors disappointed. It was a missed opportunity to seriously investigate what happened and hold accountable state officials who ignored warnings of a possible riot. The survivors deserve better justice and care.

The Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam is the latest example of Beijing's global campaign to undermine human rights and academic freedom around the world. Problematic funding from the Chinese government was allocated to the university's human rights center, whose positions on some key issues are strikingly similar to those of the Chinese government. For instance, several center employees denied that the Chinese government was oppressing Uyghurs, despite overwhelming evidence that Uyghurs are being targeted for crimes against humanity

The United Nations Department of Peace Operations should ban Bangladesh’s notoriously abusive paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from UN deployment, 12 organizations said in a letter to Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix. The evidence of abuses, including torture, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations are well known and were brought to the attention of the UN over two months ago. It's time to send a clear signal to host and troop-contributing countries that abusive units will not be part of the UN.

In Pakistan, women’s rights groups have long demanded stronger protections against violence and harassment in the workplace. A new law, drafted by the Ministry of Human Rights and enacted last week, aims at doing just that. It specifically includes domestic workers, who are often isolated and marginalized, and as a result can be at greater risk of workplace violence and harassment. This positive step in protecting women will require strong political will to be effectively implemented.