Who Will Pressure Taliban to Respect Women’s Rights? Daily Brief

When the Taliban announced on May 7 that women and girls should not leave their homes unless necessary and should do so only with their whole bodies, including their faces, covered, some people were surprised. Others were not. Among the surprised: Some diplomats and other Afghanistan watchers who listened to Taliban leaders promise during negotiations and at their news conference two days after seizing the capital that they would respect all women’s rights this time, including their freedom of movement and access to employment and education. And those who were not surprised: Afghan women who lived through the last period of Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 and Afghan women’s rights activists. Afghan women’s right activists warned all along that the Taliban’s promises to respect women’s rights were false. They warned in the days after the Taliban took the capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, that the group would intensify their crackdown on women. And that’s what happened.

The military junta in Myanmar has announced that it will execute four people whose appeals were rejected following grossly unjust closed-door trials. The activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as “Ko Jimmy,” and the opposition lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw were sentenced to death on January 21 by a military tribunal under Myanmar’s overbroad Counterterrorism Law of 2014. Military tribunals in Myanmar have sentenced 114 people to death since the February 2021 military coup, including 41 in absentia. The United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and concerned governments should press the junta to immediately release all those wrongfully imprisoned, including Phyo Zeya Thaw and Ko Jimmy, and commute all death sentences. “Myanmar military courts’ disregard of basic rights was evident in the farcical trials and death sentences of Phyo Zeya Thaw and Ko Jimmy,” says Manny Maung, HRW's Myanmar researcher. “These secretive tribunals with their lightning convictions are aimed at chilling any dissent against the military junta.”

Overwhelming evidence shows that the Iranian authorities’ mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 amounts to crimes against humanity, according to an in-depth question-and-answer document that HRW published today. There has been no accountability for these crimes in Iran, so foreign courts should appropriately prosecute Iranian officials implicated in the killings. A Swedish court in August 2021 began the trial of an Iranian national accused of involvement in the mass executions in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj. The trial, in which a verdict is expected next month, is an important development for victims long denied recognition and justice. In 1988, Iranian authorities, acting on the orders of then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, summarily and extrajudicially executed thousands of political prisoners across the country. The number of executions is not known, but according to estimates from former Iranian officials and lists compiled by human rights and opposition groups, Iranian authorities executed between 2,800 and 5,000 prisoners in at least 32 cities. Evidence links several past and current senior officials to the executions, including President Ebrahim Raeesi.

Wide-ranging legal changes introduced by the United Arab Emirates in late 2021 fail to address the longstanding and systematic restrictions on citizens’ and residents’ civil and political rights. The new laws maintain previous provisions and include new ones that pose grave threats to fundamental human rights. As reported by the state news agency WAM in November, the legal changes include amendments to over 40 laws including on crime and punishment, cybercrimes, and drugs, aiming “to strengthen economic, investment and commercial opportunities, in addition to maximizing social stability, security and ensuring the rights of both individuals and institutions.” While the changes allow for a moderate broadening of personal freedoms, the new legal framework retains severe restrictions on the rights to free expression, association, and assembly. “While the UAE government and its state-controlled media outlets trumpeted these new legislative changes as a massive step forward for economic and social freedoms, they will further entrench government-imposed repression,” said Michael Page, HRW's deputy Middle East director. “The UAE government has chosen to squander an opportunity to improve freedoms across the board and instead has doubled down on repression.”

Older people are often treated badly. And they are often left out. The United Nations Human Rights Council has just published a report about what countries should do to make sure that older people's human rights are respected. You can find the easy-to-read version here.

And we're looking forward to tomorrow, when a committee of the United States House of Representatives will start hearings about the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building in Washington, DC, which was part of efforts to overturn the November 3, 2020, US presidential election. Then-President Trump and many others – including members of his administration, Congress, and law enforcement – engaged in extensive efforts to overturn the will of the people as expressed in the November 3 election, infringing on all Americans’ right to vote and to have their vote respected. These efforts also led to violations of the rights to life and security of person, and infringed on the right to be free from discrimination. Federal and state authorities have an obligation to conduct thorough and effective criminal investigations of these events and ensure accountability for them.