Russian Cluster Bombs Devastate Kharkiv: Daily Brief

Russian forces have assaulted Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with repeated unlawful attacks that killed and wounded civilians and damaged healthcare facilities and homes. All of the attacks that Human Rights Watch documented were carried out in populated areas by indiscriminately using explosive weapons with wide area effects and widely banned cluster munitions in apparent violation of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. During recent visits to Kharkiv and the neighboring town of Derhachi, Human Rights Watch documented eight unlawful incidents of attacks that killed 12 civilians, wounded 26 others, and damaged at least five hospital buildings – just a fraction of attacks reported in the Kharkiv region since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24.

Israeli authorities should immediately release the French-Palestinian human rights worker Salah Hamouri from administrative detention and reverse the decision to revoke his residency status in his native Jerusalem. On March 7, Israeli authorities detained Hamouri, a lawyer who works with the Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer, which Israeli authorities outlawed last year, and have held him since in administrative detention without trial or charge, based on secret evidence.

Brazil’s electoral campaigning season, leading up to the October 2 elections for president, Congress, and state governors and legislatures, officially kicks off today. This year, it is likely to be a critical test for democracy and the rule of law in the country and in Latin America. President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election, has been using a mixture of insults and threats to intimidate independent media and the Supreme Court. He has sought to undermine trust in the electoral system, alleging, without providing any proof, that it is unreliable.

​Indonesian authorities should immediately drop politically motivated treason charges and release Papuans detained for the peaceful exercise of their rights in the Papua and West Papua provinces. On August 17, 2019, a racist mob comprised of security forces and members of militant groups attacked students at a West Papuan university dormitory in the East Java city of Surabaya. Three years later, Indonesian authorities continue to subject Indigenous Papuans to racial discrimination and intimidation, arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and mass forced displacement.

In New York, United Nations member states are meeting to decide on a high seas treaty, regulating ocean areas beyond national territories. UN secretary-general, António Guterres, had in June declared an “ocean emergency”, pointing out increasing temperatures and acidity, rising sea levels and storms. A treaty could result in a new UN body that overseas environmental issues affecting human and non-human lives around the world.