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Now, as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, there is a crucial role it could play in making free education a reality for more children around the world. Members of the United Nations (UN) are being asked to support a new initiative—led by Luxembourg, the Dominican Republic and Sierra Leone—to create an international treaty that would guarantee all children an explicit right to at least one year of free pre-primary education and free secondary education.

As student journalists in Indonesia face increasing intimidation, censorship, and newsroom closures, the Ministry of Education has agreed to have the national Press Council mediate all defamation disputes involving student journalists and publications. It’s an important step toward better protecting student media in the country.

International human rights law protects the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and obligates government authorities at all levels, including at public universities, to facilitate such assemblies and avoid imposing unnecessary or disproportionate restrictions. Private universities should also respect human rights and avoid contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their activities.

Daily Brief, May 8, 2024.

The following questions and answers address the international legal framework applicable to violence and the use of force in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch in October 2023 published a question-and-answer document focused on the international law governing the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. On May 8, Human Rights Watch reported on the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli security forces have unlawfully used lethal force in fatal shootings of Palestinians in the West Bank. Research into eight deaths in four incidents between July 2022 and October 2023 concluded that Israeli forces wrongfully fatally shot or deliberately executed Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat.

The government of Trinidad and Tobago should urgently bring home Trinidadian children and their mothers imprisoned in Iraq because of their alleged association with the Islamic State (ISIS).

Human Rights Watch published a report documenting the impact of unprecedented June 2022 floods in northern Bangladesh on people with disabilities and older people, including loss of lives and livelihoods, extreme hardship, and threatened human rights of at-risk populations.