Tag Archives: rights

Juba, South Sudan | AFP |  South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has pardoned a Harvard-educated economist whose conviction earlier this year on spying charges drew international criticism. Peter Biar Ajak was among 30 prisoners on a pardon list seen by AFP and dated January 1. A spokesman for the main …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP |  Hundreds of people demonstrated Saturday outside Morocco’s parliament demanding the release of a journalist detained for criticising a judge in a tweet. Omar Radi, 33, was detained Thursday in Casablanca and immediately put on trial for the tweet about a judge prosecuting protest leaders, his …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  President John Magufuli has presided over a crackdown on media and civil society in Tanzania that has seriously undermined democratic freedoms as the country approaches elections, global rights groups said Monday. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tanzania was backsliding under Magufuli, whose …

Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP |  Indonesia is set to vote on a plan to outlaw gay and pre-marital sex while beefing up its blasphemy laws in a shakeup fuelled by religious conservatism and slammed by rights groups Thursday. The proposed criminal law overhaul could affect millions in the world’s biggest …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The head of Amnesty International warned Monday that a US military intervention in response to the attack on Saudi oil facilities blamed on Iran would only aggravate suffering in the Middle East. The rights group’s secretary general, Kumi Naidoo, said the world instead should …

  Washington, United States | AFP |  The US government announced sanctions against Uganda’s once-powerful police chief on Friday, citing evidence of corruption and human rights abuses including torture. The agencies said there was credible information that Kale Kayihura was involved in “torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or …

  Washington, United States | AFP | The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on five Russians over abuses including the killing of a prominent opposition leader, days after top-level talks seemed to ease tensions between the powers. The State Department highlighted the actions against the five people, plus one …

    London, United Kingdom | AFP | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s nearly seven-year stay at Ecuador’s embassy in London came to an abrupt end on Thursday when police entered the building and arrested him after Ecuador withdrew his asylum. Assange has been living at the embassy in London’s plush Knightsbridge …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The family of a Kenyan activist who went missing for a week before turning up dead, have questioned police claims she died of a botched abortion, and demanded an autopsy. Caroline Mwatha went missing last Wednesday, prompting Amnesty International to raise the alarm over her …

  Berlin, Germany | AFP | A growing pushback against human rights abusers and autocrats has emerged in the last year, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, with resistance coming from a number of new sources. Smaller countries and groups like the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation are stepping up and taking …