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April 15, 2024
Twenty years have passed since the media broke the story that US forces and the CIA were torturing “war on terror” detainees at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq. But for the men who were tortured, it feels like only yesterday.
Prisoners stand next to the tents in which they are housed at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad, Iraq, July 15, 2004.
April 14, 2024
In their first policy document of the year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council announced that they would “strengthen reproductive support in rural villages (加强农村生育支持)” (Xinhua, February 3). This is the first time this policy phrase has appeared in the annual document, which usually focuses on rural governance. The policy is part of the government’s pivot away from its punitive “One Child” birth control policy, which was in place from the 1980s until it was relaxed in 2013. In 2021, the government shifted to explicitly encouraging births by adopting “supportive reproductive measures (生育支持措施).” The government says it is now focusing on “developing a high-quality population (人口高质量发展)” (Xinhua, July 20, 2021).
Promotion of China’s one-child policy visible on the outer wall of a government office in Bobai, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, China, August 26, 2021.
April 12, 2024
As global and regional leaders meet in Paris to spotlight Sudan and mark the one-year anniversary of the country’s brutal conflict between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), they should make clear that those responsible for ongoing atrocities and other violations of international humanitarian law will be held to account.
A destroyed medical storage facility in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, Sudan, May 2, 2023.
April 12, 2024
Belarus has hit a new low in its targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. As of today, the definition of pornography under Belarusian law will include depictions of same-sex relationships as well as transgender people.
Belarusian LGBTQ activists with white-red-white flags participate in the Warsaw Equality Parade, June 25, 2022.
April 12, 2024
The Georgian government should withdraw permanently its plans to reintroduce so-called “foreign agent” legislation, Human Rights Watch and five labor rights organizations and trade unions said in a statement released today. The bill would require foreign-funded nongovernmental organizations, media and trade unions to register as “agents of foreign influence.”
Protesters march outside the parliament building in protest of “the Russian law” in Tbilisi, Georgia, April 9, 2024.
April 12, 2024
Germany’s parliament on April 12, 2024, passed a landmark law that allows transgender and non-binary people to modify their legal documents to reflect their gender identity through an administrative procedure based on self-identification.
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April 12, 2024
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned about this case and call for the immediate and unconditional release of Yu Wensheng and his wife, activist Xu Yan, as they have been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights including the right to freedom of expression.
April 12, 2024
In early February, a 30-year-old Jewish student was hospitalized following an attack by a fellow student at Berlin’s largest public university, Freie Universität Berlin. Berlin’s authorities treated the attack as politically motivated antisemitic violence and attributed it to the impact in Europe of the escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Beating of Jewish student intensifies deabte over Gaza conflict at Berlin’s largest public university, the Freie Universität, February 9, 2024.