On Thursday, Islam Karimov, the authoritarian president of Uzbekistan, was welcomed into Latvia, an EU member state, despite his ranking as one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. It’s a bad precedent that Latvian president Andris Berzins found time after his meeting with Karimov to praise economic and security ties with Tashkent but not address human rights.
A court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in New Jersey on Friday, despite requests for a delay by Governor Chris Christie’s office.
A fantastic article on Human Rights Watch’s Indonesia researcher, Andreas Harsono, and how he uses social media to push for change.
You tweeted, you posted, you clicked links and you tumbled. Here are Human Rights Watch’s hottest news items from the week.
Earlier today: Ethiopian authorities have subjected political detainees to torture and other ill-treatment at Maekelawi, the main detention center in Addis Ababa (photo, above). In a new Human Rights Watch report released today, former detainees and their relatives detail how officials had denied their basic needs; tortured and otherwise mistreated them to extract information and confessions; and refused them access to legal counsel and their relatives.
