Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 6 October 2014

Croatia; Haiti, Hong Kong, Mexico, Burma, US, and South Sudan

More than 8,200 people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities in Croatia have spent their entire lives locked up in institutions and psychiatric hospitals, Human Rights Watch said in new research released today. Greater efforts should be made to move people into community-based care instead, so that people can exert control over their lives and live with dignity.

Haiti's former ruler Jean-Claude Duvalier has died of a heart attack aged 63. Duvalier, better known as "Baby Doc" after inheriting the title of "president-for-life" aged just 19 from his father "Papa Doc", was accused of corruption, human rights abuses and repression during his rule, which ended in a 1986 uprising. His premature death has deprived his countless victims of the justice they deserved, says HRW's "dictator hunter" Reed Brody, who's has spent many years pursuing Duvalier.

Hundreds of pro-democracy campaigners remain camped out on the streets of Hong Kong, but their numbers are dwindling and many protesters have now returned to work. Meanwhile Hong Kong's leader C.Y. Leung should urgently assure the public of their rights to peaceful assembly and expression, Human Rights Watch said in a public letter today.

A mass grave was found in southern Mexico near the town of Iguala, where scores of protesting students went missing after being pushed into police vans. Mexico’s security forces have long participated in widespread enforced disappearances.

The World Bank should be taking stock of the human rights situation in Burma - including violations against ethnic minorities, land grabs and systematic corruption - as Burma gears up for 2015 elections. Before it re-engaged with Burma in 2012, the World Bank had not provided financial aid to the country since 1987, when it was ruled by an abusive military junta.

Two recent policy statements bring the United States closer to aligning its policy with the 1997 treaty banning landmines. But to help rid the world of these insidious weapons, the US needs to get past the exception permitting landmine use on the Korean Peninsula and join the treaty.

Aid agencies have warned that parts of South Sudan could fall into famine early next year if the nine-month conflict in the country escalates as expected. The number of people facing dangerous levels of hunger is expected to increase by a further 1 million between January and March next year.

By refusing to hear appeals cases, the US Supreme Court has forged a way for gays to marry in 11 more states, bringing the total number of states that allow same-sex marriage up to 30, plus the District of Colombia.