Further evidence Beijing tried to cover up the coronavirus outbreak; Thailand’s government has been ordered to change abortion laws; Malaysian cabinet minister demands harsher penalties against LGBT people; Ugandan opposition politician Bobbi Wine released from house arrest; victims of former Chadian president Hissène Habré still waiting for compensation; Taliban targeting women leaders in Afghanistan; South Africa’s president slams rich nations for vaccine hoarding; high number of children still out of school due to Covid-19; and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is about to start.

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Beijing attempted to cover up the Coronavirus outbreak, and intimidated health workers into staying quiet, a new BBC documentary on the 54 days between the first known case of coronavirus and the Wuhan lockdown on January 23 confirms.  A doctor at a hospital where infected patients were being treated was arrested for having alerted members of a private WeChat about the unknown illnessHe later died of the disease. A social justice activist, who on January 24 tweeted about the coverup, later disappeared. More than 2 million people have since died of the virus worldwide, and more than 225 million full-time jobs have been lost.

Thailand's Constitutional Court has ordered the government to change the country’s abortion laws, or have them repealed, because denying pregnant people the right to choose violates the constitution. But the government is still fighting change.

Malaysia’s deputy minister for religious affairs has called for harsher criminal penalties against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Malaysia’s state and federal statutes that criminalize LGBT people are already out of bounds with regard to international law.

Despite a Ugandan High Court order to release opposition politician Bobbi Wine from house arrest, police and the army have yet to withdraw from the residence of the presidential challenger’s residence. 

The African Union (AU) has yet to set up a Trust Fund to compensate victims of former Chadian president Hissène Habré, four years after his historic conviction in Senegal.

In a letter addressed to US President Biden, Afghan women have expressed deep concern about a Taliban “campaign of assassinations against civil society advocates, journalists and women leaders”. As of Wednesday last week, 40 people had been killed this year alone in Afghanistan, according to Afghan Peace Watch – among them Zakia Herawi, one of two female judges.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has slammed “vaccine nationalism” and asked rich countries to stop hoarding Covid-19 vaccines at the exclusion of other countries around the world. Ramaphosa, who is also the chairperson of the African Union (AU), was delivering an address at the World Economic Forum digital Davos summit today.

By April last year, the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted education for around 90 percent of the world’s school-age children. United Nations agencies now warn about very high numbers of children who have not returned to school.

And lastly, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival celebrates its 11th season this year with its first digital expansion to audiences across the US starting next week.

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