Stop Prolonging the Pandemic: Daily Brief
Everyone agrees we need expanded vaccine production - except the governments currently blocking it; UN Security Council action needed to stop atrocities in Ethiopia's Tigray region; abuses against Burundi refugees in Tanzania; Hong Kong sentences key pro-democracy figures; US resumes arms sales to UAE, spelling dangers for civilians in Yemen and Libya; what's next for Afghanistan?; in Brazil, Rio's attorney general weakens police oversight; France deports Chechen asylum seeker, who is then abducted; and another serious blow to democracy in Poland.
Medical experts, lawmakers, former world leaders and many others agree: rich-country governments should stop blocking wider vaccine access globally, which only serves to prolong the pandemic.
The authorities in Hong Kong have sentenced key pro-democracy figures to prison terms on bogus charges.
Atrocities are continuing in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. The UN Security Council (UNSC) needs to act.
UN experts have spoken out about abuses of Burundian refugees in Tanzania.
The US is resuming arms sales to UAE. It's a disastrous U-turn on Biden's pledge that heightens risks to civilians in Yemen & Libya.
The US government should address fears of increased insecurity fueled by its announced plan to withdraw all military forces from Afghanistan by committing to expanded support for human rights, including women’s rights.
Rio de Janeiro’s attorney general, Luciano Mattos, should reinstate a recently dissolved unit of prosecutors who specialized in preventing, investigating, and prosecuting police abuse, or set up another team to carry out a similar mandate, Human Rights Watch said today.
Chechen police abducted Magomed Gadaev, an asylum seeker from Chechnya, in the Russian Federation, and a key witness in a high-profile torture investigation against Chechnya’s authorities, two days after he was wrongfully deported from France to Russia on 9 April.
A government-captured court has removed Poland’s Human Rights Ombudsmen Adam Bodnar from his post, likely spelling the end of one of last independent checks on the country’s abusive government.