Rights watch
A round-up of human rights stories from around the world.
Top Human Rights Watch investigator allegedly hacked with Pegasus spyware | The Guardian
The mobile phones of a senior Human Rights Watch staff member are alleged to have been repeatedly hacked by a client of NSO Group at a time when she was investigating the catastrophic August 2020 explosion that killed more than 200 people in Beirut.
Attack on environmental lawyer’s home alarms DRC rights defenders | Mongabay
Armed assailants recently attacked the home of Congolese environment lawyer Timothée Mbuya, head of human rights NGO Justicia, who is fighting a defamation lawsuit related to his criticism of a farm owned by the former president of DRC, Joseph Kabila.
Netherlands, Ukraine take Russia to European rights court | The Independent
The Netherlands and Ukraine have argued that a top European court should hear their cases that seek to hold Russia responsible for human rights violations in eastern Ukraine including the 2014 downing of a passenger jet that killed all 298 people on board.
Hundreds died in Kazakhstan’s ‘Bloody January’. Who were they? | openDemocracy
In partnership with Kazakh media Vlast, we tell the stories of those who were killed or injured – some of whom are still missing – in the violence.
Turkey: Lawyer Efkan Bolaç on trial again, this time over Instagram posts | bianet
A lawsuit has been filed against lawyer Efkan Bolaç for “insulting the President” with two Carlos Latuff cartoons that he shared on Instagram. However, the cartoons were posted in 2014, when Erdoğan had not yet been elected the President.
Iranian activist gets five-minute trial, sentenced to prison and 70 lashes | Newsweek
After a trial that lasted just five minutes, Iranian authorities sentenced human rights activist Narges Mohammadi to more than eight years in prison and 70 lashes, according to her husband.
‘Lawyers for Lawyers’ call for Hejaaz Hizbullah’s release | News 1st
The case against human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah, the first lawyer to have been detained under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act, will be taken up at the Puttalam High Court today.
EU-Egypt counterterror forum bid ‘affront’ to human rights | Al Jazeera
Human Rights Watch has urged the European Union not to launch a proposed joint bid with Egypt to lead a global counterterrorism body, deploring the country’s nation’s treatment of critics.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has been criticised by LGBT+ groups and some Scottish parliamentarians after issuing a warning to the Scottish government over proposed trans rights reforms.
Sweeping reforms of campaign finance and lobbying laws are needed to end corporate influence over Australian politics that would be regarded as illegal and corrupt overseas, the Human Rights Law Centre says.