World News in Brief: Green light for new cholera vaccine, Ukraine attacks condemned, action against racism call, Brazil rights defenders alert

World News in Brief: Green light for new cholera vaccine, Ukraine attacks condemned, action against racism call, Brazil rights defenders alert

The World Health Organization (WHO) decision means that Euvichol-S vaccine can be added to other cholera-busting drugs which are not being produced in sufficient quantities to help countries battling outbreaks of the preventable disease. WHO reported 473,000 cholera cases in 2022 – double the number in 2021. “The new vaccine is the third product of…

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World News in Brief: Russia likely attacked Ukraine cafe, disease alert for Sudan, Taliban must release rights defenders

World News in Brief: Russia likely attacked Ukraine cafe, disease alert for Sudan, Taliban must release rights defenders

The report published on Tuesday and based on site inspections and witness interviews says that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the missile was launched by Russian armed forces”. It details the devastating impact of what has been one of the deadliest single incidents for Ukrainian civilians since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. …

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China: 'Vocational training' programmes for Tibetans carry risk of forced labour

China: UN experts demand information on nine imprisoned human rights defenders

The experts sounded the alarm on the lack of information provided by Chinese authorities – deeming it a deliberate attempt to “make the world forget” about the individuals who are spending year after year in isolation.  Between 2010 and 2019, nine environmental human rights defenders were arrested and imprisoned after they protested against allegedly illegal mining activities and hunting of…

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Bangladesh using enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings to silence rights defenders: Experts

Bangladesh using enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings to silence rights defenders: Experts

‘Chilling effect’ Odhikar has “documented enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and cooperated with UN human rights mechanisms in this context,” the three experts said. “Such reprisals also have a chilling effect and may deter others from reporting on human rights issues and cooperating with the UN, its representatives, and mechanisms”. The Special Rapporteurs said that…

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Governments must do more to protect human rights defenders: Expert

Governments must do more to protect human rights defenders: Expert

In a report to the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor, said that “States can and should do more to protect defenders”. She stressed that 25 years after States agreed on a Declaration to promote and protect the work of human rights defenders, their contributions were often ignored. The expert who champions the work of rights defenders…

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