Watch this space throughout the week as this post will continue to be updated with recent human rights news and alerts.
- The French Senate, with a vote of 246 to 1, passed a bill which would ban the face-covering veil (burqa) worn by some Muslim women. The law must now only be approved by the Constitutional Council before coming into effect. While proponents of the law claim that it promotes gender equality, women’s dignity and security, as well as upholding France’s secular values, others note that it tramples on religious freedom and freedom of expression. [Huffington Post]
- A UN Special Investigator reported that displaced persons camps in Africa are “among the most dangerous places for children”. The camps in Sudan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo offer little protection against sexual violence and active recruitment of children as child soldiers for rebel militias. [BBC]
- Peru’s President Alan Garcia has asked his country’s Congress to repeal one of his Presidential Decrees which would have placed strict limits on prosecutions for human rights abuses committed by the army during the 1980s and 1990s. [BBC]
- The European Court of Human Rights unanimously recognized and enhanced the right of the Press to protect its sources as a necessary function of a free press after Dutch police arrested the editor of a magazine for not revealing anonymous sources and providing them with images and other data. [AP]
- European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding compared France’s recent treatment of Roma gypsies to Nazi persecution of Roma during the Holocaust. She noted that she expects the EU to bring legal action against France for contravening the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. [The Independent]