By Sarah Martin Chief political correspondent

Human Rights Watch raises concerns of ‘dire’ human rights record, including at least 133 political prisoners

Scott Morrison has been urged to raise human rights concerns with the Vietnamese government when he makes his first official visit there this week, including the case of Australian citizen Chau Van Kham who has been detained since January.

The prime minister travels to Hanoi on Thursday to discuss the strategic partnership signed by Australia and Vietnam in 2018 with Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

Related: EU signs landmark trade deal with Vietnam

Related: Concern for Australian citizen jailed without charge …read more

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By Ruth Michaelson in Cairo

Human rights campaigners criticised ‘whitewashing’ of Egyptian government’s abuses

The UN has postponed an anti-torture conference due to take place in Cairo, following an outcry from human rights activists who accused the organisation of “whitewashing” the Egyptian government’s abuses.

The conference on “defining and criminalising torture in the Arab region” was scheduled for 4 and 5 September. A draft copy of the agenda listed participants including the UN special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, as leading discussions on the prohibition of torture alongside Egyptian government officials.

(February 25, 2011)

Related: US-Egyptian man was tortured by Egypt security forces, says rights …read more

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By Letters

Emma Ginn, the director of Medical Justice, warns that women in immigration detention receive inadequate healthcare

You report how a pregnant rape survivor experiencing a miscarriage and barely able to stand was unlawfully held in immigration detention which amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment (Home Office pays £50,000 to trafficked woman detained during miscarriage, 20 August).

This case show precisely why the Home Office must heed our advice and that of the medical profession, and actually ban the detention of pregnant women.

Continue reading… …read more

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By Rajeev Syal

More than a fifth of Border Force staff have experienced discrimination on duty

Home Office agencies embroiled in the Windrush scandal have reported rising levels of discrimination in the workplace, an official survey has revealed.

Employees at the Border Force and Immigration Enforcement, which played a key role in the wrongful detention and prosecution of people who rightfully came to the UK from the Caribbean, told an internal survey they face increasing levels of discrimination from colleagues.

Continue reading… …read more

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By Helen Davidson

Officers shot tear gas canisters into student accommodation and took 43 people into custody after reports on social media

Indonesian authorities raided a university dormitory in Surabaya on Saturday and arrested dozens of West Papuan students after a standoff over allegations the Indonesian flag was thrown into a sewer.

Officers broke down the gates of the Surabaya building and used teargas to clear the rooms, taking 43 people into custody on the Indonesian Independence Day weekend.

Related: West Papua: Pacific leaders urge UN visit to region’s ‘festering human rights sore’

16/8/19 Surabaya, Java

Ini yel-yel massa sepanjang malam: “usir, usir …read more

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By Letters

The UK must not remain silent on human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, says crossbench peer David Alton

The spike in executions in Saudi Arabia is great cause for concern, as highlighted by the son of reformist Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah (My father called for reform in Saudi Arabia. Now he faces death, theguardian.com, 13 August) and a recent report by Helena Kennedy QC. Whenever the UK government is challenged about its apparent indifference to Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, it justifies its silence by claiming it uses its significant economic and security ties to exert back-channel …read more

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By Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent

Gareth Lee to challenge ruling that Northern Ireland bakery had right to refuse to bake cake with pro-gay marriage message

Lawyers representing a man from Northern Ireland who sued a bakery for refusing to make a cake with pro-gay marriage message are going to Europe to challenge a supreme court ruling that its evangelical Christian owners had a right to refuse to bake it.

Belfast human rights law firm Phoenix Law confirmed on Thursday it had been instructed by Gareth Lee to take his case to the European court of human rights (ECHR).

Continue reading… …read more

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By Lily Kuo

Abdurahman Memet believed notes from his parents and brother were proof they had been imprisoned in Chinese ‘re-education’ centres

A Uighur man who leaked letters from inmates at China’s secretive internment camps in Xinjiang has been detained, according to activists and relatives.

Abdurahman Memet, 30, a tour guide in Turpan, last year received letters from his parents and brother, written from inside detention centres in the far western region where as many as 1.5 million Muslims are believed to be detained in political “re-education” and other camps.

Related: China’s hi-tech war on its Muslim minority

Related: ‘This …read more

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By Letters

Suzanne Fletcher and Jackie Fearnley respond to a report on shackles and restraints being used on hundreds of deportees

Your article on the use of shackles and restraints on those being deported (12 August) is a shocking revelation of how those being removed from the UK are treated. The National Independent Commission on Enforced Removals (NICER) report by Citizens UK contained clear and workable recommendations to make such removals safe and humane. This includes the use of painless restraint only if absolutely necessary and ending the use of shackles .

It has long been Liberal Democrat policy to …read more

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By Abdullah Alaoudh

A tweet resulted in Salman al-Odah’s arrest. If he is executed it will be state-sanctioned murder

In September 2017, my father, the prominent Saudi reformist Muslim scholar Salman al-Odah, tweeted an innocuous message to his 14 million followers encouraging the government to end its diplomatic standoff with Qatar. A few hours later he was taken from our home by state security officials. He now faces the prospect of being executed on charges that include spreading corruption by calling for a constitutional monarchy, stirring public discord, incitement and “mocking the government’s achievements”.

Since his arrest he has been held …read more

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