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By Patrick Greenfield

Landmark case will consider whether councils’ public space protection orders unfairly target homeless people

A landmark high court case will determine whether fines for begging, loitering and leaving bedding in doorways unfairly targets homeless people, after a fundraising campaign for legal costs reached its target.

Lawyers for Sarah Ward, who lives in Poole, will outline their challenge on Monday to a public space protection order (PSPO) in the town centre which prohibits obstructing doorways, sitting with a receptacle “for the purpose of begging” and other behaviour associated with homelessness. People found to have violated the order are liable to a £100 …read more

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By Editorial

Joko Widodo rode to power on a wave of optimism. Supporters gave him a second term – but there are already concerns about how he is using it

A second and final term can free a leader, as Joko Widodo has acknowledged. The question is how he will use his new liberty. Five years ago, he was widely hailed as “Indonesia’s Obama”. His rise was seen as another step forward for the world’s fourth most populous country and biggest Muslim-majority nation. Its transition from dictatorship two decades ago had already made it an important and much-needed model of democracy …read more

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By Sarah Boseley

Announcement follows news UK human rights lawyers bringing case against BAT

The US government has suspended all imports of tobacco from Malawi over child labour allegations.

The ban follows the news that human rights lawyers are to bring a case against British American Tobacco (BAT)_in the high court in London over child labour in Malawi’s tobacco fields, as a result of revelations by the Guardian of the scale of the abuse last year. Leigh Day are acting for nearly 2,000 claimants – children and their parents – and expect that up to 15,000 will join the case.

Related: Human …read more

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By David Levene

Photographer David Levene visited Malawi with Sarah Boseley, to document the impact of the tobacco industry on the wellbeing of the local farming communities whose livelihood depends on it. Human rights lawyers Leigh Day are working with Malawian translators and paralegals interviewing potential clients to join the watershed legal action against British American Tobacco

• BAT faces landmark legal case over Malawi families’ poverty wages
• The children labouring in Malawi’s fields for British American Tobacco

Continue reading… …read more

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By Sarah Boseley

Exclusive: Lawyers seeking compensation in UK for child labourers and their parents

• The children labouring in Malawi’s fields for British American Tobacco

Human rights lawyers are preparing to bring a landmark case against British American Tobacco on behalf of hundreds of children and their families forced by poverty wages to work in conditions of gruelling hard labour in the fields of Malawi.

Leigh Day’s lawyers are seeking compensation for more than 350 child labourers and their parents in the high court in London, arguing that the British company is guilty of “unjust enrichment”. Leigh Day says it anticipates the number of child …read more

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By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul

Document details 14 deadly raids by pro-government units with support of US intelligence

The Afghan soldiers who swept through Kulalgo village one late August night shot three of Dr Ulfatullah’s relatives carefully, a single bullet through their left eye, faces otherwise untouched as blood pooled below their bodies on the floor of the family home.

The last killing was less precise, and left the face of university student Ansarullah badly disfigured. His family thought perhaps he had heard the muffled gunshot that ended a cousin’s life, and briefly tried to struggle against his captors.

Continue reading… …read more

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By Ben Doherty

Spat compounds strain on diplomatic ties as UN coalition condemns Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs

Beijing has condemned comments from the Australian foreign minister arguing that China must be held accountable for its domestic human rights abuses, saying Marise Payne’s speech was “ill-informed” and damaging to already-strained relations between the countries.

In a wide-ranging and forthright speech on Tuesday night, Payne singled out China over its human rights abuses, in particular the detention of the Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun on espionage charges, and the detention of a million Uighurs in Xinjiang province.

Related: Marise Payne says China must be held …read more

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By Ben Doherty

Foreign affairs minister says it’s in Australia’s interest to speak out against abuses of power, such as the treatment of Uighur in Xinjiang

China must be held accountable for its human rights abuses domestically because “countries that respect and promote their citizens’ rights at home tend also to be better international citizens”, Australia’s foreign affairs minister Marise Payne has said.

In an uncompromising speech in Sydney likely to garner attention in Beijing, Payne said Australia must defend an international rules-based order in its own interests, but also that the world’s multilateral institutions were no longer fit for purpose and needed reform.

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By Anonymous

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Original content available at: Human Rights First

By Lyndsey Winship

Athletic star dancer who dazzled as Spinderella in the hit West End show Into the Hoods

In the sometimes macho world of hip-hop dance, a form that demands power and immense strength, Teneisha Bonner, who has died of breast cancer at the age of 37, proved she could do anything her male peers could, and more. Bonner was the star female performer in the choreographer Kate Prince’s company, ZooNation, and was instrumental in helping Prince take hip-hop, a once underground culture, to mainstream theatre stages and family audiences.

She played the sassy wannabe DJ Spinderella in the company’s first hit …read more

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