Worldwide Information Blogger Luc Schrijvers: WORLD WORLDWIDE Human Rights Watch News Journal Update - HRW's The Monthly Defender - Victory for Transgender employees in Japan, accountability for gender discrimination in Afghanistan, and more stories

dinsdag 29 augustus 2023

WORLD WORLDWIDE Human Rights Watch News Journal Update - HRW's The Monthly Defender - Victory for Transgender employees in Japan, accountability for gender discrimination in Afghanistan, and more stories

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August 28, 2023

A plaintiff speaks during a news conference at Tokyo District Court, Tokyo, Japan, July 11, 2023. © 2023 Eugene Hoshiko/AP Images

Japan Supreme Court Ruling a Victory for Transgender Employees

In a victory for transgender people in Japan, the country’s Supreme Court recently ruled that the trade ministry violated a public service law by banning a transgender woman from using the women’s bathroom at work.

The Supreme Court ruling resolves eight years of legal challenges for the plaintiff. The decision sets an important precedent and employers in Japan should take its guidance to develop policies and practices that allow individuals to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identity.

MEET THE EXPERTS

Kanae Doi

Kanae Doi, Japan Director, works to encourage the Japanese Government to prioritize human rights in its foreign and domestic policies and practices. She also works on media outreach and the development of Human Rights Watch's profile in Japan.

Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 2006, she worked as a practicing attorney, based in Tokyo. Her practice included refugee law, immigration law, constitutional law and criminal defense, and she frequently gave media interviews and published on these issues in the Japanese press from the perspective of international human rights law.

MEET KANAE

The metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, highlighting the communes where abuses were documented. Data © CNIGS. Graphics © Human Rights Watch

Haiti: Surge in Violent Abuses

Killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence by criminal groups in and around Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, have increased dramatically since the start of 2023 with a weak to non-existent state response, Human Rights Watch said in a report released this month.

The 98-page report, “Living a Nightmare: Haiti Needs an Urgent Rights-Based Response to Escalating Crisis,” documents abuses committed by criminal groups and state inaction in four metropolitan Port-au-Prince communes – Cabaret, Cité Soleil, Croix-des-Bouquets, and Port-au-Prince itself – between January and April 2023.

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A video published on TikTok on December 4, 2022 shows a group of roughly 47 migrants, 37 of whom appear to be women, walking along a steep slope inside Saudia Arabia on the trail used to cross from the migrant camp of Al Thabit. © 2022 Private

BREAKING NEWS

“They Fired on Us Like Rain”

Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023. Human Rights Watch research indicates that, at time of writing, the killings are continuing. Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic.

If committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants, these killings would be a crime against humanity.

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Afghan women demonstrate in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, August 13, 2022. © 2022 Oriane Zerah/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Photo

BREAKING NEWS

Deepening Crisis in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region

Years of violent unrest and armed conflict in Ethiopia have resulted in countless abuses in regions across the country. The last few weeks show there is no end in sight.

Since April, the Ethiopian military and militias known as Fano have clashed in towns throughout the Amhara region after the government announced plans to dismantle and integrate all regional special forces in the country. The fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with increased reports of civilian casualties.

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A person protests outside the Supreme Court in anticipation of the decision in the case 303 Creative v. Elenis, in Washington, DC, June 30, 2023. © 2023 AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

IMPACT

Call for Justice Accountability and Effective Response to Ongoing Violations and Gender Persecution in Afghanistan

Two years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, we strongly condemn ongoing and escalating gross human rights violations by the Taliban especially against women and girls and the lack of an effective response from the international community, 10 international human rights organizations stated this month.

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WATCH

Saudi Arabia Border Guards Commit Mass Killings of Migrants at Yemen Border

Saudi officials are killing hundreds of women and children out of view of the rest of the world while they spend billions on sports-washing to try to improve their image. Saudi Arabia should immediately and urgently revoke any policy to use lethal force on migrants and asylum seekers. Concerned countries should press for accountability and the UN should investigate.

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