News

Entering its seventh year, Australia’s offshore detention centre on Manus Island holds fewer than 140 refugee men after thousands were sent to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru in a bid to deter people from seeking asylum in Australia by boat. While the centre is closing down, the loose ends left behind are devastating. In six months, the PNG government intends to take control of the services for the remaining … Read more →

On 22 July, Yelena Grigoryeva, a prominent Russian LGBT rights campaigner, was found murdered with multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation in St Petersburg. Along with campaigning for LGBT rights, Grigoryeva also demonstrated against Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, the ill treatment of prisoners and a number of other human rights causes. “An activist of democratic, anti-war and LGBT movements, Yelena Grigoryeva was brutally murdered near her house,” … Read more →

Fourteen member countries of the European Union have agreed to a new “solidarity mechanism” proposed by Germany and France to allocate migrants across the bloc. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the new agreement on 22 July. Foreign affairs and Interior ministers of the EU gathered in Paris to discuss immigration and security issues following an initial meeting in Finland the week earlier. “The conclusion of this morning’s meeting is that, … Read more →

Kuwait’s State Security agency have arrested at least 15 activists from the stateless Bidoon community, including prominent human rights defender Abdulhakim al-Fadhli. The arrests took place between 11 and 14 July following demonstrations in response to the death of Ayed Hamad Moudath. Moudath, 20, committed suicide on 7 July after the government denied him civil documentation, which is needed to access public services, as well as to study and work. … Read more →

On 29 August 2018, Venezuela’s intelligence services detained freelance photographer Jesús Medina Ezaine at a subway station in Caracas after covering a demonstration and he’s been imprisoned since. Medina worked for the website Dólar Today, which is based in the US and publishes articles critical of Venezuela’s socialist government and focuses on monitoring the Venezuelan economy. On 2 May 2019, Medina published a letter from prison on his Twitter account, … Read more →

A French-Iranian academic has been detained in Iran and the French government has demanded immediate consular access. The French foreign ministry called on the Iranian authorities to “shed full light” on Fariba Adelkhah’s situation and allow diplomats to visit her. Adelkhah is best known for her book “Being Modern in Iran”, about changes in the country after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Arrested in June Fariba Adelkhah, a prominent researcher in … Read more →