Thailand: UN experts alarmed by sentences handed down to human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa on lèse-majesté charges | OHCHR

UN experts have expressed alarm over the use of Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws to convict and sentence human rights defender and lawyer, Arnon Nampa.

Li Yuhan, the ‘big sister’ of human rights lawyers, is free again | AsiaNews

Li Yuhan, 67, a Beijing-based lawyer who has defended victims of human rights violations in China, was released free after serving six years and six months, her family have announced.

Russian rights defender subject to ‘inhumane’ treatment in jail | RFE/RL

Lawyers for imprisoned Russian human rights defender Oleg Orlov say their client is being held in “inhumane” conditions.

US sanctions Nicaragua’s attorney general over human rights concerns | Al Jazeera

The United States has imposed sanctions on Nicaragua’s attorney general for what it says is her role in the government’s “unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society”.

Concern over rise in requests for UK to share intelligence despite torture risks | The Guardian

The number of requests for UK ministerial approval of intelligence-sharing where there was a real risk of torture, unlawful killing or extraordinary rendition has more than doubled in a year.

UN picks Saudi Arabia to lead women’s rights forum despite ‘abysmal’ record | The Guardian

Saudi Arabia has been chosen as the chair of the UN commission that is supposed to promote gender equality and empower women around the world, after an unopposed bid for leadership condemned by human rights groups because of the kingdom’s “abysmal” record on women’s rights.

Russian authorities tried to charge a handless activist with strangling a police officer | Meduza

Aslan Iritovwas was charged in 2021 with “strangling a police officer with his fingers” — despite having lost both of his hands in the early 1990s.

Kenyan Del Monte farm seeks human rights manager after claims of violence | The Guardian

A vast Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya that supplies most British supermarkets is advertising for a human rights manager to address its “human rights challenges” in the wake of allegations of killings and violence by its security guards.

Gaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBC | BBC

The UN’s most senior human rights official, Volker Türk, said in a BBC interview that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.

US State Dept human rights officer latest to resign in Gaza protest | Al Jazeera

Annelle Sheline, a Middle East analyst who promoted human rights on behalf of the United States government, has become the latest staffer at the US Department of State to leave her post in opposition to President Joe Biden’s Israel policy.