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News from HART
– The HART Prize for Human Rights Prize Giving and Exhibition event took place on Tuesday 14th April 2015. Find out who the winners were here, and make sure to check out pictures from the event on our Facebook page, and read some of the entries on our blog
– On April 9th, a group of British politicians, including Baroness Cox, sent a letter to the editor of ‘the Times’, denouncing the upcoming elections in Sudan. The letter was published and can also be found online here.
– In a blog entry last week, Alice Robinson discussed the elections in Sudan which began on the 13th Read her blog here.
– This week, Anna Cox’s blog post continues her analysis of the Modern Slavery Bill and assesses the Modern Slavery Act as it was given the Royal Assent.
Burma
– The Thingyan and Burmese New Year holidays are under way in Burma.
India
– The Government of India has announced plans to help thousands of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, return to “composite townships” in India-administered Kashmir, from which they fled 25 years ago after an armed rebellion broke out against New Delhi’s rule. This decision has been condemned by some Kashmiri pro-independence groups who see it as a way for the Indian Government to claim further sovereignty over the hotly disputed region. The Hindu minority in Kashmir fell from an estimated 125,000 in the early 1980s to a mere 19,865 by 1998 as relations soured between Pandits and Muslims, who have primarily led the fight against New Delhi in a conflict that has left over 70,000 people dead
– Police in the state of Andra Pradesh have been charged with murder and kidnapping following the killing of 20 red sandalwood smugglers last week. The killings have sparked protests across India but police say they were acting in self-defence.
Nagorno-Karabakh
– 24th April will mark the centenary of the Armenian Genocide on 1915.
– The European Parliament passed a resolution on the 15th April, calling for Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide which is believed to have killed around 1.5 million Armenians. The Turkish Government have continued to refuse to accept this accusation and argued that this resolution was outside the Parliament’s jurisdiction.
– The Azerbaijani Government has issued an arrest warrant for Slovak politician who visited Nagorno-Karabakh without a permit from Baku and called for the international community to identify the region as an independent state.
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Nigeria
– On Tuesday, Nigeria marked one year since the kidnappings of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram. While the event is very significant in the history of the insurgency in northern Nigeria, it is also emblematic of the large-spread displacements and other forms of atrocities Boko Haram has carried out. UNHCR said on Monday, the number of displaced children in Nigeria has now reached 800,000.
– Muhammadu Buhari pledges to commit further efforts to free the Chibok girls.
–Â Escaped Chibok girl speaks about her abduction at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
–Â Women push to raise their stakes in the new Nigeria Project.
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South Sudan
– South Sudanese President Salva Kiir summoned a leadership meeting on Wednesday, bringing together members of the SPLM group to discuss peace strategies.
– A leading government official from South Sudan has accused international relief agencies of interfering more into the political affairs of the country than providing humanitarian assistance.
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Sudan
– An analysis from the Washington post on why there is likely to be only one outcome of the Sudanese elections: Another term for Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir.
– People from war-torn Darfur and South Kordofan register a very low turnout at the elections.
– The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has resumed mortar attacks on Kadugil, the capital of South Kordofan state, as a result killing four.
– A missing female Sudanese human rights activist was found beaten in Khartoum.
Uganda
– Uganda’s High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has rescued three Ugandan girls recruited as sex slaves in Malaysia. Sources in Kuala Lumpur the three returnees reported that about 20 more female Ugandan sex slaves are hiding in Kuala Lumpur, fearing arrest by authorities or witch-hunt by their recruiters. For many years, reports of Ugandan girls being trafficked to different countries under the guise of finding them employment, but they end up in sex slavery.
– The Ugandan Government has reversed its decision to send some 260 health workers to the Caribbean, following months of political debate and controversy. The government said the move would weaken domestic health services.