Africa Featured North Africa World 

Morocco to legalise cannabis production for medical use

– – Morocco‘s government has announced that it will soon be legalizing the production of cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes. Once the approval is secured farmers would then be allowed to farm so the cannabis can be exported and used domestically. The government is hopeful this move will lift up impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains amid a growing… Read More
Europe 

Belarus human rights situation deteriorating further, warns UN rights chief

In comments to the Geneva forum on Thursday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights insisted that curbs on demonstrators had got worse since last August’s poll returned President Alexander Lukashenko to office. Those protests had led to “mass arbitrary arrests and detentions” of largely peaceful demonstrators, along with “hundreds of allegations of torture and ill-treatment”, Ms. Bachelet said, before noting that “not… Read More
Africa Liberia World 

Liberia: Eight found dead in flat after a graduation party

– – Police in Liberia are investigating the circumstances under which a young woman and seven others died after party in a flat. The woman and the seven others were found dead in an apartment in the country’s capital Monrovia, following a party to celebrate her graduation from university. Local media reported that the woman, her young daughter and mother… Read More
Pacific 

UN independent experts ‘appalled’ by deportation of migrants to Myanmar, in defiance of court order

Malaysian immigration authorities returned 1,086 migrants, including unaccompanied minors and toddlers as young as three, the UN experts said in a statement on Wednesday.  In defiance of the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s order, the Malaysian authorities “breached the principle of non-refoulement, a rule of jus cogens, which absolutely prohibits the collective deportation of migrants without an objective risk assessment being… Read More
Pacific 

Myanmar: Stop harassment of workers, UN agency urges military

In a statement on Tuesday, the agency said it received allegations that police and military are conducting door-to-door searches for trade unionists at their dormitories and hostels in the Hlaingtharyar industrial township, in the country’s largest city, Yangon.  I am deeply concerned by allegations of harassment and intimidation against, in particular, young female workers in Yangon, Myanmar. I urge military… Read More
Africa Featured World 

Covid-19: Poor countries without vaccines could face grave death toll

– – Poorer countries will most likely “bear the brunt of hundreds of thousands of needless deaths” from inequalities in access to Covid-19 vaccines. This dire warning was given by the Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in a video address to the High-Level Segment at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 23 February. More than… Read More
Africa Central Africa Rwanda World 

Rwanda’s Kagame criticizes ‘hypocrisy’ in Covid-19 vaccine supply

– – Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has criticized what he calls “hypocrisy and double standards” in the global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that deals between rich nations and vaccine manufacturers had made it hard to acquire vaccines for its Covax initiative. The @WHO Director-General has said that deals between… Read More
Africa Ghana West Africa World 

Ghana is first in Africa to receive Covid-19 vaccines under COVAX

– – Ghana on Wednesday morning took delivery of 600,000 AstraZeneca doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The consignment arrived at the Kotoka International Airport in Ghana’s capital, Accra via an Emirates airline plane. The government said the doses are part of the first batch of vaccines the country is acquiring through the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana among… Read More
Pacific 

Experts accuse Iran of rights violations in shooting down Ukraine airlines flight

Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the country, have consistently expressed concern over the 8 January 2020 incident.  Flight PS752 was heading from Tehran to Kiev when it was struck down by two missiles fired by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), killing all… Read More
Africa Ghana West Africa World 

Global music streaming giant Spotify expands services in Africa

– – The world’s most popular global audio streaming subscription service, is now available in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda as of February 23. With a worldwide community of more than 345 million monthly active listeners, Spotify will offer a world-class audio listening and music discovery experience to listeners. The Spotify service is available for free or with an… Read More
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