Human Rights
Sunday 12 July 2020
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![Carrie Lam]()
Carrie Lam
Chief Executive of Hong Kong
“[The national security law] will only target an extremely small minority of people who have breached the law, while the life and property, basic rights and freedoms of the overwhelming majority of Hong Kong residents will be protected.”
Read more...Lam minimized the potential impact of Hong Kong’s new Chinese-written security law before it took effect. Once it did, arrests and charges under the law were immediate. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
“In Russia, there has not been, is not, and will not be anything that is associated with restrictions on rights based on race, sexual orientation, nationality, or any religious grounds. This has never happened in Russia and never will.”
Read more...Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has changed its criminal code to allow targeting and prosecuting minorities and amended the constitution to outlaw gay marriage. -
![Press TV]()
Press TV
Iranian state TV channel
“A senior Iranian judge says INTERPOL Red Notices have been issued for the prosecution of dozens of military and political officials of the United States, including President Donald Trump, on charges of planning and implementing a terrorist attack in the Iraqi capital that assassinated Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani and his companions.”
Read more...INTERPOL has denied receiving the request and stated that it does not consider requests for red notices that it believes are “political.” -
![Qatari Ministry of Interior]()
Qatari Ministry of Interior
“EHTERAZ is your trusted smart application to follow up on the latest updates of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Qatar.”
Read more...The Qatari government’s COVID-19 app has been named among the “most dangerous for privacy” by the Amnesty International Security Lab. It’s not alone. Bahrain, China, Iran, Kuwait, Norway and Russia have suspect apps, too. -
![Nicolás Maduro]()
Nicolás Maduro
President of Venezuela
"Every day we protect the health of our people, without slowing down for a second the production of goods and services, construction and renovation of important works and always in defense of the national peace. Venezuela moves forward!"
Read more...Maduro’s praise overlooks the widespread fragility in the country’s response to COVID-19, all intensified because of the chronic economic, political and humanitarian crises that have persisted under his government. -
![Dmitry Peskov]()
Dmitry Peskov
Russian presidential spokesman
“No, Russia doesn’t have any territorial claims against its neighbors.”
Read more...In 2014, Russia invaded the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and, after a “referendum,” brought it into the Russian Federation. Moreover, Russia maintains effective control over separatist territories in former Soviet states without annexing them. -
![Mike Lee]()
Mike Lee
U.S. Senator, R-Utah
"The Supreme Court held today that President Obama’s DACA program is clearly illegal."
Read more...The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Trump administration’s effort to rescind the Obama-era program didn’t meet required legal justifications. While the administration has the right to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the court didn't rule on the legality of the program itself. -
![Russian Foreign Ministry Department of Press and Information]()
Russian Foreign Ministry Department of Press and Information
Press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry
“As is known, P. (Paul) Whelan himself delayed the familiarization with the court materials for six months, reading them without much haste from September last year to March this year.”
Read more...Conditions set by Moscow prevented Paul Whelan and his lawyer from speedily preparing a defense for his secret spy trial, which the U.S. and Canada denounced. Sentenced to 16 years in prison, Whelan’s only hope for freedom now may be a prisoner exchange. -
![Mamuka Khazaradze]()
Mamuka Khazaradze
Lelo for Georgia party leader and businessman
“The rights of sexual minorities are very well protected in our country ... If some deviations happen, it means that the law is not observed and the rights of some people are violated. However, it does not mean that the minority must infringe on the rights of the majority.”
Read more...LGBT+ individuals in Georgia often experience abuse, intolerance, and discrimination, a United Nations report found. In a July 2019 poll by the National Democratic Institute, only 27 percent of Georgians agreed that protecting their rights is important. -
![Hua Chunying]()
Hua Chunying
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
“All lives matter. We stand firmly with our African friends. We strongly oppose all forms of racial discrimination and inflammatory expressions of racism and hatred.” (Regarding the death in U. S. police custody of George Floyd, an African American.)
Read more...During the COVID-19 pandemic, African expats and students in China experienced discrimination from the state and ordinary citizens. China has sent more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to detention camps. -
![Komsomolskaya Pravda]()
Komsomolskaya Pravda
Russian national tabloid
"In the news, they are now are talking about the first people killed and even raped in Minneapolis."
Read more...There are no records of rapes in the Minneapolis protests over the death of George Floyd, and only one person died. The claim is consistent with the negative spin Russian media and officials historically have applied when civil crises erupt in the U.S. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state-owned media outlet
“Bogdan Vechirko, who rammed a crowd of rebelling Americans in Minneapolis with a truck, served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was an ardent fan of Donald Trump, writes Strana.ua.”
Read more...The truck driver and the Ukrainian soldier are two different people using the same name. There is no evidence the soldier ever visited the United States, and Ukraine’s military denounced any connection.
