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Anti-police protests spread to streets of central Paris
Violent anti-police protests that have swept the suburbs of Paris since early February spread into the French capital’s city center on Wednesday night.

OSCE Representative urges authorities in Malta to protect independent journalist
Intimidating journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia could restrict public debate and diminish media freedom in Malta, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said 15 February.

SAHRC hosts investigative hearing on racism and social media
In a statement the SAHRC says racial discrimination and inequality account for the majority of complaints that it has received.

It’s time to end child marriage in New York
For the past four years, I’ve worked with Human Rights Watch researchers around the world as they document the devastating consequences of child marriage. Our team has interviewed hundreds of married children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. They have found some things are true everywhere — child marriage threatens girls’ mental and physical health, places them at heightened risk of violence, and often permanently ends their education.

Undercover BBC report reveals prison chaos
Chaos in one of the biggest prisons in the country has been revealed in secret filming for the BBC. An undercover reporter spent two months at HMP Northumberland, which houses up to 1,348 male inmates, for Panorama.

Over 100 dead in Brazil as police strike spurs anarchy
More than 100 people have been reported killed during a six-day strike by police in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, as hundreds of troops patrolled streets attempting to keep order with schools and businesses closed and public transport frozen.

Government refuses to accept austerity measures are breach of human rights
The Government has been accused of kicking UN concerns about its austerity policy "into the long grass" after it refused to accept the findings of a report that concluded its welfare reforms were a breach of human rights.

US might ask visa applicants for social media passwords
On 7 February, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that visa applicants could be asked to hand over their passwords for their social media accounts by US embassies.

UN urged renewed fight to end female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation denies women and girls their dignity and causes needless pain and suffering, with consequences that endure for a lifetime and can even be fatal, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said, stressing that the UN Sustainable Development Agenda promises an end to this practice by 2030.

Council of Europe launched new search engine to follow execution of judgments of ECHR
On 3 February, the Council of Europe reported that a new search engine aimed at improving the visibility and transparency of the process of execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights had been launched by the Council of Europe’s Department for the Execution of Judgments.