Iranian authorities have intensified their repression of women’s rights activists in the country in the first half of this year, carrying out a series of harsh interrogations and increasingly likening any collective initiative relating to women’s rights to criminal activity, Amnesty International said today.

On 9 August, voicing concern over a number of worrying developments regarding capital punishment in the Maldives, United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called on the Government to refrain from carrying out planned executions and to uphold the de facto moratorium that has been in place in the country for over six decades.

This year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is devoted to the right to education.

Thailand’s referendum on a draft constitution that took place on 7 August against a backdrop of pervasive human rights violations that have created a chilling climate, Amnesty International said today.

On 4 August Amnesty International has revealed that a teenager was executed in Iran after being convicted of “lavat-e be onf” (forced male to male intercourse), the first confirmed execution of a juvenile offender in the country this year.

On 3 August, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien concluded his three-day mission to crisis-torn South Sudan, voicing serious concern at the humanitarian situation in the country and in particular the violence against civilians, as well as attacks against aid workers, which is hampering efforts to respond to the needs of the people affected by the fighting.

Around 1 200 men, women, and children who sought refuge in Australia and were forcibly transferred to the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru suffer severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today.

On 1 August, the United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed serious concern that Iraq has created a committee to accelerate implementation of death sentences.

A man from India's Dalit community has been beheaded and his wife hacked to death after a row over a 15 rupees (22 cents; 16 pence) debt in Uttar Pradesh state.

On 28 July, the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) has called on Italy to take urgent steps to elaborate and adopt a specific national legislative framework for the protection of Roma, Sinti and Camminanti communities.