Bardarash, Iraq; Dec.8.– Hundreds of Syrian Kurds have returned home from Iraqi refugee camps over recent weeks despite fears for their safety, amid complaints that thousands have been ‘imprisoned’ with little access to food, healthcare and work.

Over the past month, around 100 people have been voluntarily returning each week from camps in Iraq after fleeing northern Syria at the start of a Turkish offensive in October designed to force out Kurdish forces.

Arrecia la represión en medio de campaña de difamación del gobierno y cambios en la "vigilancia electrónica" para perseguir a la disidencia.

• 2.986 detenciones arbitrarias en Cuba en 2019.
• 123 presos políticos identificados en carceles cubanas.

La Habana, Dic.3.– Al menos 218 detenciones arbitrarias se produjeron en Cuba en noviembre, en medio de una intensa campaña de difamación del gobierno contra los activistas de derechos humanos y de cambios legales para perseguir a los disidentes.

La Habana, Matanzas, Villa Clara y Santiago de Cuba fueron las provincias más afectadas por los arrestos, según los datos recopilados por la red del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos en la isla. Decenas de afectados fueron además detenidos violentamente, multados y amenazados por la policía.

La mayoría de los arrestados intentaban celebrar actividades políticas en las sedes de sus organizaciones, asistir a misa o viajar a otra provincia o municipio del país. Varios fueron sitiados en sus casas para impedir que salieran a la calle durante las celebraciones por el aniversario 500 de la ciudad de La Habana.

Seoul, Dec. 6.– The International Criminal Court said Thursday that it has no jurisdiction over North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. 

In 2016, leaders of nongovernmental organizations NK Watch and Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea filed a complaint against Kim with the ICC, holding him responsible for human rights violations in the North.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in its annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities issued Thursday that the alleged crimes referred to the ICC were neither committed on the territory of an ICC member state nor by a national of a member state, nor has the United Nations Security Council referred the situation in question.

The law fits squarely within both the hawkish turn in China policy specifically and the tradition of U.S. human rights policymaking generally.

• President Trump Signs Bills in Support of Hong Kong; China Warns of Consequences. 

Washington DC, Nov. 30.– The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act is now law. Technically an amendment to the 1992 United States-Hong Kong Policy Act, which established that the United States would continue to treat Hong Kong as a separate economic and trade zone after the 1997 British handover to the People’s Republic of China, the new law requires the Secretary of State to certify whether Hong Kong remains “sufficiently autonomous” from the PRC to retain its special status.

It also requires the President to identify, report on, and sanction anyone who is illegally transshipping American exports to third countries via Hong Kong. Finally, the act declares that the U.S. shall not deny visas to Hong Kong applicants who have been arrested or detained because of protest activities.