Yemen, Myanmar and George Floyd: human rights this fortnight in pictures

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cambodia to Peru

A mural in Mumbai, India. Amnesty International has warned that human rights crises will multiply and become a threat to global security if governments continue to use the Covid pandemic as a cover to push authoritarian agendas.
Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty
‘We Are the 11 Million’ march, in El Paso, Texas, earlier this month. The demonstration marked the launch of a campaign by the Border Network for Human Rights and the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance to push for a change to US immigration laws for undocumented migrants.
Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters
A protester at a rally in Paris against a new law designed to prevent religious separatism and combat ‘radical Islamism’, which many see as anti-Muslim. The controversial law will extend the state’s powers to ban religious groups judged to be extremist.
Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty
A sign appealing to the UN at a protest in East Dagon township, Yangon, against Myanmar’s military junta. Thousands of people have been arrested and hundreds killed in demonstrations since the army seized power from the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
Photograph: Facebook/AFP/Getty
Carnations on Barceloneta beach, Barcelona, to draw attention to migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
Photograph: Thiago Prudencio/Dax/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock
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Kara Tepe refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece. An investigation by the Guardian and the cross-border journalism collective Lost in Europe found that 18,292 unaccompanied child migrants went missing in Europe from 2018 to 2020 – equivalent to nearly 17 children a day.
Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty
The Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic for Indigenous Mexican and Guatemalan residents of Los Angeles. Greta Thunberg condemned vaccine inequality between rich and poor countries. The climate activist called for governments and vaccine developers to address ‘vaccine nationalism’.
Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty
Russian protesters clash with police at a rally in support of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St Petersburg. A human rights group that monitors political repression said at least 400 people were arrested across the country with many seized before demonstrations had even begun.
Photograph: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
Poland’s human rights ombudsman, Adam Bodnar, arrives at a constitutional tribunal in Warsaw, which removed him from office this month.
Photograph: Piotr Molęcki/East News/Rex/Shutterstock
The Portuguese justice minister, Francisca Van Dunem, at a conference on protection from racial discrimination in Lisbon. Portugal has committed itself to promoting human rights and equal opportunities while it holds the presidency of the Council of the EU.
Photograph: António Pedro Santos/EPA
Rubber gloves at the Top Glove factory in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The US barred rubber gloves from the Malaysian firm, which also supplied NHS hospitals, due to ‘evidence of forced labour’.
Photograph: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters
Police arrest an activist outside West Kowloon court at a sentencing hearing of seven pro-democracy leaders in Hong Kong, including Jimmy Lai, founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, and the former lawmakers and barristers Martin Lee and Margaret Ng, who were convicted of unauthorised assembly at a peaceful protest in 2019.
Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty
A people-smuggler takes migrants, mostly from Central America, across the Rio Grande to the US near Roma, Texas. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said protecting human rights was the aim in Mexico’s efforts to stop child migrants being smuggled into the US.
Photograph: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP
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A girl holds munitions debris at Yemen’s Suweida camp for people displaced by the war, now in its seventh year. Fighting around Marib, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government’s last northern stronghold, could determine the course of Yemen’s conflict. The UK government’s decision to resume military exports to Saudi Arabia, while slashing foreign aid to Yemen, was heavily criticised in a report by Amnesty International.
Photograph: Nabil Alawzari/AFP/Getty
Members of the Uighur community demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in London. MPs voted to declare that China was committing genocide against Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty
The funeral of a Cacataibo man, Herasmo García, in his village in Huánuco, in Peru’s Amazon region. He was shot dead by unknown assailants. Peru’s indigenous leaders have called for protection after a string of killings by drug gangs seeking land to grow coca under cover of the pandemic.
Photograph: Courtesy of Fenacoca
Lebanese women display a protective mask distributed to women and social workers in Beirut, with a helpline for the organisation Abaad, which campaigns for gender equality. Many women and girls say sexual harassment via social media has intensified as the pandemic pushed people off the streets.
Photograph: Patrick Baz/Abaad/AFP/Getty
The Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan, centre, with his children Kerem, left, and Senem, after he was released from jail in Istanbul. A Turkish court released the novelist and newspaper editor after more than four years in prison on charges of involvement in a failed 2016 coup attempt, which he had always denied. The release of Altan, who has been critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and in support of Kurdish rights, came a day after the European court of human rights demanded the 71-year-old’s release, accusing Turkey of violating his civil rights.
Photograph: Bülent Kılıç/AFP/Getty
Cambodian policemen are seen at a checkpoint during lockdown to prevent the coronavirus disease spread in Phnom Penh. The government has been accused of using Covid to edge towards ‘totalitarian dictatorship’.
Photograph: Cindy Liu/Reuters
Ingrid Noel, 51, left, weeps on the shoulder of Robert Bolden, at a rally in Brooklyn, New York, after the former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder and manslaughter of George Floyd. The explosive case triggered worldwide protests and a re-examination of racism and policing in the US. Floyd died last May after Chauvin, a white officer, pinned his knee on the black man’s neck for about nine minutes.
Photograph: Brittainy Newman/AP
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