Human Rights Watch

The United States expressed concern on Dec. 29 at what it said was the heavy civilian toll of "indiscriminate" Russian air strikes in Syria.  

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Dec. 28 and conveyed Washington's worries.

Doha-based news agency Al Jazeera focuses on the lives of female refugees and documents their plight as they embark upon the perilous crossing from Turkey to Greece. One of the case studies is that of Samira who traveled from Ahir, Morocco, to Lesbos.

A coalition of human rights groups called on the United States on Dec. 21 to grant temporary visas to secular writers from Bangladesh after a series of bloody attacks by Islamist militants .

A new education institution funded by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis has officially opened for Syrian refugee girls in Turkey's southeastern province of ?anl?urfa.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing Russia's Constitutional Court to decide whether or not to implement rulings of international human rights courts. 

The law, published on Dec. 15 on the government website, enables the Russian court to overturn decisions of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if it deems them unconstitutional. 

In an article published at the website of Human Rights Watch on Monday, a researcher for Eastern Europe and Western Balkans, described the harsh conditions asylum seekers are faced with in Dimitrovgrad, a town in southeastern Serbia, at the border with Bulgaria.

An Uzbek national has been charged in Istanbul for plotting to kill a leading Uzbek dissident, according to prosecutors.

The suspect, identified as M.D., appeared in court late Dec. 3 and was held in custody on a charge of plotting to kill Mohammad Salih, who heads the Uzbekistan People's Movement, and his son Timur.

Protected by the heaviest security ever seen on his trips, Pope Francis on Nov. 29 preached reconciliation in the divided Central African Republic, a nation racked by bloodshed between Muslims and Christians. 

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Nov. 22 that it felt "sorrow" over the execution of two opposition leaders in "brother Bangladesh," calling for national reconciliation.

"Turkey, a country that abolished capital punishment, preserves its belief that execution is not a way to heal past wounds," the ministry said in a press release.

More than 400,000 Syrian refugee children in Turkey are unable to attend school despite a Turkish government move allowing them access to the Turkish schooling system, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.