PNG/BOUGAINVILLE Two women MPs elected in Bougainville’s first election after the vote for independence in 2019 will serve in the cabinet of the new government. READ HERE. One of them is involved in a complaint to the Australian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for MNEs about the continuing human rights and environmental impacts of waste from Rio Tinto’s abandoned Panguna Copper mine. Rio Tinto has agreed to enter mediation. READ MORE
LAOS Laos rejected 66 of 226 recommendations made during its UPR at the UN Human Rights Council. These covered repression of dissent and ‘disappearances’ including that of Sombath Somphone who was ‘disappeared’ in 2012. READ MORE
INDIA The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing condemned the forcible eviction of 250,000 people along the railway line in Delhi. There was no consultation and people have been forbidden from appealing against the evictions. READ MORE
NEW CALEDONIA The second of three independence referenda resulted in an increase in votes for independence. Nic Maclellan argues that despite losing the vote, the outcome will ensure greater self-determination for the territory. READ HERE
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