Governments should act on climate crisis during UN conference #COP26; call for large protests against coup in Sudan; comment on a very alarming Taliban handbook; new reports detail torture in Myanmar; the International Court of Justice should have more women judges; security forces in Chad enjoy impunity; and some good news from the United States.

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As the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (#COP26) begins on Monday, 140 organizations, among them Human Rights Watch, have voiced concern about the impacts of extracting minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper for renewable energy technologies on communities, workers and ecosystems around the world. They published a joint declaration, a must-read for #COP26 participants.

Protest groups in Sudan are calling for the military to immediately rescind power, and are planning large protests on Saturday. International and regional actors should make clear that respect for the rights to peaceful assembly and expression is non-negotiable and military forces should not be deployed to repress those rights.

Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s provinces use a manual that imposes rules harsher than the abusive policies announced by their leaders in Kabul. And Taliban authorities often do not comply with the rights protections that the manual, from the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue, sets out. 

Reports of torture by Myanmar’s long-abusive security forces are being increasingly well-documented. An expose by the Associated Press includes credible and consistent accounts of torture of 28 detainees released in recent months, with information from victims, medical forensic analysts, and military defectors who witnessed abuse. 

What’s 76 years old, and 3.7 percent female? Sounds like a joke, right? But it’s not funny at all, especially when it refers to a global judicial body. The International Court of Justice has only had four female judges in its history.

The government of Chad has failed to take any responsibility for its security forces’ abusive use of force against peaceful protesters in the capital N’Djamena on October 2. The right to peaceful protest came under attack almost immediately after Chad’s Transitional Military Council took over in April and imposed a ban on demonstrations.

And there is some good news from the United States.