Dong Samuel Luak, a prominent South Sudanese lawyer and human rights advocate, has been missing since the night of 23 January.

Current government rules separate child refugees in the UK from their families overseas, should they ever be located. Children are the only refugees in our system, recognised to be this country’s responsibility yet denied the right to sponsor family members to join them in the UK.

This permanently separates extremely vulnerable children from their families as neither their parents nor their siblings are ever permitted to join them here. This puts child refugees’ safety and well-being at risk.

With less than a week left in his term, former President Barack Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence on 17 January. While this welcome move was long overdue, the US government must now investigate the potential human rights violations that she exposed.

Jailed Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi is in urgent need of specialized medical care. After multiple episodes of coughing up blood, doctors at Tehran’s Evin prison have said that he has bronchitis and a lung infection, and needs immediate medical treatment outside prison. Despite this, prison authorities have refused to transfer him to hospital.

Five indigenous (Orang Asli) human rights defenders and two journalists were arbitrarily detained by the Department of Forestry on 23 January following peaceful protests against logging licences granted by local authorities. They have all been released, but fears of a continuing crackdown remain.

Issa al-Nukheifi, a Saudi Arabian human rights activist, was detained again and remains in detention since 18 December. He is a prisoner of conscience and should be released immediately.

Women, men and children could freeze to death as arctic weather sweeps across the Greek islands this week. Trapped in squalid detention camps, refugees are surviving in flimsy, snow-covered tents as temperatures plummet below zero. No one should be left to live or die like this. Call on the President of the European Commission to move people to a safe place on the mainland now.

After more than 13 years since Huang Zhiqiang, Fang Chunping, Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe were originally sentenced to death, the Jiangxi Provincial Higher People’s Court has announced a not-guilty verdict.

Despite some continuing restrictions, humanitarian services such as food distribution, nutrition assistance and primary healthcare are slowly resuming in northern Rakhine State.

Hindu fisherman Rasraj Das was granted bail on 16 January 2017 after spending more than two months in jail for allegedly posting an “offensive” image on Facebook.