Author: Human Rights Watch

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), along with its coalition partner Japan Innovation Party and the opposition Democratic Party for the People, and Sanseito, jointly submitted a bill on June 16 that would criminalize “publicly damaging, removing, or defacing” Japan’s national flag in a “way or situation that evokes significant discomfort or disgust in people.” The […]

French police issue on-the-spot fines for alleged public disturbance offenses to harass boys and young men perceived as Black, Arab, or North African and evict them from public space in their own neighborhoods. Children and young men have received fines that can grow to tens of thousands of euros, causing immense economic hardship, and social […]

(Beirut) – Israeli authorities are accelerating home demolitions and forced evictions of Palestinian residents in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The forcible deportation or transfer of the population of an occupied territory within or outside the territory, unless justified on a temporary basis for the protection of the […]

(London) – Indian authorities are forcibly expelling ethnic Bengali residents, mostly Muslims from West Bengal state, to Bangladesh without basic due process, Human Rights Watch said today. Indian Border Security Force (BSF) actions, combined with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) efforts to block those expelled from entering, has left dozens of families stranded at the “zero line” between […]

The recent arrest of a prominent political analyst on Myanmar visiting China demonstrates Beijing’s intensifying intolerance of any independent voices or viewpoints not to their liking. On June 3, Chinese authorities reportedly detained Min Zin, a US citizen from Myanmar and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, as he flew into Yunnan province […]

Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight. Section 219 creates the role of an “executive agent” focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air […]

(Washington, DC) – A prosecutor in the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta was shot and killed on June 14, 2026, the most recent in a series of killings of judicial officials in Ecuador, Human Rights Watch said today. Gloria Alexandra Bravo Cedeño is the third prosecutor to be killed in Manta since 2022. Ecuadorian authorities should […]

Syria’s 14-year conflict destroyed vast swathes of the country and killed hundreds of thousands, but it also left behind over 1.5 million Syrians with war-caused disabilities. Syria’s minister of social affairs, Hind Kabawat, acknowledged this dire situation on June 9 at a UN meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities in New York, calling on international partners […]

US President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act into law on June 10, including roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement. The legislation funds several agencies through September 2029, including approximately $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $26 billion for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Congressional approval for this legislation comes after months […]

A Baku court’s June 12 decision to convict prominent human rights defender Rufat Safarov on bogus criminal charges and sentence him to eight years in prison is the latest blow to Azerbaijan’s already severely restricted civic space. Safarov, executive director of the human rights organization Defense Line (Müdafiə Xətti), was convicted by the Baku Court […]