Author: Human Rights Watch

Media discussions in Cameroon about the health of its president, Paul Biya, 91, are now outlawed.  On October 9, the territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a communique saying that the health of President Biya is a “security issue,” that any media debate on the state of the president is “formally forbidden,” and that “offenders” will […]

On October 11, the United Nations Human Rights Council extended the mandate of its team of international experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo for another year. This was crucial, given the country’s deepening human rights and humanitarian crises, and an intensifying government crackdown on opposition party members, journalists, activists, and other critics of the government. The resolution, […]

A deadly military airstrike in Kaduna state, Nigeria, on September 27 claimed the lives of 24 people and injured dozens more, according to media reports, which stated that the strike was intended for criminal gangs popularly referred to as bandits, but instead killed others. This incident follows a series of erroneous military airstrikes that have killed hundreds […]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have in recent months joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse. Criminal groups have increased recruitment of children as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and the Haitian […]

Azerbaijani authorities have used politically motivated, bogus criminal charges to prosecute and imprison civic activists, journalists, and human rights defenders just months before Azerbaijan is to host COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The government arbitrarily enforces highly restrictive laws regulating nongovernmental organizations to limit their ability to register, access funding, or operate legally. […]

Russia’s human rights situation has been deteriorating for years, but in the two years since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the authorities’ campaign of repression has accelerated alarmingly. Reporting to the UN Human Rights Council last month, the UN special rapporteur on Russia captured this pointedly, stating: “systematic human rights violations are part of […]

Cambodian authorities have reportedly collaborated with the Malaysian government to arrest and deport Nuon Thoeun, a Cambodian worker, after she posted criticisms of Cambodia’s former long-time prime minister and current Senate president, Hun Sen, on her Facebook page. This is just the latest incident of the Cambodian government restricting freedom of expression beyond its borders. Cambodian […]

Yesterday the European Commission proposed a substantial delay in the implementation of its landmark anti-deforestation law. This is bad news for the climate-critical forests around the world as well as the human rights of Indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.  The European Union’s Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) is a piece of legislation that required considerable […]

(Manila) – Philippine authorities should fully investigate and appropriately prosecute new revelations of extrajudicial killings involving former and current officials during the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte, Human Rights Watch said today. Since August 2024, the Philippine House of Representatives have held joint hearings that have examined extrajudicial killings in the “war on drugs” and whether […]

(Nairobi) – Police in Chad forced the cancelation of a conference in the capital, N’Djamena, on October 2, 2024, that was planned to discuss justice for the victims of abuse by Hissène Habré, Human Rights Watch said today. The police also detained a former Human Rights Watch counsel who was to be a keynote speaker at the […]