Author: Human Rights Watch

The Trump administration is poised to mount a two-pronged attack on refugee resettlement. The first prong is quantitative: refugee admissions would be slashed from 125,000 in the fiscal year that just ended to 7,500. The second is qualitative: selecting who among the world’s 42.7 million refugees would be chosen for rescue. The US refugee resettlement […]

On October 9, Human Rights Watch with Tokyo-based Human Rights Now and Peace Boat held an event at the Japanese Diet to press the Japanese government to step up its efforts to defend the International Criminal Court(ICC). The ICC, a court of last resort for victims of serious crimes around the world, has been under extreme pressure from the […]

As European Union leaders and foreign ministers prepare for meetings to discuss the situation in Israel and Palestine, some of their representatives in Brussels, and Israel’s new ambassador to the EU, have been pushing for the European Commission to amend or withdraw its proposals to sanction “extremist” Israeli ministers and suspend the EU-Israel trade deal. […]

(Seoul) – Chinese authorities since 2024 have forcibly returned at least 406 people to North Korea, where they are at grave risk of persecution and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. The Chinese government’s forced return of North Koreans puts them at high risk of torture, wrongful imprisonment, sexual violence, forced labor, and possible execution, in […]

On October 15, the Supreme Court will rehear Louisiana v. Callais, which could determine whether Black voters have a meaningful chance at equal representation in Congress. The question before the court is a crucial one: does creating majority-Black districts to comply with the Voting Rights Act amount to unconstitutional racial discrimination? In 2022, Louisiana lawmakers drew a […]

Play Video Read a text description of this video SOUNDBITES Toto Arara Every year, the invaders clear more land for cattle. Then they burn it.   SOUNDBITES Givanildo dos Santos Lima Today, the biggest driver of deforestation in the Amazon region is cattle ranching. DATE/PLACE February 2025 Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, Brazil   Powdem Arara […]

A country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures total economic output, is central to how governments assess their economies. But this figure, when looked at in isolation, which is most often the case, incentivizes economic systems that value aggregate productivity, without reflecting environmental degradation, inequality or human rights. A new 14-member high-level expert group, appointed by […]

Today the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs voted to adopt its position amending the European Union’s landmark corporate accountability law that will seriously curtail efforts to mitigate the impact of businesses on human rights and the environment. The “Omnibus I” proposal severely undermines essential elements of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), adopted […]

(Milan, October 13, 2025) – Italy should revoke its damaging migrant cooperation agreement with Libya, Human Rights Watch said today. The Italy-Libya Memorandum of Understanding on migration cooperation will renew automatically for three years on November 2, 2025, if neither party revokes it or makes any revisions by that date. The agreement, signed in 2017, […]

On Monday evening, Myanmar military paramotors, or motorized paragliders, dropped munitions on a candlelit Buddhist festival in Sagaing Region, killing at least 21 people, including three children as young as 2. Hundreds of villagers had gathered in a primary school compound to celebrate the Thadingyut holiday and demonstrate against military abuses in the embattled region. […]