Author: Human Rights Watch

In a living-room-sized hall of a political party’s Cairo headquarters, family members of prisoners gathered around a photo exhibition on May 12. There, they shared grievances and called on Egyptian authorities to release their loved ones. In the days that followed, the National Security Agency summoned several of the families for interrogation and detained a […]

A new UNESCO report illustrates how education can empower children and their communities to access their human rights. It also shows that education and justice can uphold the rule of law in contexts where it’s in decline and where children live in conditions of extreme injustice.  Human Rights Watch has long documented the consequences of […]

(Washington, DC) – The United States government is conditioning lifesaving health assistance on broad access to surveillance data and extractive rights to pathogen samples and data for pharmaceutical development, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued an assessment of seven bilateral health agreements signed in late 2025 with Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, […]

Hungarian prosecutors announced on June 4 that they had dropped charges against a mayor and a civic activist for their roles in organizing 2025 Pride events in Budapest and Pécs. The charges, which were brought under Fidesz-era anti-LGBT legislation, were part of the former government’s crackdown on civic space and LGBT rights. Prosecutors had filed criminal charges this […]

Tens of thousands of protesters marched simultaneously through central London on 16 May in two separate large-scale demonstrations. Though the protesters were from opposing sides of the political spectrum, the protests were, by and large, peaceful—calling into question the need for the cumulative disruption and house of worship provisions enacted as a part of the Crime and Policing Act […]

(Johannesburg) – A Zimbabwe court on June 3, 2026, acquitted and released a prominent opposition activist after more than seven months in detention on baseless charges, Human Rights Watch said today. The case underscores the ongoing weaponization of the criminal justice system by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.  A Harare magistrates’ court acquitted Godfrey Chidhau Karembera, 47, popularly […]

(Beirut) – The de facto Houthi authorities in Yemen should immediately and unconditionally release the dozens of staff from the United Nations and Yemeni and international civil society organizations who have been arbitrarily detained over the last two years, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. The Houthis’ […]

Two journalists affiliated with the YouTube channel Imbarutso ya Demokarasi are facing charges for reporting on Kwa Kabuga or the Kigali Transit Center, an unofficial detention facility where authorities hold people deemed “undesirable,” and one of the capital’s worst kept secrets.  Augustin Nsanzimana, a cameraman and editor, and Emmanuel Niyonshuti, a broadcast journalist, are currently […]

(Berlin, June 5, 2026) – On June 4, 2026, Russian officials included a leading rights group, OVD-Info, along with 35 other Russian organizations, in its list of “extremists,” Human Rights Watch said today. A designation as “extremist” entails being barred from engaging in any activities for the group, under threat of a lengthy prison sentence. […]

A new report from Global Rights Compliance details the toll of state-imposed forced labor on North Korean workers, serving as a reminder that the products of this labor often enter global supply chains, including those flowing through the European Union. More than 100,000 North Koreans are estimated to work overseas across 40 countries, with large numbers in Russia […]