Author: Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – Syrians fleeing violence in Lebanon face risks of repression and persecution by the Syrian government upon return, including enforced disappearance, torture, and death in detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Since late September 2024, intensified Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have compelled hundreds of thousands of Syrians to flee back to Syria, with strikes killing at […]

An administrative court in Germany this week ordered the deportation of Dilmurod Ergashev, a Tajik opposition political activist, despite the risk of his detention and torture in Tajikistan. On October 28, a court in the city of Kleve, near Germany’s border with the Netherlands, ordered Ergashev’s deportation in early November. If deported to Tajikistan, whose […]

(Istanbul, November 1, 2024) – Türkiye’s continued unlawful detention of the human rights defender Osman Kavala is a result of prosecutors and courts effectively operating under the political control of the government, three human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said in a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights regarding his case. The […]

With the United States election one week away, millions of voters have the opportunity to support human rights as they cast their ballots. Ten states have abortion-related measures on the ballot. Most would enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion has had devastating impacts on health […]

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be rejigging a plan to auction off the rights to drill for oil and gas in 30 blocks across the country. On October 11, Congo’s hydrocarbons minister announced he had cancelled the auction of 27 oil blocks, citing late submissions, inappropriate or irregular offers, and a […]

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese government should annul the politically motivated verdict against the democracy activist Duong Van Thai and release him immediately, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 30, 2024, a Hanoi court convicted Duong Van Thai of issuing propaganda against the state under article 117 of the penal code and sentenced him to 12 […]

(Yerevan, October 31, 2024) – The Armenian government’s bill for the mandatory installation of video surveillance systems with 24-hour police access throughout the capital, Yerevan, is unjustified and interferes with privacy and other rights, Human Rights Watch said today.  The bill, which passed its first parliamentary review in June 2024, requires private entities in Yerevan to […]

A. Kayum Ahmed Since the US seized control of Guam during World War II, its military has turned the Pacific island into a fortress, destroying cultural sites, food sources, and limestone forests that contain medicinal plants used by the Indigenous Chamorro people. But on October 14, a Chamorro-led advocacy group, Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian (Prutehi), […]

(Bangkok) – Successive Thai governments have failed to bring to justice former officials charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the deaths of 85 people, as well as injuries to hundreds following the violent dispersal of ethnic Malay Muslim protesters in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province two decades ago, Human Rights Watch said […]

Joe Stork, a beloved mentor and friend to human rights activists across the Middle East and a treasured colleague whose career at Human Rights Watch spanned more than three decades, died unexpectedly on October 23, 2024, at his home in Washington, DC. He was 81. Stork, who joined Human Rights Watch in 1996 as the […]