Author: Human Rights Watch

Fourteen newborns died in a fire on August 26 at one of Pakistan’s largest public hospitals, and their shattered families are asking how this could have happened. The preliminary inquiry report found that the neonatal ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, had no fire alarm or sprinkler system, and that […]

The government-controlled municipal court in Phnom Penh on September 2, 2026 sentenced three activists to seven years in prison for allegedly plotting against the government. They were 25-year-old student leader Thy Thorn and two political opposition activists, Soeung Kunthea and Mean Chanthon. Kunthea and Chanthon were arrested in Thailand in November 2024 and summarily deported […]

The UK Home Office is pushing ahead with plans to use AI technology to guess the age of young people arriving at UK borders to seek asylum, starting in 2027. Yet the Home Office’s own tests found the technology performed worse on certain groups of people, notably Africans. The plans severely endanger the human rights of children seeking asylum and should be […]

The Canadian government’s elimination of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), announced on June 11, marks a significant step backwards in the fight for accountability for human rights abuses by Canadian companies. The CORE, established in 2019, investigates rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad in the oil and gas, mining, and garment sectors. For example, […]

(Berlin, June 18, 2026) – Uzbek authorities should release a local human rights activist accused of extortion and investigate his allegations of abuse in police custody, Human Rights Watch said today. Javokhir Muminov, the activist, told his lawyer on June 10, 2026, that following his arrest, police officers had beaten and suffocated him. “This criminal […]

China has pledged to strengthen protections for gig workers, and on June 12 the country voted for a landmark International Labour Organization (ILO) convention on “Decent Work in the Platform Economy.” These commitments could matter: an estimated 320 million people in China now rely on flexible, tasked-based gig work for employment, according to a new […]

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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

With Hungary’s reversal of its decision to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Union has an opportunity to extend the significance of this moment for international justice well beyond Budapest. EU leaders should state clearly and with one voice in the conclusion of the upcoming June 18-19 European Council meeting that their support […]