Author: Human Rights Watch

(Kinshasa) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s sudden withdrawal from the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 17, 2026, has put civilians at grave risk from abusive Wazalendo militias, Human Rights Watch said today. After the M23 and Rwandan forces captured Uvira on December 10, M23 forces threatened, harassed, and assaulted people […]

On January 19, a court in Makhachkala, the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan region, sentenced women’s rights defender and journalist Svetlana Anokhina to five years in prison for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces. The sentence was handed down in absentia: Anokhina left Russia in 2021 after a shelter her organization Marem […]

Uganda’s electoral commission has declared President Yoweri Museveni as the winner of the January 15 elections, securing his seventh term in office with 71 percent of the vote.  The weeks leading up to the elections were marred by rights abuses. Security officers reportedly beat and arrested hundreds of people during opposition rallies, indiscriminately fired teargas, […]

(Bangkok) – The Sri Lanka government’s proposed counterterrorism legislation includes numerous provisions similar to the current abusive law and risks facilitating the same kind of repression, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill does not meet benchmarks set out by the United Nations counterterrorism expert or comply with human rights obligations and commitments that Sri Lanka […]

The recent death of Sha Bahadur Gurung, one of Bhutan’s longest serving political prisoners, is a tragic reminder of the injustice and needless suffering endured by alleged government critics in Bhutan’s grim prisons.  Gurung, 65, was arrested in 1990 while he was a member of the Royal Bhutan Army and accused of attending protests demanding […]

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council should use its January 19 ambassadorial-level meeting to address the urgent protection needs and escalating abuses in South Sudan.  The meeting follows a visit by the AU High-Level Ad Hoc Committee on South Sudan, during which they assessed the 2018 peace agreement’s implementation, which has been undermined by, […]

Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026. The mass killings by Iranian security forces are a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account. UN member states should urgently convene a special session […]

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese government has escalated arrests of perceived dissidents in the weeks before Vietnam’s 14th Communist Party Congress, which is scheduled to begin on January 19, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should end its intensifying campaign against its critics and release everyone imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their political views. […]

(Geneva) – A new United Nations report about sexual violence related to Sri Lanka’s civil war is another step forward in the struggle for accountability for crimes under international law that were committed in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today. The UN report, issued on January 13, 2026, finds that sexual violence was “part […]

Syrian government forces and local Bedouin and Druze armed groups all carried out grave abuses during clashes in Syria’s southern Sweida governorate in July 2025. Abuses included summary killings, outrages on personal dignity, and abductions. As many as 187,000 people have been displaced. The Syrian authorities need to demonstrate they are a government for all […]