Author: Human Rights Watch

Five years ago, on July 11, 2021, Cuba experienced its largest nationwide demonstrations since the 1959 Revolution, as thousands took to the streets amid severe shortages and calls for greater rights and freedoms. The government responded with a wave of repression, deepening decades of restrictions on dissent. Rights groups Justicia 11J and Prisoners Defenders estimate […]

Governments should disregard the statement from the US President Donald Trump-chaired Board of Peace that “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza,” the latest salvo in the US and Israeli government’s long-running campaign to destroy the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Even before October 2023, UNRWA provided lifesaving humanitarian aid and […]

The French government is expected at any moment to unveil troubling draft legislation to address so-called entryism: the idea that certain groups seek to infiltrate state institutions to influence and promote an ideological agenda. If adopted, the bill would further erode the country’s already shrinking civic space. The entryism bill would aim to strengthen the 2021 […]

Following France’s July 4 victory over Paraguay, Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla attacked French player Kylian Mbappé with dehumanizing remarks. The Dutch and German national teams’ elimination from the round of 32 prompted racist posts online. An Argentina fan was reportedly caught on video on July 7 making racist gestures at American YouTuber IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.). FIFA released analysis on July […]

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas on July 7. This is the latest in a string of shooting incidents involving federal immigration agents over the past two years. Salgado, who had reportedly lived in the United States for nearly 35 years, leaves behind a wife […]

(Berlin, July 9, 2026) – Civilians trapped in front-line areas of the Russian-occupied Khersonska region in southern Ukraine face dire humanitarian conditions and have no safe way to leave, Human Rights Watch said today. Civilians who wish to evacuate should be allowed to do so safely. Residents who escaped the city of Oleshky, on the east bank […]

(Kinshasa) – Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo used excessive force against protesters demonstrating against a proposed law that could extend President Félix Tshisekedi’s term on June 12, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The security forces used tear gas and batons in the capital, Kinshasa, to prevent a group of protesters created to defend […]

Georgian authorities are using repressive laws, funding restrictions, and politically motivated criminal investigations to dismantle independent civil society.  New laws place virtually all foreign funding under strict government control, impose stigmatizing “foreign agent” labels, and threaten activists and independent groups with severe fines and prison sentences. The government should repeal these unjustifiable legal measures and […]

Georgian authorities are using repressive laws, funding restrictions, and politically motivated criminal investigations to dismantle independent civil society.  New laws place virtually all foreign funding under strict government control, impose stigmatizing “foreign agent” labels, and threaten activists and independent groups with severe fines and prison sentences. The government should repeal these unjustifiable legal measures and […]

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law on July 7 amending the constitution to extend presidential terms from five to seven years. The amendment, approved by parliament last month, also abolishes the election of the president by popular vote and establishes a parliamentary method for selecting the president. Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution limited the term of a president to […]