Author: Human Rights Watch

This week, member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) from all regions overwhelmingly voted to renew the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan, established in 2023. The move was widely backed by Sudanese activists. The fact-finding mission is mandated to investigate crimes committed by Sudan’s warring parties and advance accountability […]

(Geneva) –The United Nations Human Rights Council, in extending its Venezuela probe, has sent a clear message to those responsible for ongoing abuses, including in the context of post-electoral repression, that they will be held to account, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 11, 2024, the council adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the Independent International […]

(New York) – Chinese authorities should immediately release the man who unfurled banners critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the draconian “Zero-Covid” policy on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge two years ago, Human Rights Watch said today.  The authorities have not released information about the protester’s identity, though many in China believe that his name is Peng Lifa (彭立发, also known as […]

The awarding of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo acknowledges the central role of hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in working to eradicate nuclear weapons. Their resilience and determination have ensured the work to ban nuclear weapons will continue. The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear […]

(Brussels) – European Union and member states’ leaders should urge their Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterparts to release unjustly jailed critics and commit to substantive human rights reforms at an October 16, 2024 summit, Human Rights Watch said today. The EU should also push for structural reforms on freedom of expression, freedom of association, labor […]

Media discussions in Cameroon about the health of its president, Paul Biya, 91, are now outlawed.  On October 9, the territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a communique saying that the health of President Biya is a “security issue,” that any media debate on the state of the president is “formally forbidden,” and that “offenders” will […]

On October 11, the United Nations Human Rights Council extended the mandate of its team of international experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo for another year. This was crucial, given the country’s deepening human rights and humanitarian crises, and an intensifying government crackdown on opposition party members, journalists, activists, and other critics of the government. The resolution, […]

A deadly military airstrike in Kaduna state, Nigeria, on September 27 claimed the lives of 24 people and injured dozens more, according to media reports, which stated that the strike was intended for criminal gangs popularly referred to as bandits, but instead killed others. This incident follows a series of erroneous military airstrikes that have killed hundreds […]

Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have in recent months joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse. Criminal groups have increased recruitment of children as a response to the law enforcement operations of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission and the Haitian […]

Azerbaijani authorities have used politically motivated, bogus criminal charges to prosecute and imprison civic activists, journalists, and human rights defenders just months before Azerbaijan is to host COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The government arbitrarily enforces highly restrictive laws regulating nongovernmental organizations to limit their ability to register, access funding, or operate legally. […]