Author: Human Rights Watch

Belarus’s parliament adopted a new law on April 2 banning “propaganda” of same-sex relationships, of “gender reassignment,” and even of “childlessness.” This furthers the legal and political alignment between Belarus and Russia,which both seek to stigmatize minority groups, control public discourse, and suppress dissent. “Propaganda” is vaguely defined in the law as the dissemination of “appealing” […]

(Bangkok) – Thai authorities should urgently, thoroughly, and impartially investigate the assassination attempt on Kamonsak Leewamoh, a Muslim member of parliament and prominent human rights lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today.  On March 20, 2026, at about 1 a.m., gunmen in a pickup truck opened fire with M-16 assault rifles at Kamonsak’s minivan as he was […]

The Burkina Faso military with its allied militias and an Al Qaeda-linked armed group have killed more than 1,800 civilians and forcibly displaced tens of thousands since 2023. The junta is committing horrific abuses itself, failing to hold those responsible on all sides to account, and curtailing reporting to obscure the suffering of civilians caught […]

The Central African Republic’s Special Criminal Court announced the death of its first special prosecutor, Toussaint Muntazini, on March 25 after a long illness. His passing is a profound loss for victims of serious crimes. Muntazini, a Congolese military judge and former attorney general of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be remembered as a […]

(Beirut) – More than 100 Israeli strikes across Lebanon on April 8, 2026, including in densely populated neighborhoods in Beirut, killed over 300 people and damaged the last main bridge linking southern Lebanon with the rest of the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli strikes making bridge crossings over the Litani River unusable threaten […]

Since its establishment in 1991, one of the most reliable messengers about life for Palestinian children under Israeli occupation had been a group called Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP). But on April 7 the group ended its operations due to what it said were “challenges resulting from Israel’s targeted criminalization of Palestinian human rights organizations.” […]

On the night of March 29, gunmen attacked the Angwan Rukuba community in Nigeria’s Plateau state, killing over 28 people and injuring many others, according to the state governor. The attack, which targeted a densely populated area, highlights persistent patterns of violence in northern Nigeria, where killings, kidnappings, and limited state protection leave communities extremely vulnerable. According […]

Emboldened by President Donald Trump’s abusive mass deportation agenda and Congress recently approving a supersized budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun purchasing warehouses across the country to detain people in its custody. One of the most alarming developments of this initiative is unfolding in Surprise, Arizona, where ICE […]

The new campaign of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to recruit children as young as 12 for patrols and security checkpoints has been widely condemned. Military recruitment and use of children is a grave violation of children’s rights and a war crime when children are under 15. The world has come a long way in just a […]

Since the 1990s conflicts in the Balkans, Croatia suffered from the scourge of landmines, with hundreds of civilians killed and thousands of acres of land inaccessible due to contamination. In March, the country celebrated becoming mine-free, following a US$1.38 billion, 30-year clearance campaign. Croatia’s story underscores the value of the Mine Ban Treaty and should encourage more […]