Author: Human Rights Watch

United States President Donald Trump, on his first day in office on January 20, 2025, issued numerous executive orders that threaten to undermine respect for international human rights both in the US and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today.  “The sweeping scope and impact of these executive orders is deeply alarming,” said Tirana Hassan, executive […]

On January 14, prominent activist and former president of Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, Sihem Bensedrine, began a hunger strike while detained in Manouba prison. “I will no longer stand the injustice that strikes me. Justice cannot be based on lies and calumnies, but on concrete, tangible evidence,” she said in a message relayed by her […]

The Guna Indigenous community of Ukupa in Panama has announced a plan for the relocation of their entire village out of harm’s way after December flooding rendered homes in the area uninhabitable. Community members chose relocation as a measure of last resort after the floods and now seek government and international support. This is not […]

Less than three weeks after a December 25 military airstrike in Sokoto state reportedly killed 10 villagers, an airstrike in Zamfara state has resulted in more accidental deaths. The victims, who the military wrongly identified as bandits, were members of a local vigilante group and farmers in the vicinity of Tungar Kara village, Zurmi Local […]

The Cameroonian government in December suspended the activities of four nongovernmental organizations for three months, without any warning or legal basis, in a move that is harming victims of gender-based violence. As one of these organizations provides services to support gender-based violence survivors, its abrupt suspension affected survivors’ access to support and resulted in some survivors […]

On January 9, 2025, Lebanon’s parliament elected military commander Joseph Aoun as president, ending a two-year political deadlock in the country that resulted in a leadership and governance vacuum. In his first remarks to parliament, President Aoun said that “a new phase of Lebanon’s history has begun” and vowed to “protect the sanctity of individual […]

(Beirut) – The Lebanese government on January 8, 2025 unlawfully deported Abdulrahman Youssef al-Qardawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he faces a near-certain unfair trial and serious risks of other abuses including torture, Human Rights Watch said today. Lebanese authorities initially arrested al-Qardawi on December 28, 2024 at the Masnaa […]

Rapid Support Forces fighters and allied militias have raped scores of women and girls, including in the context of sexual slavery, in Sudan’s South Kordofan state since September 2023. Conflict-related sexual violence is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, and a war crime. Sexual violence may constitute crimes against humanity […]

United Nations member countries should take urgent steps to end the UN’s financial troubles, which are hindering human rights investigations in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, and elsewhere. This difficult situation will get even worse if the incoming US administration follows through on threats to stop funding key UN agencies that provide lifesaving aid and protection. […]

Play Video (Beirut) – The state of a mass grave in Damascus and statements by people living in the surrounding area suggest that the area is a mass crime scene and may have been the site of other summary executions, Human Rights Watch said today.  Human Rights Watch visited the site in the southern Damascus neighborhood […]