Author: Human Rights Watch

(Nairobi) – Pro-government militias in Burkina Faso are implicated in video footage circulating on social networks showing the massacre of dozens of civilians in and around the western city of Solenzo on March 10 and 11, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should impartially investigate and appropriately prosecute all those responsible for serious crimes.

Human Rights Watch reviewed 11 videos that circulated on social networks starting on March 11, which showed dozens of dead men, women, and children, as well as dozens of others alive, some with visible injuries, with their hands and feet bound. In the videos, armed men are standing by or walking among the bodies, instructing, and in some cases insulting, those being detained. The armed men are wearing identifiable uniforms of local militias known as Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie (Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, or VDPs). Some wear green T-shirts reading “Groupe d’autodéfense de Mahouna” (Mahouna Self-Defense Group) and “Force Rapide de Kouka” (Kouka Rapid Force), two local militia groups in Mahouna and Kouka localities in Banwa province, whose capital is Solenzo.

“The gruesome videos of an apparent massacre by pro-government militias in Burkina Faso underscore the pervasive lack of accountability of these forces,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Burkinabè authorities should take immediate action to end militia group attacks on civilians by punishing those responsible for atrocities like in Solenzo.”

Based on video analysis, media reports, and local sources, most victims appear to be ethnic Fulani. Sources said that on March 10 and 11, security forces and allied militias carried out large-scale operations in the Solenzo countryside and targeted displaced Fulani in apparent retaliatory attacks against the community, which the government has long accused of supporting Islamist fighters. Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso have concentrated their recruitment efforts on the Fulani by exploiting their frustrations over government corruption and competition over natural resources.

Burkinabè authorities have not issued any public communication about the videos—which have had thousands of views—or about military operations in Solenzo. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm the exact locations where the videos were recorded.

One 29-second video shared on Telegram on March 12 shows a dead woman bleeding from the head on the ground alongside a toddler in apparently critical condition lying face-up in the dirt. The man filming can be heard saying in Mooré, a language widely spoken in Burkina Faso: “It’s the work of your parents that brought you here. You think you can get all of Burkina Faso. This is your end.”

Another video, two minutes and eight seconds long, shows a young woman who appears to be seriously injured on the ground and a toddler next to her about 2 years old. Two male voices can be heard speaking in Mooré and asking the woman: “You say you can’t stand up—do you want us to leave with your child? Why don’t you stand up?” The woman replies that she’s in pain.

Someone off camera says: “You, the Fulani people, do you think you can take over Burkina Faso? You will never! What is left for you to do here is to disappear. Where are those holding weapons?” The woman replies that she does not know, and one of the two male voices says “How come you don’t know? We will finish you.” At the end of the video, a man picks up the child.

In a 33-second video, men armed with knives and guns throw a man still alive onto a three-wheel vehicle loaded with what appears to be at least 10 bodies of men and women. Some armed men celebrate as the vehicle drives off.

Human Rights Watch counted 58 people who appear to be dead or dying in the videos, a conservative estimate as some bodies were piled atop others. Two bodies appear to be of children. In one video, a man is alive, speaking to the gunmen. In another, the same man appears to be dead, his body thrown into the back of the three-wheel vehicle. In another video, 4 people, including a young child, are alive, surrounded by about 35 dead or dying people. Human Rights Watch could not confirm what happened to them.

International news outlets AFP, RFI, and Jeune Afrique reported on the killings in the days after March 11.

Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso have been responsible for numerous grave abuses, including killing and the forced displacement of civilians. The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) has repeatedly attacked civilians as well as government security forces and VDP militias in Banwa province.

The nongovernmental organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) reported that on October 31, 2024, the JNIM killed 51 civilians in Ban village, 15 kilometers from Solenzo, in apparent retaliation against the local community accused of joining the VDPs. ACLED also reported that on November 21, the JNIM attacked VDPs in Baye village, 12 kilometers from Solenzo, killing 17 militia members. On November 25, Solenzo residents protested over growing insecurity. The protest turned violent, and the crowd killed the village chief.

In response to the growing presence of armed Islamist groups, the Burkinabè security forces and VDPs have carried out military operations in Banwa province. On January 2, 2025, President Ibrahim Traoré appointed Captain Papa Parfait Kambou commander of the Rapid Intervention Battalion 18 (Bataillon d’Intervention Rapide, or BIR-18), a special force involved in counterinsurgency operations, which, according to the official Burkinabè news agency, is based in Solenzo.

Human Rights Watch has documented that Burkinabè armed forces and VDPs have committed widespread abuses during counterinsurgency operations across the country, including unlawful killings of Fulani civilians whom they accuse of supporting Islamist fighters.

“Every jihadist attack comes with a reprisal,” said an ethnic Fulani man who fled the Solenzo area over a year ago. “Being a Fulani today is synonymous with being a terrorist…. My family members are still around Bèna [16 kilometers from Solenzo], and I fear some of them might have been attacked, too.”

All parties to the armed conflict in Burkina Faso are bound by international humanitarian law, which includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. Common Article 3 prohibits murder, torture, and ill-treatment of civilians and captured fighters. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes. Commanders who knew or should have known about serious abuses by their forces and do not take appropriate action may be prosecuted as a matter of command responsibility.

“As the armed conflict in Burkina Faso enters its ninth year, security forces and their allied militias and Islamist armed groups are committing serious crimes against an exhausted population without fear of consequence,” Allegrozzi said. “A concerted response by the authorities to the information implicating the militias in Solenzo would send a message that the government takes ending impunity seriously.”

This month, a court in Azerbaijan convicted the prominent opposition leader Tofig Yagublu on fabricated forgery and fraud charges, sentencing him to nine years in prison. Yagublu’s prosecution and imprisonment is part of the Azerbaijani government’s relentless efforts to silence dissenting voices in the country.

Yagublu, 64, is a former journalist and a senior member of the National Council of Democratic Forces, a coalition of opposition parties and pro-democracy activists. 

Following Yagublu’s arrest in December 2023, police searched his home and claim to have found €5,000 (about US$5,427), 2,500 Azerbaijani manat (about US$1,470), and an unspecified amount in US dollars. The authorities allege that Yagublu was involved in a scheme to supply fake documents to a third party to support an asylum application. Yagublu and his family deny having had the money in their possession and believe the police planted it during their search.

This is not Yagublu’s first time in prison. For years, the authorities have targeted him with politically motivated charges. He spent three years behind bars on false incitement charges. Following his release in 2016, he was arrested again in October 2019 after participating in an unsanctioned rally. In 2021 he was subjected to ill-treatment in custody in retaliation for his activism.

Yagublu is among dozens of opposition figures, journalists, rights defenders, scholars, and activists against whom the authorities have brought a wave of politically motivated arrests.

Since December 2024, the courts have delivered lengthy prison sentences against at least eight journalists and activists, including Aziz Orucov, director of Kanal 13, and Teymur Karimov, director of Kanal 11; labor rights activists Mohyaddin Orucov and Afiaddin Mammadov; political activists Bakhtiyar Hajiyev and Rail Abbasov; human rights lawyer Ilhamiz Guliyev; and human rights defender Elshan Karimov. The charges range from illegal construction, extortion, drug trafficking, and hooliganism to financial crimes, including fraud. 

The Azerbaijani government’s pattern of using the criminal justice system to retaliate against its critics is well documented, including by the European Court of Human Rights. The authorities should immediately free Yagublu and all other unjustly imprisoned journalists and activists and allow them to operate without undue government interference.

President Trump’s pick to lead the United States Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, will soon oversee the federal government’s response to labor rights issues across the US. One of her key priorities should be taking action to end hazardous child labor.

In recent years, investigative reports from around the US showed children working harrowing overnight shifts in slaughterhouses and using wildly dangerous machinery in auto body plants. These were not isolated incidents. In October 2024, the Department of Labor reported that child labor violations had increased by 88 percent since 2019.

My colleagues and I have researched hazardous child labor on US farms and interviewed children working exhausting 12-hour shifts in the heat, exposed to toxic pesticides and other dangers. While hiring children to perform hazardous work at meatpacking plants and on factory floors is illegal, most of the dangerous child labor we saw on farms still is not.

Under US labor law, children of any age can work on small farms. At 12, children can work on any-sized farms with parental permission as long as they do not miss school. At 16, children can do jobs considered hazardous on farms, when in every other sector, you must be 18 to do hazardous work.

Under the Biden administration, the Department of Labor stepped up child labor enforcement, which takes time and resources. With the Trump administration slashing federal personnel and budgets, these efforts could be hampered. Besides, enforcement does little to help when the laws are too weak to protect children from danger.

The Trump administration’s cruel immigration agenda will further marginalize children involved in hazardous child labor. Most child farmworkers we interviewed were the children of immigrants. Other investigations found unaccompanied migrant youth at risk. Immigration raids fuel a climate of fear that enables workplace exploitation and makes reporting abuse risky, frightening, and highly unlikely, especially for a child.

The US Congress has an important role in the fight to end child labor. In good news this week, Senators Cory Booker and Josh Hawley reintroduced bipartisan legislation aiming to hold companies with federal contracts accountable for child labor in their operations. Congress should pass this bill and strengthen legal protections for children involved in child labor.

Children’s health, lives, and futures are at stake.

(Beirut) – After months of legal and political wrangling, an amendment to Iraq’s Personal Status Law that entered into force on February 17, 2025, violates women’s and girls’ rights to equality before the law and puts them at risk of other abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. Persistent pressure and advocacy by women’s rights groups partly reduced the amendment’s harm by retaining provisions for the minimum age of marriage, child custody, and polygamy, but the amended law contains other provisions that threaten women’s and girls’ rights.

Under the new law, couples concluding a marriage contract can choose whether the Personal Status Law of 1959 or a Personal Status Code (mudawana), to be developed by the Shia Ja’afari school of Islamic jurisprudence, would govern their marriage, divorce, children, and inheritance. Couples do not have the right to change their choice later. This arrangement effectively establishes separate legal regimes with different rights accorded to different sects, undermining the right to legal equality for all Iraqis found in article 14 of the constitution and international human rights law.

“It’s deeply disheartening to see Iraqi leaders move the country backward rather than forward on women and girls’ rights,” said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Though the final text includes important revisions, particularly on the minimum age of marriage, these changes merely take the law from terrible to just plain bad.”

The final text of the amendment specifies that the minimum age of marriage in the mudawana cannot contravene the Personal Status Law. The law sets the legal age for marriage at 18, or 15 with a judge’s permission and depending on the child’s “maturity and physical capacity.” The provision in the final text alleviates concerns that the amendment would have sanctioned marriages of girls as young as 9, but still contravenes the international legal standard that the minimum age for marriage should be 18.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 28 percent of girls in Iraq are married before the age of 18. Child marriage puts girls at increased risk of sexual and physical violence, adverse physical and mental health consequences, and being denied access to education and employment.

The final text also retains the existing provisions in the Personal Status Law concerning polygamy. Article 3 of the Personal Status Law states polygamy is only allowed with the consent of a judge, who must ensure that the husband can support more than one wife and that there is a “legitimate interest.”

Regarding child custody, the amendment states that the mudawana code may not include “anything that does not align with the best interests of the children,” and guarantees the right of the parent without custody to “meet and communicate with their children in an appropriate manner, duration, and place.”

In the event of a dispute between a husband and wife over which legal regime shall apply, a judge will determine the best interest of both parties. In the previous version, the husband’s decision took precedence, in violation of Iraq’s obligations under international law to uphold equal rights for women. 

The improvements in the final version of the amended law are a testament to the power of Iraqi women’s organizing and advocacy, but the law still violates’ women’s and girls’ rights, Human Rights Watch said.

Article 14 of the Iraqi constitution, as well as international human rights law, guarantee all Iraqis the right to legal equality. The amended code undermines the principle of equality before the law by establishing different legal regimes for different sects of Islam. Sunni religious scholars opposed the amendment and refused to participate in drafting their own mudawana, so only the Ja’afari school will do so.

The amendment also legalizes unregistered marriages, whose harm Human Rights Watch has extensively documented. Human Rights Watch found that unregistered marriages function as loopholes enabling child marriage in Iraq. According to the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq, 22 percent of unregistered marriages involved girls under the age of 14. It is unclear what impact the legalization of unregistered marriages will have in practice. 

Women’s rights groups also fear that granting clerics the authority to conduct marriages will legalize so-called pleasure marriages. In such marriages, a cleric arranges a contract with a dowry for a limited duration, ranging from an hour to a few months. Under the contract, neither spouse receives an inheritance, and the husband is not required to pay any spousal maintenance when the contract expires. These marriages have been condemned by women’s rights groups as a vehicle for sexual exploitation.

The amendment gives the Ja’afari school four months to develop and submit the mudawana to the house of representatives, which shall be obligated to approve it and put it into effect within 30 days. This means lawmakers and the general public will not have a chance to review or vote on the mudawana before it becomes law, removing democratic oversight and granting disproportionate power to religious authorities in setting the law, Human Rights Watch said.

The full extent of the changes will not be clear until the mudawana is submitted. Yet, under the Ja’afari school, a divorced woman has no right to the marital home, spousal maintenance, or her dowry, and her children would continue living with her for only two years, regardless of their age, contingent on her not remarrying.

Parliament passed the Personal Status Law amendment alongside other legislation, including the Property Restitution Law and an amendment to the second General Amnesty Law, together in a single vote on January 21, 2025, rather than voting on each law individually. Several parliament members then filed a lawsuit with the Federal Supreme Court accusing the parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, of procedural irregularities and violations of the voting process.

On February 11, the Federal Supreme Court annulled a state order it had issued on February 4 halting enforcement of the three laws. President Abdul Latif Rashid then ratified the three laws on February 13 and they entered into force on February 17.

The amendment violates the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Iraq ratified in 1986, by depriving women and girls of their rights on the basis of their gender. The amendment also violates the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iraq ratified in 1994, by legalizing child marriage, putting girls at risk of forced and early marriage, leaving them susceptible to sexual abuse, and not requiring decisions about children in divorce cases to be made in the best interests of the child.

The draft amendment appears to violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by depriving certain people of their rights on the basis of their religion.

“The ripple effects created by passing this law will reach far and wide, likely changing the fabric of Iraqi society at the expense of Iraqi women and girls’ independence and ability to make their own decisions,” Sanbar said. 

Nine women journalists in Azerbaijan are marking International Women’s Day behind bars or under house arrest amid the government’s relentless crackdown on critics.

Women journalists and civic activists who speak truth to power face unique risks in Azerbaijan’s patriarchal society. The authorities have a long record of subjecting them to gender-based smear campaigns and trolling in an effort to intimidate and discredit them. As an Azerbaijani woman journalist living in involuntary exile myself, the steep price of criticizing the government – including the gender-based threats – is all too familiar.

But the government’s approach to political persecution is otherwise perversely nondiscriminatory. Its wider, vicious crackdown has targeted an ever-rising number of critics and dissenting voices. Since 2023, authorities have arrested dozens of human rights defenders, journalists, and independent civic activists on politically motivated, bogus criminal charges.

Freelance reporter Fatima Movlamli was arrested just last week, on February 28, and held in pretrial detention. The spurious money laundering charges against her are part of a broader investigation against Meydan TV, an independent news outlet she collaborated with.

“I am a journalist, and I have done nothing criminal,” Movlamli wrote in a personal note following her arrest.   

Movlamli is one of 20 journalists now facing trumped-up money laundering charges. They were rounded up over the course of 13 months and are from five online media outlets, Abzas Media, Meydan TV, Toplum TV, Kanal 13, and Kanal 11. Many face additional, spurious accusations of tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship.

There are eight other women journalists in custody: Sevinj Vagifgizi, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova from Abzas Media; Aynur Elgunash, Aytaj Ahmadova, Aysel Umudova, and Khayala Aghayeva from Meydan TV; and Shahnaz Beylerqizi from Toplum TV. 

On February 26, authorities transferred Beylerqizi to house arrest due to a deteriorating health condition, but she faces a prison sentence if convicted.

No journalist should pay for their work with their freedom. Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop the bogus charges and free all jailed journalists and other activists, allowing them to do their work without government interference.

• People who have escaped from North Korea since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have described severe repression and restrictions on economic activity.
• North Korean escapees’ accounts illustrate the devastating impact of the government’s oppressive Covid-19 measures that further shrank people’s already limited freedoms.
• The UN Human Rights Council should renew the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on North Korea and update the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for North Korea investigation.

(Seoul) – People who have escaped from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have described the government’s severe repression and restrictions on economic activity since the pandemic, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) and Human Rights Watch said today. Concerned governments should increase support for accountability measures and civil society groups that advocate for the rights of North Koreans.

Eight North Koreans living abroad told TJWG and Human Rights Watch about the country’s grave human rights and humanitarian situation. All described a lack of information about Covid-19; restrictions on movement; and limited access to food, medicine, and products like fertilizer, soap, or batteries after the government sealed its borders in 2020. They also said that the government intensified its ideological control and surveillance, targeting people for seeking out foreign media, and failed to adopt measures to mitigate the economic impact of its restrictions.

“North Korean escapees’ accounts illustrate the devastating impact of the government’s oppressive Covid-19 measures that further shrank the already limited freedoms of ordinary people,” said Seungju Lee, profiler at TJWG. “Concerned governments need to refocus on the humanitarian crisis in North Korea and champion accountability measures for abuses.”

Between March 2024 and February 2025, TJWG and Human Rights Watch interviewed three men and five women from various regions of North Korea who escaped the country between 2020 and 2023. They included five traders, two fishermen, and a factory worker. All but one agreed to speak on condition that their real names would not be used to protect their families in North Korea.

This analysis draws from broader research between 2014 and 2023 and interviews with 147 North Koreans outside the country, including 32 with relevant knowledge of recent conditions. While not a comprehensive sample, the diversity in age, gender, region, social class, and background of those interviewed reflect the general views of people who fled the country at that time.

The accounts are consistent with the findings of Human Rights Watch’s March 2024 report, “‘A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet’: The Closing of North Korea 2018–2023.” Human Rights Watch found that North Korea put in place excessive and unnecessary measures during the Covid-19 pandemic that made the already isolated country even more repressive. Restrictions on leaving North Korea under the pretense of defending against Covid-19, including a standing order for border guards to “shoot on sight” anyone trying to leave the country through its northern border without permission, made escape nearly impossible. The measures also harmed the economy and eroded social and economic rights.

Even before the pandemic, North Korea was among the world’s most repressive and isolated countries, severely controlling information, movement, and daily life. Decades of government policies prioritizing militarization and weapons programs over social welfare left the people of North Korea, also among the world’s poorest countries, suffering from widespread chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.

A fisherman from a remote area said that the government’s “Covid-19 [measures] blocked my access to the sea, so I decided to escape…. [In late 2020] a few people went [fishing] … but one got caught.” He said the authorities wrote “traitor” on a piece of paper and nailed it to the door of the man’s home, saying: “Do not approach.” He said the authorities sent the captured fisherman to a long-term hard labor prison camp (kyohwaso, literally “reform through labor center”).

The people interviewed talked about increased repression, fear, and ideological control. Several said there had been an increase in public executions since 2020. Kim Il Hyuk, a rice trader from South Hwanghae province who left North Korea in May 2023, said he saw no executions between 2012 and 2019, but that changed in 2020. “I saw people shot every two months in 2020,” he said. “In 2022 and 2023, there were three executions by firing squad every two months.”

The government’s intensified restrictions after 2020, combined with its persistent control of the population through fear, exacerbated the already horrendous human rights situation, the organizations said. Many government actions reversed the relative loosening of control in previous years through informal cross-border movement and trade, unregulated private market activity, domestic travel without permits, and access to unauthorized foreign media.

North Korea continues to reject the overwhelming evidence of systematic violations. In November 2024, it dismissed the annual United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on North Korean human rights as “political provocation.” In response to its UN Universal Periodic Review in November 2024, North Korea claimed “remarkable achievements” in its fulfillment of rights, while emphasizing its Covid-19 measures. Yet, under the rule of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean government has become increasingly sensitive to criticism of its human rights record.

At the same time, North Korean human rights groups working outside of the country are facing serious funding cuts. Concerned governments should provide support for these organizations to expand access to independent information, support North Koreans who have fled the country, document abuses, and advocate for justice.

The UN Human Rights Council should renew the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea and update the mandate of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on accountability for grave abuses in North Korea at its current 58th session. The council resolution on North Korea should also call for further investigation of the link between weapons development, militarization, and human rights violations in North Korea.

“North Korea’s government exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to tighten control and suppression of its population, leaving people to starve while strengthening its grip on power,” said Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The international community should press for accountability and strongly support organizations working to protect the rights of North Koreans.”

Personal details are anonymized to protect the interviewees’ identities and their families in North Korea.

Covid-19 and Respect for Human Rights

North Korea is party to a number of core international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Right to Work and to an Adequate Standard of Living

Before 2019, insufficient domestic food production and manufacturing forced many North Koreans to obtain food and other items such as soap, toothpaste, and underwear via formal and informal trade with China and private market activity, in many cases conducted without government permission. After the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government strictly limited official cross-border trade, cracked down on informal trade, controlled domestic travel, curtailed unsanctioned private commercial activity, and shortened market hours in an economy already affected by sectorial UN sanctions imposed in 2016 and 2017.

The North Koreans interviewed discussed the difficulties of trading and making money. K. Ah Young, a factory worker from a northern province, said it became impossible to earn enough to survive after 2020. She used to knit hats to sell to China and that stopped with the pandemic. “Except for private lot farming, everything else stopped or was extremely limited with Covid-19,” she said. “Around July and August, people [in my region] used go to the mountains [to make money picking fruits, medicinal herbs, or roots]. This also stopped with Covid-19.”

Kim Il Hyuk, a rice trader, said:

The food situation in North Korea quickly became worse after 2022.… During the pandemic, the North Korean government tightened control over businesses in our area and blocked the distribution of goods, so the food situation quickly deteriorated. The state severely punished individuals for selling food, saying that they were traitors. I had been selling food such as rice and corn at the time, but I stopped because I was afraid.… After the state prevented private grain sales in the market, food prices skyrocketed, and some people began to starve to death…. In spring 2023 … I saw a [apparently dead] man lying on the roadside. Villagers said that he had been lying there for over a day…. There were many cases like that.

P. Young Chul, a fisherman from a remote area, said that the authorities banned fishing because of Covid-19. He said he was not surprised because they had banned fishing for various reasons before. “I thought the ban would get lifted after one or two months … But by mid-2020, people around me started selling their possessions. [One friend] sold his TV at a very cheap price, and other expensive things at half the price, because he didn’t have anything to eat.” He said:

People [where I lived] sold products from the sea and from that [we] bought clothes and food, and that’s how the markets operated. The main sources were the natural resources of the sea and the mountain. As work and trade of all such products were blocked, there could not be any trade…. I realized the situation was very serious. I looked at the state of my house. I am a big guy, and I eat a lot. My mother does not eat much. I started thinking of the amount I ate, and how much more I could eat without making any money, and I realized we didn’t have that much. I thought that soon, we would also need to start selling our possessions.

Il Hyuk said his brother was also a fisherman and was blocked from going to sea from February 2020 until they both escaped in May 2023. His family suffered, as fishing was his main source of income.

L. Hye Kyung, a fruit trader from an urban area, said she did well before Covid-19 selling fruit, but sales stopped almost completely. “I was still able to make some money, but life was harder,” she said. “I had to be more cautious about my spending. Before Covid-19, I used to buy a whole tin can of cooking oil, but I started buying smaller bottles.”

These measures harmed ordinary North Koreans’ ability to engage in economic activities, including trade. This further restricted their rights to work and to earn an income, harming in turn other economic, social, and cultural rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, and the right to health.

Access to Food, Medicine, and Imported Products

During the pandemic, North Korea’s strict border controls and rejection of international vaccine assistance deepened its health and economic crises. Despite Covid-19 vaccine offers from COVAX, the global initiative to expand vaccine access, South Korea, and Russia in 2021 and 2022, the government rejected them or failed to arrange shipments, leaving much of the population unvaccinated. Media reported that between August and October 2022, there was a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in areas bordering China and southern cities like Pyongyang and Nampo. But none of those interviewed received a Covid-19 vaccination.

All those interviewed said the biggest concern of ordinary people was rising prices, particularly for food. Two said they did not buy anything except food until they left the country. Ah Young, the factory worker, said: 

[Almost everything] even toothpicks are imported from China. With trade with China blocked, prices of all imports soared…. Sugar and MSG went up highest and fastest, and cooking oil doubled within a few months. Only goods that had gone into the country before the border closure were available…. Only those who had a lot of products made a lot of money. People who didn’t have products or money had a very hard time, they couldn’t get any [money or food].

Young Chul, the fisherman, said he heard of people who ran out of money and were going hungry. “My next-door neighbor used to go to another person’s house to clean and cook, but that was not necessary after Covid-19 because everybody was at home,” he said. “In the summer of 2020, they once came to our home to eat because of their difficult situation, but we did not have that much either. Later, they got some money from relatives.”

Il Hyuk, the rice trader who saw dozens of public executions in Pyoksong county, South Hwanghae province between 2020 and 2023, said:

As food became scarce … violent crime increased, like entering the home of an elderly person living alone and stabbing them to death while trying to steal food or money or stealing food from a passing cyclist. Robberies resulting in accidental deaths became more common since there was nothing to eat in North Korea. Officials used these cases to increase fear and control the population, because of the hardship…. Ninety percent of the public executions I saw were for these types of violent crimes.

Those interviewed also described rising medicine prices and difficulty finding medicine. Several said they could not buy any medicine after 2020. “My mother needed medicine, but it was difficult to find, so she only used traditional medicine treatments like moxibustion, using dried mugwort leaves, and acupuncture,” said Young Chul. “But when people are not making any money … the biggest concern is still food.”

“Finding medicine was like picking a star from the sky,” said Hye Kyung, the fruit trader. She described economic hardships affecting people’s daily lives:

When the economy is bad, people stop cutting their hair, you can quickly see that on men. In 2021 and 2022, many people in my area could not eat because they could not even buy [the cheapest staple] corn flour.… In my house, all [battery] wall clocks stopped working [a year after the border closure]…. They were dead until the day I left. 

Il Hyuk said that because batteries were not available, his wall clock also stopped at the end of 2020 until he left in May 2023, so he had to use his cell phone clock. He said asking for the time became a greeting in the streets. “People in the street that I didn’t know would ask me, ‘Excuse me, would it be possible to know what time it is?’” he said, adding that he took his cellphone out about 100 times a day. As he was wealthier and had grain at home for trading, the authorities took away his grain. He said:

North Korea was not a place where people could live as human beings … In the fall of 2020, [police officers came to my house and] took my grain. When I asked why … they said: “You bastard, do you own anything on this earth? The ground you stand on does not belong to you, even the air you breath belongs to the [Workers’] Party [of Korea].” … I knew if I resisted … I could be taken away as a political prisoner…. They searched my home and confiscated all my food.

Rights to Information and Freedom of Expression

The North Korean government has always heavily restricted freedom of thought, opinion, expression, religion, and access to information. Since 2020, the authorities have ramped up ideological campaigns, passed laws, and implemented policies to further control expression and information, including about Covid-19. They have suppressed information from abroad domestically and about developments inside North Korea overseas.

In 2020, the government claimed Covid-19 could spread through surfaces of trade products, migratory birds and animals, snow, and “yellow dust” from China. It continued promoting these claims long after the international community rebutted them. Since August 2020, North Korea has used Covid-19 as a pretext for a shoot-on-sight order on the northern border “as the pandemic is being spread through air and items.”

None of the people interviewed said they could access accurate scientific or other information about Covid-19. “In meetings at the People’s Unit [Inminban or neighborhood watch units], they told us to be careful, not to meet in groups, not to sit next to each other, but they did not tell us any specifics about Covid-19,” said Hye Kyung, the fruit trader. Those interviewed who had connections with the sea or people working near the sea said they were warned that Covid-19 could be spread through water, restricting movement by sea and across borders. “The authorities said Covid-19 could spread through water and didn’t let people [who lived near the water] leave the vicinities,” said Ah Young, the factory worker. Young Chul, the fisherman, said:

[Authorities] banned entry into the sea … if something washed up [on the beach, they] didn’t let [people] pick those things up, saying that [people] could get Covid-19. That’s why, if [you] got near the sea, [you] would be treated like an enemy … Officials said if animals crossed over [from abroad into the country], they could get Covid-19, and they could transmit it to people. So, they electrified the fences to stop animals. I thought it was a lie that the fence was electrified, but it had electricity. 

With access to outside information further restricted during this period, ordinary people lacked the guidance they needed to make informed decisions about their health.

Since 2020, the government has enacted laws to suppress foreign and “anti-socialist” influences, which included harsher punishments for smuggling, consumption and distribution of foreign media, and imitating foreign culture, particularly South Korean language. These laws impose harsher punishments than those for serious crimes like treason, including public executions to instill fear among the population.

Everyone interviewed described increased fear and intensified crackdowns on foreign media. “Before I left, I also felt an increase in fear generally,” said Ah Young. “We were scared because of the rising prices, but also about watching videos.” K. Jin Joo, a vegetable trader, said: “As time passed, punishments became much harsher. If the crimes were related to drug [dealing], illegal recordings, or superstition, people would get long-term forced labor, and the death penalty for repeated offenses.”

In North Korea, ordinary people do not know when new laws are passed, and it is difficult for them to access any legal information. However, all those interviewed who left after 2021 knew about the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law enacted in December 2020 and its harsh punishments. Young Chul said:

This was a law important for the people to know. It was a message that such behavior would be severely punished. I heard about it during a seminar by the inminban. They told us all to write the law up and stick it to our doors…. The inminban distributed the text to write. [Authorities] wanted the law inside our homes, so we would see it every day… After two weeks or so, the head of the People’s Unit passed by to check we had the sign.

Il Hyuk, the rice trader, said in his area the Unified Command 82, an organization that monitored and suppressed “anti-socialist” activities, intensified its crackdown on watching South Korean media, selling in markets, and superstitious or religious observance, as well as harassment of the unemployed and couples living in common-law relationships. He said:

Before 2017, house inspections were conducted twice a year, usually in the spring and fall. However, since 2018, inspections began to occur monthly. Houses considered to need special inspection were inspected once every three days; those with young adults who were tech-savvy were under especially strict surveillance. From January to May 2023, 15 young adults from my neighborhood were taken away. If even one of the 15 people was caught, the authorities would track down anyone connected to that person and pursue them as well. This happened in just a matter of days … 10 percent of public executions I saw since 2020 were for crimes related to [watching or distributing foreign media] content. 

I saw a public execution under [the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection] law on July 26, 2022, when a firing squad shot a 22-year-old farmworker’s son for listening to 70 South Korean songs, watching 3 movies, and distributing them. The witnesses were too scared to speak. All we could do was shake [because many of us had seen similar content] …. I heard a rumor that descendants of the high officials were also implicated, but they were forgiven. Only sons or daughters of farmworkers were executed to incite fear and deter citizens from engaging in those activities.

(Johannesburg, March 3, 2025) – South Africa and other countries that have not yet done so should endorse a widely adopted political commitment aimed at protecting civilians from the bombing and shelling of cities and towns during wartime, Human Rights Watch said today following a regional meeting on this concern held in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 27-28, 2025.

“South Africa has taken a strong, principled position in condemning the devastating impact caused by today’s armed conflicts and in supporting accountability for serious violations of the laws of war,” said Ida Sawyer, crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “South Africa should deepen its determination to protecting civilians by endorsing the declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and by encouraging other governments in the region to follow suit.”

The bombing and shelling of populated areas is one of the most serious threats to civilians in contemporary armed conflict. Recognizing the civilian harm caused and acute need for action, Austria, Ireland, and other governments initiated a political process in 2019. It resulted in the adoption of a political declaration to reduce the humanitarian consequences of this method of war, which opened for endorsement in November 2022.

A new question-and-answer document issued in advance of the regional meeting by Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic introduces the issue of explosive weapons and analyzes the provisions of the Political Declaration on the Protection of Civilians from the Use of Explosive Weapons. The new publication also details how harm can be reduced through implementation of those provisions.

A total of 88 countries have endorsed the Declaration, including Comoros, Madagascar, and Malawi. Mozambique, South Africa, and other states from Africa participated in negotiating the declaration but have yet to endorse it. While the Declaration is not legally binding, it commits its signatories to adopt and implement national policies and practices to help avoid and address civilian harm, including by restricting or refraining from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Human Rights Watch has long reported on the foreseeable harm to civilians caused by the bombing and shelling of populated areas around the world, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, and Ukraine. Civilians account for the vast majority of people who are killed or injured when aerial bombs, rockets, artillery projectiles, mortar shells, and missiles are used in populated areas. The wide-area effects of some explosive weapons – which result from a broad blast or fragmentation radius, inaccuracy, and/or the delivery of multiple munitions at once – greatly exacerbate the humanitarian consequences.

The use of explosive weapons in towns and cities has long-term indirect, or “reverberating,” effects on basic services, such as health care, education, electricity, water, and sanitation, that harm civilians for months or even years. The use of explosive weapons in populated areas also inflicts psychological injury, causes environmental damage, destroys cultural heritage, and displaces communities.

In 2011, Human Rights Watch cofounded the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW), a global civil society coalition that played a central role in securing support for the negotiation of the Declaration. INEW urges all states to join the Declaration and take steps to implement and interpret it.

A #StopBombingCivilians campaign initiative launched by Human Rights Watch in September 2024 together with INEW aims to increase awareness of the issue. The campaign has collected more than 22,000 signatures on a petition addressed to President Cyril Ramaphosa that calls on South Africa to endorse the Declaration.

South Africa has played a leading role on the African continent and in the world at large in the protection of civilians in armed conflict. For example, it has contributed to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping operations, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Mozambique, and elsewhere, and brought a case to the International Court of Justice against Israel related to Israel’s obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

“South Africa has long placed the protection of civilians at the heart of its foreign policy,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “As a global leader for the protection of civilians, South Africa can further help to prevent carnage and destruction from being repeated in ongoing and future armed conflicts by joining the political declaration on explosive weapons.”

This week, the Trump administration announced that it will ramp up enforcement of a relatively obscure legal provision that requires undocumented immigrants in the United States to register with the government.

This move risks adding another layer of fear and anxiety in immigrant communities where the Trump administration’s moves on immigration have already left many fearful to visit previously safe places to address essential needs like health and education.

Those who fail to register could face fines or prosecution, compounding recent moves to criminalize immigration violations that should not be treated as crimes. Last month, President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, requiring detention for undocumented individuals who are merely charged with—not convicted of—low-level crimes. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has conducted high-profile raids in major cities, leading to collateral arrests, including of US citizens.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the objective of the new registration push is to push immigrants to self-deport. However, enforcing a registry requirement does not actually meet this goal. Instead, it threatens to facilitate the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations, as other activist groups have warned. ICE arrests and raids have disproportionately targeted communities of color, as would any program of mass deportation.

This isn’t the first time the US government has seized upon registration as a way to advance abusive immigration policies. In 2002, President George W. Bush created the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System program, which required individuals from 25 countries, all but one of them Muslim-majority, to register with the US government. This registry, which has since been dismantled, led to more than 80,000 people registered; over 13,000 were ultimately placed in deportation proceedings.

The Trump administration has not shown that aggressively enforcing registration requirements will serve any legitimate government purpose. On the other hand, it will likely create further stigmatization and criminalization and facilitate mass arrests. Congress should take urgent steps to scrutinize and rein in these new measures along with the rest of the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.

On February 28, 2024, a key Chadian opposition politician, Yaya Dillo, was killed during an assault carried out by state security forces on his party’s headquarters in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. A year on, authorities have yet to clarify the circumstances surrounding his death.

At the time of the incident, state prosecutor Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye said at a news conference that Dillo, president of the Socialist Party without Borders (Parti socialiste sans frontières, PSF), was killed during an exchange of gunfire with the security forces when they entered the PSF building.

Dillo was killed just months before elections held on May 6, 2024.

After the assault, Chadian authorities arrested scores of PSF members and members of Dillo’s family and transported them to the Koro Toro maximum security prison. Ten family members were unlawfully held there until December 2024 on charges against state security despite their acquittal by a court in July.

From the outset, Dillo’s death was suspicious. In the months after his killing, Reuters released a report in which five forensic experts asserted Dillo had been shot in the head at close range. Human Rights Watch has since spoken with a witness who said that Dillo was not armed when the security services stormed the PSF building and that he had yelled to his supporters to keep their hands up so they would not be shot.

When I discussed Dillo’s killing with Chad’s justice minister last summer, he insisted the matter was closed and required no further investigation. He said the only remaining action was for the courts to prosecute PSF members who may have resorted to violence.

The outcome of Chad’s elections last May was a fait accompli. International organizations were not permitted to monitor the vote, and the security forces instilled fear across the country following the results with their “celebratory shootings” that killed at least 11 people.

The lack of investigation into Dillo’s killing one year on marks a missed opportunity to stem the country’s descent toward political violence and impunity. A reckoning is imperative to stop this slide. It is now time for Chad’s partners and international experts to push for genuine accountability.

On February 27 and 28, 2025, European Union commissioners will conduct an “unprecedented visit” to India, seeking to “upgrade the strategic partnership” and strengthen bilateral trade, economic, technology, and security ties. In a letter sent ahead of the visit, 12 human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, urged EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the other visiting commissioners to break the EU’s prolonged silence on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s crackdown on human rights, and to make it clear that progress on bilateral relations depends on tangible rights progress. 

The organizations urged the commissioners to press Indian authorities to release unjustly imprisoned human rights defenders and peaceful critics of the government, amend or repeal abusive legislation that severely curtails freedom of expression and association, and end discriminatory and abusive policies and practices against religious minorities. 

At a recent hearing of the European Parliament, members from across the political spectrum echoed this call for a more vocal approach.

The EU also has its grave human rights problems. The rule of law is on the decline in a number of EU countries, while racial and religious discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance are on the rise. The bloc’s foreign policy is increasingly marred by support for abusive governments to stop migration at any cost and by egregious double standards on atrocity crimes and other serious violations of international law. Indian authorities should raise these concerns with their EU counterparts and urge measures to address them.

A principled and constructive relationship between the EU and India should embrace, not reject, mutual scrutiny and criticism. 

Yet the EU has maintained its silence for fear of a backlash from an increasingly authoritarian ally. This only encourages impunity, which in turn fuels further abuses. With serious human rights challenges around the world, the EU should not only reverse its faltering commitments, but publicly call on India to ensure that its institutions adequately address the escalating rights violations at home while joining efforts to protect rights abroad.

Sidelining human rights in meetings and in the new EU-India strategic agenda would be anything but strategic and undermine the prospects for a solid, healthy, and genuine rights-based partnership.