Author: Human Rights Watch

Last week, Belarusian authorities declared the Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers (BAHRL) an “extremist formation.” The action against the group, which works to protect the rights to a defense and a fair trial, is the latest attack on the country’s legal profession. Since its formation by exiled Belarusian lawyers arbitrarily deprived of their right […]

Children from across the globe have expressed support for expanding an international human rights treaty to require countries to provide free pre-primary and secondary education. More than 8,000 children from 40 countries responded to a United Nations survey requesting their views. Their message was loud and clear: education should be free, inclusive, and available for […]

Mauritanian security forces committed serious human rights violations between 2020 and early 2025 against migrants and asylum seekers. The European Union and Spain, bilaterally, have continued to outsource migration management to Mauritania, despite its rights violations. Recent steps by the Mauritanian government may improve protection for migrants and their rights. These should continue, and the […]

(New York) – Ecuador’s government should expedite the closure of the approximately 240 oil wells operating in the heart of Yasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest, Human Rights Watch said today.  On August 20, 2023, the Ecuadorian people voted to halt all current and future oil drilling in the Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini (ITT) […]

On August 15, while United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were en route to their Alaska meeting, 26-year-old Nataliia Makarenko buried her mother, Tetiana Litvin, 60, in Kherson, southern Ukraine. Tetiana had died two days earlier in an artillery strike. Almost a year ago, Nataliia buried her father, Petro, 67. A Russian drone […]

(Geneva) – Sri Lankan security forces still harass families of victims of forced disappearances and misuse the country’s draconian counterterrorism law a year since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office with promises of reform, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations Human Rights Council should renew the mandates for the UN to collect and analyze evidence of […]

On August 17, police in Kazakhstan detained veteran human rights defender Bakhytzhan Toregozhina and held her for several hours apparently in connection to a criminal investigation on charges of participating in a banned extremist organization. She was picked up following social media posts she had made in support of Marat Zhylanbaev, an opposition activist who has […]

Over the past two weeks, United Nations member countries started substantive negotiations for the first-ever UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation; a historic process that reflects major shifts in global economic policymaking and geopolitics. The treaty could replace the current patchwork system that deprives governments of considerable revenue and undermines their capacity to support human […]

Earlier this week, Burkina Faso’s junta expelled the top United Nations representative in the country, Carol Flore-Smereczniak, declaring her “persona non grata” following a new UN report on violations against children in the country. Flore-Smereczniak is the second senior UN official to be expelled by the junta, after Barbara Manzi was declared persona non grata in […]

In July, major news organizations published the image of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a Palestinian child so emaciated that his bones protruded through his back, while his mom cradled him in her arms. Instead of a diaper, he wore a black plastic bag.  Some online commentators have sought to downplay the image’s power by […]