Author: Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Chadian authorities arrested Succès Masra, the former prime minister and leader of Chad’s main opposition party, at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Masra’s arrest raises concerns of escalating harassment and threats against the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers) as well as other political […]

As hostilities escalate across South Sudan, the United Nations Security Council should renew its arms embargo on the country. The council should also act to prevent additional weapons from reaching the warring parties and foreign forces from adding to the violations. In recent months, government forces have attacked populated areas, often using helicopter gunfire and […]

South Sudan’s authorities have not brought to justice those responsible for attacks on civilians three years ago by government forces and allied militias in Leer and other opposition-controlled areas in southern Unity state. The lack of meaningful justice for the most serious crimes in Leer and other counties in southern Unity drives new cycles of […]

In Mali on Thursday, two political opposition leaders went missing, sparking fears they may have been forcibly disappeared. Abba Alhassane, 68, is the secretary general of the opposition party Convergence for the Development of Mali (Convergence pour le développement du Mali, or CODEM). His colleagues said that on May 8, 2025, masked gunmen claiming to […]

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities should immediately release the prominent human rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong and drop all charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today. In April 2025, the authorities in Quang Nam province charged Trinh Ba Phuong under article 117 of the penal code with anti-state propaganda. He was already serving a 10-year prison […]

In an important step towards protecting online speech, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on April 29 issued two rulings that provide important clarifications to the country’s Electronic Information and Transaction Law, used to regulate the internet. For decades, government officials and powerful private actors, including companies and religious groups, have brought criminal defamation lawsuits under the internet law to […]

Major-power cutbacks and delayed payments amidst conflict and insecurity are testing the very principles and frameworks upon which the international human rights infrastructure was built nearly 80 years ago. Human rights need defending now more than ever, which is why the United Nations leadership needs to ensure that its efforts to cut costs don’t jeopardize […]

Viktoriia Roshchyna, a 27-year-old Ukrainian investigative journalist, disappeared in the Russia-occupied part of the Zaporizka region of Ukraine in August 2023. A year later, she called her family from Russian custody. That was the only time they heard from their daughter after her disappearance. During that call in August 2024, Roshchyna told her parents she loved […]

On May 2, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ (ACHPR) is scheduled to meet for its first public session since the African Union adopted the Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG) and the ACHPR adopted a landmark resolution on the need to Develop Guidelines on the Elimination of Obstetric Violence and […]

At least, we thought ruefully, the women, peace, and security agenda—backed in the United States by the first Trump administration—is safe. We thought this could remain true even amidst the current Trump administration’s assault on women’s rights. But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apparently did not get the memo. Women, peace, and security, or WPS, […]