Author: Human Rights Watch

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, […]

The Trump administration is the first in US history to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 outside a context of a declared war. The Alien Enemies Act is incompatible with US obligations under international human rights and refugee law. Congress should repeal the act, which, as recent enforced disappearances of Venezuelans show, is too […]

(Amman) – Jordanian authorities have forcibly evicted and demolished homes and shops in an informal Palestinian refugee camp in Amman without adequate consultation, notice, compensation process, relocation assistance, or means of redress as part of a road expansion project, Human Rights Watch said today. More families are expected to be affected as the project continues. The urban […]

(New York, April 28, 2025) – Autonomous weapons systems pose grave risks to human rights during both war and peacetime, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Governments should tackle the concerns raised by such weapons systems, known as “killer robots,” by negotiating a multinational treaty to address the dangers.  The 61-page report, […]