Türkiye: Justice Reforms Central to Fair, Durable Peace

(Istanbul, November 6, 2025) – A cross-party parliamentary commission in Türkiye should use its mandate to recommend concrete legal and institutional reforms that protect human rights, justice, and the rule of law for Kurds and all other communities in the country, Human Rights Watch, the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, and the International Commission of […]

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Indigenous Community in Limbo at Height of Panama’s Rainy Season

As the 2025 rainy season peaks in Panama, the Guna Indigenous community of Ukupa, which was displaced by floods late last year, is still waiting for much-needed governmental support. After severe flooding in December 2024 left their homes on the Caribbean coast uninhabitable, community members chose a measure of last resort: to relocate to a new, safer […]

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Haiti: Cholera Resurgence Threatens Vulnerable Communities

(Washington, DC) – A resurgence of cholera in Haiti’s West department underscores the urgent need for coordinated, long-term action to restore basic water and sanitation systems, Human Rights Watch said today. The outbreak, part of a seasonal surge during the rainy period, is spreading in and around Port-au-Prince and its metropolitan area amid the near […]

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In the Shadow of COP30, Brazil is Stripping Rainforest of Protections

While the city of Belém steps up to host the COP30 global climate summit in November, in another corner of Pará state, a federal government agency is planning hand over a large area of the Amazon rainforest to illegal cattle ranches. The area in question, known as the Terra Nossa settlement, was created in 2006 […]

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Chinese Government Threatens Academic Freedom in the UK

Sheffield Hallam University in England terminated a project about Uyghur forced labor after Chinese state security officers reportedly interrogated a staff member in Beijing and a Chinese company named in a report filed a defamation lawsuit in the United Kingdom. The project was led by Laura Murphy, a professor of human rights and modern slavery […]

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Central Asia-US Summit: Address Region’s Growing Repression

(Berlin, November 3, 2025) – Governments attending the Central Asia-US summit on November 6, 2025, should focus on improving their human rights records amid discussions of economic and security cooperation, Human Rights Watch said today. The summit is taking place while all participating governments have increased efforts to stifle dissent, silence the media, and retaliate against […]

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Obstetric Violence Deadly for Sierra Leone Women, Newborns

Women giving birth in public hospitals in Sierra Leone who are unable to pay informal fees face dangerous neglect and abuse by health care providers, in some cases leading to the deaths of women or their newborns. Sierra Leone’s progress on maternal healthcare is being undermined by a lack of resources in public hospitals and […]

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Convicted in Mali for Expressing ‘Unwavering Solidarity’

On Monday, Mali’s national cybercrime court convicted former Prime Minister Moussa Mara for posting a message online expressing solidarity with political prisoners in the country. The prosecution represents the military junta’s starkest expansion yet of its campaign against free expression. Authorities arrested Mara in August for expressing his “unwavering solidarity with prisoners of conscience” after he visited jailed […]

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Tens of Millions at Risk of Hunger if US Food Assistance Lapses

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last Friday that it will stop distributing payments for essential food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) starting November 1 if the federal government is still shut down. Suspending these payments would force tens of millions to cut back on food, undermining their human rights. Twenty-five states […]

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Afghan Women’s Return to Football a Human Rights Victory

When the former Afghan Women’s National Football Team, now known as Afghan Women United, took the field this week in Morocco for their first games in four years, they didn’t just play a match; they returned from exile, from dispossession, and from a system that sought to erase them. Their return to compete after the Taliban banned […]

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