Author: Human Rights Watch

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention against Cybercrime on December 24, despite widespread concerns that the treaty will facilitate human rights violations. The convention, the first global treaty of its kind, extends far beyond addressing cybercrime – malicious attacks on computer networks, systems, and data. It obligates states to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to investigate and […]

This week, Egypt’s parliament rushed to approve, “in principle,” a government proposed draft bill to replace the country’s 1950 Criminal Procedure Code. The Lawyers’ Syndicate, the Journalists’ Syndicate, human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, political parties, and United Nations independent experts have all expressed strong opposition to the draft. Rather than rushing the draft—discussed mostly secretively by a parliamentary subcommittee for months—through the overwhelmingly […]

Mexico’s congress has approved an amendment to the country’s federal labor law to uphold the labor rights of workers for digital labor platforms. The amendment reclassifies workers to “employees” from “independent contractors” when their monthly income from digital labor platforms – such as Uber and Didi – exceeds the minimum wage (approximately USD$415 per month). This […]

(Berlin, December 24, 2024) – Police and other security forces have used brutal violence against largely peaceful protesters in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, Human Rights Watch said today. In widespread and apparently punitive acts, security forces have chased down, violently detained, and beat protesters. Police also tortured and otherwise ill-treated them in police vans and police stations.  […]

The world’s leading experts on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee, found that famine has spread in Sudan. In August it had already identified famine in North Darfur’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam. Today it announced that famine had spread to other camps in North Darfur and that Sudan’s Nuba Mountains – […]

Rıfat Roni has spent more than a decade as an official court interpreter facilitating communication for Kurdish speakers in legal proceedings. This week, he found himself in the dock facing charges. Roni, 59, stood trial on the widely used charge of “membership of an armed  organization” on the basis of his involvement in a civil […]

This week, Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority banned the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, from using the personal data of its child users in Brazil to train its artificial intelligence (AI). The data regulator also banned X from sharing children’s personal data with third parties to train generative AI and ordered the company to amend […]

Liberia’s Prince Y. Johnson, who rose to prominence first as a warlord and then politician, was implicated in serious abuses during the country’s two civil wars between 1989 and 2003. His death on November 28, without ever being prosecuted, highlights the need to bring those responsible for international crimes to account and uphold the promise […]

(Nairobi) – Cameroon’s authorities should immediately reverse the suspension of a prominent human rights group, Human Rights Watch said today. The arbitrary suspension lacks a lawful basis and violates the right to freedom of association under both Cameroonian law and international human rights law.  On December 5, 2024, the minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, […]

(Washington, DC, December 18, 2024) – Guatemala’s attorney general is carrying out politically motivated prosecutions against members of President Bernardo Arévalo’s administration, Human Rights Watch said today.  Since President Arévalo took office in January 2024, the Attorney General’s Office has moved forward with criminal investigations against the Arévalo administration that appear to be based on […]