Author: Human Rights Watch

Two years after the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, killed and wounded hundreds of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and burned down their village, the survivors are still denied justice and cannot return to their homes. The Arakan Army, which denies having committed war crimes, deliberately fired on unarmed villagers who were seeking […]

On May 5, a Nigerian high court ordered the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a prominent local human rights organization, to pay 100 million naira (about US$72,000) in damages to two Department of State Services officials. The court also directed the organization to publish public apologies and pay litigation costs. The Department of State Services […]

The death of accused Rwandan genocide financier Félicien Kabuga closes an important chapter of the country’s 1994 genocide. Unfortunately, it also robs survivors of a chance for justice many had waited decades to see. Kabuga, long alleged to have financed the extremist militia that carried out the genocide and helped fuel genocidal propaganda through Radio Télévision Libre […]

(Washington, DC) – The prominent anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López remains in pretrial detention in El Salvador with her case under judicial seal one year after her arrest, Human Rights Watch said today. Salvadoran authorities should guarantee López a prompt, open, and fair trial, lift the judicial secrecy on her case file, and allow her regular contact with […]

Ukraine’s parliament on April 28 advanced a bill to make sweeping reform of the national civil code, which raises significant human rights concerns. The draft, which was adopted in the first reading, does not include same-sex partnerships in the definition of “marriage.” A recent landmark ruling from Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognized that a same-sex partnership constituted “family,” […]

One year after Chadian authorities arrested and later sentenced Succès Masra, the prominent opposition leader and former prime minister, his continued imprisonment on politically motivated charges underscores the government’s intolerance of dissent. Masra, leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers), was arrested at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025. He was accused of […]

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a proposed budget deal that includes reforms aimed at blunting the abusive impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the state. The White House “border czar” Tom Homan has threatened to retaliate against such reforms, stating that ICE would “flood the zone” in New York or […]

(Washington, DC) – The United States government’s abrupt cuts to nearly all US foreign aid in 2025 harmed the global human rights movement and countless people at risk, Human Rights Watch said in a 42-page paper issued today. “Every Autocrat’s Dream: A Global Snapshot of the Human Rights Harms of US Foreign Aid Cuts” examines the […]

The M23 armed group and Rwandan military forces carried out an abusive month-long occupation of an eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city beginning in December 2025. During this time, these forces shot fleeing civilians, summarily executed more than 50 people during door-to-door searches, raped at least 8 women, and forcibly disappeared at least 12 people. […]

Two female domestic workers, ages 15 and 18, jumped from the fourth floor of a Jakarta boarding house on April 22 in a desperate attempt to escape their employer. One died; the other was severely injured. The tragedy came just a day after Indonesia’s parliament finally approved the long‑awaited Domestic Workers Protection Law, granting domestic […]