Author: Human Rights Watch

A month has passed since the May 2 abduction of prominent Malian lawyer and government critic Mountaga Tall. His whereabouts remain unknown, raising fears that he was forcibly disappeared. Unidentified gunmen stormed Tall’s home in the capital, Bamako, and dragged him away in an unmarked vehicle, according to his family. His wife was assaulted while trying […]

(New York) – Ten years after United Nations Security Council Resolution 2286 was adopted to protect health care in armed conflict, attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers continue, Human Rights Watch said today. Resolution 2286, unanimously adopted on May 3, 2016, obligates countries to “prevent and address” attacks on health. A decade later, a new report […]

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has been reviewing a discrimination petition filed last October by a man in a same-sex relationship who was denied marriage leave by his employer. The employer’s policy offered marriage leave without defining marriage or providing criteria for employees to satisfy to claim the benefit. When the employee provided a […]

(Berlin, May 28, 2026) – Russian authorities have banned nine groups that provide support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as “extremist,” Human Rights Watch said today. The apparent aim is to further suppress, stigmatize, and criminalize those who document abuses, share information, and provide legal, medical, and other assistance to Russia’s LGBT […]

(Berlin, May 28, 2026) – Kazakhstan authorities on May 25, 2026, forcibly transferred a defrocked Russian Orthodox priest, Yakov Vorontsov, to a psychiatric facility outside Almaty, Human Rights Watch said today. A Kazakhstan court on May 18 had ordered his transfer there from pretrial detention, where he had been held since February on dubious drug-related […]

Armenia will hold parliamentary elections on June 7 that will determine the country’s next government. Whichever party or parties prevail, what happens after the vote may prove whether Armenia has built foundations strong enough since independence to protect human rights and the rule of law in a contested political moment. The stakes on June 7 […]

On May 20, a court in California temporarily suspended a Trump administration policy that stripped key protections from immigrant survivors of domestic violence. The 2025 directive at issue had made many immigrant survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking much more vulnerable to arrest, detention or deportation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Congress […]

The Burkina Faso junta’s suspension of the country’s largest student union is the latest in a series of government crackdowns on freedoms of association and expression. On May 26, the minister of territorial administration signed a decree suspending the activities of the General Union for Burkina Students (L’union générale des étudiants burkinabè, UGEB) for a renewable period […]

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the need for reparations in connection with France’s role in the transatlantic slave trade on May 21. Macron said that reparations for enslavement crimes should no longer be ignored. He also warned against “false promises,” emphasizing that the legacy of enslavement could never be fully repaired because it was “impossible.” […]

(Beirut, May 27, 2026) – Lebanon’s recent accession to the Mine Ban Treaty amid an ongoing armed conflict underscores the treaty’s vital importance for saving lives and rebuilding communities, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s decision should motivate other countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, to support the global norm against […]