Author: Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC) – President Donald Trump announced on July 24, 2026, that the United States was considering “a massive attack” on Iran following a breakdown of the ceasefire and US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. US and Iranian leaders have threatened to retaliate and attack targets that could be civilian infrastructure, in violation of the laws of war. […]

(New York) – The Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC), during a special session on July 24, 2026, decided to remove the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, from office for serious misconduct and serious breach of duty. The following quote can be attributed to Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights […]

(Geneva) – Recent actions by the government of Nepal that threaten the independence of the country’s judiciary are a source of serious concern, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today.  In particular, political pressure has reportedly been applied to alter the composition of the Supreme Court through the […]

Fresh from a trip to Haiti, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz offered the UN Security Council on July 20 a harrowing account of the “kill zone” he said Port-au-Prince has become. In unusually graphic detail, he recounted grotesque incidents, including one in which several Haitian national police officers “were flayed alive in […]

It has been 13 days since armed soldiers seized Muwanga Kivumbi, a deputy president for the National Unity Platform, Uganda’s main opposition party. He has not been heard from since and the authorities have yet to account for his whereabouts. On July 10, the day after a court released Kivumbi on bail on politically related […]

Two incidents of videoed cruelty of stray animals in China this summer have triggered widespread outrage. Both spread rapidly online, and both showed a familiar government response: censorship, intimidation, and dispersion. In late June, videos of four boys cruelly mistreating and burning a dog and her puppies in Jieyang, Guangdong province, circulated widely online. Public […]

(London) – Candidates in the upcoming Greater Manchester mayoral by-election should publicly commit to engaging with the Emirati government on its egregious human rights record if elected, Human Rights Watch and FairSquare said today in a joint letter to the candidates. The UAE has invested billions of pounds into both Manchester and its football club, Manchester […]

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities since late June 2026 have arrested and detained five people for their roles in the publication of a controversial book about Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese communism, Human Rights Watch said today. Hanoi police charged all five—Nguyen Thanh Nam, Tran Viet Anh, Nguyen Thuy Hang, Dao Ba Doan, and […]

The Nigerian authorities’ prosecution of Boko Haram suspects does not advance justice for serious international crimes, as the cases continue to target primarily low-level suspects and raise significant fair trial concerns. Trials were conducted without witnesses or circumstantial evidence, prosecutors dropped some seemingly serious charges, while many plea-driven convictions were for aiding armed groups that […]

(Nairobi) – Niger’s military junta has entrenched authoritarian rule, dismantled democratic institutions, and intensified repression since seizing power three years ago, Human Rights Watch said today. On July 26, 2023, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani and other Nigerien army officers overthrew the elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum. Since then, the junta has consolidated sweeping and unchecked powers, systematically weakening institutions […]