Author: Human Rights Watch

On May 23, the well-known Indonesian activist Yasinta Moiwend went missing from her home in Merauke, South Papua, according to her family. Mama Yasinta, as she is known, has long defended the rights of Papua’s Marind-Anim Indigenous community. She features prominently in a widely celebrated documentary on abuses and land grabs targeting Papuans called Pig Feast: Colonialism in […]

(Beirut) – The Bahraini government on April 27, 2026, revoked the nationality of 69 citizens, including infants. All were Shia Muslims of Iranian heritage, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and Human Rights Watch said today. BIRD’s research found that at least 46 people, more than half of them children, were rendered stateless.   […]

(Beirut) – The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) governments have intensified restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly amid ongoing conflict and economic turmoil, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. These latest measures exacerbate existing restrictions on migrant workers’ ability to raise concerns about working conditions in an […]

The Congolese government and international partners should prioritize community engagement and limit the role of security forces in responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government and its partners need to overcome years of conflict, abuse, and neglect that have strained healthcare systems and eroded trust and that risk complicating […]

Georgia’s crackdown on dissent reached a dangerous new low last month when a Tbilisi court sentenced activist Zurab Menteshashvili to nine months in prison for participating in a peaceful protest. The case highlights how Georgia’s recent protest-related legislative amendments are being used to turn peaceful acts of dissent into criminal offenses. On May 29, the […]

The remarks that led to Malian journalists Chahana Takiou and Abdramane Keïta’s arrests were not extraordinary. During a Pan-African Media Forum event held from June 3 to 7 in Bamako, Mali’s capital, Takiou, director of the biweekly 22 Septembre, said that he regretted that a fellow journalist was being tried under a cybercrime law instead of the […]

(Sydney) – The government of Bhutan’s release of 2 political prisoners on June 1, 2026, is a positive step, but at least 28 more should be urgently freed, Human Rights Watch said today. The two men, Chatur Man Tamang, 42, and Hasta Bahadur Rai, 44, whose detention was under scrutiny from United Nations human rights […]

(Berlin, June 10, 2026) – Azerbaijani authorities are prosecuting critics in exile, often based on social media posts and online commentary, Human Rights Watch said today. Those targeted, often convicted in absentia with long sentences, are at risk of extradition, detention during travel, and other forms of cross-border pressure. “These trials of government critics abroad […]

(Nairobi) – The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) should ensure that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanders who have defected to the Sudanese army, including two since April 2026, are held to account for their role in serious crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. This includes cooperating with ongoing independent regional and international investigations into serious international […]

(Nairobi) – Rwandan military forces and the M23 armed group carried out a campaign of forced recruitment and abusive detention of thousands of captured combatants and civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 78-page report, “‘Death Was Everywhere’: Arbitrary Detention, Killings, and Forced Recruitment by […]