Author: Human Rights Watch

(Nairobi) – Burkina Faso’s military government is intensifying its sweeping crackdown on civil society through restrictive legislation, administrative pressure, and punitive actions targeting domestic and international organizations, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organisation Against Torture within the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and Observatoire KISAL said […]

Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Pyongyang for his first visit since 2019. During the trip, he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, with both sides pledging to deepen cooperation and coordination. This visible and cordial diplomacy between Beijing and Pyongyang was deliberate. Transport links between […]

Belarusian authorities are systematically using vaguely defined “extremism” laws to target dissent, including Belarusians in exile. Most recently, on April 14, the Belarusian Supreme Court designated the Lithuania-based European Humanities University an “extremist organization,” claiming it was “destabilizing the sociopolitical situation in the country.” This exposes thousands of current and former students and professors, the […]

(Paris, April 17, 2026) – France has refused to grant an entry visa to Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, one of the leading and oldest Palestinian human rights organizations, based in the occupied West Bank. Jabarin was due to travel to France to appear before the European Parliament’s Human Rights Committee in Strasbourg, alongside […]

(New York) – The Indian government should immediately withdraw rules that would allow greater executive control over online content and further undermine privacy in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026, would allow the government to treat ordinary social media […]

(Beirut, April 17, 2026) – The Israeli military’s destruction of the Qasmieh bridge on April 16, 2026, which took place hours before a ceasefire was announced, threatens to cut off Lebanese territory south of the Litani River from the rest of the country, Human Rights Watch said today. As the deliberate attack destroyed the last […]

(London) – The Maldives government should withdraw plans to introduce a bill to end the longstanding moratorium on the death penalty in the country, 10 Maldivian and international human rights organizations said today. The authorities should also seek to repeal recent amendments to the Drugs Act of 2011 that allow capital punishment for drug-related offenses, maintain the […]

(Johannesburg) – Zambia should provide accountability for its failure to clean up a contaminated mine site that is responsible for the ongoing lead poisoning of children, Human Rights Watch said today in supporting a request for African Union action to require the government and others involved to clean up the site. The Institute for Human […]

A decade into President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” of religion campaign, Catholic communities across China face tightened ideological control, strict surveillance, and travel restrictions.  The 2018 Holy See-China agreement on bishops has helped the Chinese government to pressure underground Catholic communities to join the official church. The Holy See and other governments should press Beijing to […]

(Nairobi) – Congolese armed forces and armed groups in the South Kivu highlands are interfering with aid delivery and preventing civilians from fleeing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations Security Council, which will meet on Congo on April 15, 2026, should call on all warring parties […]