Author: Human Rights Watch

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 […]

Every day, food-delivery workers cross Paris and Bordeaux in all weather, working long hours for pay well below France’s minimum wage. For most, this work provides their only source of income. A new survey of around 1,000 workers in France who deliver food for companies such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo describes the consequences of […]

(London, April 15, 2026) – The Singaporean government should immediately halt the execution of Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, scheduled for April 16, 2026, for trafficking cannabis, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP), and Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) said today. Singaporean authorities arrested Omar, a Singaporean national, now 41, on July 12, 2018, […]

(Berlin) – Leaders meeting in Berlin on April 15, 2026, the three-year mark of ongoing conflict in Sudan, should commit to concrete, time-bound measures to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for serious international crimes to account, Human Rights Watch said today. Germany, the African Union, France, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the […]

Israeli attacks on four oil depots around Tehran on March 7, 2026, may cause long-term health and environmental harm for civilians. Strikes on primarily civilian infrastructure causing foreseeable civilian harm are violations of international humanitarian law and are likely war crimes.  Israeli forces don’t appear to have factored in the foreseeable long-term harm in the […]

(Budapest, April 14, 2026) – Hungary’s incoming government should take immediate steps to restore fundamental rights, dismantle abusive laws and institutions, and strengthen democratic institutions, after years of backsliding, Human Rights Watch said today. The incoming government should in its first weeks in office demonstrate a clear commitment to restore for fundamental rights and reinstate democratic […]

A Kazakh court convicted today 19 Kazakhstan citizens for participating in a peaceful protest against human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China. During the protest, which took place in November 2025, activists from the Nagyz Atajurt Volunteers Group condemned Chinese government abuses, some of which amount to crimes against humanity. They called for the release of a […]

A United Nations report has found that members of a UN-authorized force operating in Haiti, the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, were responsible for four cases of sexual violence in the country, including the rape of a 12 -year-old girl and two 16-year-olds. While Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi claims the allegations were investigated internally and […]

(Nairobi) – South Sudan’s military and opposition forces are blocking humanitarian access and unjustifiably ordering civilians to evacuate populated areas, Human Rights Watch said today. Since late 2025, the military has issued multiple evacuation orders, at least three of them sweeping in nature and the opposition forces at least three, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians […]