Author: Human Rights Watch

Women giving birth in public hospitals in Sierra Leone who are unable to pay informal fees face dangerous neglect and abuse by health care providers, in some cases leading to the deaths of women or their newborns. Sierra Leone’s progress on maternal healthcare is being undermined by a lack of resources in public hospitals and […]

On Monday, Mali’s national cybercrime court convicted former Prime Minister Moussa Mara for posting a message online expressing solidarity with political prisoners in the country. The prosecution represents the military junta’s starkest expansion yet of its campaign against free expression. Authorities arrested Mara in August for expressing his “unwavering solidarity with prisoners of conscience” after he visited jailed […]

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last Friday that it will stop distributing payments for essential food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) starting November 1 if the federal government is still shut down. Suspending these payments would force tens of millions to cut back on food, undermining their human rights. Twenty-five states […]

When the former Afghan Women’s National Football Team, now known as Afghan Women United, took the field this week in Morocco for their first games in four years, they didn’t just play a match; they returned from exile, from dispossession, and from a system that sought to erase them. Their return to compete after the Taliban banned […]

(São Paulo) – Police have failed to take crucial investigative steps to determine the circumstances of the killing of at least 121 people, including 4 police officers, during a raid in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The raid affected low-income, primarily Black neighborhoods.  Police did not preserve crime […]

(New York) – The Chinese government has announced it is investigating the Taiwanese legislator Puma Shen Pao-Yang (沈伯洋) for the crime of “separatism,” infringing upon his basic human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.  The government said Shen was being investigated under China’s judiciary guidelines on “punishing Taiwan independence separatists,” making Shen the first person from Taiwan known to […]

No member of the Eswatini security forces has been held accountable for deploying tasers, teargas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition against participants and passers-by in the June 2021 pro-democracy protests. Over four years have passed since scores of students, activists, and passers-by were killed, and hundreds more injured, and many victims are in difficult situations […]

France’s Parliament has adopted a landmark law – that defines rape as any non-consensual sexual act, a significant milestone in the fight against sexual violence in the country. In an overdue change, France is following Denmark, Finland, Spain, Greece, and other European nations in updating legal provisions that make clear autonomy, particularly women and girls’ […]

(Seoul) – South Korea’s Ministry of Data and Statistics updated the 2025 Population and Housing Census on October 22, 2025, to allow same-sex couples to be counted, Human Rights Watch said today. The census, which will be conducted from October 22 to November 18, will recognize the same-sex relationships of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) […]

(Istanbul, October 29, 2025) – A government proposal would pave the way to bring criminal charges against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Türkiye, one of the most alarming rollbacks of rights in decades, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposal should be immediately withdrawn.  A draft of the omnibus reform law, referred to as […]