Author: Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – A 32-year-old man who was forcibly disappeared in Bahrain on March 19, 2026, died in custody more than a week later and his body bore signs of torture, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) said today.  After Sayed Mohamed Almosawi’s family lost contact with him for over […]

Koo Sze-yiu was a fixture of Hong Kong’s protest scene. Standing out with his close-cropped hair and long gray beard, the gruffy activist and other leaders of the League of Social Democrats nevertheless fit right in marching next to lawyers and tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of ordinary Hong Kongers demanding democracy. Protesting in Hong […]

(Berlin) – The Russian Supreme Court on April 9, 2026, designated “International Public Movement Memorial” as an “extremist” organization in a dramatic escalation of the Kremlin’s efforts to suppress human rights work, Human Rights Watch said today. The sweeping “extremist” designation entails a ban on engaging in any of Memorial organizations’ activities under the threat of […]

(New York) – World Cup city host committees and FIFA have fallen short on the steps needed to protect players and fans, Human Rights Watch said today, with the tournament two months away. All but one of the host city committees have either failed to present action plans required by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association […]

(Berlin, April 10, 2026) – Georgian authorities forcibly returned an exiled Azerbaijani journalist, Afgan Sadigov, to Azerbaijan, exposing him to a credible risk of politically motivated prosecution and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today.  The authorities deported him without a meaningful assessment of these risks in proceedings that raise serious due process concerns. Their actions call into […]

Belarus’s parliament adopted a new law on April 2 banning “propaganda” of same-sex relationships, of “gender reassignment,” and even of “childlessness.” This furthers the legal and political alignment between Belarus and Russia,which both seek to stigmatize minority groups, control public discourse, and suppress dissent. “Propaganda” is vaguely defined in the law as the dissemination of “appealing” […]

(Bangkok) – Thai authorities should urgently, thoroughly, and impartially investigate the assassination attempt on Kamonsak Leewamoh, a Muslim member of parliament and prominent human rights lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today.  On March 20, 2026, at about 1 a.m., gunmen in a pickup truck opened fire with M-16 assault rifles at Kamonsak’s minivan as he was […]

The Burkina Faso military with its allied militias and an Al Qaeda-linked armed group have killed more than 1,800 civilians and forcibly displaced tens of thousands since 2023. The junta is committing horrific abuses itself, failing to hold those responsible on all sides to account, and curtailing reporting to obscure the suffering of civilians caught […]

The Central African Republic’s Special Criminal Court announced the death of its first special prosecutor, Toussaint Muntazini, on March 25 after a long illness. His passing is a profound loss for victims of serious crimes. Muntazini, a Congolese military judge and former attorney general of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be remembered as a […]

(Beirut) – More than 100 Israeli strikes across Lebanon on April 8, 2026, including in densely populated neighborhoods in Beirut, killed over 300 people and damaged the last main bridge linking southern Lebanon with the rest of the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli strikes making bridge crossings over the Litani River unusable threaten […]