Author: Human Rights Watch

At the second United Nations Social Summit in Qatar this week, dozens of governments adopted the Doha Political Declaration, renewing their commitments to tackle poverty, create decent work, combat discrimination, expand access to social security, and fulfill human rights. Governments should now match their words with action by enabling the necessary resources to realize these commitments, […]

On November 6, a court in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, gave the go-ahead for the trial of twelve activists, eight of whom are students. The group faces charges stemming from their protests against the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), one of the largest fossil fuel infrastructure projects currently under development globally. The activists were […]

Share an invitation to a state-sponsored press briefing in Niger and face jail time. That’s the reality for six Nigerien journalists who were arrested last month in the military junta’s latest assault on media freedom. On October 30, police in Niamey, Niger’s capital, arrested Moussa Kaka and Abdoul Aziz of Saraounia TV; Ibro Chaibou and […]

(Istanbul, November 6, 2025) – A cross-party parliamentary commission in Türkiye should use its mandate to recommend concrete legal and institutional reforms that protect human rights, justice, and the rule of law for Kurds and all other communities in the country, Human Rights Watch, the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project, and the International Commission of […]

As the 2025 rainy season peaks in Panama, the Guna Indigenous community of Ukupa, which was displaced by floods late last year, is still waiting for much-needed governmental support. After severe flooding in December 2024 left their homes on the Caribbean coast uninhabitable, community members chose a measure of last resort: to relocate to a new, safer […]

(Washington, DC) – A resurgence of cholera in Haiti’s West department underscores the urgent need for coordinated, long-term action to restore basic water and sanitation systems, Human Rights Watch said today. The outbreak, part of a seasonal surge during the rainy period, is spreading in and around Port-au-Prince and its metropolitan area amid the near […]

While the city of Belém steps up to host the COP30 global climate summit in November, in another corner of Pará state, a federal government agency is planning hand over a large area of the Amazon rainforest to illegal cattle ranches. The area in question, known as the Terra Nossa settlement, was created in 2006 […]

Sheffield Hallam University in England terminated a project about Uyghur forced labor after Chinese state security officers reportedly interrogated a staff member in Beijing and a Chinese company named in a report filed a defamation lawsuit in the United Kingdom. The project was led by Laura Murphy, a professor of human rights and modern slavery […]

(Berlin, November 3, 2025) – Governments attending the Central Asia-US summit on November 6, 2025, should focus on improving their human rights records amid discussions of economic and security cooperation, Human Rights Watch said today. The summit is taking place while all participating governments have increased efforts to stifle dissent, silence the media, and retaliate against […]

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 […]