Author: Human Rights Watch

(Bangkok) – Thai authorities should drop criminal defamation charges against the Australian journalist Murray Hunter, who is being prosecuted for reporting on Malaysia’s media regulating agency, Human Rights Watch said today. Thai authorities arrested Hunter on September 29, 2025, at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport while he was awaiting to board a flight to Hong Kong. He […]

The United Nations leadership has launched a major reform plan to make the cash-strapped world body more efficient and cost-effective. Unfortunately, it has offered little on how this will impact the UN’s already understaffed and underfunded human rights work and the victims it is intended to help. The UN’s worsening financial crisis is largely due […]

The Cambodian government is not supporting hundreds of thousands of migrant workers with microfinance debts who returned from Thailand because of hostilities in mid-2025. The Cambodian government has long failed to ensure an adequate standard of living, compelling many families to obtain predatory microfinance loans, making the tenuous situation of people who returned even more […]

A new quantitative study from National Observatory on Violence Against Educators represents one of the most comprehensive efforts to date to measure the nature and scale of censorship and harassment of educators across Brazil. While previous analyses have documented the legal and political tactics to undermine or prohibit human rights education, this new report offers a nationally representative […]

In Belem, Brazil, as the United Nations climate summit (COP30) convened, I marched alongside thousands of activists and Indigenous peoples calling on governments to urgently address climate change and protect human rights. As previous host countries restricted such demonstrations, the November 15 march was exhilarating. However, despite clear—and powerful—calls from civil society for the summit to […]

(Abuja) – Nigerian authorities should act urgently to secure the safe release of students and teachers recently kidnapped in the country’s northwest and take concrete steps to protect schools and communities from further attacks, Human Rights Watch said today. The groups responsible for the kidnappings should immediately release the students and teachers they are holding captive. […]

Is it safe to return to a country wracked by an abusive armed conflict, widespread atrocities, and targeted ethnic violence, including war crimes and crimes against humanity? The Trump administration says it is. On November 24, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued notice of termination of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for people from Myanmar, effective January […]

The US State Department’s annual human rights report was created to give Congress a clear accounting of how other governments treat their people, measured against international human rights law. Recent media reports indicate that the Trump administration is turning that purpose on its head by mandating reporting in support of ideological priorities at odds with […]

In February 2026, it will be 80 years since the United Nations selected its first secretary-general, a man. Since then, eight other people have had that job, all men. Surely, it’s long past time a woman held the post.  António Guterres, the current secretary-general, completes his term in December 2026. Maneuvering over his successor is well underway. […]

Three years ago, a series of protests in China has sparked a political awakening among Chinese youth, with many questioning Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s authoritarian policies and practices and notably confronting the government’s abuses against Tibetans and Uyghurs. In response to a deadly apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, blamed on harsh Covid-19 restrictions, thousands in […]