Author: Human Rights Watch

This Earth Day arrives at a sobering moment as the EPA continues to erase the safeguards it was created to uphold. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970, following the first Earth Day, expressly to protect human health and the environment. But, since President Donald Trump’s second term began, rapid-fire policy shifts have […]

(Budapest) – The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling on April 21, 2026, against Hungary’s 2021 anti-LGBT law is an important rejection of efforts to stigmatize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, Human Rights Watch said today. The court found that the 2021 law, which attempts to stigmatize LGBT people under the guise of […]

People living near a coal plant in Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria breathe air so toxic they describe themselves as prisoners in their own homes. In Louisiana, communities along the petrochemical corridor known as Cancer Alley face some of the highest cancer rates in the United States. In Uganda and Tanzania, activists opposing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline have […]

European Union Partnership Commissioner Jozef Sikela announced on April 21 the resumption of EU’s direct budget support to the Ethiopian government: the final step towards normalizing relations with the country. The move comes as Ethiopia’s dire human rights situation has deteriorated ahead of June 1 national elections. The EU initially suspended its direct budget support to Ethiopia […]

(Beirut) – Israeli and Iranian attacks in mid-March 2026 on vital energy infrastructure were unlawfully indiscriminate and could trigger profound economic consequences for millions of people in the region and globally, Human Rights Watch said today. The attacks on the facilities in Iran and Qatar may amount to war crimes. On March 18, Israeli forces attacked Iran’s South Pars […]

(London) – The arrest of at least four people in Bangladesh for posting social media content supposedly critical of the new government is an alarming continuation of the previous government’s repressive practices, Human Rights Watch said today. Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government should live up to its promises on freedom of expression, end […]

(Seoul, April 22, 2026) – South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s decision to co-sponsor the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on North Korea reaffirms South Korea’s longstanding commitment to freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, said 25 human rights organizations in a joint statement today. The resolution, adopted by consensus on March 30, 2026, at the council’s 61st […]

(New York) – Pakistani authorities have sharply escalated abusive raids, arbitrary detentions, and forced returns of Afghan refugees following renewed border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Police operations have left thousands of already vulnerable Afghan refugees, including children, facing serious barriers to health care, education, and other essential services. “Pakistani […]

This week, a military court in the town of Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, will hand down a verdict in the case against three members of the citizens’ movement Lutte pour le Changement (Struggle for Change, or Lucha). The activists were arrested on March 12, 2026, after organizing a peaceful demonstration […]

(Nairobi) – Burkina Faso’s military government is intensifying its sweeping crackdown on civil society through restrictive legislation, administrative pressure, and punitive actions targeting domestic and international organizations, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organisation Against Torture within the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and Observatoire KISAL said […]