Author: Human Rights Watch

Congolese security forces have been responsible for numerous enforced disappearances in and around Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, since March 2025. The Congolese government is using the National Cyber Defense Council (CNC) as a proxy to carry out arrests and detentions of political opponents on dubious grounds. The authorities should ensure […]

A six-year-old child with a hearing disability was prevented from having his hearing aids delivered to him after being taken into custody with his mother and his five-year-old brother during an immigration check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco on March 3. The child’s mother appeared for the appointment as required […]

Update, March 9, 2026: Since the press release was published, the death toll has risen to 394, as of March 8.  (Beirut) – The Israeli military unlawfully used artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over homes on March 3, 2026, in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, Human Rights Watch said today.  Human Rights Watch verified and […]

Nearly seven decades since the 1959 uprising in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, the Chinese government still treats March 10 with vigilance. On that date, popular anger against eight years of control by the People’s Republic of China boiled over into protest, triggering the Chinese government’s bloody imposition of direct rule and the flight into […]

(Johannesburg) – Authorities in Zimbabwe have intensified their crackdown against critics of an effort by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party to push forward a constitutional amendment to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed amendment has attracted considerable opposition from those who consider it […]

Lawmakers in Ghana have reintroduced a draconian bill that jeopardizes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On February 17, the Ghanaian parliament formally received the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the anti-LGBT bill, marking the latest chapter in a prolonged legal and legislative process that started […]

(Nairobi) – An Al-Qaeda-linked armed group summarily executed ten long-haul truck drivers and two teenage apprentices in late January 2026 in southwestern Mali, Human Rights Watch said today. The killings, in an attack on a fuel convoy, are apparent war crimes. On January 29, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam […]

(Washington, DC) – Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes, at least some of which appear to be deliberate extrajudicial killings, have been carried out with quadcopter drones armed with explosives in densely populated urban areas, in some […]

(Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen gender-focused approaches across all crisis responses, Human Rights Watch said today following International Women’s Day. The authorities should acknowledge that gender equality is essential to global peace, security, and justice by supporting women-led organizations and ensuring that women are meaningfully included in decision making. Human Rights Watch in February […]

A February 28, 2026 attack on a primary school in southern Iran was an unlawful attack that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including schoolchildren. The laws of war prohibit attacks if the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared to the expected military gain from the attack. The United States and Israel […]