Author: Human Rights Watch

The recent arrest of a prominent political analyst on Myanmar visiting China demonstrates Beijing’s intensifying intolerance of any independent voices or viewpoints not to their liking. On June 3, Chinese authorities reportedly detained Min Zin, a US citizen from Myanmar and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, as he flew into Yunnan province […]

Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight. Section 219 creates the role of an “executive agent” focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air […]

(Washington, DC) – A prosecutor in the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta was shot and killed on June 14, 2026, the most recent in a series of killings of judicial officials in Ecuador, Human Rights Watch said today. Gloria Alexandra Bravo Cedeño is the third prosecutor to be killed in Manta since 2022. Ecuadorian authorities should […]

Syria’s 14-year conflict destroyed vast swathes of the country and killed hundreds of thousands, but it also left behind over 1.5 million Syrians with war-caused disabilities. Syria’s minister of social affairs, Hind Kabawat, acknowledged this dire situation on June 9 at a UN meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities in New York, calling on international partners […]

US President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act into law on June 10, including roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement. The legislation funds several agencies through September 2029, including approximately $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $26 billion for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Congressional approval for this legislation comes after months […]

A Baku court’s June 12 decision to convict prominent human rights defender Rufat Safarov on bogus criminal charges and sentence him to eight years in prison is the latest blow to Azerbaijan’s already severely restricted civic space. Safarov, executive director of the human rights organization Defense Line (Müdafiə Xətti), was convicted by the Baku Court […]

The European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted on June 16 its second motion in a year pressing European Union institutions and governments to address transnational repression. Transnational repression encompasses violations used by states to target, silence, or intimidate critics, particularly nationals and former nationals, who are outside their borders and beyond their territorial jurisdictions. In its […]

On June 4, the United States House of Representatives passed the 2027 agriculture appropriations bill. If enacted in its current state, the bill would cut US$200 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) compared to 2026.  The reduction would hit fruit and vegetable benefits for 5.4 million pregnant and […]

With Hungary’s reversal of its decision to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Union has an opportunity to extend the significance of this moment for international justice well beyond Budapest. EU leaders should state clearly and with one voice in the conclusion of the upcoming June 18-19 European Council meeting that their support […]

On June 15, the Court of Appeal in London upheld the United Kingdom government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group. This damaging ruling, which overturns an earlier High Court decision against the government, will likely further inhibit the right to protest in the UK and globally. Palestine Action was established in 2020 […]