Author: Human Rights Watch

(Tokyo) – Beijing has restructured Hong Kong’s governance to answer to Party leadership rather than Hong Kong’s people six years after imposing the draconian National Security Law, Human Rights Watch said today. “Hong Kong’s highly repressive national security regime and bureaucracy have erased long-protected rights and cast a deeply troubling shadow over its future” said Elaine Pearson, […]

(Nairobi) – Islamist armed groups and Malian armed forces and their allies have committed serious abuses against civilians since fighting escalated in Mali in April 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 25, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM) carried out coordinated attacks across Mali. JNIM […]

(Sydney) – Australia has refused to commit to reforms for the incarceration of children, offshore detention of asylum seekers, and phasing out fossil fuels, despite repeated calls to do so from United Nations member countries, Human Rights Watch said today. In its written response to its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human […]

When the Egypt and Iran teams meet at Lumen Field in Seattle tonight, soccer fans will be free to wave the rainbow flag. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) confirmedThursday that it would not bar the symbol from the stadium over formal objections from both countries’ football federations. It is the right call.  On June […]

18 months ago, Niger’s military junta arrested and detained Moussa Tiangari, a prominent human rights defender in the country. Following an investigation, the United Nations is now calling for his release.  The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an independent expert body that investigates cases of deprivation of liberty, found that Tiangari’s detention is arbitrary and violates […]

Click to expand Image A German police officer takes a man to a deportation flight to Pakistan, February 25, 2025, Hesse, Germany. © 2025 Boris Roessler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo The European Union is forging ahead on its quest to increase deportations regardless of the consequences for people’s rights. On June 17, the European Parliament approved a Return Regulation […]

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) rejected its ombudsman’s findings about harm related to investments in Cambodia’s microfinance sector, failing a critical test of accountability, Human Rights Watch said today. In its response, published on June 24, 2026, the IFC refuted the ombudsman’s determination that it had violated its own environmental and social policies.  […]

(New York) – The censorship of prominent social media accounts, foreign films, and events with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes around Pride month illustrates the deteriorating rights situation for LGBT people in China, Human Rights Watch said today. A number of these events were organized by foreign embassies and cultural institutes. “Under Xi Jinping, […]

(London, June 25, 2026) – The new Hungarian government’s plan to make sweeping changes to key institutions through a rushed 17th amendment to the constitution, risks halting advances to restore the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today. The plans to remove the country’s president and the head of its constitutional court lack due process safeguards. […]

China is pressing the United Nations budget committee to defund numerous human rights posts in negotiations on the 2026-2027 UN peacekeeping budget, including essential personnel for the newly established UN Support Office in Haiti. China is recommending against funding for staff to monitor compliance by a new security force for Haiti with the UN’s human […]