Category: Human Rights

[ad_1] (Johannesburg) – Zambian authorities should address recent reports that polluted water and soil from an acid spill in Zambia’s copper mining region pose a serious health risk, Human Rights Watch said today. On February 18, 2025, a dam in Chambishi, Copperbelt province, holding mining waste from Chinese mining company, Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, burst its walls and […]

Belarus has freed eight additional journalists as part of a broader release of 52 political prisoners, coinciding with the United States easing sanctions on the state-owned airline Belavia. The move follows earlier releases and reflects ongoing diplomatic engagement between Washington and Minsk. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the development, noting that the freed […]

[ad_1] Health professionals in Ethiopia plan to resume striking on September 15 to demand better wages and living conditions, marking the second round of strikes in recent months. Following months of organizing spearheaded by the Ethiopian Health Professionals Movement (EHPM), public health care workers launched a nationwide walkout in May, halting nonemergency health services. The professionals raised numerous […]

A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed alarming violations of press freedom in Yemen, where journalists and media institutions face systematic abuse by all major parties to the conflict. The findings document arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, and other forms of inhumane treatment targeting media workers. The report identifies the Houthis, the […]

[ad_1] The rights office, OHCHR, interviewed 314 witnesses who left the DPRK – more commonly known as North Korea – and consulted with several organizations and experts to evaluate the human rights conditions there since 2014. The situation has not improved, and in many cases has worsened, “bringing even more suffering to the population,” said […]

[ad_1] (Istanbul, September 12, 2025) – Türkiye’s slowing down (throttling) of social media and messaging platforms at moments of social or political importance is denying people important information and impeding democratic participation, 15 groups including Human Rights Watch said in a statement released today. The following is their statement: Türkiye: Stop Throttling Social Media Platforms and […]

Two Ukrainian journalists, Heorhiy Levtchenko and Vladyslav Hershon, were sentenced last week by Russian courts to 16 and 15 years in prison, respectively, following two years of detention. The pair were arrested in August 2023 in the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol, alongside other media professionals linked to Ukrainian Telegram channels. Their reported offense: publishing […]

STRASBOURG, 12 September 2025 — National anti-trafficking coordinators and rapporteurs from 54 countries convened at the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg to reaffirm their commitment to strengthening cross-sector partnerships and integrating crisis resilience into anti-trafficking strategies. The two-day meeting, co-organized by the Council of Europe and the OSCE Office of the Special Representative for […]

Ko Nay Thway, a Myanmar citizen, has been sentenced to seven years of hard labor for publicly criticizing the military government’s upcoming parliamentary elections, according to state-run media reports released Wednesday. The conviction stems from a now-deleted social media post on his account “Lashio Baegyi,” in which Nay Thway shared footage of a violent car […]