Category: Human Rights

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UN Human Rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani raised concerns about the health and environmental impacts of Israeli and U.S. strikes attacks on oil depots in Tehran as toxic pollutants spread in the air. She said that these impacts raise “serious questions as to whether the proportionality and precaution obligations under international humanitarian […]

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 […]

In light of the escalating situation in the Middle East and the evolving humanitarian situation in Lebanon, the EU has mobilised emergency humanitarian aid consisting of food and medical kits, shelter materials, recreation kits and winter clothing kits, to meet the urgent, rising humanitarian needs in Lebanon. Due to ongoing hostilities, around 680,000+ people have […]

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 […]

Today, President von der Leyen and President Costa exchanged views with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Türkiye, Armenia, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman on the latest developments regarding the war in Iran, including the unacceptable attacks against the countries of the region and the impact on energy […]