Category: Human Rights

(Berlin, July 9, 2026) – Civilians trapped in front-line areas of the Russian-occupied Khersonska region in southern Ukraine face dire humanitarian conditions and have no safe way to leave, Human Rights Watch said today. Civilians who wish to evacuate should be allowed to do so safely. Residents who escaped the city of Oleshky, on the east bank […]

(Kinshasa) – Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo used excessive force against protesters demonstrating against a proposed law that could extend President Félix Tshisekedi’s term on June 12, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The security forces used tear gas and batons in the capital, Kinshasa, to prevent a group of protesters created to defend […]

Georgian authorities are using repressive laws, funding restrictions, and politically motivated criminal investigations to dismantle independent civil society.  New laws place virtually all foreign funding under strict government control, impose stigmatizing “foreign agent” labels, and threaten activists and independent groups with severe fines and prison sentences. The government should repeal these unjustifiable legal measures and […]

Georgian authorities are using repressive laws, funding restrictions, and politically motivated criminal investigations to dismantle independent civil society.  New laws place virtually all foreign funding under strict government control, impose stigmatizing “foreign agent” labels, and threaten activists and independent groups with severe fines and prison sentences. The government should repeal these unjustifiable legal measures and […]

Monia Ammar and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria met victims, government officials and civil society groups between 1 and 7 July.  They also visited Homs and Quneitra following earlier trips to Damascus, Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Raqqa and Hassakeh. Echoes of conflict Their visit was bookended by violence. Suspected […]

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law on July 7 amending the constitution to extend presidential terms from five to seven years. The amendment, approved by parliament last month, also abolishes the election of the president by popular vote and establishes a parliamentary method for selecting the president. Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution limited the term of a president to […]

At the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which closed on July 8, UN experts and civil society expressed deep concern about Tunisia’s intensifying human rights crises. But the continued silence from UN member states all but signalled a free pass for Tunisian authorities to continue escalating their crackdown on civic space. Five […]

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities are denying medical care to a death row prisoner with an apparent brain tumor, following a forced disappearance and an unfair trial, Human Rights Watch said today.  The Egyptian authorities detained the prisoner, Ahmed al-Waleed al-Shal, in 2014 shortly after he graduated from medical school at age 24. He was convicted […]

(Stockholm) – Sweden is deporting young women to countries where they could face severe gender-based rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. Media reported that in 2025, at least 92 young adults were set to be deported alone, many of them women who grew up in Sweden and have immediate family there. Sweden has been […]

(Berlin, July 8, 2026) – The German government should abandon its plans to gut Germany’s Freedom of Information Act, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed amendments will threaten core human rights essential to transparency and public participation in a democracy based on the rule of law. On July 2, 2026, the coalition committee of […]