Category: Human Rights

(Sydney) – Australian officials should press the Lao government to take concrete steps to improve its human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today. The 9th Australia-Laos Human Rights Dialogue is scheduled for Vientiane on November 18, 2025. In an October submission to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Human Rights Watch urged Australian officials to […]

In its response to the verdict, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances. Last July, student protests which began over a quota system for public service jobs in Bangladesh quickly escalated into widespread demonstrations, which were violently repressed by national security forces. Following the former prime minister’s […]

(Nairobi) – Mali’s military and allied militias killed at least 31 civilians and burned homes on October 2 and 13, 2025, in 2 villages in the country’s embattled Segou region, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 2, Malian army forces and the Dozo, a predominantly ethnic Bambara militia that has been taking part in […]

The UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood formally announced the measures on Monday, aimed at tightening controls on irregular arrivals while maintaining the country’s commitment to offering sanctuary. She told the House of Commons that some families whose asylum claims have failed were not being removed “even when we know their home is perfectly safe.”  The […]

On November 13, a European Parliament majority sold out rights protections to corporate interests in the course of negotiating amendments to the European Union’s landmark Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). It ripped through years of efforts to build comprehensive legislation that holds corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply […]

(Berlin) – Last month a 29 year old man from Tajikistan, who had been living in central Germany since 2019, died under mysterious circumstances in prison in Tajikistan. Saidazam Rahmonov, who was married to a German woman, had travelled to Tajikistan in June to gather documents needed to extend his visa in Germany. Tajikistan authorities […]

Governments should act on recent political commitments to protect civilians from the bombing and shelling that devastates cities and towns around the world. Civilians make up the vast majority of casualties caused by the use of explosive weapons—such as aerial bombs, rockets, missiles, and artillery and mortar projectiles—in populated areas. Governments should maximize civilian protection […]

(Bangkok) – Foreign governments should reject the Myanmar junta’s plans to hold elections from late December 2025 through January 2026 because they will not be free, fair, or inclusive, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the February 2021 military coup, the junta has systematically dismantled the rule of law and the country’s nascent democratic systems, and […]

(Berlin, November 11, 2025) – Lawmakers in Kazakhstan should reject a draft law with amendments that would ban “propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation,” seven international human rights groups said today. The groups are Access Now, Civil Rights Defenders; Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity; Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights; Human Rights Watch; International […]

(Nairobi) – The authorities in Cameroon responded to widespread opposition-led protests following the October 12, 2025 elections with lethal force and mass arrests of protesters and other citizens, Human Rights Watch said today. The Constitutional Council announced on October 27 that the incumbent President Paul Biya, 92, had won the election with 53.66 percent of […]