Category: Human Rights

(The Hague) – The International Court of Justice has announced that it will deliver its judgment on November 19, 2026, in the case brought by Gambia against Myanmar for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing a question-and-answer document on key issues in the case. In August 2017, Myanmar’s security forces began […]

BEIJING — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has issued an urgent international appeal calling on Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release 64-year-old veteran journalist and editor Dong Yuyu on humanitarian grounds. The call comes following revelations that prison officials forced the former Guangming Daily columnist to resume full-time prison labor just weeks after […]

The Turkish authorities are misusing powers of detention and prosecution against opposition politicians in Türkiye to prevent them from participating effectively in elections or political life, the Turkey Litigation Support Project, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists said today. The three groups have submitted a third-party intervention—or amicus brief—to the European Court of Human […]

As Europe faces increasingly frequent and complex crises, the European Commission is stepping up efforts to strengthen preparedness across the EU. From helping citizens protect themselves during emergencies to ensuring that national civil protection systems can keep operating when disaster strikes, the EU is delivering concrete measures to make Europe more resilient. Today, at the […]

Zambian police and military forcibly disappeared, arbitrarily detained, beat, and threatened opposition members, lawyers, journalists, and government critics in the days before and after general elections in August.  The post-election climate of intimidation, harassment, and repression has had a chilling effect on civic and political organizations, particularly on dissenting voices. The authorities should immediately halt […]

Mohammad el Shami, a staff member of the UN human rights office in Yemen, had been arbitrarily detained by the Houthi de facto authorities since 6 June 2024. His family say he died more than a month ago but were told only recently. “Mohammad’s family has not received any explanation of the cause or circumstances […]

“If an officer says, ‘Come into my bedroom,’ she must go in, otherwise she would be disobeying an order from her superior,” she told UN News. Her investigation into sexual violence inside the military has won her the 2026 Breach/Valdez Award for Journalism and Human Rights. It has also made her a target, in one […]

CAIRO — International human rights organizations, medical monitors, and civil society networks have issued an alarming update regarding Egyptian human rights defender, translator, and mother Marwa Arafa. Arafa, 33, who has been arbitrarily detained in Egypt for over six years, is experiencing severe health deterioration in custody while prison authorities systematically deny her access to […]

Prison authorities in the Australian state of South Australia are harming people with disabilities by using solitary confinement. Solitary confinement has a disproportionately harmful impact on people with disabilities and can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and even torture.  Australia’s federal and state governments should take urgent action to ensure proper independent oversight […]