Category: Human Rights

Neither chose their circumstances. Yet, one will likely live decades longer, earn far more and have a meaningful say in the decisions that shape their life. The United Nations considers the gulf between those two children not simply unfair, but a violation of the right to development. Since 1986, the UN has recognised development not […]

(New York) – Pakistani authorities on September 17, 2026, rearrested human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha soon after the Supreme Court granted them bail, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately release the two and drop the criminal charges against them, which appear aimed to punish peaceful expression and human […]

That’s according to a new UN human rights office (OHCHR) report which details violations including gang rape, rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals – together with other degrading acts of a sexual nature. Violations were recorded on both sides of the frontline, but the pattern is very different “in scope and scale,” […]

(Washington, DC) – Venezuela needs to take urgent measures and carry out institutional reforms to protect people’s basic rights, Human Rights Watch said today, following its first official visit to the country since 2008.  Human Rights Watch visited Caracas this week and met with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, other government officials, human rights groups, journalists, relatives […]

On September 11, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General published reports outlining findings from visits to Krome North Service Processing Center and the now-shuttered “Alligator Alcatraz,” immigration detention facilities in Florida. The oversight body found that the facilities failed to comply with DHS standards, including for medical care, environmental health and safety, […]

(Istanbul, September 18, 2026) – The Turkish government’s major crackdown on groups and activists defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people threatens the rule of law and fundamental rights in Türkiye, Human Rights Watch said today.  On September 12-14, 2026, coordinated police raids targeted seven groups defending the rights of LGBT people […]

2025 was marked by all too many events that called into question the effective implementation of International humanitarian law (IHL). The need for humanitarian protection and assistance has never been greater. The current global challenges, with over 130 armed conflicts ongoing, demonstrate that the proper implementation of IHL, including to new forms of warfare and […]

(Berlin, September 18, 2026) – Georgian authorities are using vague administrative offenses to jail or heavily fine people for online speech, deepening the government’s crackdown on freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Since June 2026, a new Ministry of Internal Affairs unit has monitored social media and referred hundreds of posts to courts to be […]

Nearly 84 per cent of Gaza’s population – more than 1.76 million people – live in overcrowded displacement sites or damaged shelters, leaving families vulnerable to freezing temperatures, heavy rain and flooding. At least 11 children, including infants, in the Gaza Strip were reported to have died from hypothermia last winter. In the West Bank, […]

Hungary’s new government has taken an important step toward dismantling a key discriminatory legacy of the Orbán era—the legal targeting of LGBT people. The job is not finished, however. The government submitted legislation to Parliament on September 14 to remove several provisions of the 2021 so-called “child protection” law that restrict the “portrayal” or “promotion” of sexual […]