Category: Human Rights

On May 5, a Nigerian high court ordered the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a prominent local human rights organization, to pay 100 million naira (about US$72,000) in damages to two Department of State Services officials. The court also directed the organization to publish public apologies and pay litigation costs. The Department of State Services […]

The death of accused Rwandan genocide financier Félicien Kabuga closes an important chapter of the country’s 1994 genocide. Unfortunately, it also robs survivors of a chance for justice many had waited decades to see. Kabuga, long alleged to have financed the extremist militia that carried out the genocide and helped fuel genocidal propaganda through Radio Télévision Libre […]

New Chapter by Professor Neuman on the U.S. & International Law   A chapter by Gerald L. Neuman, HRP Director and J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law, titled “The United States Will Need International Law” is featured in an upcoming book to be published on July 7, 2026.  America Unfinished: 250 Years […]

(Washington, DC) – The prominent anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López remains in pretrial detention in El Salvador with her case under judicial seal one year after her arrest, Human Rights Watch said today. Salvadoran authorities should guarantee López a prompt, open, and fair trial, lift the judicial secrecy on her case file, and allow her regular contact with […]

Growing up in Cambodia, Panha rarely saw LGBTQI+ people reflected in the world around her — not in television, not in public conversations, and not in ways that felt honest. “When LGBTQI+ people were represented, it often did not feel truthful to who we are,” she said. That silence stayed with her. Today, Panha is […]

Ukraine’s parliament on April 28 advanced a bill to make sweeping reform of the national civil code, which raises significant human rights concerns. The draft, which was adopted in the first reading, does not include same-sex partnerships in the definition of “marriage.” A recent landmark ruling from Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognized that a same-sex partnership constituted “family,” […]

One year after Chadian authorities arrested and later sentenced Succès Masra, the prominent opposition leader and former prime minister, his continued imprisonment on politically motivated charges underscores the government’s intolerance of dissent. Masra, leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers), was arrested at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025. He was accused of […]

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a proposed budget deal that includes reforms aimed at blunting the abusive impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the state. The White House “border czar” Tom Homan has threatened to retaliate against such reforms, stating that ICE would “flood the zone” in New York or […]

“The situation in the DPRK is a human rights crisis and it is high time the international community treats it as such,” Mr. Türk said. Ongoing gross human rights violations in the country – known more commonly as North Korea – some of which may amount to crimes against humanity, continue to be documented by […]

(Washington, DC) – The United States government’s abrupt cuts to nearly all US foreign aid in 2025 harmed the global human rights movement and countless people at risk, Human Rights Watch said in a 42-page paper issued today. “Every Autocrat’s Dream: A Global Snapshot of the Human Rights Harms of US Foreign Aid Cuts” examines the […]