Category: Human Rights

(New York) – Hilda Macheso, a Malawian disability rights advocate, is the 2025/2026 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Marca Bristo Fellowship for Courageous Leadership in Disability Rights, Human Rights Watch announced today on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Macheso is an emerging advocate for the rights of young people with disabilities in […]

(Paris) – French President Emmanuel Macron should privately and publicly stress the importance of human rights in Sino-French relations during his visit to China from December 3 to 5, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Macron’s visit is one of several top-level engagements between European and Chinese leaders amid the complex and shifting geopolitical relationships among Europe, […]

Since November 21, social media company X has been rolling out a new feature called “About this account,” which displays information about users that was previously not publicly disclosed. This includes the country where an account was created, is based, the date it joined X, and username changes. The company says the feature is intended […]

(Washington, DC) – Armed groups in Colombia’s southern state of Putumayo, have tightened their control over citizens’ daily lives and committed grave abuses against civilians, particularly in Indigenous communities, Human Rights Watch said today. Since 2023, the government has been in peace talks with several armed groups that control parts of Putumayo, which is on the […]

FAO aims to support more than 100 million people in 54 countries by the end of 2026, with a funding goal of $2.5 billion. The agency is pushing for a more targeted and responsive approach, prioritising what matters most, sequencing interventions effectively, and centring efforts on the practical solutions farmers are calling for, in line […]

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to visit Israel on 6th of December and meet, among others, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including the deliberate starvation of the civilian population and attacks on civilians. Merz is […]

OHCHR is calling for more action to end the violence and achieve justice. “While the interim authorities have taken encouraging steps towards addressing past violations, these steps are only the beginning of what needs to be done,” spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheethan told journalists in Geneva. Summary executions and arbitrary killing Since last December, Syria’s interim authorities have established national commissions for transitional justice and missing persons, among other measures.   A draft law on transitional justice has […]

Hong Kong will hold elections for its Legislative Council on December 7, without a single pro-democracy candidate. The Chinese government’s attempts to present the legislature, known as the LegCo, as legitimate hardly fool anyone. Many Hongkongers quietly boycotted the previous election in 2021, resulting in record-low turnout.  Five years into its sweeping crackdown, Beijing has […]

The 2024 forest fires report from the Commission’s Joint Research Centre confirms a longer and more intense fire season.  Major fires have increased every year since 2017, and the 2024 data confirm the upward trend. The 2024 fire season ended with a total burnt area of 383,317 hectares. While this is lower than the 500,000 […]

Speaking on the sidelines of a key international meeting in support of landmine action taking place at UN Geneva, experts in the field explained how shrinking resources in Afghanistan and Nigeria have exposed civilians to unexploded ordnance. They stressed that mine action programmes, often viewed as long-term recovery initiatives, are in fact emergency humanitarian interventions […]