Category: Human Rights

A new UNESCO report illustrates how education can empower children and their communities to access their human rights. It also shows that education and justice can uphold the rule of law in contexts where it’s in decline and where children live in conditions of extreme injustice.  Human Rights Watch has long documented the consequences of […]

(Washington, DC) – The United States government is conditioning lifesaving health assistance on broad access to surveillance data and extractive rights to pathogen samples and data for pharmaceutical development, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued an assessment of seven bilateral health agreements signed in late 2025 with Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, […]

Hungarian prosecutors announced on June 4 that they had dropped charges against a mayor and a civic activist for their roles in organizing 2025 Pride events in Budapest and Pécs. The charges, which were brought under Fidesz-era anti-LGBT legislation, were part of the former government’s crackdown on civic space and LGBT rights. Prosecutors had filed criminal charges this […]

Tens of thousands of protesters marched simultaneously through central London on 16 May in two separate large-scale demonstrations. Though the protesters were from opposing sides of the political spectrum, the protests were, by and large, peaceful—calling into question the need for the cumulative disruption and house of worship provisions enacted as a part of the Crime and Policing Act […]

(Johannesburg) – A Zimbabwe court on June 3, 2026, acquitted and released a prominent opposition activist after more than seven months in detention on baseless charges, Human Rights Watch said today. The case underscores the ongoing weaponization of the criminal justice system by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.  A Harare magistrates’ court acquitted Godfrey Chidhau Karembera, 47, popularly […]

(Beirut) – The de facto Houthi authorities in Yemen should immediately and unconditionally release the dozens of staff from the United Nations and Yemeni and international civil society organizations who have been arbitrarily detained over the last two years, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. The Houthis’ […]

Fragmented Justice: Accountability for ISIS’ Atrocities against Yazidis (Photo by ZAID AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images) Fragmented Justice: Accountability for ISIS’ Atrocities against Yazidis August 3, 2014, marked the beginning of a collective nightmare for the Yazidis, a small ethno-religious community in Iraq. On that day, ISIS seized Yazidi villages in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Within two […]

The crisis is extending beyond traditional centres of insecurity. Families across both urban and rural communities continue to flee attacks, often multiple times and with increasingly limited options for safety. “Haiti’s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase,” said Gregoire Goodstein, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti. In May alone, renewed attacks in […]

Two journalists affiliated with the YouTube channel Imbarutso ya Demokarasi are facing charges for reporting on Kwa Kabuga or the Kigali Transit Center, an unofficial detention facility where authorities hold people deemed “undesirable,” and one of the capital’s worst kept secrets.  Augustin Nsanzimana, a cameraman and editor, and Emmanuel Niyonshuti, a broadcast journalist, are currently […]

(Berlin, June 5, 2026) – On June 4, 2026, Russian officials included a leading rights group, OVD-Info, along with 35 other Russian organizations, in its list of “extremists,” Human Rights Watch said today. A designation as “extremist” entails being barred from engaging in any activities for the group, under threat of a lengthy prison sentence. […]