Category: Human Rights

Since 22 March, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sustained four waves of attacks that killed six people, injured at least 45 and struck at least 20 facilities.   Just this past Saturday alone, missile attacks damaged four thermal power plants critical for electricity generation. Two of the plants are located in western Ukraine, far from the frontline. Previous […]

Office of the Spokesperson The following joint statement was released by the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States are gravely concerned by reports of massacres of civilians by Burkinabe military forces in late February.  A recent Human Rights Watch report […]

The United States is deeply concerned by the Iraqi Council of Representatives’ passage of an amendment to existing legislation, officially called the Anti-Prostitution and Homosexuality Law, which threatens constitutionally protected human rights and fundamental freedoms. The law bans same-sex relations with steep fines and imprisonment and punishes those who “promote homosexuality.” Limiting the rights of […]

(Brussels) – The European Parliament vote on April 24, 2024, to approve the proposed European law to require large companies to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains is a step forward for corporate accountability, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) […]

Members of Japan’s Diet are revising the law, declared unconstitutional, that allows transgender people to change their legal gender. Last October, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled the country’s sterilization surgery requirement for transgender people is unconstitutional, and now lawmakers are debating how to amend the legal gender recognition law. Debates have featured some troubling proposals, such […]

Australian journalist Avani Dias left India on April 19 after the government did not extend her journalist visa until moments before it was due to expire – the latest example of foreign writers, journalists, academics, and activists being denied access to India for seemingly political reasons. Dias, who works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and […]

The last major phase in Guinea’s landmark domestic trial about the brutal massacre of peaceful demonstrators in 2009 concluded on April 23. That last phase, known as the “confrontations,” began on April 15 as judges and all parties posed questions to some of the accused – including Guinea’s former president – as well as victims […]

Pro-Palestine university campus protests have spread across the United States, with harsh crackdowns at some institutions, including Columbia University, the University of Texas, and Emory University. These include mass suspensions, evictions from university housing, and arrests of students, faculty, legal observers, and journalists covering these events. Columbia University students set up tents on campus on […]

VO: On October 13, 2023, Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed Issam Abdullah, a Reuters journalist. The attack injured six other journalists from Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), and Al Jazeera.  SOUNDBITE: Dylan Collins AFP Journalist I will always remember his, his wit and his humor. He was the dynamo of the press scene and of […]

In a historic judgment published on April 22, the Dominica High Court decriminalized consensual same-sex relations. Dominica becomes the fourth Eastern Caribbean country to strike down discriminatory legal provisions and decriminalize gay sex, following Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados. Dominica’s Sexual Offences Act had punished “buggery” with up to 10 years’ […]