Category: Human Rights

Representatives from Latin American and Caribbean states convened recently to address responses to “forced displacement due to disasters,” including the effects of the climate crisis, following up on their Cartagena Declaration of 1984. The United States has not adopted the declaration and did not join the group, but it should pay attention and reflect on […]

(Sydney) – Personal photos of Australian children are being used to create powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools without the knowledge or consent of the children or their families, Human Rights Watch said today. These photos are scraped off the web into a large data set that companies then use to train their AI tools. In turn, […]

About 1.4 million people are estimated to have been left in dire straits, as heavy rains lashed Sylhet and Sunamganj districts, as well as areas upstream, in India. “Our priority is to ensure that the most vulnerable families, who were already facing hardships and are now having their lives and livelihoods upended again by the […]

“Patterns of gross human rights violations, including the widespread use of arbitrary and incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance persist unabated” in Eritrea, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, told the UN Human Rights Council. Despite consistent concerns being raised about the dire rights situation across the country, […]

An Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) working group should show it is genuinely interested in engaging with civil society if it wants to produce an effective environmental rights declaration, as it resumes drafting today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The working group released its first – and so far only – version of the draft […]

(Geneva) – All victims of gross human rights violations in Palestine and Israel are owed reparation, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch on June 26 submitted recommendations to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, had invited input to inform her […]

(Berlin, July 1, 2024) – Uzbekistan authorities have increasingly cracked down on calls for independence in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan since protests broke out there two years ago, Human Rights Watch said today. But Uzbekistan has also yet to hold any senior officials accountable for the excessive force used to quell the protests against […]

The US State Department has released its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIPs) Report ranking nearly 200 countries’ anti-trafficking efforts. The report finds perpetrators increasingly use “social media, online advertisements, websites, dating apps, and gaming platforms” to force, defraud, or coerce job seekers into labor and sexual exploitation, and encourages technology companies to use “data and algorithm tools […]

(Beirut) – The United Nations Human Rights Council should establish an international fact-finding mission into the August 4, 2020 blast at Beirut’s port, 18 organizations including Human Rights Watch, and dozens of relatives of the victims of the blast said in a statement released today.  Nearly four years after the blast, nobody has been held […]

Special Advisor on International Disability Rights (SAIDR) Sara Minkara will travel to Istanbul and Ankara, Türkiye, June 30 – July 3 to advance the inclusion of persons with disabilities across several policy areas. During her trip, SAIDR Minkara will promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in crisis response and recovery, NATO, and the media.  SAIDR Minkara’s travel […]