Category: Human Rights

The Russian-born actor, filmmaker and photographer was appointed a special consultant to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in connection with World Refugee Year. Ahead of the International Human Fraternity Day, marked annually on 4 February, this week’s #ThrowbackThursday edition focuses on the Hollywood stars who focused on the plight of […]

“The agency will no longer have funding as of the end of February, so that means our operations would come to a halt during March,” said Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA Director in Lebanon, describing the “severe impact” of fresh budget cuts. The funding crisis stemmed from Israel’s allegations that a dozen agency staff were involved in […]

Nearly 8,600 people on the move died in 2023, a 20 per cent increase from 2022, according to the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project online platform. It details the global movement of people risking their lives to escape conflict, economic crisis and natural disasters, including drought and flooding linked to climate change. IOM says the […]

While ceasefire talks failed to end the five-month-long conflict that has killed nearly 32,000 Palestinians – most of them women and children – the goal of some youngsters living in the makeshift camp was simple. The children of Deir Al-Balah decided to lift their spirits in the face of ongoing war and celebrate the holy […]

Belarus has hit a new low in its targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. As of today, the definition of pornography under Belarusian law will include depictions of same-sex relationships as well as transgender people. The Culture Ministry recently amended its decree on “erotic materials” to classify “homosexualism, lesbian love” and the […]

(Nairobi) – As global and regional leaders meet in Paris to spotlight Sudan and mark the one-year anniversary of the country’s brutal conflict between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), they should make clear that those responsible for ongoing atrocities and other violations of international humanitarian law will be held to account, Human Rights […]

(Nairobi) – Mali’s transitional military government should immediately reverse its suspension of political parties and associations, Human Rights Watch said today. The suspension violates both Malian law and the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly under international human rights law. On April 10, 2024, the council of ministers adopted a decree suspending the […]

In early February, a 30-year-old Jewish student was hospitalized following an attack by a fellow student at Berlin’s largest public university, Freie Universität Berlin. Berlin’s authorities treated the attack as politically motivated antisemitic violence and attributed it to the impact in Europe of the escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict. In response to the attack, Germany’s […]

The United States is today announcing the designations of former Surinamese President Bouterse and six former Surinamese military officials: Benny Brondenstein, Stephanus Marinus Dendoe, Iwan Dijksteel, Ernst Gefferie, Kenneth Kempes, and Lucien Lewis pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, due to their involvement in extrajudicial killings of political opponents […]

(Berlin, April 12, 2024) – Germany’s parliament on April 12, 2024, passed a landmark law that allows transgender and non-binary people to modify their legal documents to reflect their gender identity through an administrative procedure based on self-identification, Human Rights Watch said today. The law will take effect in August 2024. The new law replaces Germany’s […]