Category: Human Rights

(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 […]

The United States and Iceland convened the fifth Economic Partnership Dialogue today in Washington, DC, led by Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Amy Holman and Icelandic Director General for External Trade and Economic Affairs Ragnar Kristjánsson. Additional participants included U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Carrin F. Patman and representatives from the […]

The Texas Military Department is constructing a massive new “Forward Operating Base” outside of the border community of Eagle Pass to house up to 1,800 national guard members. The base is part of the state’s multibillion-dollar anti-migrant program, Operation Lone Star. Satellite imagery from February 25 to April 3, 2024, shows the clearing of land […]

(Bangkok) – The Myanmar military has abducted and forcibly recruited more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslim men and boys from across Rakhine State since February 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. The junta is using a conscription law that only applies to Myanmar citizens, although the Rohingya have long been denied citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship […]

(Washington) – New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that many governments around the world did not meet public healthcare spending benchmarks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said today. The new information indicates possible violations of countries’ obligations to the human right to health. WHO’s Global Health Expenditure Database, released in […]

(Abuja) –Ten years after the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigerian authorities have failed to put in place and sustain crucial measures to provide a secure learning environment for every child, Human Rights Watch said today. Since 2014, according to Save the Children, more than 1,600 children have been abducted or kidnapped across […]

(Paris, April 11, 2024) – Racial profiling by French police violates international human rights law, five French and international groups said in a complaint filed today with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Although in France the Council of State recognized in October 2023 that racial profiling by the police is […]

(Bangkok) – The Thai government’s decision not to forcibly return 19 children to Myanmar should be expanded to include all refugees from Myanmar, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 12, 2024, officials from Thai immigration and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security took 19 Myanmar children, ages 5 to 17, from Wat […]

India’s Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to the activist Shoma Sen nearly six years after she was arrested in 2018 on politically motivated allegations of supporting a Maoist insurgency. “We do not find prima facie commission or attempt to commit any terrorist act,” the judge said. Sen is among 16 activists, lawyers, and academics arrested […]

Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, has declared unconstitutional a 2021 amendment that barred the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), an independent body which oversees surveillance powers, from informing citizens of state surveillance on “national security” grounds. Until March 2021, those under government surveillance could request information from ADAE about […]