Category: Human Rights

(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’ […]

Nearly three years ago, on July 30, 2021, a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat intercepted a small vessel carrying around 20 people. The interception by Libyan officials happened despite the vessel being within Malta’s search-and-rescue area. Our investigations suggest the European Union border agency Frontex played a role in enabling the interception, but the agency […]

(Sydney) – The Australian government should include human rights vetting provisions in all bilateral security force cooperation agreements, Human Rights Watch said in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The committee is reviewing a proposed agreement between Australia and Fiji for defence cooperation. “The Australian military should not support, train, or […]

According to media reports, over 220 civilians – including 56 children – were killed in attacks reportedly carried out by the military in two villages on a single day in late February. Furthermore, at least two international media outlets – the BBC and Voice of America – have been “temporarily suspended” in the past few […]