Category: Human Rights

(Nairobi) – Somalia’s parliament should reject any proposed constitutional amendments that would weaken rights protections for children, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 30, 2024, both houses of parliament are expected to vote on the proposed amendments, which would reduce the age of majority – increasing the risk of child marriage and lowered juvenile […]

(New York) – The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) should release the findings of its investigation into two Israeli strikes on a group of journalists in south Lebanon on October 13, 2023, 16 NGOs and journalist groups said today in a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, force commander Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro […]

(Berlin, March 29, 2024) – Russian authorities tortured, recorded, and shared recordings of the torture, of at least two men held as suspects for the monstrous March 22, 2024 attack on a concert hall, Human Rights Watch said today. Photographs and videos of the arrests and torture of suspects, presumably taken by law enforcement officials, […]

During a Diet session last week, Japan’s Ministry of Justice announced it had broadened a directive initially sent to all penal institutions in 2014 that effectively bans the use of restraints on imprisoned pregnant women inside delivery rooms. The reform is a much-needed step in protecting the rights of women in Japan’s prisons. The new […]

UN News spoke to Commissioner Aina Randriambelo, who described what efforts her country is making to promote gender equality and a better understanding of what constitutes sexual exploitation and abuse. Commissioner Aina Randriambelo, Madagascar’s Chief Inspector of Police. “I was really surprised when I heard that a 12-year-girl who had attended one of our school-based […]

The Indonesian military apologized to “all Papuan people” and detained 13 soldiers from an elite battalion in West Java who had tortured a Papuan man in Gome, Central Papua. A video posted to social media shows three soldiers in army undershirts brutally beating Definus Kogoya, a young Papuan man, who had his hands tied behind […]

On March 27, immigration officials at the Ngwenya Border post between South Africa and Eswatini stopped Tanele Maseko, widow of murdered human rights lawyer and opposition activist Thulani Maseko, along with her two young children and her helper while they were trying to enter Eswatini. Immigration officials flagged Tanele’s passport as belonging to a wanted […]

The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested last March in Yekatarinburg on espionage charges and is being held at the infamous Lefortovo prison in Moscow.  Mariana Katzarova, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, and Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, […]

(Beirut) – A Saudi court sentenced 12 football fans from six months up to a year in prison on March 27, 2024, for peacefully chanting during a January football match, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should immediately quash the verdict, which is based solely on the peaceful expression of exuberant football fans. Saudi […]

(Washington, DC, March 28, 2024) – United Nations Security Council members should address the deteriorating situation in Haiti by keeping their promise to the Haitian people and urgently acting to restore basic security, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch recommended six key measures to allow for democratic governance, human […]