Category: Human Rights

(Beirut) – Bahrain should take urgent steps to address the grievances of hundreds of prisoners now on hunger strike and ensure that prisoners are treated humanely, as required under international law, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also release anyone serving a prison term solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression […]

Last October, protests against Chad’s transitional government were met with brutal repression as scores of people were killed, injured, or arrested. But despite a shrinking political space, activists, lawyers, and journalists have continued their work largely unhindered. However, the recent suspension of a popular news website is a troubling development, especially as Chad prepares for […]

On August 30, the United States embassy in Port-au-Prince called on all US citizens to leave Haiti “as soon as possible” because of the worsening security situation in the country. The next day, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement loaded 57 Haitians on a plane and deported them to Haiti. One must wonder if the same […]

The desperate situation prompted a tweet on Friday from Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths for an immediate end to the fighting.   “This carnage needs to stop” said the UN relief chief. Major escalation In the past two weeks alone, 71 people have been killed and injured in capital Port-au-Prince, marking a major escalation, according […]

“The draft law could be described as a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to be governing through systemic discrimination with the intention of suppressing women and girls into total submission,” the independent experts said. They stressed that the proposed parliamentary Bill to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab […]

“Education and schools are very important now. It’s the future of our country,” says 15-year-old Daryna. The young resident of Lozova, a town in Kharkiv oblast, last sat at her school desk on February 23, 2022, a day before the war began. “24 February was frightening. We all thought we would go to school. But […]

(Beirut) – An imprisoned Iranian protester died under suspicious circumstances on August 31, 2023, in northern Iran, raising grave concerns about his treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Javad Rouhi, 31, was horrifically tortured following his arrest during the widespread protests that erupted in Iran in September 2022 and convicted two months later after an […]

Congolese security forces shot and killed dozens of protesters, and wounded scores more, gathering in the city of Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 30, 2023. The security forces also arrested several dozen people. A mystic religious sect called Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations had planned the protest to […]

(Beirut) – Lebanese authorities’ arrest and investigation of prominent comedian Nour Hajjar, solely in retaliation for his jokes, represents a new escalation in Lebanon’s crackdown on public criticism, the Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon said today. Lebanese judicial authorities should refrain from bringing charges against Hajjar, and others, prosecuted merely for peacefully […]

Widespread protests in Pakistan against a recent hike in electricity prices have gone on for a week. In some cities, the protests have turned violent. The price hike approved by the government has come as Pakistan faces one of the worst economic crises in its history, jeopardizing millions of people’s rights to health, food, and an […]