Category: Human Rights

(Beirut) – Iranian authorities have arrested at least a dozen activists and increased pressure on a wide range of peaceful dissidents ahead of the anniversary of the nationwide protests that swept the country in 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities brutally cracked down on the antigovernment protests that erupted after the death of […]

Leaders from across Southern Africa met in Angola’s capital, Luanda, this week to discuss, among other issues, their military mission in the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique. Civilians in the region have suffered horrendous human rights abuses at the hands of the Islamic State-linked armed group Al-Shabab and the Mozambican forces fighting them. Since 2021, […]

(Washington, DC) – Guatemalan authorities should ensure a free and fair run-off election on August 20, 2023, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and Human Rights Watch said today. Amid attempts by political actors and several government institutions to interfere with the election, sustained international scrutiny remains crucial to safeguarding the right to vote […]

Khaled Mansour, now a writer and journalist, was the WFP spokesperson in Iraq at the time and narrowly missed the massive explosion which killed 22 of his UN colleagues. On World Humanitarian Day which was established to mark the 19 August attack, he reflects on his life since and what he has learnt. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré […]

This week marks the two-year anniversary since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Days earlier, the Australian federal government announced an increase of its humanitarian visa intake from 17,875 to 20,000 refugees. The synchronicity of these two occurrences is cause for reflection. How well is Australia’s humanitarian visa program supporting people trying to flee […]

Briefing the UN Security Council, Volker Türk ran through a long list of rights abuses, saying that many “stem directly from, or support, the increasing militarisation of the DPRK.” His argument was reinforced by the UN independent human rights expert Elizabeth Salmón who told ambassadors that leaders of the DPRK – more commonly known as […]

On Monday, Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) held its first-ever hearing on the country’s mandatory hijab regulations, inviting two schoolgirls, six mothers, and two fathers to testify. Since first being introduced in West Sumatra in 2001, Indonesia has had 120 local mandatory hijab regulations, 73 of which are still in force. […]

© IOM Yemen, Haithm Abdulbaqi Now in its 9th year, and despite conditions resembling a truce, the conflict in Yemen remains unabated. However, this has not deterred migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, from taking their chances crossing Yemen on their way to Saudi Arabia, even if most of them never make it there. Thousands of migrants […]

The Rapid Support Forces, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital and those fleeing fighting in recent weeks. Sexual violence committed in the context of an armed conflict is a war crime, and if part of a widespread or systematic attack can amount […]

Genesis, not her real name, is one of more than seven million people who have left Venezuela in recent years as a result of the political turmoil, socio-economic instability and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the South American country. Curaçao is a popular Caribbean tourist destination. At least 321 migrants disappeared or died in the […]