Category: Human Rights

Brazil had the highest number of registered rape cases in its history in 2022: 74,930, according to a recent report by the Brazilian Public Security Forum. In over 60 percent of the cases, the survivor was under 14 years old. In many cases, the abuser was a relative or an acquaintance. The report notes the […]

(Berlin) – Russia’s lower house of parliament has adopted a bill prohibiting collaboration with unregistered foreign nongovernmental organizations, and severely limiting civic space, Human Rights Watch said today. If approved by the parliament’s upper house and signed by the president, the legislation will severely limit the right to freedom of association protected under international human […]

In January, Italy’s right-wing government ordered state agencies to cease registration of children born to same-sex couples. Now they’ve taken it a step further: a state prosecutor in northern Italy has ordered the cancellation and re-issuance of 33 birth certificates of lesbian couples’ children, endangering access to medical care and education.   Non-gestational mothers are […]

Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, adopted in final reading a law providing immunity for crimes committed “in the interests of the Russian state.” The apparent objective behind the law, passed last Thursday, is to shield Russian military personnel, civilian officials, and their proxies from accountability for war crimes and grave human rights abuses […]

The UN agency added that there have been more than 2,500 severe violations of children’s rights – an average of more than one an hour – in a country where 14 million youngsters need aid relief.  “As we reach more than 100 days since the conflict in Sudan escalated, we know that it is taking […]

(Goma) – Militia fighters killed at least 46 civilians, half of them children, and pillaged and burned a displaced people’s camp on June 12, 2023, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province, Human Rights Watch said today. The Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Coopérative pour le développement du Congo, CODECO), a predominantly […]

(Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and foreign fighters apparently from the Russia-linked Wagner Group have summarily executed and forcibly disappeared several dozen civilians in Mali’s central region since December 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. They also destroyed and looted civilian property and allegedly tortured detainees in an army camp. On June 16, 2023, Malian […]

For more than two months, India’s Manipur state has been wracked by ethnic violence between Kuki tribal groups and the majority Meitei community. More than 100 lives have been lost and tens of thousands displaced. But it was only after a video emerged this week from May 4 showing a Meitei mob stripping and parading […]

(Nairobi) – Ethiopian authorities should immediately release seven Oromo opposition figures arbitrarily detained for around three years purely for their political role, Human Rights Watch said today. These cases underscore the urgent need for Ethiopia’s government to reform the country’s justice system. Oromia police have held seven senior members of the opposition political party, the […]

(New York) – The Thai Constitutional Court’s decision to suspend from parliament the leading candidate for prime minister on politically motivated charges is a serious blow to democracy in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today. The reformist Move Forward Party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, had secured 151 parliamentary seats, the most votes of any party […]