Category: Human Rights

(Brussels) – Bangladesh authorities should ensure an independent and transparent investigation into the murder of union leader, Shahidul Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. Islam, who was president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation Gazipur district committee, was beaten to death on June 25, 2023, after he visited a factory in Gazipur to […]

6 years into the Rohingya refugee crisis, nearly 1 million Rohingya remain stranded in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh, their plight far from over. With few employment opportunities and their movement restricted, the Rohingya in the camps have no other means to support themselves, relying solely on humanitarian assistance. Since 2017, the EU has contributed over […]

Yelena Milashina, who works for the independent investigative news service Novaya Gazeta, was travelling with Alexander Nemov when they were attacked on Monday morning on their way to covering the trial of Zarema Musaeva, the mother of exiled opposition activists who challenged the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. The experts urged Russia to […]

(Washington, DC) – Guatemalan authorities should respect the results of elections held on June 25, 2023, Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) said today. Concerned governments, including from Latin America, should urge the government and other authorities to ensure democratic values and respect the will of Guatemalans expressed at the […]

© People in Need, 2023 (Photographer: Alberto Lores) In the early hours of 6 June, an explosion destroyed a critical infrastructure in southern Ukraine – the Nova Kakhovka dam. The dam held back the amount of water equal to that of the Great Salt Lake in the USA. This vast amount of water was unleashed […]

Speaking to the Council’s annual meeting in Geneva on protecting the rights of women and girls, the UN High Commissioner said it was an urgent task, and there needed to be zero-tolerance of gender-based violence.  He highlighted the alarming reality that female human rights defenders, women journalists, and those in public office and political decision-making […]

(Tunis) – Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since July 2, 2023 to a remote, militarized buffer zone at the Tunisia–Libya border, Human Rights Watch said today. The group includes people with both regular and irregular legal status in Tunisia, expelled without […]

© European Union, 2023 (photographer: Oleksandr Ratushnyak) A year ago, this maternity hospital in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, was surrounded by Russian forces. But despite the shelling, the maternity ward did not stop its operations for a single day. Not even when it was almost completely cut off and essential supplies had to be delivered by […]

In a statement released in Geneva on Friday, OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed concern over the death of 17-year-old Nahel M on Tuesday, after he was shot dead driving away from a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre. According to news reports, at least 875 people were arrested in major cities around the […]

(Beirut) – Bahraini authorities blocked Shi’a worshippers from attending Friday prayers, Bahrain’s largest Shi’a mosque, on two Fridays in June, Human Rights Watch said today. Imam al-Sadeq Mosque, which is in al-Diraz neighborhood, is the main site for Shi’a Friday prayers in Bahrain. The access restrictions followed the Bahraini authorities’ brief detention of a prominent […]