Category: Human Rights

(Beirut) – Migrant workers in Gulf Cooperation Council countries lack sufficient health and safety protection from the region’s extreme summertime heat and humidity, Human Rights Watch said today. Extreme heat exposure is a serious health hazard. It can cause heat rash, cramps, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke, which can be fatal or have lifelong consequences. […]

(Nairobi) – Nearly two months since a series of nationwide protests began, Kenyan authorities have failed to take sufficient action to hold police officers and their commanders to account for killings and attacks on protesters and other people, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya said today. The Independent Policing  Oversight Authority (IPOA) should urgently […]

(New York) – The Pakistan government should immediately transfer civilians set to be tried in military courts to the civilian justice system, Human Rights Watch said today. Trying civilians before military courts violates Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law to ensure the due process and fair trial rights of criminal suspects. The Pakistan police […]

The Ministry of Public Security has no sense of humor. Bui Tuan Lam became famous in November 2021 for making a parody video of himself imitating the celebrity chef known as Salt Bae, who days before had gone viral in Vietnam after spreading salt over a US$2,000 gold-encrusted steak and feeding it to Vietnam’s public security minister, To […]

After meeting with Nicolás Maduro this week, Brazil’s President Lula implied that democracy is thriving in Venezuela and called the undermining of democratic institutions there a “constructed narrative.” As someone who recently survived efforts to overthrow Brazil’s democracy, it was frustrating to see him fawning over Venezuela’s repressive ruler. It’s no secret that the Maduro […]

(New York) – Indian authorities should immediately and impartially investigate ongoing killings by ethnic groups and security forces in India’s northeastern Manipur state and work with community leaders to restore security, Human Rights Watch said today. Renewed violence on May 28, 2023, resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer, in separate […]

“The practice of incommunicado detention of members of the political opposition and prominent figures sentenced to lengthy prison terms for voicing dissent increased in 2023,” the 18 Special Rapporteurs and Human Rights Council-appointed Working Group rights’ experts said. In their statement released by UN rights office OHCHR, they reported that according to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, 1,511 […]

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has signed a bill criminalizing same sex conduct, including potentially the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” into law. The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 violates multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s constitution and breaks commitments made by the government as a signatory to a number of international human rights […]

(São Paulo) – Brazil’s Congress should reject a draft bill that would impose an arbitrary cutoff date curtailing the right of Indigenous peoples to their traditional land. Brazil’s lower house is expected to vote in the coming days on Bill 490/2007, which would prevent Indigenous communities from obtaining title of their lands if they were not […]

(Washington DC, May 29, 2023) – Greater global efforts are needed to ensure that the international treaty banning cluster munitions achieves its goal of ending the suffering and harm caused by these indiscriminate weapons, Human Rights Watch said today. May 30, 2023 marks 15 years since the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted in Dublin, […]