Category: Human Rights

(Jakarta) – Indonesian authorities should drop the criminal defamation charges against two prominent human rights defenders in Jakarta, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 3, 2023, the East Jakarta district court began the trial of Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti based on a complaint filed by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, a coordinating minister in President […]

This week, Russia’s prosecutor general designated as “undesirable” the EU-Russian Civil Society Forum, a prominent nongovernmental organization promoting cooperation between Russian and European civil society groups and activists. Under Russia’s insidiously expanding legislation on “undesirable” organizations, the authorities can ban any foreign or international group by claiming they undermine Russia’s security, defense, or constitutional order. […]

“There has been an ongoing and unchecked tragedy: the forced eviction of Palestinians from their homes,” they said in a joint statement.  “Israel’s transfer of its own population into the occupied territory confirms a deliberate intention to colonize the territory it occupies, a practice strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law,” they said. “It amounts to […]

In August 2022, when Israeli authorities raided the offices of Palestinian civil society organizations that they had previously outlawed and ordered them closed, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the moves as “a crime and a brazen assault.” PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh made a solidarity visit to one of the group’s offices and […]

Feeling safe and being social are crucial for children in times of war. Kindergarten children in Slavutych, in northern Ukraine, will be safe in a bomb shelter that was restored and equipped by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It is one of 56 facilities in Ukraine that has been rehabilitated to provide a safe […]

(Beirut) – Microsoft should suspend its investment in a new cloud data center region in Saudi Arabia until it can clearly demonstrate how it will mitigate the risk of facilitating serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. In February 2023, Microsoft announced its intention to invest in a cloud data center in Saudi […]

New evidence has emerged that Russian forces unlawfully detained and tortured people in a torture center and in other facilities in Kherson and vicinity during their occupation of the area between March and November 2022. It is a war crime to willfully mistreat, torture, or kill civilians or captured combatants, to willfully cause great suffering […]

(New York) – Thai immigration officials forcibly returned three Myanmar opposition activists to Myanmar, putting them at grave risk of persecution and other abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar junta authorities should immediately reveal the whereabouts of the activists – Thiha, 38, Htet Nay Win, 31, and Saw Phyo Lay, 26 – and any […]

On April 10, a court in Almaty, Kazakhstan convicted Zhanbolat Mamay, an opposition figure accused of organizing mass riots in Almaty during January 2022 protests, and sentenced him to a six year prison term, which was suspended. The charges had carried a maximum 10-year sentence. The court also found Mamay guilty of insulting law enforcement […]

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Hanoi on April 14 to mark the 10th anniversary of the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. He should take the opportunity to both publicly and privately urge Vietnam’s leadership to end its systemic abuse of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and release the more than 160 […]