Category: Human Rights

(New York) – The United Nations should respect human rights in its efforts to combat antisemitism, 60 human rights and civil rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said in an open letter to Secretary-General António Guterres and the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos. The groups said that antisemitism is […]

In the latest blow to media freedom in Burkina Faso, the country’s transitional military authorities have expelled Agnès Faivre and Sophie Douce, two female journalists working for the French newspapers Libération and Le Monde. Both journalists possessed valid visas and accreditation. According to the two news organizations, national intelligence officers summoned and questioned both journalists […]

The government of the Central African Republic is cracking down on civil society, media, and opposition political parties ahead of local and national elections in 2023. The specter of a de facto one-party state should raise serious concerns about the potential for human rights violations and the narrowing of democratic space and free expression. Diplomats […]

(Beirut) – The Libyan House of Representatives should repeal a 2022 Anti-Cybercrime Law that restricts freedoms of speech, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities in eastern Libya should immediately release anyone they are holding under this law for peaceful expression. Eastern-based authorities on February 16, 2023, announced that they would start enforcing an Anti-Cybercrime […]

Last week, horrifying images circulated in the media of fire and smoke engulfing people locked in an immigration detention cell in Ciudad Juárez as guards are seen walking away as the fire killed 39 people. These are just the latest in a series of tragic deaths at the United States–Mexico border, also broadcast to the public, […]

The handful of criminal convictions of police for “drug war” killings in the Philippines is “not enough” to guarantee continued trade perks with the European Union, the EU’s special representative for human rights, Eamon Gilmore, said last week. Currently, Philippines enjoys a zero tariff trade benefit on goods exported to EU countries under the Generalized […]

Educational websites directed at Brazilian students, including two created by state education secretariats, surveilled children and harvested their personal data. These websites not only watched children in their online classrooms, but followed them across the internet, outside school hours, and deep into their private lives. Brazil should require companies and governments to stop their data […]

In a press conference organized by the Lebanese Coalition for the Independence of the Judiciary on March 28, nine members of Lebanon’s parliament introduced two draft laws that would strengthen the independence of judicial investigations and prevent political interference with the judiciary. The Coalition and MPs stressed the need to confront obstructions of justice in […]

The report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan details how perpetrators of the most serious crimes – including widespread attacks against civilians and extrajudicial killings – go unpunished, with senior Government officials and military implicated in serious violations.  “Over several years, our findings have consistently shown that impunity for serious crimes […]

Australia’s Governor-General David Hurley will visit Hanoi this week to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the governments of Australia and Vietnam. Hurley should publicly and privately raise a number of serious human rights concerns with the Vietnamese leadership. It’s crucial that he discuss the plight of more than 160 people in prison […]