Category: Human Rights

(Bangkok) – Bangladesh authorities should suspend plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, where their lives and liberty would be at grave risk, Human Rights Watch said today. Rohingya told Human Rights Watch that they were lied to, deceived, or otherwise coerced by Bangladesh administrators into meeting with a recent delegation of Myanmar junta […]

The United Nations expert body responsible for reviewing compliance with civil and political rights obligations has issued a scathing appraisal of the Sri Lankan government’s record. The Human Rights Committee monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a multilateral treaty that Sri Lanka ratified in 2005. Its latest report covers systematic […]

On March 29, in a landmark legal hearing, older women from Switzerland argued before the European Court of Human Rights that their government’s failure to sufficiently reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions has violated their human rights. The applicants, all women over 63, say that heat waves, which have become more frequent and intense as […]

Russia’s Federal Security Service has arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on “suspicion of espionage in the interests of the American government,” and a court has ordered him to pretrial custody until May 29. Gershkovich, 31, has been living in and reporting on Russia since at least 2017, first for the Moscow Times and […]

This month, public prosecutors in Japan said they would not appeal the Tokyo High Court’s decision to hold a retrial for Iwao Hakamada, an 87-year-old former professional boxer arrested in August 1966 and sentenced to death for the murder of a family of four. This is the fifth time a death penalty case will be […]

Imagine having to leave your home, your community, and everything you know behind to escape war and persecution. This is the reality for millions of refugees around the world, including Syrians who have found themselves seeking refuge in Lebanon. With EU humanitarian funding, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) can respond to protection needs and prioritise […]

(Nairobi) – The decision by Burkina Faso‘s transitional military government to suspend France 24 broadcasts violates the right to a free and independent media, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should immediately lift the suspension and allow the news channel to broadcast. In a communiqué on March 27, 2023, Burkina Faso’s Communication Minister Rimtalba […]

During Germany’s colonial rule in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, colonizers wiped out an estimated 80 percent of all Ovaherero and 50 percent of Nama people and seized about 80% of ancestral Nama land. The damage to the livelihood and identity of these communities has been passed down through generations. A long-established principle in human […]

(Kinshasa) – Intercommunal violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s western Kwamouth territory from June 2022 to March 2023 has killed at least 300 people in cycles of attacks and reprisals, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should urgently address longstanding disputes over customary power and land rights to prevent recurring violence. Villagers from […]

(Paris) – French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should make human rights a priority during their visit to Beijing on April 4-8, 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. As Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to reset relations with France and other European governments and the European Union since ending […]