Category: Human Rights

WIRED reported this week that the Indian government had, for over a year, exposed the personal data of nearly 600,000 students and more than a million teachers on the open web for anyone to find.  Human Rights Watch spoke to Nathaniel Fried, co-founder of Anduin, the intelligence software company that had identified the exposure, and […]

Spanish lawmakers should reject a potential law criminalizing sex work that is being debated in parliament. Research across Europe consistently shows that laws criminalizing the purchase of sex, known as the Nordic Model, increase sexual violence and harassment against sex workers, while having no demonstrable effect on human trafficking or the demand for sex. Research […]

Maria Hurtado said in a statement that the judgement was just the latest “in a series of actions against civil society”, journalists, other media and opposition groups and human rights defenders. MHG was founded in 1976 by well-known dissidents and reported on human rights violations in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and later the Russian […]

(Beirut) – Moroccan authorities may extradite a Saudi citizen to Saudi Arabia, where he is at serious risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and an unfair trial, Human Rights Watch said today. Moroccan authorities detained Hassan Al Rabea at the Marrakesh Airport on January 14, 2023, as he was attempting to travel to Turkey. Saudi prosecutors […]

In 1933, Hitler began putting the party’s core racist and nationalist ideology into practice, identifying who could claim Germany as home and who in their view, really belonged in the country. This process went way beyond enacting legislation to define and exclude Jews from society: the Nazis launched misinformation and hate speech campaigns vilifying and […]

(São Paulo) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should adopt urgent measures to address the human rights crisis underpinning the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and restore the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 26, 2023, Human Rights Watch published a multimedia report that details the impact of criminal […]

(Athens, January 26, 2023) – Greek authorities have brought unfounded charges against two migrants’ rights defenders, Panayote Dimitras and Tommy Olsen, linked to their peaceful activism, Human Rights Watch said today. The case is part of a wider pattern of prosecutions of activists working with migrants. The activists were charged by Greek judicial authorities on […]

(Beirut) – Lebanon’s general prosecutor on January 25, 2022, ordered the release of all suspects detained in connection with the catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s port on August 4, 2020, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The unprecedented move amid rampant political interference bypasses the ongoing criminal investigation into the explosion. To help secure […]

(New York) – Chinese authorities should immediately release and drop all charges against everyone detained for participating in the “white paper” protests against the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also cease harassment of lawyers and friends of protesters and the censorship of protest-related information on social media. In November 2022, thousands […]

(Bishkek, January 26, 2023) – The Kyrgyz Ministry of Culture has filed a lawsuit to try to terminate the operation of “Azattyk Media,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should immediately withdraw the lawsuit and cease its harassment of independent media outlets. The ministry filed the lawsuit before […]