The European Commission has announced its initial €1.9 billion humanitarian aid budget for 2026, at a time when 239 million people need assistance and major donors are cutting funding. Commissioner for equality, preparedness and crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, brings this commitment to Davos today, seeking to mobilise private sector finance and innovative solutions that can complement […]
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NEW YORK — Guan Heng, the Chinese citizen journalist whose clandestine footage provided the world with rare, ground-level proof of detention camps in Xinjiang, remains in U.S. immigration custody as his legal battle for asylum reaches a critical juncture. Despite a massive international outcry and bipartisan pressure from Congress, the 38-year-old whistleblower continues to face […]
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I condemn the Israeli decision to forcibly enter and demolish the United Nations Sheikh Jarrah compound held by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) located in East Jerusalem. I urge the Israeli authorities to halt such action, which is in violation of Israel’s obligations resulting from the […]
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(Kinshasa) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s sudden withdrawal from the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 17, 2026, has put civilians at grave risk from abusive Wazalendo militias, Human Rights Watch said today. After the M23 and Rwandan forces captured Uvira on December 10, M23 forces threatened, harassed, and assaulted people […]
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On January 19, a court in Makhachkala, the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan region, sentenced women’s rights defender and journalist Svetlana Anokhina to five years in prison for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces. The sentence was handed down in absentia: Anokhina left Russia in 2021 after a shelter her organization Marem […]
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Uganda’s electoral commission has declared President Yoweri Museveni as the winner of the January 15 elections, securing his seventh term in office with 71 percent of the vote. The weeks leading up to the elections were marred by rights abuses. Security officers reportedly beat and arrested hundreds of people during opposition rallies, indiscriminately fired teargas, […]
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BENGHAZI — In a significant move toward accountability in the Mediterranean migrant crisis, Libyan authorities have formally charged a suspect with human trafficking following the gruesome discovery of a mass grave. On Friday, January 16, 2026, the Attorney General’s Office in Benghazi announced that an individual, identified by the initials M.F.H., will stand trial in […]
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MYTILENE, Greece — In a landmark decision that concludes one of Europe’s most high-profile cases involving the “criminalization of solidarity,” a Greek court on Thursday, January 15, 2026, acquitted 24 humanitarian workers of all felony charges. The verdict, delivered in a packed courtroom on the island of Lesbos, ends a grueling 2,897-day legal ordeal for […]
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HONG KONG — In a verdict that has reverberated across the global diplomatic and media landscape, a Hong Kong court in mid-December 2025 convicted pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai on charges of foreign collusion and sedition. The 77-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper faces a potential life sentence, marking a definitive climax in […]
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(Bangkok) – The Sri Lanka government’s proposed counterterrorism legislation includes numerous provisions similar to the current abusive law and risks facilitating the same kind of repression, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill does not meet benchmarks set out by the United Nations counterterrorism expert or comply with human rights obligations and commitments that Sri Lanka […]
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