Israeli Lawmakers Try to Block Torture Prosecutions

A standoff at Israel’s Sde Teiman military base this week has thrown longstanding abuses against Palestinian detainees and the Israeli military’s history of impunity for torture into stark relief. On July 29, Israeli military police arrested nine Israeli soldiers at the base on suspicion of “severe abuse” of a Palestinian detainee. News reports said the […]

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Guinea: Landmark Verdict in Stadium Mass Killings Trial

(Brussels) – A Guinean court on July 31, 2024, convicted Guinea’s former self-declared president Moussa Dadis Camara, and seven others, in a landmark trial for rapes and killings of protesters in 2009, Human Rights Watch said today. The court also decided to reclassify all of the charges from ordinary crimes to crimes against humanity, based […]

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India: Repression Persists in Jammu and Kashmir

(London) – The Indian government has not restored freedom of speech and association to Jammu and Kashmir five years after revoking the region’s special autonomous status on August 5, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indian security forces continue to carry out repressive policies including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and other serious abuses. Indian authorities seek to […]

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Guinea: Senior UN officials welcome verdict in 2009 stadium massacre trial

On Wednesday, a court in Conakry found former President Moussa Dadis Camara and several other military leaders guilty of crimes against humanity. Four other men were acquitted. Those convicted were also ordered to provide reparations to the victims and their families. Right to justice “After nearly 15 years, the victims, survivors and their families have […]

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Greece: EU Ignores Deteriorating Rule of Law

(Brussels, August 1, 2024) – The European Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report, published on July 24, 2024, misleads readers about the state of the rule of law in Greece at a time when media freedom and civic space face dire threats and attacks, 14 human rights and media freedom organizations said today. The overly positive account in the […]

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World News in Brief: Gaza update, Venezuela election violence, executions in South Sudan

Returnees have headed for several locations in the city, including central and eastern neighbourhoods as well as the adjacent area of Bani Suhaila.  Medical evacuations  Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 85 sick and severely injured patients from Gaza were evacuated to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.  The patients, […]

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Australia: Press Vietnam to End Rights Abuses

(Sydney) – Australia should press the Vietnamese government on human rights by seeking clear, concrete, and measurable benchmarks for progress in upcoming meetings, Human Rights Watch said in a recent submission to the Australian government. The 19th Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue will take place on July 30, 2024, in Canberra. Vietnam’s abysmal human rights situation continues to deteriorate as […]

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Sri Lanka: Authorities Target Religious Minorities

(New York) – Sri Lankan authorities are conducting a campaign to deny Hindus and other religious minorities access to places of worship and other property and redesignate locations as Buddhist sites, Human Rights Watch said today. Government agencies, including the Department of Archaeology, the military, and police, have taken part in a concerted strategy assailing the culture […]

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Sudan: Widespread Sexual Violence in the Capital

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have committed widespread acts of sexual violence in areas of Khartoum over which they exercise control, acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have attacked healthcare workers, local responders, and healthcare facilities, which are war crimes. The African […]

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US Should End Solitary Confinement of Immigrants

Earlier this month, people being detained at California Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities began a labor and hunger strike to protest their conditions, including against the use of solitary confinement. Recent research documented the deep physical and psychological toll wrought by the use of solitary confinement in United States immigration detention centers. Across the US, carceral facilities lock […]

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