Category: Human Rights

(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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

(Johannesburg) – Zimbabwe’s authorities should immediately take measures to end the prolonged pretrial detention of over 70 opposition activists, most of them young people, who have been held since June 16, 2024. That day, police raided the home of an opposition leader in a suburb of Harare, the capital, and arrested people commemorating the Day of the African […]

(New York) – Pakistani authorities should exercise restraint in responding to demonstrations in Balochistan province, release all detained for peaceful protest, and restore internet access, Human Rights Watch said today. Since July 28, 2024, Pakistani authorities have detained hundreds of people in response to the Baloch National Gathering, a march seeking to raise awareness of human rights […]

Maldivian authorities say they plan to arrest and deport Bangladeshi nationals involved in organizing a peaceful protest in the southern atoll of G.Dh. Thinadhoo. The July 25 protest was held, like many others across the region, after a recent crackdown by security forces on student protests in Bangladesh, with more than 200 people killed and thousands injured in […]

(Des Moines) –Tanzania’s government is forcibly relocating Indigenous Maasai residents from their homes and ancestral lands in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Before further relocations are planned or carried out, the Tanzanian authorities should restore essential public services and consult affected communities to seek their free, prior, and […]

The defendants were part of the so-called “UAE 84” group who were subject to mass trials and convicted for establishing a terrorist organization under the country’s 2014 Counter-terrorism Law for acts dating back to the Arab Spring, some 14 years ago. Most had already spent a decade behind bars for national security-related offences allegedly committed […]

Calling for political change can land you in jail in Cameroon, a country ruled by the same president for 42 years. On July 24, three men in plain clothes claiming to work for the intelligence services arrested Junior Ngombe, 23, a hairdresser and social media activist, outside his shop in Douala, a city in Cameroon’s Littoral […]

Recent statements by senior Nigerian government officials and security agencies regarding the planned nationwide protests raise serious concerns. The officials’ rhetoric suggests a troubling readiness to stifle dissent, heightening fears of a violent crackdown. Calls to protest emerged following recent demonstrations in Kenya against increased taxes on essential goods and have gained traction on social media in Nigeria […]