Category: Human Rights

After a seven-year legal ordeal, humanitarian workers wept with relief today when a court on the Greek island of Lesbos acquitted all 24 defendants who had been baselessly charged with felonies for saving lives at sea. The courtroom erupted in cheers, shouts, and tears as the verdict was read. “Saving lives is not a crime,” […]

(London, January 15, 2026) – Kazakh authorities should drop charges against 18 Kazakh activists who peacefully protested against Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists, from the Nagyz Atajurt Volunteers group, face up to 10 years in prison for exercising their freedom of expression. Thirteen are in pretrial detention, while the rest […]

(Nairobi) – Ugandan authorities should immediately restore internet access and refrain from imposing blanket shutdowns that undermine fundamental rights and threaten election integrity, Human Rights Watch said today. “Uganda’s constitution and international human rights obligations guarantee access to information and freedom of expression, rights that are especially critical to protect during election periods,” said Tomiwa Ilori, senior […]

On February 12, Bangladesh is scheduled to hold its first general elections since the country’s August 2024 Monsoon revolution. But ahead of the elections, attacks on women, girls, and religious minorities are on the rise, exposing the interim government’s failure to protect fundamental human rights.   Police data shows that gender-based violence increased between January and […]

Last month, Azerbaijani police raided a venue in the capital Baku, known as a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and detained over 100 people. According to witnesses and independent media, those detained were abused by police who made it seem like the operation was to target sexual and gender minorities […]

JACKSON, MS — A wave of national condemnation has followed a deliberate arson attack on the Beth Israel Congregation, the largest and oldest synagogue in Mississippi. Early Saturday, January 10, 2026, an intentional blaze gutted the synagogue’s library and administrative offices, destroying two sacred Torah scrolls and evoking painful memories of the state’s violent civil […]

Col. Claude Pivi, Guinea’s former minister for presidential security and one of the men convicted in a landmark trial for rapes and killings committed in Guinea in 2009, reportedly died in custody in a hospital on January 6, 2026, of natural causes. On July 31, 2024, a Guinean court issued a verdict for the September 28, 2009 massacre, in which […]

The Hungarian government is failing to ensure older people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living, including access to sufficient food, medicine, and energy. The rise in poverty among older people, which became evident during sharp inflation in 2022 and 2023, highlights longstanding structural problems with the Hungarian pension and social security […]

THE HAGUE — The Great Hall of Justice at the Peace Palace fell into a somber silence this week as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) commenced formal hearings into the alleged genocide of the Rohingya population in Myanmar. These proceedings mark a definitive chapter in one of the century’s most documented humanitarian crises, as […]