Category: Human Rights

I was in Sri Lanka on August 4, 2006, when 17 humanitarian aid workers were brutally murdered in the embattled town of Muttur, near the coastal city of Trincomalee. I’ve written about the incident ever since, but 20 years later, I still cannot report that those responsible have been held to account. During the height of the […]

Journalist Muhammad Aidha, who had reported for the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya and Al Hadath channels since 2019, was killed in Mukalla in eastern Yemen on June 24 by an explosive device planted in his car. Three days later, on June 27, Marib security forces detained journalist Hamoud Haza while he was covering a public event. Haza […]

(Beirut) – Two Israeli settler attacks on Tal village near Nablus in the West Bank on July 24, 2026, resulted in the killing of four Palestinians and two Israelis, Human Rights Watch said today.  The incident triggered a wave of settler reprisal attacks in nearby Palestinian villages, the Israeli government’s announcement of a “major counterterrorism […]

Iran’s authorities executed a young man, Mehdi Khanaki, on July 22. He was the 24th known person arbitrarily executed since March 18 in connection with recent protests. The number of executions of real and perceived dissidents on vague national security charges has significantly increased. Over the past four months alone, authorities have executed at least 50 […]

(Washington, DC) – President Donald Trump announced on July 24, 2026, that the United States was considering “a massive attack” on Iran following a breakdown of the ceasefire and US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. US and Iranian leaders have threatened to retaliate and attack targets that could be civilian infrastructure, in violation of the laws of war. […]

(New York) – The Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC), during a special session on July 24, 2026, decided to remove the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, from office for serious misconduct and serious breach of duty. The following quote can be attributed to Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights […]

In a country having among the world’s highest numbers of missing persons, Karla Quintana, head of the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syria, provided a snapshot of ongoing efforts. Having processed more than 75,000 documents and sharing information with key partners, the institution has also been focusing on missing migrants and children and […]

The appeal by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran follows the 19 July execution of two other men in the same case – Erfan Esfandiari, reportedly 18-years-old, and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, a 23-year-old Afghan national – which it strongly condemned.  The development is unfolding against a backdrop of longstanding UN concern over the surge in the use of the death penalty in Iran and ongoing […]

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is deeply alarmed about the resumption of Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea this week and the renewed threats to maritime navigation, his Spokesperson said in a statement.  The Yemeni armed movement formally known as Ansar Allah, backed by Iran, recently entered the conflict and have threatened to blockade the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key shipping route to the Red […]

(Geneva) – Recent actions by the government of Nepal that threaten the independence of the country’s judiciary are a source of serious concern, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today.  In particular, political pressure has reportedly been applied to alter the composition of the Supreme Court through the […]