Category: Human Rights

Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib is participating today in the official national commemoration honouring the victims of the Crans Montana fire and expressing solidarity with the injured, their families and the communities affected. The ceremony, held in Martigny on the national day of mourning, will bring together the Swiss federal and cantonal authorities, international […]

(Ottawa) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney should make human rights a key focus of his visit to China from January 13 to 17, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Carney’s trip to China is the first by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years. Canada-China relations have been strained in recent years as […]

(Beirut) – Iranian authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters across the country since December 28, 2025, marked by security forces’ unlawful use of force and firearms and mass arbitrary arrests, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The organizations’ findings reveal how security forces—including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s police […]

On January 9, the European Union’s highest-level leaders, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa, are set to meet with Syrian leaders in Damascus for their first-ever visit to the country. Von der Leyen and Costa should use this significant moment to press for a rights-respecting transition in Syria.  […]

Houthi authorities have arbitrarily detained at least 69 UN staff and dozens of civil society staff over the last 18 months and have not provided them with due process. The Houthis’ stepped-up detentions of civil society and UN agency members risk increasing the humanitarian aid crisis in Yemen, already one of the worst situations in […]

(The Hague) – International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings in the Myanmar genocide case highlight the need for justice for the ethnic Rohingya, Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Global Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, Refugee Women for Peace and Justice, and Women’s Peace Network said today. Hearings on the merits of the case begin on January 12, 2026. In […]

On December 30, 2025, two weeks before Uganda’s January 15, 2026 elections, security forces raided the home of Sarah Bireete, a prominent human rights activist and government critic, and arrested her. Three days later, longer than the legally allowed 48 hours, Bireete was brought before the chief magistrates’ court in Kampala and charged with “unlawfully […]

UK authorities have severely restricted the right to protest, in contravention of their international human rights obligations. The Labour government, instead of curbing repressive measures against protesters in previous legislation under the Conservative government, is in the process of expanding them. The UK government should repeal anti-democratic protest restrictions and review and publicly account for […]

(New York) – The Trump administration’s brazen military assault risks causing a new human rights disaster for Venezuelans, Human Rights Watch said today.  In the early morning hours of January 3, 2026 the US military conducted strikes on Venezuela and took into custody the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. They have […]

A leading human rights organisation has raised urgent concerns over what it describes as a pattern of violent repression by Ugandan security forces targeting opposition rallies ahead of the country’s upcoming elections. Amnesty International says security personnel have repeatedly used excessive force, arbitrary arrests and, in some cases, lethal tactics against peaceful supporters of the […]