Category: Human Rights

Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib participated in the Humanitarian Leadership Group on Supply Chain Conference and welcomed the agreement reached by participants to continue working towards a shared vision for a more interoperable and collaborative system to deliver humanitarian aid.  Commissioner Lahbib reiterated the determination to work closely with partners to promote […]

(Washington, DC, December 18, 2025) – United States federal immigration enforcement agents now commonly operate masked and without visible identification, compounding the abusive and unaccountable nature of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, Human Rights Watch said today. The indefinite and widespread nature of these practices is fundamentally inconsistent with the United States’ obligations to ensure […]

A total of 8 flights will bring life-saving supplies into Darfur, as mass atrocities, starvation, and displacement linked to the conflict in Sudan have left millions in need of humanitarian assistance. The first flight delivered around 100 tonnes of aid from EU humanitarian stockpiles and partner organisations last Friday, 12 December. Further flights will continue […]

Kazakhstan’s Senate adopted two rights-violating laws on December 18, both of them threatening freedom of expression.  The first is a discriminatory draft law banning so-called propaganda of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) expression, which would make it illegal to publicly support LGBT rights. The clear intention of the bill is to silence all forms of […]

A renewed offensive by the M23 rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province has displaced around 500,000 people, and driven tens of thousands across the border into Burundi, overwhelming fragile transit sites and stretching already limited humanitarian resources. The Rwandan-backed movement, which relaunched its insurgency in 2022 and has since […]

A new executive order seeking to designate “illicit fentanyl” a “weapon of mass destruction” could open the door to a dangerous expansion of militarized law enforcement and abusive military action. The December 15 order directs the defense secretary and attorney general to “determine whether the threats posed by fentanyl and its impact on the United States” justifies the […]

The European Union has allocated an additional €15 million in humanitarian aid to address the needs of communities impacted by the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, and €14 million in development aid for Rohingya refugees and their host communities in Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries. These new funds come as the intensifying conflict in Myanmar continues […]

The International Automobile Federation (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or FIA), the international body governing motor sports, including Formula1, held its annual General Assemblies last week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.  At the General Assemblies, the federation presented Uzbekistan as the “star of the east,” seemingly without a single reference to Uzbekistan’s deeply problematic human rights record. In recent years, Uzbek […]

The European Union is significantly reinforcing its efforts to protect humanitarian personnel operating in high-danger zones by allocating an additional €4.35 million to the ‘Protect Aid Workers‘ initiative. The decision comes at a time when the work of humanitarian personnel is becoming more and more dangerous. This new funding will support humanitarian staff who experience […]

Azerbaijani authorities have intensified their long-running crackdown on the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, building on years of politically motivated prosecutions and intimidation. In recent months, authorities have increasingly targeted the party’s leadership. On December 19, a court sentenced Murad Sultan, a senior party official, to 30 days of administrative detention. This followed the November […]