Category: Human Rights

(Washington, DC) – Reported findings that the United States is responsible for the recent deadly school attack in Iran, and that it was based on outdated targeting data, highlight the need for reform and accountability within the US military to minimize civilian harm during conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The New York Times reported on March 11 […]

Members of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, an independent probe into Russia’s full-scale invasion which presented its latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that they have verified the deportation and transfer of 1,205 children from Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia or to other occupied areas in Ukraine. “Based on […]

(Tokyo) – The Vietnamese authorities should give priority to releasing political prisoners with urgent health problems, Human Rights Watch said today. Le Huu Minh Tuan, Can Thi Theu, and other unjustly imprisoned political activists should be urgently freed to obtain appropriate medical care in Vietnam or abroad. Le Huu Minh Tuan, a 37-year-old journalist who has been in […]

England’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will block new referrals for gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender youth under 18, restricting access to evidence-based care and undermining young people’s rights to health, bodily autonomy, and nondiscrimination. The decision came into force on March 9 and will undergo a 90-day consultation period after which the NHS […]

2 repatriation flights chartered directly by the European Commission have just landed in Warsaw, Poland, bringing back 303 European citizens that were stranded in the Middle East.  This adds to the more than 70 flights coordinated by the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre. Over 8,000 European citizens are home today thanks to the EU mobilisation, bringing […]

“The company’s chemicals have contaminated our land, water, and people,” 28-year-old “Elizabeth” recently told Kontomaa Darimu Alliance, an Ethiopian nongovernmental organization. Elizabeth’s 2-year-old son died a few years ago and she suffered miscarriages in 2024 and 2025; she believes the mine is to blame.  Residents living near Lega Dembi mine, located in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, have complained […]

(Berlin, March 12, 2026) – Russian authorities have escalated their internet censorship efforts over the past month, Human Rights Watch said today, a day marked by free speech defenders as World Day Against Cyber Censorship. The government has blocked the most popular social media platform in Russia, coercing users to switch to a state-approved application, […]

(Paris) – An Islamist armed group has killed at least 38 civilians, abducted 9 women, and burned property in 3 separate incidents in northeastern Burkina Faso since late January 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The atrocities by the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, or JNIM) […]

(Beirut) – A prominent Iraqi women’s rights activist was gunned down outside her Baghdad home by two men on motorcycles on March 2, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.  Yanar Mohammed, 65, co-founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq in 2003. She opened Iraq’s first women’s shelters that same year, building a network that […]

The Thai authorities should immediately release Le Chi Thanh, a prominent Vietnamese anti-corruption activist, and ensure that he is not forcibly returned to Vietnam, Human Rights Watch said today. Le Chi Thanh’s lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok has been pressing Thai authorities to deport him as soon as possible […]