On August 26, Thailand’s cabinet approved measures allowing Myanmar refugees living in camps along the border to work legally. For many, it will be the first formal employment of their lives.| Human Rights Watch
The formal closure of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on December 31, 2015, makes it especially important for governments around the world to intensify efforts to bring remaining suspects to justice.| Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the “Committee”) in advance of its upcoming public session on the situation of persons with disabilities affected by armed conflict in Gaza and the West Bank. This submission draws from our reports published on the situation of people with disabilities in Gaza in November 2023, and on the situation of children with disabilities in Gaza in September 2024, alongside newe...| Human Rights Watch
The 49-page report, “‘The Boot on My Neck’: Iranian Authorities’ Crime of Persecution Against Baha’is in Iran,” documents Iranian authorities’ systematic violation of the fundamental rights of members of the Baha’i community through discriminatory laws and policies that target them. Human Rights Watch found that Baha’is face a spectrum of abuses. Government agencies arrest and imprison Baha’is arbitrarily, confiscate their property, restrict their education and employment ...| Human Rights Watch
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Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023.| Human Rights Watch
The outbreak of major hostilities in northern Syria since November 27 raises concerns that civilians face a real risk of serious abuses by opposition armed groups and the Syrian government.| Human Rights Watch
The United States government has subjected immigrants detained in three Florida facilities to abusive, degrading, and in some cases life-threatening conditions, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Human Rights Watch, and Sanctuary of the South said in a report released today.| Human Rights Watch
El colapso del orden en Haití es tan catastrófico que Human Rights Watch pide al Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas que autorice y despliegue urgentemente una verdadera misión de la ONU en el país.| Human Rights Watch
This report finds that enforcement of drug possession laws causes extensive and unjustifiable harm to individuals and communities across the country. The long-term consequences can separate families; exclude people from job opportunities, welfare assistance, public housing, and voting; and expose them to discrimination and stigma for a lifetime. While more people are arrested for simple drug possession in the US than for any other crime, mainstream discussions of criminal justice reform rare...| Human Rights Watch
The fossil fuel and petrochemical industry in the Louisiana area that has come to be known as “Cancer Alley” has devastated the health, lives, and environment of residents.| Human Rights Watch
The 42-page report, “‘All Conspirators’: How Tunisia Uses Arbitrary Detention to Crush Dissent,” documents the government’s increased reliance on arbitrary detention and politically motivated prosecutions to intimidate, punish, and silence its critics. Human Rights Watch documented the cases of 22 people detained on abusive charges, including terrorism, in connection with their public statements or political activities. They include lawyers, political opponents, activists, journalis...| Human Rights Watch
This submission highlights Human Rights Watch’s key concerns about the human rights situation in El Salvador. Since the previous UPR in November 2019, key aspects of the country’s human rights record have deteriorated, as the government has systematically dismantled democratic institutions, restricted transparency and accountability, and created a hostile environment for journalists and civil society.| Human Rights Watch
A new legal provision on the use of the Ukrainian language, part of a broader state language law, raises concerns about protection for minority languages.| Human Rights Watch
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Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 100 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice| www.hrw.org
Germany’s parliament on April 12, 2024, passed a landmark law that allows transgender and non-binary people to modify their legal documents to reflect their gender identity through an administrative procedure based on self-identification.| Human Rights Watch
Today, Spain’s parliament passed a comprehensive law to expand protections and entrench rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. The statute has become known colloquially as the “Trans Law” because provisions that allow for gender recognition based on self-identification through a simple administrative process have provoked heated public debate.| Human Rights Watch
Gambia’s government commits serious human rights violations against perceived critics and political opponents, perpetuating a climate of fear and repression. State security forces and shadowy paramilitary groups carry out unlawful killings and arbitrarily arrest, detain, and forcibly disappear people, causing hundreds to flee the tiny country, best known internationally as a tourist destination.| Human Rights Watch
Israeli authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water since October 2023, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths and thus committing the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates’ crackdown on dissent has included the arrest and harassment of leading defense lawyers, making it nearly impossible for detained peaceful dissidents to get access to a lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today. The actions against the lawyers would make fair trials for detained dissidents impossible, Human Rights Watch said.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have expanded their crackdown on peaceful political activists with the recent arrests of two more members of a non-violent political association advocating greater adherence to Islamic precepts, Human Rights Watch said today. The new arrests, of Saleh al-Dhufairi and Salem Sahooh, bring to 11 the total number of detained members of the group, the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah), since late March 2012. Authorities should end...| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates (UAE) state security officers have subjected detainees to systematic mistreatment, including torture, say hand-written letters from detainees smuggled out of jails, Alkarama, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today. The groups obtained 22 statements written by some of the 94 people on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. The mistreatment described in the letters is consistent with other allegations of torture at UAE state...| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – A new federal decree on cybercrimes in the United Arab Emirates effectively closes off the country’s only remaining forum for free speech. The decree poses a serious threat to the liberty of peaceful activists and ordinary citizens alike.| Human Rights Watch
(Dubai) – The Federal Supreme Court trial of five Emirati activists accused of “publicly insulting” top United Arab Emirates officials in an internet forum has been grossly unfair, and the case against them has no basis in international law as it violates their freedom of expression, a trial observer appointed by a coalition of international human rights organizations said today.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities should immediately bring a victim of enforced disappearance, Ahmed al-Suweidi, before judicial authorities and open a thorough and impartial investigation into credible allegations of torture at State Security facilities. Human Rights Watch was joined in its statement by Alkarama (Dignity), the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), and Index on Censorship.| Human Rights Watch
US President Donald Trump’s statement on February 4, 2025, that the United States would “take over” the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinian population there would need to be moved out would, if implemented, amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.| Human Rights Watch
Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives.| Human Rights Watch
The 154-page report, “‘Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,” examines how Israeli authorities’ conduct has led to the displacement of over 90 percent of the population of Gaza—1.9 million Palestinians—and the widespread destruction of much of Gaza over the last 13 months. Israeli forces have carried out deliberate, controlled demolitions of homes and civilian infrastructure, including in areas where they have apparent aims of...| Human Rights Watch
On September 4, around 100 women gathered in front of the presidential palace – now the Taliban’s command center in Kabul – carrying banners and chanting slogans for an equal society.| Human Rights Watch
The 30-page report, “The Persecution of Ahmed Mansoor: How the United Arab Emirates Silenced its Most Famous Human Rights Activist,” provides previously-unrevealed details of his closed trial on speech-related charges and his appeal hearing, showing grave violations of due process and fair trial guarantees. The organizations also documented the UAE State Security Agency’s culpability for Mansoor’s abhorrent detention conditions since his arrest in March 2017, including indefinite soli...| Human Rights Watch
United Arab Emirates authorities are continuing to incarcerate at least 51 Emirati prisoners who completed their sentences between one month and nearly four years ago. The prisoners are all part of the grossly unfair “UAE94” mass trial of 69 critics of the government, whose convictions violated their rights to free expression, association, and assembly.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – The convictions of 69 defendants in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) mass trial of 94 government critics on July 2, 2013, were based on a fundamentally unfair trial, a coalition of human rights groups said today. The convictions probably violated the right of free association of many of those accused.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut)– The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have compounded serious pre-trial violations of fair trial rights by arbitrarily denying family members, international observers, and the international media access to the mass trial of 94 critics of the government, a coalition of seven international human rights organizations said today. The organizations urged the UAE authorities to investigate allegations of torture and to grant full public access to trial sessions.| Human Rights Watch
In 2024, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) unjustly convicted and sentenced at least 44 defendants in the second largest unfair mass trial, many of whom had already been serving prison sentences as part of the UAE94 mass trial. The UAE has promoted a public image of tolerance and openness through hosting events like COP28 while restricting scrutiny of its rampant systemic human rights violations and fossil fuel expansion. Migrant workers in the UAE face widespread abuses and exposure to dangerou...| www.hrw.org
Emirati authorities are holding an unfair mass trial that has raised serious due process concerns. The trial includes many defendants held in prolonged solitary confinement, which may amount to torture.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates’ deeply flawed new counterterrorism law will enable the courts to convict peaceful government critics as terrorists and sentence them to death.| Human Rights Watch
Joey Shea is a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division investigating human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Shea was a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute focusing on digital information controls and operations, security, political violence, and the human rights impact of technology across the Middle East and North Africa.| Human Rights Watch
The German government is falling short in protecting Muslims and people perceived to be Muslims from racism amid rising incidents of hate and discrimination, Human Rights Watch said today. The absence of a working definition of anti-Muslim racism and a lack of official data on incidents and of investment in institutional support for victims are among the impediments to an effective response.| Human Rights Watch
Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October 2023, even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection. Israeli authorities did not issue advance warnings to any of the aid organizations before the strikes.| Human Rights Watch
Two Egyptian businessmen have been detained for months, reportedly after they refused to surrender their shares in their company to a state-owned business.| Human Rights Watch
Three Afghan women detained for protesting Taliban abuses described torture and other severe mistreatment in custody. The women said they were wrongfully detained with their families, including small children, and experienced threats, beatings, dangerous conditions of confinement, denial of due process, abusive conditions of release, and other abuses.| Human Rights Watch
Iraq’s parliament has rejected proposed amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law (PSL) that would allow religious judges to impose discriminatory law on family matters, Human Rights Watch said today.| Human Rights Watch
The 120-page report, “‘“They’re Chasing Us Away from Sport’”: Human Rights Violations in Sex Testing of Elite Women Athletes,” documents the experiences of more than a dozen women athletes from the Global South who have been affected by sex testing regulations. Human Rights watch found that global regulations that encourage discrimination, surveillance, and coerced medical intervention on women athletes result in physical and psychological injury and economic hardship. The Inter...| Human Rights Watch
Draft legislation pending in the Russian parliament to impose restrictions on foreign media would further undermine media freedom in Russia.| Human Rights Watch
COP28, to be held in November/December 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is the 28th annual UN climate conference where governments, experts, journalists, and representatives from businesses, civil society and Indigenous peoples meet to discuss the climate action necessary to enable countries to collectively meet the target of keeping the global rise of temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, thereby avoiding the worst consequences of the climate crisis. The UAE, one of the world’s large...| www.hrw.org
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023 and used it to burnish its image despite pushing for fossil fuel expansion and maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024.| Human Rights Watch
UAE authorities have brought new charges against 87 defendants under its counterterrorism law in retaliation for forming an independent advocacy group in 2010.| Human Rights Watch
An Emirati academic facing charges that include his peaceful criticism of the Egyptian and Emirati authorities will have spent more than 18 months in detention by the time the next session of his trial takes place on February 22, 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. Nasser bin Ghaith spent nine months in incommunicado detention after his arrest in August 2015, and authorities have kept him in solitary confinement since his transfer to the maximum security block in Al-Sadr jail on May 18, ...| Human Rights Watch
Meta’s content moderation policies and systems have increasingly silenced voices in support of Palestine on Instagram and Facebook in the wake of the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.| Human Rights Watch
The 135-page report, “‘All This Terror Because of a Photo’: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences for LGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa,” examines the use of digital targeting by security forces and its far-reaching offline consequences – including arbitrary detention and torture – in five countries: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. The findings show how security forces employ digital targeting to gather and create evidence to support prosecutions.| Human Rights Watch
A Saudi court has sentenced a man to death based solely on his Twitter and YouTube activity.| Human Rights Watch
A possible global treaty to address cybercrime risks legitimizing abusive practices and could be used as an excuse to silence government critics and undermine privacy in many countries, Human Rights Watch said today.| Human Rights Watch
The conviction of a prominent journalist for criminal libel is a devastating blow to media freedom in the Philippines.| Human Rights Watch
This report documents how Russia’s “gay propaganda” law is having a deeply damaging effect on LGBT children. Human Rights Watch interviewed LGBT youth and mental health professionals in diverse locations across Russia, including urban and rural areas, to examine the everyday experiences of the children in schools, homes, and in public, and their ability to get reliable and accurate information about themselves as well as counseling and other support services.| Human Rights Watch
While many have rightly hailed the release of civilians held hostage by Hamas after the killings of hundreds of Israelis and other civilians on October 7 — hostage-taking is a war crime — less attention has been focused on why exactly Israel has so many Palestinians in detention and available to trade. And less still on how they got there.| Human Rights Watch
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On International Women’s Day, we not only recognize the achievements and progress women’s rights have made, but also the constant threats and backlash they face around the globe.| Human Rights Watch
للمساعدة في تأمين مسار نحو الحقيقة والعدالة للضحايا، ينبغي لـ "مجلس حقوق الإنسان" الأممي إصدار قرار طارئ لإنشاء بعثة محايدة لتقصي الحقائق في انفجار مرفأ بيروت.| Human Rights Watch
Over 1,300 Muslim pilgrims reportedly died during the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, this month in Saudi Arabia, where temperatures have soared beyond 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).| Human Rights Watch
Yahya Jammeh treated Gambian women like his personal property. Rape and sexual assault are crimes, and Jammeh is not above the law.| Human Rights Watch
This 77-page report documents how Sudanese government forces have overseen and directly participated in massacres, summary executions of civilians, burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land long-inhabited by the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.| Human Rights Watch
Russian courts have issued the first known extremism convictions arising from the 2023 Supreme Court ruling designating the “international LGBT movement” as extremist.| Human Rights Watch
World Health Organization (WHO) member states should push for clear commitments to human rights protections in the text of a draft “pandemic treaty” being negotiated on November 6-10, four rights organizations said today. The current draft fails to enshrine core human rights standards protected under international law, most notably the right to health and the right to benefit from scientific progress, therefore risking a repeat of the tragic failures during the Covid-19 pandemic.| Human Rights Watch
The 51-page report, “Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook,” documents a pattern of undue removal and suppression of protected speech including peaceful expression in support of Palestine and public debate about Palestinian human rights. Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government...| Human Rights Watch
Children in Gaza have been dying from starvation-related complications since the Israeli government began to use starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime.| Human Rights Watch
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures on January 26, 2024, in South Africa’s case alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.| Human Rights Watch
The Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel and transport are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.| Human Rights Watch
The Israeli government has failed to comply with at least one measure in the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice, in South Africa’s genocide case.| Human Rights Watch
The US Program leads with the principle of racial justice and equity as a fundamental human right providing the foundational, over-arching, and unifying theme for all our work. Our strategic priorities focus on immigration and border rights, criminal justice, and democracy research and advocacy, each operationalized by our theory of change that centers our partners and the most impacted people. Our broader racial justice and equity work focuses on reparative and economic justice, and we advoc...| www.hrw.org
Human Rights Watch announced today that it would be closing its long-running film festival. Founded in 1988, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival showcased nearly 1,000 independent films, was presented in over 30 cities across the globe, and is the world’s longest running human rights film festival.| Human Rights Watch
The human rights situation in Ethiopia remained precarious, with government security forces, militias, and non-state armed groups responsible for systematic abuses, with impunity remaining the norm.| Human Rights Watch
Two Israeli strikes in Lebanon on October 13, 2023 that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists was an apparently deliberate attack on civilians and thus a war crime.| Human Rights Watch
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian forces committed a litany of violations, including those which should be investigated as war crimes or crimes against humanity. The invasion also marked the start of a new, all-out drive to eradicate public dissent in Russia. Through new laws and other measures, Russian authorities doubled down in their relentless attack against free speech, civic activism, independent journalism, and political dissent, in an apparent attempt to...| www.hrw.org
The 213-page report, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” examines Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It presents the present-day reality of a single authority, the Israeli government, ruling primarily over the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, populated by two groups of roughly equal size, and methodologically privileging Jewish Israelis while repressing Palestinians, most severely in the occupied territory.| Human Rights Watch
This report evaluates Israeli military orders that criminalize nonviolent political activity, including protesting, publishing material “having a political significance,” and joining groups “hostile” to Israel. Human Rights Watch examined several case studies to show that Israel unjustifiably relies on these sweeping orders to jail Palestinians for anti-occupation speech, activism, or political affiliations; outlaw political and other nongovernmental organizations; and shut down media...| Human Rights Watch
The explosion that killed and injured many civilians at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023, resulted from an apparent rocket-propelled munition, such as those commonly used by Palestinian armed groups, that hit the hospital grounds, Human Rights Watch said today. While misfires are frequent, further investigation is needed to determine who launched the apparent rocket and whether the laws of war were violated.| Human Rights Watch
The European Union’s plan to regulate artificial intelligence is ill-equipped to protect people from flawed algorithms that deprive them of lifesaving benefits and discriminate against vulnerable populations, Human Rights Watch said in report on the regulation released today. The European Parliament should amend the regulation to better protect people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living.| Human Rights Watch
President al-Sisi’s government has not eased its nationwide repression that caused one of Egypt’s worst human rights crises in many decades. Whitewashing efforts meant little beyond cosmetic changes. Authorities released hundreds of detainees but arrested much more, adding to the thousands of critics, including journalists, peaceful activists, and human rights defenders, who remain imprisoned. Civil society key members face intimidation, travel bans, and assets freeze. Authorities haras...| www.hrw.org
The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance.| Human Rights Watch
The Israeli government should immediately end its total blockade of the Gaza Strip that is putting Palestinian children and other civilians at grave risk.| Human Rights Watch
Israel’s use of white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing a question and answer document on white phosphorus.| Human Rights Watch
