Georgia: Drop Repressive ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill
(Berlin, March 26, 2025) – The Georgian parliament should reject a bill to introduce criminal penalties for civic activists and nongovernmental groups that refuse to register as “foreign agents,” Human Rights Watch said today. The bill violates fundamental human rights norms and, if adopted, would severely harm Georgia’s civil society and further escalate the human rights […]
Morocco: Activist Sentenced for Peaceful Speech
(Beirut) – A Casablanca Court on March 3, 2025, sentenced a prominent activist, Fouad Abdelmoumni, to six months in prison and fines over a Facebook post, Human Rights Watch and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said today. Moroccan authorities should urgently end their intensifying repression of activists, journalists, and human rights defenders solely for exercising their […]
Burkina Faso: Journalists Arrested in Media Clampdown
(Nairobi) – Burkina Faso’s military junta arrested three journalists on March 24, 2025, for reporting on the government crackdown on the media, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities arrested Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, respectively president and vice president of the Burkina Faso’s Journalists Association (Association des journalistes du Burkina), and Luc Pagbelguem, […]
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan: Put Rights at Center of Border Deal
(Berlin, March 28, 2025) – Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan should place local people’s human rights at the center of the historic deal over their contested border, and provide justice to victims of war crimes during a 2022 border conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The agreement was signed on March 13, 2025 by Tajik president Emomali Rahmon […]
India: Ethnic Clashes Restart in Manipur
India’s northeastern state of Manipur is facing risks of renewed ethnic violence despite the resignation of its divisive chief minister and the imposition of president’s rule on February 13, 2025. India’s Supreme Court expressed concerns over what it termed the “absolute breakdown of law and order” in Manipur after the May 2023 breakout of ethnic […]
Japan’s ‘Hostage Justice’ Survivors Urge Legal Reforms at Diet
On Wednesday, in Japan’s Diet, the House of Representatives Committee on Judicial Affairs held a hearing on the country’s abusive “hostage justice” system. To pressure suspects to confess to crimes, prosecutors have long detained people prior to trial for prolonged and arbitrary periods: sometimes for several months or even years. This was an extraordinary moment […]
UN Committee Criticizes Canada’s Immigration Detention Practices
This week, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities issued a bleak assessment of Canada’s immigration detention system, calling for Canada to protect the legal capacity rights of people with disabilities in detention and urging an end to immigration detention altogether. The committee’s findings, released after a review of Canada’s disability […]
Nicaragua: UN Rights Council Should Renew Experts’ Mandate
(Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights Council should extend the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua for an additional two years, Human Rights Watch said today. This renewal is crucial as the government of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo intensifies its repression. The UN Human Rights Council established the group of experts […]
EU/Central Asia: Deepening Ties Should Center Human Rights
(Brussels, March 27, 2025) – The European Union should put human rights at the center of its intensifying engagement with Central Asian countries at the inaugural EU-Central Asia summit on April 3 and 4, 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today. The EU is deepening bilateral agreements and connections to the countries in the region. Rights protections […]
UK Imposes Sanctions on Four Sri Lankans for Alleged War Crimes
The United Kingdom government has advanced accountability in Sri Lanka by imposing sanctions on four men implicated in atrocities during the country’s civil war. The 1983-2009 conflict between the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government involved widespread human rights abuses and war crimes by both sides, but successive Sri […]