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 […]
Colombia: Armed Groups Batter Border Region
Armed groups fighting over parts of the Catatumbo region near the Colombia-Venezuela border have committed grave abuses and displaced thousands. The groups have killed, assaulted, kidnapped, and disappeared civilians. Fighting and abuses by both sides have reportedly forced over 56,000 people to flee their homes, one of the largest mass displacements in Colombia in decades. The government should […]
Australia: Disproportionate Removal of Aboriginal Children
Play Video (Sydney) – Western Australia’s child protection authorities are disproportionately removing children from Aboriginal families and placing them in out-of-home care, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Children continue to be removed from their homes nearly two decades after the Australian government issued an apology to First Nations peoples for forcibly removing […]
Zimbabwe: Journalist Held on Baseless Charges
(Johannesburg) – Zimbabwean authorities should immediately release and drop the groundless charges against a journalist for his reporting, Human Rights Watch said today. Blessed Mhlanga, a senior journalist for the independent media outlet Heart and Soul TV, has been in detention since his arrest in Harare on February 24, 2025. The authorities charged Mhlanga with […]
FIFA: Recognize, Support Afghan Women’s Team in Exile
(Amsterdam) – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should act to stop the ongoing discrimination against Afghan women footballers living in exile and facilitate their return to international competition, the Sport & Rights Alliance said in a report released today. In two days, the Afghanistan Women’s National Football Team (AWNT) will be absent from the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian […]