Click to expand Image Empty beds in a ward at the Kiambu Referral Hospital, Kenya, as doctors and medical practitioners strike to demand payment of their salaries and other grievances, April 23, 2024. © 2024 Monicah Mwangi/Reuters (Washington, DC) – African governments are falling far short in their commitments to prioritize public spending on health care, contributing to widespread inequalities in healthcare access and outcomes, Human Rights Watch and the Kampala-based Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) said today. As the 23rd anniversary of African Union states ..read more

Click to expand Image Australian soldiers take part in training exercises in Townsville, Australia, June 30, 2023. © 2023 Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images (Sydney) - The Australian government should include human rights vetting provisions in all bilateral security force cooperation agreements, Human Rights Watch said in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The committee is reviewing a proposed agreement between Australia and Fiji for defence cooperation. “The Australian military should not support, train, or appoint to its ranks anyone credibly accused of committin ..read more

Click to expand Image Australian soldiers take part in training exercises in Townsville, Australia, June 30, 2023. © 2023 Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images (Sydney) - The Australian government should include human rights vetting provisions in all bilateral security force cooperation agreements, Human Rights Watch said in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The committee is reviewing a proposed agreement between Australia and Fiji for defence cooperation. “The Australian military should not support, train, or appoint to its ranks anyone credibly accused of committin ..read more

Click to expand Image A 19-year-old woman carries her child outside her secondary school classroom in Nyeri, Kenya, January 8, 2021. © 2021 Monicah Mwangi/Reuters Throughout 2024, the African Union will mark the “AU Year of Education.” The aim is to renew collective commitment and joint action by African countries towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education, as well as the Continental Educational Strategy for Africa, designed to make education a reality for all children and young people in Africa. However, tens of thousands of African girls drop out ..read more

Click to expand Image The women’s mosque in the center of Soro village, Thiou district, northern Yatenga province, Burkina Faso. March 2024 © 2024 Private (Nairobi) – The Burkina Faso military summarily executed at least 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages on February 25, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. These mass killings, among the worst army abuse in Burkina Faso since 2015, appear to be part of a widespread military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed groups, and may amount to crimes against humanity. Soldiers killed ..read more

Click to expand Image Syrian children gather between tents at a refugee camp in Saadnayel in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, June 13, 2023. © 2023 Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images (Beirut) – Lebanese authorities have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly returned Syrians to Syria in recent months, including opposition activists and army defectors, Human Rights Watch said today. Between January and March 2024, Human Rights Watch documented the forcible return of a Syrian army defector and an opposition activist by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the General Directorate of General Secu ..read more

Click to expand Image Iranian women, defying the mandatory hijab rule, take to the streets during nationwide protests that started after 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini died on September 16, 2022 in the custody of Tehran’s “Morality Police,” October 1, 2022. © 2022 Anonymous/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images (Beirut) – An Iranian court has issued a death sentence to the imprisoned popular rapper Toumaj Salehi on speech-related charges, Human Rights Watch said today. The legal proceedings and sentence against Salehi, 33, are a cruel and outrageous assault on fundamental freedoms and the ri ..read more

Click to expand Image Human rights lawyer and former senator Rene Saguisag holds a copy of a book about the martial law period in the Philippines while describing his ordeal in detention, Manila, September 26, 2018.  © 2018 Bullit Marquez/AP Photo The Philippines on April 23 lost a human rights stalwart. Rene Saguisag, a human rights lawyer and former senator, defended victims of abuses during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and was an ardent human rights advocate in the ensuing years. He died of undisclosed causes at the age of 84. Saguisag, along with Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, and ..read more

Click to expand Image The headquarters of EU border agency Frontex in Warsaw, Poland September 8, 2021. © 2021 Kacper Pempel/Reuters Nearly three years ago, on July 30, 2021, a Libyan Coast Guard patrol boat intercepted a small vessel carrying around 20 people. The interception by Libyan officials happened despite the vessel being within Malta’s search-and-rescue area. Our investigations suggest the European Union border agency Frontex played a role in enabling the interception, but the agency has refused to share any information about it. Today, the General Court of the EU ruled that Frontex ..read more

Click to expand Image Journalists protest against authorities’ growing restrictions on media, outside the Press Club of India, New Delhi, India, February 18, 2021.  © 2021 Pradeep Gaur/SOPA Images/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images) Australian journalist Avani Dias left India on April 19 after the government did not extend her journalist visa until moments before it was due to expire – the latest example of foreign writers, journalists, academics, and activists being denied access to India for seemingly political reasons. Dias, who works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and had been ..read more