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Jordan should ensure accountability for airstrikes in southeast Syria that killed 10 people on January 18 and compensate the victims and their families, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes, which killed women and children, appear to amount to extrajudicial executions.The airstrikes were part of an intensified campaign by the Jordanian Armed Forces against…

Mali’s minister of territorial administration’s order to dissolve a student association is just the latest in a series of government actions to crack down on freedom of association.The minister said that the Association of Pupils and Students of Mali (L’Association des Elèves et Etudiants du Mali, AEEM) was responsible for “violence and clashes in…

The European Union is about to reward Egypt’s autocratic leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for preventing migrants’ departures towards Europe.Visiting Cairo on March 17, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with the Prime Ministers of Italy, Greece, and Belgium, will officially upgrade the EU-Egypt relations to a “comprehensive and strategic partnership”, paving the…

This week, India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government began implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which parliament had enacted in 2019. The law fast-tracks citizenship requests from non-Muslims fleeing religious persecution from India’s Muslim-majority neighbors – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh – but excludes Muslim refugees from those countries.Before the government enacted the law, Home…

The Brazilian government should comply with two new rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that found Brazil responsible for serious human rights violations by the police, Human Rights Watch said today.The decisions, published on March 14, 2024, in cases involving police killings in São Paulo and Paraná states, come as São Paulo…

Earlier this month, in the landmark trial of Guinea’s former president and 10 others, including former ministers, who are accused of responsibility for a massacre and rapes in a stadium, the prosecution team requested the reclassification of charges to crimes against humanity. The trial is currently suspended until March 18, 2024, to allow for…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to alert the Security Council in the coming days that Sudan has entered a downward spiral of extreme conflict-induced hunger, Human Rights Watch said today. The council should immediately take action, including by adopting targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for obstructing aid access in Darfur.“The Security Council…

In late February, I joined youth from 14 countries for a four-day seminar on the rising civilian toll caused by bombing and shelling with explosive weapons in towns and cities during armed conflict. The event was hosted by Mines Action Canada, a co-founder—along with Human Rights Watch—of the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW).The…

Child marriage has become a norm in Pakistan, especially in rural areas, with the highest rate of this scourge in rural areas being in Sindh province, and this practice disproportionately affects girls.According to a 2018 UNICEF report, about 18 percent of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18, which is the…

A declaration by Cameroon’s territorial administration minister to make two opposition coalitions illegal is part of a government crackdown on opposition and dissent, Human Rights Watch said today.On March 12, 2024, the minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said in a statement that the Political Alliance for Change (Alliance politique pour le changement, APC), led by…