Human Rights Watch News

Chad: Opposition Leader Arrested

Fri, 16 May 2025 21:00:00 -0400

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Then-Prime Minister Succès Masra, leader of Chad’s main opposition party Les Transformateurs, casts his ballot in N'Djamena, Chad, May 6, 2024.

(New York) – Chadian authorities arrested Succès Masra, the former prime minister and leader of Chad’s main opposition party, at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.

Masra’s arrest raises concerns of escalating harassment and threats against the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers) as well as other political opponents of the ruling party. If Chadian authorities are not charging Masra with a credible offense, he should be released promptly.

“Succès Masra and his party, Les Transformateurs, have the right to express their opinions freely without fear of arrest,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Chadian authorities have instead used arrests and other forms of repression to clamp down on peaceful dissent time and time again.”

A witness at Masra’s residence in the Gassi neighborhood of N’Djamena, the capital, said that government security forces arrived just before 6 a.m. to arrest Masra. Party members told Human Rights Watch that Masra, 41, was being held by the judicial police in N’Djamena, where he has access to his lawyers.

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At a news conference, the public prosecutor, Oumar Mahamat Kedelaye, said Masra was arrested following an intercommunal clash in the Logone Occidental province in southwestern Chad that killed 42 people on May 14. According to Kedelaye, Chadian authorities are accusing Masra of inciting hatred and violence through social media posts and implicating him in the violence. However, following the Logone Occidental violence, Masra had expressed condolences to the victims, stating that “no Chadian’s life should be taken for granted.”

While clashes between herders and farmers are common in southern Chad, intercommunal violence has become more acute over the past several years, resulting in the deaths of scores of people.

Masra and his supporters have faced threats prior to the May 2024 elections, in which Masra ran against then-transitional president, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby. After Déby was declared the winner, his presidency ended a transitional period that started in 2021, following the death of his father, then-President Idriss Déby Itno, who was killed while fighting an armed group a day after being re-elected to his sixth term.

Under the current government, authorities have shown opposition to debate or dissent, including open discussions about Chad’s past.

The government’s crackdown on freedom of expression and association has at times been violent: after the 2021 re-election of Idriss Déby Itno and his subsequent death, security forces used excessive force, including live ammunition fired indiscriminately, to disperse opposition-led demonstrations across the country. Several protesters were killed. Authorities detained activists and opposition party members, and security forces beat journalists covering the protests.

On October 20, 2022, security forces fired live ammunition at protesters—killing and injuring scores of demonstrators—and beat and chased people into their homes. Hundreds of men and boys were arrested, and many were taken to Koro Toro, a high security prison 600 kilometers away from N’Djamena. Several detainees died en route to the prison, some due to lack of water. At Koro Toro, protesters suffered further abuse, including torture and ill-treatment by other detainees.

In October 2023, dozens of members of Les Transformateurs were arrested in the lead-up to a constitutional referendum to allow Mahamat Déby to run as a candidate.

The period prior to the May 2024 presidential elections was also marred by violence. On February 28, 2024, security forces killed Yaya Dillo, the president of the Parti socialiste sans frontières (Socialist Party Without Borders), during an attack on the party’s headquarters in N’Djamena. More than one year on, the authorities have not clarified the circumstances of his death.

“The Chadian government should be seeking ways to dialogue with the political opposition, rather than shutting them down through the use of intimidation and violence,” Mudge said. “They should immediately release Masra if he is not charged with a valid offense.”

Another Courageous Journalist Jailed in Azerbaijan

Fri, 16 May 2025 20:55:03 -0400

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Ulviyya Ali protests against a media bill alongside other journalists, in front of the Parliament building in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2021. The writing on her hand reads "a word is free."

“If you are reading this note it is because I have been unjustly jailed for my journalism work. Like my other journalist colleagues, I have committed no crime,” wrote Ulviyya Guliyeva (known as Ulviyya Ali) in a note she wanted to be shared in the event of her arrest.

Last week, Guliyeva became the 25th reporter Azerbaijani authorities have jailed on bogus charges during the past 18 months as they seek to silence critical voices. She is the 11th journalist jailed in connection with an investigation that the government launched against Azerbaijan’s largest exile-based independent media outlet Meydan TV, whose entire newsroom staff has been held in pretrial detention since December 2024.

Authorities had imposed a travel ban on Guliyeva in January 2025, after she was questioned as part of the Meydan TV investigation. In her statement, Guliyeva denied working for Meydan TV while stating that even if she had, this would not constitute a crime.

Known for her independent reporting, Guliyeva was Voice of America’s (VOA) Azerbaijan correspondent until February 2025, when Azerbaijani authorities revoked VOA’s accreditation. Her latest reporting was from the court hearings of Tofig Yagublu, a veteran opposition politician who was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in March 2025, and of journalists from Abzas Media, another prominent and now exiled independent news outlet.

Earlier this month, police searched and ransacked Guliyeva’s flat and claimed to have found money which they said she had smuggled into the country. Later, during interrogation, she was allegedly struck in the head several times by police and threatened with sexual violence to coerce her into handing over her mobile device’s password.

According to her family, shortly after her interrogation, Guliyeva began to vomit repeatedly. She has requested a full medical checkup, including an MRI scan to determine if she has sustained any internal injury, which would require her transfer to a facility with the necessary medical equipment and personnel. The request was pending at the time of this writing.

The authorities claim Guliyeva colluded with Meydan TV reporters to smuggle the money allegedly found in her apartment into Azerbaijan. Guliyeva denies the accusations and a Meydan TV representative has confirmed Guliyeva did not work for the outlet. Nearly all the reporters arrested since November 2023 face similar bogus smuggling charges.

Other freelance journalists arrested in connection with the Meydan TV case include Fatima Movlamli, Nurlan Libre, and Shamshad Aghayev.

Azerbaijani authorities may think that by arresting more journalists who report the facts, they can intimidate journalists and create a pliant media. But all they’ve done is show how much they fear the facts.

Poland Ends ‘LGBT Free’ Zones

Fri, 16 May 2025 12:10:09 -0400

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Activists protesting in favor of equality and against “LGBT-free” zones resolutions in Warsaw, Poland, March 3, 2020.

Municipal officials in the town of Łańcut, Poland, have abolished the country’s last remaining “LGBT Ideology Free” zone, righting more than five years of political assault on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) people across the country.

Between 2019 and 2024, while the right-wing Law and Justice party was in power, provinces, towns, and municipalities across Poland adopted discriminatory “family charters” pledging to “protect children from moral corruption” or declared themselves free from “LGBT ideology.”

Over time, authorities in one-third of the country adopted anti-LGBT resolutions after the Law and Justice ruling party made “protecting” Poland from “LGBT ideology” a centerpiece of its successful 2019 electoral campaign. Under the resolutions and charters, regional and local governments were to refrain from encouraging tolerance toward LGBT people and cut funds to organizations promoting nondiscrimination and gender equality.

Although legally unenforceable, LGBT activists told Human Rights Watch the “LGBT Ideology Free” zones – in their attempts to stigmatize, exclude, and indirectly discriminate against LGBT people – sent the message that LGBT people were not welcome in these areas. As a gay man in eastern Poland told Human Rights Watch: “In 2020, one of my good friends who had never before had an issue with my sexual orientation suddenly accused me of being ‘an ideology.’”

Courts in Poland pushed back against the zones, defending activists’ rights to document and critique them. Over time, authorities repealed the zones.

The situation in Poland offers a lesson for the region. In recent years, alongside the rise of right-wing populism, there has been manufactured hostility towards the concepts of “gender” and “genderism” in Europe, with opponents labeling it “gender ideology.”

Opponents have weaponized undefined “gender ideology” as a tool to curtail sexual and reproductive rights and LGBT equality by playing on people’s fear of social change and claiming a global conspiracy of great influence and scale.

Some observers refer to “gender ideology” as “symbolic glue,” or an “empty signifier”: it simultaneously means nothing and everything, and is consistently used to attack feminism, equality for trans people, the existence of intersex bodies, the elimination of sex stereotyping, family law reform, same-sex marriage, access to abortion, contraception, and comprehensive sexuality education.

The removal of Poland’s last “LGBT free” zone is reminder of the profound harm such symbolic policies inflict on people’s lives, a lesson that should be heeded across the region and the world.

US: Florida Set to Trample Young People’s Rights

Fri, 16 May 2025 12:05:00 -0400

(Miami) – A devastating decision from Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals would eliminate access to abortion care for young people unable to get written, notarized parental consent, Human Rights Watch and If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice said today. The May 14 opinion moves to strike down parts of Florida law that allow young people to petition a court for permission to access abortion without notifying and getting consent from a parent or legal guardian. The case could end up before the Florida Supreme Court.

The vast majority of Florida youth considering abortion involve a parent in their decision. Those who do not often have no access to a parent or fear that parental involvement will lead to severe consequences, such as physical abuse, loss of housing, family alienation, or forced continuation of a pregnancy against their wishes. The only alternative in Florida law for young people in these circumstances is petitioning a judge for a waiver through the judicial bypass process. This week’s decision moves to eliminate that option.

“Florida’s judicial bypass process has been the only pathway for some young people without parental support to exercise their right to access abortion care without leaving the state,” said Margaret Wurth, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This decision would give unsupportive or even abusive parents unchecked power to block abortion access and force young people to continue pregnancies against their will.”

In the November 2024 election, a majority of Florida voters (57 percent) supported a constitutional amendment to protect the right to access abortion, but it fell short of the 60 percent threshold required to amend the state constitution.

Florida youth face extraordinary barriers accessing abortion care. Abortion is banned after 6 weeks of pregnancy, and patients must make two trips to a clinic – at least 24 hours apart – to access care. Young people under 18 in the state face the added barrier of forced parental consent and notification, or judicial bypass.

A 2023 Human Rights Watch report documented the harms of Florida’s forced parental consent law and called on state legislators to repeal it. Many US states, including New York, Illinois, and New Mexico do not mandate parental consent or notification and enable young people to access confidential abortion care with support from the people they trust.

Youth seeking judicial bypass are often in highly vulnerable and precarious circumstances as they seek time-sensitive abortion care in a restrictive and hostile environment. Judicial bypass is a challenging and burdensome process that poses risks to young people’s safety and confidentiality. Accessing reliable information and legal support can be difficult, and appearing before a judge can be highly stressful and even traumatizing. Young people must demonstrate that they are sufficiently mature to decide to have an abortion without parental involvement, or that involving a parent is not in their best interest. Judicial bypass can involve intimate and invasive questions about highly sensitive topics. Though deeply flawed and highly onerous, it offers an alternative for those facing lasting harm from forced disclosure to a parent or legal guardian.

“No young person should be forced to carry a pregnancy and give birth against their will,” said Jessica Goldberg, Senior Youth Access Counsel at If/When/How. “Making young people who cannot safely include a parent in their abortion decision choose between having the abortion they want, and their safety and wellness is a disgusting and cruel use of state power.”

The case before the appeals court involved a pregnant 17-year-old who wished to get an abortion without involving her parent and petitioned a trial court in Clay County for a judicial waiver. The judge denied the young person’s request finding she did not have “the requisite maturity” to decide to end the pregnancy. Judges in Florida deny far too many young people’s requests for judicial waivers.

Prominent US healthcare associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and others, oppose forced parental consent. The AAP found, “most minors 14 to 17 years of age are as competent as adults to provide consent to abortion.”

The young person and her lawyer appealed the denial. In this case, the appeals court blocked the petitioner from accessing care, by rejecting the young person’s appeal and affirming the lower court’s decision.

The court then made the highly unusual move of inviting the state attorney general to submit an amicus curiae brief in the case. Florida’s attorney general then moved to intervene in the case, joining as an adverse party, and argued that the judicial waiver process conflicts with parents’ constitutional rights. In its ruling, the appeals court invalidated the sections of Florida law providing for judicial bypass and invited Florida Supreme Court review by certifying a “question of great public importance.”

“The court examined a deeply harmful law and made it more harmful and more extreme, by giving no alternative for young people whose parents would oppose or block their decision to end a pregnancy, or subject them to serious and irreparable harm,” Wurth said.

Under international human rights law, parents have rights and responsibilities to care for their children, but young people’s right to health affords them an increasing degree of decision-making autonomy as their capacity evolves, including around access to healthcare services like abortion care. Human rights experts have urged all governments to guarantee the best interests of pregnant youth and “ensure that their views are always heard and respected in abortion-related decisions.” The appeals court decision does the opposite, Human Rights Watch said.

“Requiring written parental consent gives parents complete veto power over a young person’s abortion decision-making while also creating extreme barriers to abortion for those young people who, for whatever reason, cannot get a parent’s consent in writing,” said Goldberg. “Whether a young person can access abortion care or not can determine the entire trajectory of their life.” In recent years, anti-abortion policymakers in Florida have enacted harsh restrictions designed to make it nearly impossible to access abortion care in the state. Though the six-week ban, in effect since May 2024, made it difficult for young people to pursue judicial bypass before reaching the state’s gestational cutoff, data obtained by Human Rights Watch from the Florida Courts show some young people managed to.

“Young people have the right to access abortion care without being subjected to a parental veto,” Wurth said. “Once again Florida leaders are putting young people in harm’s way and playing politics with their lives as they look for new ways to cut off access to abortion care.”

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If you need legal support accessing abortion as a young person, including understanding your rights, the Repro Legal Helpline can help. The Helpline provides free, confidential legal services for your abortion, no matter your age or your immigration status. Visit ReproLegalHelpline.org or call 844-868-2812 to connect with a lawyer.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Women Await Justice 16 Years Since War’s End

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:01:00 -0400

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Relatives of people who disappeared during or after the civil war protest in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, November 15, 2013.

This Sunday, May 18, marks 16 years since the Sri Lankan government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), ending an armed conflict that had raged for 26 years. But while the fighting has long been over, the battle for justice for Tamil women victims continues.

Both sides in the conflict committed countless atrocities. Among the victims were female LTTE fighters and other Tamil women captured by government soldiers before being stripped, sexually mutilated, and killed in the conflict’s final weeks. The soldiers even took and kept photos and videos as war trophies. These included prominent images of the LTTE newspresenter Isaipriya, whose body was found having apparently been raped before she was killed.

This kind of state-perpetrated sexual violence against Tamils was not uncommon. During and following the war, security forces sexually tortured numerous Tamil detainees, both men and women.

Successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to hold security force members accountable for wartime sexual violence or for other serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances.

Nor has sexual violence against Tamil women been consigned to the history books. Ongoing militarization across the conflict-affected north and east has again put former LTTE female fighters at risk of sexual abuse and extortion. The wives and mothers of the disappeared, who have led yearslong continual protests for truth and international justice, have faced threats, violence, and sexual harassment.

Due to decades of impunity in Sri Lanka, Tamil victims and advocates have lost faith in the domestic justice system and started looking for justice elsewhere. The United Nations human rights chief has noted the importance of states “using all potential forms of jurisdiction,” including extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction, to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed in Sri Lanka to end “systematic impunity.”

One remaining vehicle is the UN human rights office’s “Sri Lanka Accountability Project,” which gathers evidence for potential prosecutions and other accountability processes. It is due for renewal by the UN Human Rights Council in September, which the Sri Lankan government should support. Its continuation is vital to ensure justice for Sri Lanka’s Tamil victims, including women like Isaipriya and the suffering wives and mothers of the disappeared.

EU Needs Tougher Response to Attack on Turkish Opposition

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400

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A demonstration against the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu by members of the Turkish diaspora in the Place du Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament on March 19, 2025 in Brussels, Belgium.

(Brussels, May 16, 2025) - The jailing by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government of a key political opponent is a blatant repudiation of the rights to political association and participation, 58 rights, media, and legal groups, including Human Rights Watch, said in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, whose party was about to nominate him to run for president, was arrested on March 19, 2025.

The organizations called on the European Union to issue an effective and bold response to the Erdoğan government’s major blow to the rule of law and human rights in Türkiye.

“Türkiye as a democratic society based on the rule of law is a fiction as long as the government continues its move to eviscerate the main political opposition,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Today EU leaders will meet alongside President Erdoğan at the European Political Community summit. They need to take a firm stand and make clear that curtailing political rights will come at a cost.”

The groups’ message to the EU comes after the historic May 12 announcement by the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of its decision to disarm and disband, bringing to an end a four-decade conflict with the Turkish state.

The EU should make clear that it expects a reversal of negative rule of law and human rights trends before it can deepen bilateral trade and investment, such as through the modernization of the EU-Türkiye Customs Union sought by Ankara.

Tangible human rights improvement should include Türkiye’s full implementation of European Court of Human Rights judgments, particularly in the cases of politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu and human rights defender Osman Kavala, the groups said. The Erdoğan government needs to immediately and unconditionally release them and fully restore their rights, as well as those of other arbitrarily detained politicians, civic activists, lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders.

The authorities should also carry out independent and prompt investigations into allegations of torture, and other ill-treatment, violations of fair trial rights and unlawful use of force by police during the recent protests sparked by İmamoğlu’s detention, the groups said.

“EU efforts to pursue the deepening of economic and defense ties without insisting on human rights improvements risks emboldening the authorities’ repressive policies and worsening democratic backsliding,” Williamson said. “Engagement with the Turkish government should be based on clear human rights red lines as a non-negotiable element of bilateral relations.”

UN Security Council Should Renew South Sudan Arms Embargo

Thu, 15 May 2025 17:09:06 -0400

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Remnants of a burnt tukul (home) in Mathiang, South Sudan, following an attack with an incendiary weapon on March 16, 2025. Many tukuls and other civilian objects were burnt in the fires from incendiary weapons use.

As hostilities escalate across South Sudan, the United Nations Security Council should renew its arms embargo on the country. The council should also act to prevent additional weapons from reaching the warring parties and foreign forces from adding to the violations.

In recent months, government forces have attacked populated areas, often using helicopter gunfire and air-dropped munitions, putting civilians at grave risk. In March, Human Rights Watch found that the government had used improvised incendiary bombs that horrifically burned and killed dozens of people, including children, in Upper Nile state, exacerbating an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. The use of incendiary weapons in populated areas may amount to war crimes.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the current hostilities, many to neighboring countries. Humanitarian access remains difficult, with aid organizations facing bureaucratic restrictions and attacks, as evidenced by the recent bombing of a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital.

South Sudan has been under a UN arms embargo since 2018. The restrictions prohibit weapons transfers and external military support to the country’s warring parties.

The recent deployment of armed Ugandan soldiers and military equipment in South Sudan was a brazen violation of the embargo, as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reported.

The South Sudan government’s house arrest of opposition leader Riek Machar and other opposition members without due process risks returning the country to protracted conflict.

The Security Council should call out Uganda’s violation of the embargo and ensure it is extended for another year to help protect civilians from abusive forces. The council should also press the South Sudanese leadership to ensure that the UN peacekeeping mission, UNMISS, can move freely and safely in the country.

For years, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has called for lifting the arms embargo, eroding support among some states for the UN sanctions. Last year the council only narrowly approved a resolution to renew the embargo until May 31, 2025.

Rather than lifting the arms embargo, which could embolden the warring parties to commit further atrocities, the Security Council should keep it in place and hold violators to account.

Proposed US Budget Bill Will Harm Right to Health

Thu, 15 May 2025 15:18:04 -0400

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Attendees pack the hearing room during a markup of US President Donald Trump's tax package in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2025.

Members of the US House of Representatives are meeting this week to debate a legislative package that would, if enacted as written, have profound negative impacts on human rights in the United States.

It should not become law.

At its core, the bill would reshape how the US government raises and spends money. It would extend and deepen expensive tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy while radically reducing federal support for public services and programs essential for rights. Health care, in particular, is at risk.

Under international human rights law, everyone has the right to health. The US government should ensure good quality health care is available and accessible for all.

The bill under consideration does the opposite. Rather than raising revenues equitably and using those resources to improve health, it would make health care less available, less affordable, and of poorer quality for millions of people.

Medicaid, a public program that provides health insurance to about 80 million low-income people, would take the brunt of this austerity. A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan governmental research agency, found that the bill’s proposed changes to Medicaid would cause 7.6 million people to lose their health insurance, exposing them to the high costs of drug prices and hospital care. Black and Hispanic families would be disproportionately harmed.

The bill’s language aims at defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides essential health care, like cancer screenings, birth control, abortion services, and testing for sexually transmitted infections. The cuts could force clinics to close or stop providing certain services like obstetric care. Additionally, the bill would end federal funding and health benefit coverage for gender-affirming care for youth on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and for adults covered under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.

The proposed bill would also squeeze savings from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, potentially causing more than 3 million people to lose food assistance, according to CBO estimates.

It would also eliminate environmental health funding. Programs that reduce air pollution, a major driver of poor health outcomes that contributes to deepening racial health inequalities, would be cut. As would public subsidies promoting renewable energy sources in the United States, crucial to ending the climate crisis, which is a massive threat to health.

Taken together, these cuts would threaten the health and lives of millions of people.

Congressmembers should reject these cuts.

Rising Food Prices Deepen Nigeria’s Poverty Crisis

Thu, 15 May 2025 12:37:54 -0400

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Vendors display tomatoes for sell at Mile 12 market in Lagos, Nigeria, July 7, 2021.

Several West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and Gambia, proudly compete over who makes the best “jollof rice,” rice cooked in spicy tomato sauce. But in Nigeria, this cultural staple is becoming a luxury because of soaring inflation, while government support remains slow and inadequate.

Last month, SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical research and strategic communications firm, released its latest SBM Jollof Index. The report, titled “Staple Under Stress,” tracked food costs from September 2024 to March 2025, revealing that the cost of cooking one pot of jollof rice in Nigeria jumped to 25,486 naira (₦) from ₦21,300, a 19 percent spike. Prices of essential ingredients like rice, onions, tomatoes, and peppers have surged.

Nigeria has entered its worst cost-of-living crisis in nearly three decades, according to news and academic reports. The global advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its January 2025 Nigeria Budget and Economic Outlook warned that inflation combined with inadequate social protection could push up to 13 million naira Nigerians into poverty this year.

Recovery from economic woes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has been stifled by a series of poor policy decisions, including the abrupt removal in 2023 of a fuel consumption subsidy without sufficient compensatory measures.

While it is critical for governments to move away from fossil fuel subsidies, which disproportionally benefit the wealthy and delay the transition to renewable energy, it is equally critical that governments put in place adequate compensatory measures, which allow low-income households to access essentials, such as power, transport, goods, and services that may rise in cost after subsidy removal.

Nigeria lacks a comprehensive, rights-based social security system that guarantees income support across a person’s lifetime. As of 2022, just 14.8 percent of the population had access to at least one social protection benefit.

In October 2023, the government announced a ₦25,000 monthly cash transfer for three months to 15 million households to help cushion the impact of inflation. But so far, only about 5 million households have received payments. A government official told Human Rights Watch that implementation of the program has been slow due to efforts to “improve accountability” by linking the National Social Registry – used to identify “the poorest among the poor”– with the National Identification Number system.

In general, such programs are often costly to administer, prone to high exclusion errors, and burdened with bureaucratic hurdles that end up stigmatizing beneficiaries.

The authorities should instead take steps toward building a universal rights-aligned social security system, backed by clear strategies and progressive funding, to deliver comprehensive support to people.

Only then can staples like jollof rice remain something enjoyed by all, not just a privileged few.

Syria: US Lifting Sanctions Will Bolster Rights, Recovery

Thu, 15 May 2025 09:15:00 -0400

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Syrians celebrate in Umayyad Square after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to ease sanctions on Syria in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, May 13, 2025.

(Washington, DC) – US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will remove longstanding sanctions on Syria is a critical step toward improving Syrians’ access to fundamental economic rights and encouraging efforts to rebuild a country devastated by years of grueling conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The announcement should be followed by concrete executive or legislative measures that remove financial and other sanctions hampering access to rights, including the right to electricity and an adequate standard of living.

Broad sanctions, which remained in place despite the ouster of the government of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, have greatly hindered reconstruction efforts and exacerbated the suffering of millions of Syrians. The European Union and the United Kingdom have already taken steps to ease sanctions on Syria, but the EU should go further by lifting other financial sanctions, including those imposed on Syria’s Central Bank.

“Syria’s economic collapse – due, in part, to US sanctions – has pushed millions into poverty. Now there’s a glimmer of hope,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “President Trump’s recent statements offer Syrians a sense that rebuilding and recovery might be possible, but only if he backs these words with quick, concrete, meaningful actions.”

Thirteen years of conflict and displacement have left much of Syria’s infrastructure in ruins, with entire towns uninhabitable; schools, hospitals, roads, water facilities, and electrical grids damaged; public services barely functioning; and the economy in freefall. Over 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, with at least 9 million unable to access enough quality food; nationwide, an estimated 16.5 million Syrians require some form of humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs. Human Rights Watch previously found that broad sanctions imposed by the US and other nations hindered aid delivery in Syria, despite humanitarian exemptions.

The United States enforced the most severe measures, prohibiting nearly all trade and financial transactions with Syria.

Now, to ensure that sanctions relief meaningfully improves Syrians’ wellbeing and fundamental economic rights, the US and other governments should take measures to:

Restore Syria’s access to global financial systems, including removing sanctions imposed on the Syrian Central Bank;End trade restrictions on essential goods;Remove energy sanctions to ensure access to fuel and electricity.

Additionally, sanctions should be lifted in good faith: relief efforts will fall short if they are conditioned on vague, shifting, or politically motivated demands. The failure to lift sanctions and the continued use of sanctions to pressure Syria into fulfilling unrelated foreign policy goals – such as security cooperation or diplomatic concessions – risk turning economic measures into tools of unlawful coercion. Any remaining conditions for sanctions removal should be narrowly tailored, clearly articulated, and rooted in international legal obligations, especially those related to human rights and humanitarian access.

China/Tibet: Panchen Lama Forcibly Disappeared for 30 Years

Thu, 15 May 2025 04:30:00 -0400

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Exile Tibetan Buddhist nuns carry placards during a protest march demanding the release of their religious leader Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, who was put under house arrest by the Chinese authorities this day in 1995 in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, Wednesday, May 17, 2017.

(New York) – China’s government should free the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choki Nyima and his parents, whom Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared on May 17, 1995, and who have not been seen for 30 years, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious leader, have historically played key roles in recognizing the other’s successor. As the current 14th Dalai Lama will celebrate his 90th birthday on July 6, the question of his succession—and the future of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people—is becoming increasingly urgent.

“The Chinese government kidnapped a 6-year-old and his family and have disappeared them for 30 years to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama and thus Tibetan Buddhism itself,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Concerned parties should press the Chinese government to end this cruelty and secure the freedom of Gendun Choki Nyima and his family.”

The Chinese government forcibly disappeared the then 6-year-old on May 17, 1995, three days after the Dalai Lama recognized him as the 11th Panchen Lama. Even pictures of Gendun Choki Nyima, along with those of the Dalai Lama, are prohibited in Tibet.

Following the Panchen Lama’s disappearance, the authorities forced another group of monks to identify a different child, Gyaltsen Norbu, whose parents were reportedly members of the Chinese Communist Party, as the official reincarnation.

Authorities also detained Jadrel Rinpoche, the abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery who oversaw the search for the Panchen Lama’s reincarnation, and arrested more than 30 monks from the monastery. Jadrel Rinpoche’s whereabouts and well-being are also unknown, according to the Dalai Lama.

Twenty years after his disappearance, in 2015, the Chinese authorities claimed that Gendun Choki Nyima was “living normally” and “does not want to be disturbed by anyone.”

Over the next decade, the Chinese government tightened its grip over Tibet, which includes the Tibet Autonomous Region and the neighboring Tibetan autonomous areas within Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces.

Since 2008, when a massive crackdown on popular protests swept the Tibetan plateau, Chinese security forces have maintained a heavy presence in Tibet and tightly restricted access and travel to Tibetan areas. Any questioning of government policies, however mild, can result in arbitrary detention or long-term imprisonment, prosecution, enforced disappearance, and even instances of torture. Authorities maintain highly intrusive mass surveillance systems in Tibet, require Tibetans to use Mandarin Chinese as the medium of instruction in schools, and pressure many to relocate en masse from their long-established villages to new government-built settlements. Authorities also make it extremely difficult for Tibetans to travel abroad or to obtain passports and punish people severely for contacting relatives or others outside the country.

Since 2007, Chinese authorities have imposed regulations limiting the recognition of reincarnate lamas, who include many of the religious leaders in Tibetan Buddhism. These provisions specify that reincarnations may not be recognized without state approval and must be born within China’s borders. High-ranking incarnations must be selected using the “Golden Urn,” an 18th century Chinese lottery system that had scarcely been used by Tibetans until 2007, when the Chinese Communist Party mandated it as the only legal way to select top-ranking lamas.

Since 2009, there have been 160 instances of self-immolation, resulting in the death of 127 Tibetans.

In 2012, the government placed nearly all Tibetan monasteries under the direct control of Chinese government officials who are permanently stationed in Tibet. Since 2018, Chinese authorities have required all monastics to meet the “Four Standards,” including “political reliability” and “being dependable at critical moments.” These standards are believed to involve support for the Chinese government’s choice of the next Dalai Lama and any other reincarnate lama.

Five United Nations human rights mandates, including the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, in a joint statement on the 25th anniversary of the Panchen Lama’s abduction, condemned “the continued enforced disappearance of Gedhun Cheokyi Nyima, and the regulation of reincarnation of Tibetan living Buddhas against the religious traditions and practices of the Tibetan Buddhist minority.”

Enforced disappearance is defined under international law as the arrest or detention of a person by state officials or their agents followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty, or to reveal the person’s fate or whereabouts.

Various governments and independent bodies, including most recently the European Parliament, have called on the Chinese government to provide information on the whereabouts of the Panchen Lama.

The Chinese government should allow UN monitors, independent human rights organizations, and media outlets unfettered access to Tibetan areas, Human Rights Watch said.

Concerned governments, especially those with significant Buddhist populations, such as Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, and India, should mark the 30th anniversary of the Panchen Lama’s enforced disappearance by speaking out publicly and by asserting the rights of Tibetans to exercise their religious freedom.

“The 30th anniversary of the Panchen Lama’s disappearance provides governments an important opportunity to urge the Chinese government to end its decades of repression of the Tibetan people,” Uluyol said.

Gaza: Latest Israeli Plan Inches Closer to Extermination

Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400

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Palestinians returning to Khan Younis after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, pull water containers to meet their vital needs under catastrophic conditions on May 6, 2024.

(Beirut) – The Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide, Human Rights Watch said today.

Israeli authorities, who have blocked the entry of aid, food, fuel, and medical supplies into Gaza for 75 days, have reportedly decided on a plan that would include “flatten[ing]” buildings and displacing Gaza’s entire population into a single “humanitarian area” if no “deal” with Hamas is reached by mid-May 2025. The dire humanitarian situation stemming from the unlawful blockade and plans to escalate forced displacement and widespread destruction demand a more robust response from other governments and institutions, especially the United States, France, Germany, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Human Rights Watch called on all parties to the Genocide Convention to do more to prevent further atrocities, including ending weapons sales, military assistance, and diplomatic support to Israel, imposing targeted sanctions on Israeli officials, and reviewing and considering suspending bilateral agreements.

“Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington,” said Federico Borello, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination.”

The United Nations has warned that Gaza is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the beginning of hostilities. The world’s foremost experts on food insecurity, the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), said on May 12 that there is a “high risk” that famine will occur in Gaza in the coming weeks, with one in five people likely to face starvation. The World Health Organization said on May 11 that Gaza is experiencing “one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” citing a Gaza Ministry of Health report that at least 57 children have died from malnutrition in Gaza since the blockade began. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated in mid-April that Israel’s “policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said at the time: “As long as our hostages are dying in tunnels, there is absolutely no reason to allow even a gram of food or aid.”

According to the Israeli government, 58 Israeli hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, of whom 23 are believed alive. Palestinian armed groups should immediately and safely release all civilians they detain, just as Israeli authorities should immediately and safely release all unlawfully held Palestinians.

In early May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved a plan dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” which it says could start as soon as US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region concludes on May 16. The plan involves forcibly displacing much of the Palestinian population of Gaza while seizing and occupying the territory. “There will be no in-and-out,” Netanyahu announced on May 5. Israel is “finally going to conquer the Gaza Strip,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry and sits on the security cabinet. Smotrich, who has said that Gaza will be “completely destroyed” and its Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers to third countries,” also suggests these plans should not be adjusted, even if hostages are released.

When coupled with the systematic destruction of homes, apartment buildings, orchards and fields, schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation facilities, as well as the use of starvation as a weapon of war—acts that amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity including extermination, and acts of genocide—these plans trigger the “duty to prevent” under the Genocide Convention. For the 153 states that are parties to it, the duty to prevent genocide arises as soon as a state learns, or should normally have learned, of a serious risk that genocide may be committed. A definitive determination that genocide is already underway is not required, as Human Rights Watch set out in an April 2025 intervention in a case currently before the UK courts challenging the UK government’s decision to continue to license military equipment used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Israel and the United States are advancing a new plan to use private military contractors to provide aid only to certain parts of Gaza. In a May 4 joint statement, the UN and aid groups operating in Gaza warned that the plan won’t reach the most vulnerable, “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic,” and “will further entrench forced displacement.” The IPC said the plan is “highly insufficient to meet the population’s essential needs.”

Virtually all of Gaza’s population has already been displaced, while Israeli authorities have pursued forced displacement as state policy, rendering the strip largely uninhabitable. Israeli officials have confirmed that going forward, areas “cleared” by their military would follow the “Rafah model,” a euphemism for the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

The Genocide Convention obligates states parties to “employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.” States that are party to the 1948 Genocide Convention, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, risk legal liability for failing to act to prevent genocide in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2007 found that the obligation applied extraterritorially “to a State wherever it may be acting or may be able to act in ways appropriate to meeting the obligation.” The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which have strong ties with or influence over the Israeli government, have a heightened responsibility to act.

Aid agencies have 171,000 metric tons of pre-positioned food in the region, which would be enough to sustain 2 million people in Gaza for three to four months, but they have not been allowed to enter since March 2, 2025. Bakeries, community kitchens, and relief organizations, including the World Food Programme and World Central Kitchen, have been forced to stop operations because their food stocks ran out. People now spend hours waiting for a few gallons of water or rotten flour. According to the International Water Association, 90 percent of households were struggling with water scarcity in the first half of April, often forced to choose between showering, cleaning, and cooking. That percentage has likely risen because fuel to run desalination plants and water pumps for wells has not entered Gaza since March 2.

Israeli authorities have made it impossible to effectively deliver assistance. Increasing use of evacuation orders has also trapped civilians in enclaves without food or water. According to a survey by Relief Web, 95 percent of the aid organizations operating in Gaza had to suspend or dramatically cut services since the escalation of hostilities on March 18 because of widespread Israeli bombing or onerous Israeli restrictions.

The ICJ has issued three rounds of provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. Israeli authorities have flouted them all.

Continued weapons sales, military assistance, and diplomatic support to the Israeli government despite overwhelming evidence of atrocity crimes also expose governments and officials to the risk of complicity. Governments should halt arms transfers immediately. They should also support international accountability efforts, including by enforcing the arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch said.

Governments should also immediately review bilateral agreements with Israel, including the EU-Israel Association agreement, which identifies “respect for human rights and democratic principles” as an “essential element” of the agreement. Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, and Sweden support such a review.

Both the UK-Israel Trade Partnership Agreement and the UK’s 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel bilateral relations should be revised, including removing provisions that shield or attempt to shield Israel from accountability, Human Rights Watch said.

“States that are party to the Genocide Convention committed themselves not just to punish genocide, but also to prevent it from taking place,” Borello said. “Failing to act to stop Israeli authorities from starving civilians in Gaza and further rendering it unlivable flies in the face of the very purpose of the convention.”

The US Should Protect Exiled Cuban Dissidents

Wed, 14 May 2025 17:06:01 -0400

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Rapper Eliecer Marquez Duany, also known as "El Funky" listens to a congressional roundtable on human right abuses in Cuba, July 10, 2023, in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, US.

Last week, a group of 14 exiled Cuban dissidents living in the United States sent a letter to the US government and several members of Congress, urging officials to help them obtain legal status in the country. Some of them said they feared deportation.

Among the dissidents is rap singer Eliexer Márquez Duany. Known as El Funky, Márquez is one of the authors of “Patria y Vida,” a song that became an anthem for many protesters in Cuba who took to the streets in landmark July 2021 demonstrations that Cuba’s government severely repressed.

The song, which repurposes the Cuban government’s slogan “Patria o Muerte,” earned global recognition and fierce reprisal in Cuba. While Márquez managed to leave Cuba, two of the song’s other authors, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez, are respectively serving five and nine-year sentences in Cuba, following prosecutions that violated their rights to freedom of expression and association.

In April 2025, Márquez said US authorities denied his permanent residency and ordered that he leave the country within 33 days. He told Human Rights Watch that returning to Cuba would be “suicidal.”

Other dissidents who signed the letter include journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca and human rights advocate Eralidis Frómeta. The pair were given 26 days to leave the United States following the Trump administration’s termination of a humanitarian parole program for nationals of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti.

Valle Roca was jailed in Cuba in 2021 after posting a video of pro-democracy leaflets thrown from a building in the capital. He says he was beaten and put in solitary confinement.

Many other Cuban dissidents, including journalists, artists, and academics, say they remain stuck in lengthy US immigration proceedings and face the risk of being deported or arrested because of their legal status.

The US government should give Cubans and all others fearing persecution in their home country a fair chance to seek asylum in the United States. They should not be deported to countries like Cuba if they risk abuse there.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, should know that well.

Mali’s Junta Further Shutters Political Space

Wed, 14 May 2025 14:30:14 -0400

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People protesting the Malian military junta's decision to ban political parties at the Palais de la Culture in Bamako, Mali, May 3, 2025.

This week, Mali’s National Transition Council adopted a bill that effectively abolishes multiparty politics across the country. The new law officially bans opposition political meetings, speeches, and organizations. The action unfortunately came as no surprise given the ruling military junta’s recent attacks on the political opposition.

The law formalizes a political atmosphere in Mali in which freedom of expression is increasingly restricted. Days earlier, the country’s media regulatory body, Haute Autorité de la Communication (HAC), suspended TV5, an international French-language television network, because the authorities deemed its reporting of the May 3, 2025, anti-junta protests in the capital, Bamako, to be “biased” and “unbalanced.” The HAC also accused TV5 of “defamation of the armed and security forces.”

The new law coincides with the junta’s recent jailing and enforced disappearance of several political opponents, activists, and dissidents.

On May 8, two political opposition leaders, Abba Alhassane and El Bachir Thiam, went missing, sparking fears they may have been forcibly disappeared. Neither have been located, raising concerns for their safety.

Three days later, Abdoul Karim Traoré, the youth president of the opposition party Convergence pour le développement du Mali (CODEM), went missing in Bamako. Like Alhassane and Thiam, Traoré took part in the May 3 protests. He was a witness to and publicly denounced Alhassane’s abduction. International media has reported that Traoré is being held by state security officers.

A day before Traoré disappeared, unidentified men in Bamako assaulted democracy activist Cheick Oumar Doumbia, who also took part in the protests. Pro-junta activists have increasingly called for violence against democracy activists and those who participated in the protest.

And on Monday, Abdrahamane Diarra, the communication secretary for the opposition party l'Union pour la République et la Démocratie (URD), was detained and interrogated by security forces in Bamako. Diarra, a vocal opponent of the dissolution of Mali’s political parties, was later released, but the authorities’ message has become undoubtedly clear: the space for voicing dissent is closing.

These past few weeks have marked dark days in Mali as the military authorities again raise the stakes for activists advocating a return to democratic civilian rule. The junta should instead release those unjustly held and uphold the right to free expression.

Russian Court Convicts Rights Defender on Bogus Charges

Wed, 14 May 2025 14:18:57 -0400

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Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos, in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Basmanny district court in Moscow, Russia, October 9, 2024.

A Moscow court on Wednesday sentenced prominent Russian rights defender and election monitor Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison on charges of involvement with a foreign “undesirable organization.” It’s yet another hideous result of Russia’s perversion of the justice system to punish independent civic activism.

Melkonyants, who has been in pretrial custody since August 2023, is a co-founder of Golos, Russia’s leading independent election monitoring group. In 2013, Golos was one of the first Russian civil society organizations that authorities designated a “foreign agent,” a smearing label that imposes absurd restrictions and penalties, incompatible with international law. Although the government eventually stripped Golos of its registration, that did not stop the group from continuing to monitor elections nationwide.

The charges against Melkonyants stem from Golos’s former membership in the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which Russian authorities banned as “undesirable” in September 2021. Golos was no longer a member at that time, but when it comes to punishing civic activists, the authorities, as usual, have not let facts get in the way.

The Council of Russian Human Rights Organizations, an informal association of the country’s leading groups, condemned the verdict and draconian sentence against Melkonyants, calling them “politically motivated, arbitrary, and lawless.”

In his final statement before the verdict, Melkonyants urged his colleagues and supporters to continue and rejoice in their work: “Monitor [elections], participate … raise the level of honesty and common sense… one step after another, one day after another.”

The list of political prisoners in Russia maintained by Memorial, a leading Russian human rights organization, currently includes over 950 people. The number of politically motivated criminal cases against government critics escalated sharply after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and new war censorship laws in 2022. Melkonyants is one of the few prominent rights defenders to be handed a prison sentence. Another, Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial, had been sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in February 2024 for repeatedly speaking out against Russia's war on Ukraine and was released as part of a historic prisoner swap between Russia, the United States, and Germany in August.

Melkonyants’s prison sentence sends another chilling signal to all Russian human rights defenders who continue their work despite great personal risks. The government should free him immediately and unconditionally put an end to politically motivated repression.

UN Security Council Should Commit to People with Disabilities

Wed, 14 May 2025 10:58:21 -0400

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A doctor adjusts the cover on the amputated leg of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in GazaCity, February 26, 2025.

As the United Nations Security Council prepares for Protection of Civilians Week 2025 on May 19-23, when many stakeholders gather to advance ways to protect civilians in armed conflict, UN member states should ensure that people with disabilities are included in efforts to strengthen protection and uphold international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Human Rights Watch’s investigations over the past decade into the impact of armed conflict on people with disabilities have shown that they face disproportionate risks during fighting, and are more likely to experience forced displacement, starvation, and lack of access to aid. During the hostilities in Gaza and elsewhere, children with disabilities have faced particular harms due to both their age and disability, including higher risk of death and injury.

On December 6, 2024, the Security Council organized its first informal meeting in five years on the protection of people with disabilities in armed conflict. Member states and civil society groups acknowledged the lack of progress on implementing Security Council Resolution 2475, which urges warring parties to take measures to protect people with disabilities and ensure they have access to justice, basic services, and humanitarian assistance. Member states overwhelmingly recommitted to implement the resolution and to mainstream disability across the council’s work.

The Security Council now has an opportunity to turn those commitments into action. It should permanently include the situation of people with disabilities in armed conflicts and humanitarian emergencies on its agenda. It should invite people with disabilities to serve as briefers and consult regularly with them. Resolution 2475 urged member states to provide people with disabilities a seat at the table.

I have spent 19 months documenting the harms faced by children and adults with disabilities in Gaza, including from the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war and its denial of access to health care through its sustained assault on medical facilities. I have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of failing to include people with disabilities in humanitarian responses. Similar harms have been documented in other recent armed conflicts, including Syria, where people with disabilities have been routinely overlooked in protection efforts and denied access to aid and essential services.

Ensuring that people with disabilities are a central focus of the Security Council would demonstrate the council’s genuine commitment, not only to Resolution 2475 and the rights of people with disabilities, but to the protection of all civilians in armed conflict.

Australia: Display Human Rights Leadership in Asia, Beyond

Wed, 14 May 2025 08:30:00 -0400

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Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong (L) with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after he won the general election in Sydney, May 3, 2025.

(Sydney) – Australia’s recently re-elected Labor government should use its second term as an opportunity to amplify human rights in its foreign policy, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Foreign Minister Penny Wong. An annex to the letter sets out 17 actions that the Australian government should take in key foreign policy areas during its first 100 days.

From the start, the government should commit to supporting multilateralism and new human rights standards, amplifying human rights in diplomacy, protecting marginalized peoples and groups, and supporting accountability for international crimes.

“Labor’s re-election provides Foreign Minister Penny Wong a chance to reshape Australia’s global reputation as a human rights leader,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Australian government should see promoting human rights overseas as fundamental to acting in Australia’s national interest.”

Specifically, the Australian government should impose targeted sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs and for the destruction of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. It should also press the Israeli government to lift its unlawful blockade on the entry of desperately needed water, food, medical aid, and fuel to Gaza and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide in Gaza.

Australia should be a champion of multilateralism and the development of international legal norms. It can do this by supporting proposed treaties on free pre-primary and secondary education, crimes against humanity that include gender apartheid, and autonomous weapons systems.

In response to the United States’ foreign aid cuts and their impact on marginalized people and groups, the Australian government should provide increased financial and other support to humanitarian, human rights, and independent media groups in the Asia-Pacific region. These groups and leaders are crucial for protecting and promoting human rights in the face of abusive governments, Human Rights Watch said.

“With world affairs in a state of turmoil and intractable conflicts racked by atrocities and mass flight, the Australian government should prioritize the rule of law, accountability, and global leadership,” Gavshon said. “The government can do this by promptly acting to protect and promote human rights in the region and beyond.”

Egypt: Apparent Extrajudicial Killings

Wed, 14 May 2025 02:00:00 -0400

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Marsa Matruh, Egpyt, January 10, 2020.

(Beirut) – Egyptian Ministry of Interior officers on April 10, 2025, apparently killed two men in northwest Egypt hours after their arrest, which would amount to extrajudicial executions, Human Rights Watch said today.

The ministry claimed that the two men, Youssef El-Sarhani and Faraj Al-Fazary, were killed in a shootout in Marsa Matrouh governorate, but there is credible evidence that the men had turned themselves in to the police hours before they were killed and were in police custody when they died.

“The killings in Marsa Matrouh are only the latest in a long line of abuses carried out for years with near-absolute impunity by Egyptian security forces” said Amr Magdi, senior Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Egyptian authorities should promptly create an independent judicial committee to investigate the killings in Marsa Matrouh and refrain from putting any pressure on families to give up their right to justice.”

On April 9, three noncommissioned police officers in Marsa Matrouh were killed in a security raid to arrest a fugitive charged in drug trafficking cases, pro-government newspapers reported, citing official sources.

A journalist speaking to Human Rights Watch, numerous witness accounts published on Facebook, news sites, and several Egyptian human rights organizations said that police forces then raided houses and detained between 20 and 24 women and girls, reportedly to force relatives who might have been involved to turn themselves in. The Interior Ministry denied these arrests.

Community leaders intervened and reportedly reached an agreement with the police to release the women, on the condition that the leaders help apprehend those wanted in the police killings. Community leaders convinced El-Sarhani and Al-Fazary, both between 19 and 20 years old and reportedly related to those wanted for the police killings, to turn themselves in as witnesses. They reportedly did so in the presence of community leaders who mediated the process on the evening of April 10 at the 30 kilometer point on Al-Salloum highway.

National Security Agency officers reportedly took El-Sarhani and Al-Fazary to a nearby road and shot and killed them. Several witnesses including residents and community leaders in Matrouh made public statements and presented credible evidence to the authorities that Interior Ministry officers had killed the two men.

A local resident involved in mediating the handover said in a video statement that he called the National Security Agency officer involved when he learned of the killings. He said that the officer told him that he had turned the men over to [Interior] Ministry officers, “and it’s out of my hands.”

The ministry claimed in a brief statement on April 11 that its forces in Marsa Matrouh “identified the location of two extremely dangerous criminal elements” and that they targeted them, killing both men in “a shootout” and seized two assault rifles. The statement did not identify the slain men or provide the location of the alleged shootout. It did not provide evidence of threats that would justify the use of lethal force.

The killings caused an uproar in Matrouh and nationwide on social media. In response, Matrouh’s Council of Sheikhs and Omada, a local council appointed by the government, announced it was “ending cooperation with the police agencies” until investigations are completed, a rare confrontation with the government. The Lawyers’ Syndicate in Matrouh held an emergency general assembly and voted to appoint lawyers to represent the families of the deceased men.

Public prosecutors in Matrouh initiated an investigation into the killings following pressure from families and local community officials. However, according to media reports and a journalist Human Rights Watch interviewed, the main officers involved have not been summoned for interrogation. A senior lawyer representing the families said they are still pushing prosecutors to interrogate the National Security Agency officer involved.

Lawyers for the families also said that they have been unable to obtain the forensic report on the killings. The families of the two slain men are facing pressure from “intermediaries” to accept “reconciliation” and financial compensation to drop their complaints, the journalist said.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented how Egypt’s Interior Ministry police and National Security Agency officers have, under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government, apparently killed dozens of alleged suspects across the country in unlawful extrajudicial executions they contend are “shootouts.” For example, Human Rights Watch found that the ministry announced the killing of at least 755 people in 143 alleged shootouts between January 2015 and December 2020, with only one suspect arrested in these incidents.

The right to life is an inherent, core, and non-derogable human right, regardless of the circumstances. The United Nations Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions says that the duty to investigate is “triggered” not only in a clear case of an unlawful death, but also where there are “reasonable allegations of a potentially unlawful death,” even without a formal complaint.

In all cases involving use of firearms by law enforcement officials, persons affected (in case of death, families of the deceased) “shall have access to an independent process, including a judicial process.” Families should have the right to participate in the investigation process. To meet international standards, investigations must be prompt, transparent, effective, independent, and impartial.

The authorities should suspend all allegedly involved officials and those who could interfere with an investigation, protect families and witnesses from intimidation, and form an independent judicial committee to investigate and prosecute those responsible.

“The apparent Mafia-style killing of two young men in Marsa Matrouh should serve as yet another alarm bell to Egypt’s international partners who support police agencies with weapons, training, and other assistance despite an ever-growing record of abuse and the lack of accountability,” Magdi said. “Egypt’s international partners should make clear that authorities have an obligation to investigate and ensure accountability for alleged abuses.”

Saudi Arabia: Migrant Workers Electrocuted, Decapitated, and Falling to Death at Workplaces

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:01:00 -0400

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Migrant workers at a construction site near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 2, 2024.

© 2024 Jaap Arriens/Sipa via AP Photo Scores of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have died in gruesome yet avoidable workplace-related accidents, including falling from buildings, electrocution, and even decapitation.Many migrant deaths in Saudi Arabia are erroneously classified as “natural” and are neither investigated nor compensated. The process for compensation for work-related accidents is long and burdensome.Saudi authorities, FIFA, and other employers should ensure that all migrant worker deaths, regardless of perceived cause, time, and place are properly investigated and families of deceased workers are treated with dignity, and receive fair and timely compensation.

(Beirut) – Scores of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia die in gruesome yet avoidable workplace-related accidents, including falling from buildings, electrocution, and even decapitation, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities have failed to adequately protect workers from preventable deaths, investigate workplace safety incidents, and ensure timely and adequate compensation for families, including through mandatory life insurance policies and survivors’ benefits. A separate, independent investigation by Fairsquare, also released today, highlights a serious lack of effective Saudi government policies and processes to determine the cause of migrant worker deaths.

The risks of occupational deaths and injuries are further increasing as the Saudi government ramps up construction work for the 2034 World Cup as well as other “giga-projects.” Families said that Saudi-based employers and authorities have given their families very little information on the circumstances of their relatives’ deaths, some employers refused to cover repatriation costs, and some even pressed families to bury their relatives in Saudi Arabia, offering financial incentives to do so. Companies also often sought to withhold returning deceased migrant workers’ belongings and the outstanding pay owed to them.

“The gruesome workplace accidents killing migrant workers in Saudi Arabia should be a huge red flag for businesses, football fans, and sports associations seeking to partner with FIFA on the 2034 Men’s World Cup and other Saudi ‘giga-projects’,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Given that Saudi authorities are failing to adequately ensure basic safety protections and social security for migrant workers, local and international companies face a larger responsibility to ensure that serious rights violations are not occurring throughout their business operations in Saudi Arabia.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed families of 31 deceased migrant workers from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal who died between the ages of 23 and 52 in Saudi Arabia, 2 social workers based in origin countries who provided repatriation support to the families, and 3 current migrant workers who were witnesses to their colleagues’ deaths. Researchers also reviewed, where available, deceased workers’ “No Objection Certificates,” a mandatory document issued by origin country embassies before allowing repatriation of a migrant worker’s body, death certificates, and other relevant official documents.

In line with a body of research on how many migrant worker deaths in Saudi Arabia are erroneously classified as “natural” and neither investigated nor compensated, Human Rights Watch found that even work-related death cases categorized as such in a migrant worker’s death certificate are sometimes not compensated as they should be according to Saudi law and international labor standards. In migrant death cases that are compensated, the process is long and burdensome.

The construction sector is most prone to work-related accidents, according to official records of Saudi Arabia’s General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI). The figures show that the top three workplace injuries are from “inanimate mechanical forces,” falls, and traffic accidents, with migrant workers disproportionately affected.

Saudi laws require employers with 50 or more workers to implement a health and safety policy, conduct training, assess workplace risks, and provide necessary protective gear and first aid. The National Council of Occupational Safety and Health has said that the Human Resources and Social Development Ministry conducts regular inspections, compliance checks, and investigations of workplace incidents in coordination with stakeholders, and that violations are to be addressed through legal action or penalties as specified by labor regulations.

But Human Rights Watch found that workers across employment sectors and geographic regions in Saudi Arabia continue to face widespread labor abuses and occupational dangers at their work sites. While “diseases caused by exposure to extreme temperatures” are included in its approved list of occupational diseases, heat-related protections and related investigations, including of extreme heat-related deaths, remain grossly inadequate.

FIFA, the international football organization, has awarded the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without proper human rights due diligence, guarantees of effective worker protection requirements, including from extreme heat, or ensuring social security to workers, including survivor’s benefits and other compensation, such as mandatory life insurance. FIFA is knowingly risking yet another tournament that will unnecessarily come at a grave human cost, Human Rights Watch said.

Saudi authorities, FIFA, and other employers should ensure that all migrant worker deaths, regardless of perceived cause, time, and place are properly investigated and that families of deceased workers are treated with dignity and receive fair and timely compensation, Human Rights Watch said.

FIFA wrote in its response to Human Rights Watch that it plans to establish a workers’ welfare system dedicated to mandatory standards and enforcement mechanisms for World Cup-related construction and service delivery in Saudi Arabia, without providing details on concrete measures to prevent, investigate, and compensate migrant worker deaths such as risk-based heat protection measures or life insurance. Saudi authorities did not respond to a March 25 Human Rights Watch letter on questions regarding migrant worker protections. Human Rights Watch has previously documented that Qatar, which hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, had encouraged its contractors to purchase private life insurance for their employees since 2019. But in 2022, Human Rights Watch found that only 23 contractors had purchased life insurance policies for their workers. One contractor said that it cost them less than US$14 per worker per year for a benefit of $20,599 for family members when deaths were not classified as work-related and thus did not qualify for compensation.

“FIFA, which claims to be an impetus for positive labor reforms in World Cup host countries, should learn from the human rights disasters of past tournaments and urgently demand effective prevention, investigation, and compensation mechanisms for migrant worker deaths and injuries,” Page said.

For detailed findings, please see below.

Researchers collected information about migrant workers’ deaths from Indian, Bangladeshi, and Nepali government sources. Across nationalities the large majority of deaths of workers were attributed to “natural causes,” which accounted for 74 percent of 1,420 Indian migrant worker deaths recorded just at the Indian embassy in Riyadh in 2023; 80 percent of 887 Bangladeshi deaths during the first 6 months of 2024, and 68 percent of 870 Nepali migrant worker deaths from 2019 to 2022.

Five of the nine cases Human Rights Watch documented of deaths that official documents classify as nonwork related, including by “natural causes,” involved workers who collapsed at their workplace and later died, their families said. Witnesses to two worker deaths told families that their coworkers died from workplace accidents; one was an electrocution and the second was an elevator accident. Witnesses also shared with two families of deceased workers that two migrant workers died in their sleep. These findings raise concerns that workplace accidents in Saudi Arabia are under-recorded, misclassified, and/or inadequately investigated.

Moreover, the “No Objection Certificate” for the death of a Bangladeshi worker due to “electrocution” marked the possibility of compensation as “no,” with the reason as “not available,” while for two other cases of formally certified work accidents, the possibility of receiving compensation was marked as “depends on police report.”

Employers also violated or sought to evade their obligation under Saudi law that requires employers to bear the costs of repatriation of the remains unless covered by GOSI. The family members of nine deceased Bangladeshi workers said employers had proposed to bury them in Saudi Arabia, offering lump sum payments or coverage of monthly expenses like children’s education. Despite their dire economic conditions, eight families said they had refused these offers while six paid the repatriation costs themselves. In one case, the wife of a Nepali worker said that her husband was buried in Saudi Arabia without the family’s consent. None of them have yet received compensation.

The son of a Bangladeshi man who died of electric shock said that his father’s employer conditioned compensation on local burial. The family rejected this and had to pay more than 500,000 Bangladeshi Taka (approximately US$4,134) to repatriate the body, which they financed through loans. The family received TK335,000 (US$2,770) in compensation from the Bangladeshi government. “We had more debt than compensation,” the son said.

Eligible migrant worker families struggle to navigate accessing their Saudi government social security benefits, even with the help of their embassy or consulate. Origin country embassy websites say that getting compensation is extremely lengthy, cumbersome, and can take years. The widow of a deceased worker said it took 10 years to get what was owed to her: “My sons are 11 and 13 years old. When my husband died, they were 11 months and 2 years old. If we had received compensation right after his death, it would have provided so much relief.”

In another case, it took almost 15 years for the family of a deceased migrant to access their GOSI benefits. His brother told Human Rights Watch: “The compensation should have come sooner. It would have offered some consolation to my grieving parents and eased the pressure of loans. They passed away six years after my brother’s death.”

The failure to acknowledge workplace deaths and ensure timely social security for surviving family members can further entrench or lead to poverty and multi-generational harm, including pressure to take children out of school and send them to work. A widow of a Bangladeshi migrant worker said, “To make ends meet, I have put my 14-year-old son to work, and the little money he earns is used for our daily expenses.”

Some witnesses said that employers required them to resume work after witnessing coworkers’ deaths in work-related accidents. A worker described the dizziness he felt when he removed his friend’s corpse after being killed in a machinery accident. He resumed work the next day with no access to bereavement time off or social and mental health support.

Another said that supervisors questioned why he and his colleagues had paused their work after witnessing their friend’s death. They were forced to resume working the same day. “It is difficult in a foreign land,” he said. “We did not dare to speak up about this issue and stayed silent in fear.”

Workplace Deaths and Egregious Workplace Safety FailuresDeaths from Falls, Falling Construction Materials

A widow of a 48-year-old Bangladeshi man who worked in construction in Saudi Arabia for over two decades said:

He died after falling from the fifth floor of a building that was under construction. His colleagues present at the site informed me that the place where he fell was the elevator landing area, where garbage and iron pieces had been dumped. At that time, he was doing shuttering work when his safety belt came off, causing him to fall.… As there were many heavy and hard objects there, he got injured in various parts of his head and body. He lost consciousness but was alive. The Saudi police arrived very quickly and rescued him from the accident site and took him to a nearby hospital. After first aid, he was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and died two hours later. I used to talk to him several times a day. Like every day, on the day he died, he called me after lunch, and that was our last conversation.

The widow of a 36-year-old Bangladeshi migrant worker who worked in construction in Saudi Arabia for over eight years said:

A relative also worked and lived with him at the same company. On the day of the accident, he was present at the worksite and informed us about my husband’s passing. He told me, “We carry heavy blocks at work, and a large quantity of blocks were amassed in the construction site. When brother [my husband] was passing by that place, a bulk of blocks suddenly fell on him. As there were quite a few blocks, we could not rescue him with our bare hands. A crane was brought to remove those blocks from the body, but it was too late. Brother [my husband] had already stopped breathing. His body was smashed by the weight of the heavy blocks.”

The widow of a 33-year-old Bangladeshi migrant worker who had been in Saudi Arabia for just seven months said:

A few of my relatives live in Saudi Arabia for work. They heard that my husband fell from the third floor of a construction building’s window which was about to be demolished for reconstruction.... My husband was on the third floor hammering the wall to break it when he fell. He did not die on the spot. But no one stepped forward to help him as they feared getting into legal trouble as this was an accident case.

Electrocution Deaths

The widow of a 25-year-old Nepali man who worked in Saudi Arabia for two years said:

After my husband got electrocuted at work, he collapsed and was taken to the hospital. A few months later, we were relieved to hear that he had regained consciousness, but then we were again suddenly informed about his death. Despite the death due to work-related causes, the death is officially classified as natural death. Furthermore, we did not receive the dead body of my husband, but were instead informed that his last rites were already done in Saudi Arabia itself without our permission. This has put us in further pain. We believe all this was an elaborate plan to deprive us of compensation. There are so many questions unanswered.… Who gave them permission to bury [my husband] instead of repatriating [his] body? Witnesses say that the death was caused by electrocution.…

The widow of a 27-year-old Bangladeshi who worked in Saudi Arabia for four and a half years said:

Several colleagues were present when he [my husband] was electrocuted. They described how he was working near electrical wiring when a sudden electric shock caused him to collapse. Despite attempts to revive him, he was declared dead at the scene.

Decapitation

The widow of a 46-year-old Bangladeshi man who worked in construction in Saudi Arabia for two years said:

According to his colleagues and the foreman, he noticed a mechanical issue with the machine he was operating. He turned off the machine to fix it and was trying to remove a stone that was stuck inside when someone accidentally turned the machine back on. His head got caught inside, and he died on the spot. When his body arrived in Bangladesh, we saw that his head was separated from his body. The description provided by his colleagues matched the condition of his body, so I had no choice but to believe the incident. However, I cannot say whether the investigation into the accident was thorough or not. When we received his body, I wanted to hold him one last time, but it wasn’t possible. Seeing him in that state, I lost consciousness.

The widow of a 43-year-old Bangladeshi man who cut concrete blocks in Saudi Arabia for two years said:

He had no prior experience operating this type of giant machine. Maybe the blade got jammed but he did not notice that the blade was running in the upper side. He put his head inside the machine when the blade suddenly started running. At that point his head got cut by that blade and became detached from the body. He died on the spot. The Police came and took the body. I only know what happened through words. It was not possible for me to fact check the cause of death from Bangladesh.

Employer Pressure to Bury Bodies of Deceased Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

Multiple families of migrant workers told Human Rights Watch that they faced active hurdles from their deceased family member’s employer to repatriate their bodies.

The widow of a 48-year-old Bangladeshi man who worked in construction in Saudi Arabia for over two decades said:

Initially, the people from the company proposed to bury my husband’s body in Saudi Arabia and assured us of various company facilities in return. But when we wanted to bring my husband's body to Bangladesh and bury him here, the company said that we will have to bear all the expenses of bringing the body.… All these expenses were borne by our family.

The widow of a 46-year-old Bangladeshi man who worked in construction in Saudi Arabia for two years said:

The Saudi Kafil [sponsor] wanted to bury my husband in Saudi Arabia, but I did not give consent. I wanted to bring him back to see him one last time. The Kafil did not provide any financial assistance. It helped that my relatives were in Saudi Arabia as they put their heart and soul to ensure my husband’s dead body was repatriated. To do so, my relatives contributed 1,000 Saudi rials (US$265) and also an additional SAR4,000 ($1065) from my husband’s colleagues.… The Kafil [sponsor] did not provide any compensation or insurance.

The widow of a 44-year-old Bangladeshi who worked in Saudi Arabia as a plumber for over two decades said:

During the time of death, the company kept calling me and offered various financial assistance in exchange of burying my husband in Saudi Arabia itself. They insisted that I not take the body back. They promised to send me 800,000 Bangladeshi Taka (US$6584), my husbands’ outstanding salary, and a monthly allowance for my children's education, but I insisted on bringing his body to Bangladesh.

The widow of a 32-year-old Bangladeshi laborer who died due to electric shocks said:

My husband’s body arrived in Bangladesh about three months after his death. The company's foreman kept trying to convince me in various ways that if I did not get the body repatriated, I would get many benefits from the company. He said the company would even help us with our monthly expenses, children’s education fees etc. When we did not agree to bury the body in Saudi Arabia, the foreman himself contacted the company and brought the body to Bangladesh.

Refusal to Compensate Migrant Worker Deaths, Including Work-Related Accidents

Saudi Arabia’s GOSI covers injuries or deaths that are attributed to work-related accidents. This mandatory insurance is based on a 2 percent salary contribution, and surviving family members of deceased get 84 months of salary with a maximum of 330,000 Saudi rials (US$88,000).

Most deaths in Saudi Arabia are attributed to non-work-related reasons including “natural causes” without proper investigation, which deprives surviving members of compensation. However, Human Rights Watch research shows that even when migrant workers die in work-related accidents that are certified as such in the death certificates, families often face significant challenges and delays in accessing compensation.

The last resort for many returning migrant workers and their families are welfare programs set up by their own governments especially for abuses resulting in death and injury. Contributory Migrant Welfare Funds, which are largely funded by contributions from migrants, are commonly used in many countries of origin to fund such welfare programs. However, such support is often conditioned on valid labor permits, which not all migrant workers possess. Moreover, origin countries’ level and comprehensiveness of support to migrant workers varies significantly.

Compensation from Both Saudi Arabia and Origin Countries

The widow of a 28-year-old Nepali road construction worker who died after being hit by a heavy vehicle said:

I received 700,000 Indian rupees (US$8,065) from the Nepal Government as compensation and 1,400,000 Indian rupees ($16,130) from the [Nepali] insurance company. I faced many hurdles to receive the compensation from Saudi Arabia. My brother-in-law took the lead. It took two years to process, and I had to visit multiple offices. The paperwork was burdensome.… It was clear that I could not manage the compensation process on my own. My brother-in-law then appealed to social workers who put pressure on the Nepali embassy in Saudi Arabia. It is only after their frequent follow-up that we finally received compensation in my son’s and my bank accounts separately.… Without [compensation], we would not have been able to manage our expenses.…

The brother of a deceased Nepali worker who fought for compensation on behalf of his sister-in-law said:

We received compensation from GOSI for my brother’s death after 15 years. I was determined to get compensation so kept following up consistently. Someone else would not have been able to do the same. My family members told me to give up, but I was determined to get the compensation at any cost. If required, I was ready to go to Saudi Arabia to fight my case. But at least we received the money: it is better than not receiving anything.… It has provided some relief.

The wife of a 34-year-old deceased Nepali worker who died in a road accident said:

I have saved the compensation amount in my bank account, and I am trying not to use it. I need to save it for my children’s future. I am trying to manage my household expenses through subsistence agriculture, cash transfer for widows from the Nepali government, and scholarships for children of deceased migrants through the Foreign Employment Board [scholarship scheme funded by the contributory migrant welfare fund].

Compensation from Either Saudi Arabia or Origin Countries

The widow of 44-year-old Bangladeshi who worked in Saudi Arabia as a plumber for over two decades said:

I didn’t receive much financial help when the body arrived, but three months later, the Bangladesh government provided me with 350,000 Bangladeshi taka (US$2879). Neither the Saudi government nor the company provided any financial assistance. The company had previously promised to help me, but I never received any support.

The widow of 26-year-old Bangladeshi who worked in Saudi Arabia as a construction worker for over five years before being crushed to death by a loader said:

It took over three months to bring his body back to Bangladesh due to bureaucratic delays and the employer’s refusal to take responsibility.… The company did not pay any overdue wages, end-of-service benefits or additional compensation despite repeated requests. We received 300,000 Bangladeshi taka (US$2,466) from the government under the Expatriates’ Welfare Fund.…

The widow of a 32-year-old Bangladeshi laborer who died due to electric shock said:

At the time of his death, there was one month's unpaid salary left which the company later sent to us. But we did not get back any of the money that he had in the bank nor his other belongings.… We got 35,000 Bangladeshi taka (US$287) from the Bangladeshi government when we received the body and again BDT300,000 ($2,466), and his friends from work also sent us BDT150,000 ($1,233) as support. Other than the salary dues, the company did not provide any remaining benefits or insurance money.…

The widow of a 44-year-old Indian plumber who died due to “natural cause,” which the family does not believe, said:

The company paid 300,000 Indian rupees (US$3,511). We are not sure whether the money is pending salary or end of service benefits or compensation.…We had talked to Rajeev [another migrant worker in the company] who is the only communicator to the family from the company. He said the company is not willing to give any additional money. The company owes us more money as death compensation since it is a work site death.

No Compensation Received

The widow of a 45-year-old Nepali man who worked in Saudi Arabia as laborer in outdoor road construction for over 11 years said:

I begged the company multiple times for insurance money. But they say it is not in their rules as they do not have life insurance policy, just accidental insurance. Our case is not considered work-related accident. Do you have to fall or be hit by a stone or be cut by a machine during work? He fainted because of high work pressure. I think the investigation into this case was incomplete. We are compelled to take their word at face value. We don’t have the ability to go there [Saudi Arabia] to better understand the situation. The compensation money would have worked like oxygen for us. We also did not receive compensation from Nepal’s government. His labor approval had expired so he was not eligible for compensation from the welfare fund or insurance.

Libya: ICC’s Role Critical for Justice

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 -0400

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Members meet for a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York City, July 17, 2023.

(New York) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s upcoming briefing to the United Nations Security Council on Libya highlights the court’s critical role to deliver justice in the country amid ongoing efforts to undermine its global mandate, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 15, 2025, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, will provide his biannual briefing to the Security Council on his office’s investigation in Libya.

The briefing is taking place in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order on February 6, 2025, that authorizes sanctions targeting the court’s work. The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the first ICC prosecutor on February 26, 2011, mere days after the start of the revolution that ousted Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The prosecutor’s office opened the investigation on March 3, 2011.

“The ICC’s role in Libya is critical to bring justice in the face of more than a decade of unchecked abuses by armed groups and quasi-security forces,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “ICC members on the Security Council and beyond should reaffirm their support for the court and condemn any attempts to hamper its essential work.”

In November 2023, Khan announced that his office intended to complete its investigative activities in Libya by the end of 2025, meaning that it would not seek additional arrest warrants after that date. Civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have raised concerns about this timeline. They have cited the ongoing lack of effective cooperation with the ICC by the Libyan authorities, lack of credible domestic prosecutions for serious crimes that continue to be committed across Libya with impunity, and the absence of international oversight following the end of the mandate of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya in March 2023.

The Security Council resolution referring the situation of Libya to the ICC prosecutor requires Libyan authorities to cooperate with the ICC. That includes arresting and surrendering anyone wanted by the court who is in Libya. Without its own police force, the ICC relies on states to enforce its arrest warrants.

The ICC has issued arrest warrants against 12 individuals in relation to the Libya situation. These cases relate to crimes allegedly committed during the 2011 revolution, crimes related to the 2014-2020 hostilities in Libya, and crimes in detention facilities, including against migrants. Three of the people wanted by the court have since died and eight remain at large. ICC judges declared the case against Abdullah Al-Senussi, former intelligence chief under Gaddafi, inadmissible before the court.

Consecutive interim authorities and governments in Libya have failed to arrest and surrender ICC suspects on Libyan territory, since 2011, limiting progress on justice. The Security Council has failed to respond to previous requests from ICC judges seeking the council’s support to ensure Libya’s cooperation.

On January 19, 2025, Osama Elmasry Njeem, wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya, including against migrants, was arrested in Italy. Two days later, he was freed by Italian authorities on “procedural grounds” related to the arrest and sent back to Libya aboard an Italian state aircraft. Italy now faces a potential finding of non-cooperation with its obligations as an ICC member, which could then be transmitted to the court’s Assembly of State Parties or the Security Council for further action. Libyan authorities did not arrest Njeem upon arrival, as they were obligated to do, and have not commented on his status.

Security Council and ICC members should commit to backing the ICC’s mandate in Libya, including by ensuring effective cooperation with the court and enforcing findings of non-compliance by the court’s judges, said Human Rights Watch.

The February 6 executive order authorizes asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officials and others supporting the court’s work in investigations the United States opposes. The Trump administration has, so far, imposed sanctions on the ICC prosecutor.

President Trump’s order makes clear that his administration seeks to shield United States and Israeli officials from facing serious crimes charges before the ICC. ICC judges issued warrants of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

During his first term, President Trump imposed sanctions on then-ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and another senior court official following Bensouda’s decision to request authorization to open an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, which included potential cases against US nationals. The Biden administration rescinded the sanctions.

“ICC members should urge the Trump administration to revoke its executive order and condemn its attack on the court for what it is—an affront to the global rule of law,” Jarrah said. “Sanctions are a tool to be used against those responsible for the most serious crimes, not those seeking to deliver justice on behalf of victims of abuses.”