Human Rights Watch News

Women’s Participation Has Proven Worth in Bringing Peace

Thu, 01 May 2025 13:58:51 -0400

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Bineta Diop from the African Union Special Envoy on Women and Peace and Security briefs the Security Council in New York, October 20, 2022.

At least, we thought ruefully, the women, peace, and security agenda—backed in the United States by the first Trump administration—is safe. We thought this could remain true even amidst the current Trump administration’s assault on women’s rights.

But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apparently did not get the memo.

Women, peace, and security, or WPS, is shorthand for the idea that women have a right to be full participants in all discussions about their country’s future, particularly in peace talks. This concept was detailed in the landmark 2000 United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions, governments around the world developed their own national action plans to support women’s full participation in peace processes.

The United States went a step further, adopting the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, outlining actions the US government would take.

In fact, several members of Trump’s current cabinet voted in favor of the 2017 Act while they served in Congress. Trump’s first national security adviser, Mike Waltz, was a founding member of the WPS Caucus. Current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem helped pen the House of Representatives’ version of the Act. The Senate’s version was co-sponsored by current Secretary of State Marco Rubio. President Donald Trump signed the act into law, and in 2019 his administration issued their own WPS national action plan.

The Trump campaign website cited the initiative as one of his top accomplishments for women during his first term. Ivanka Trump tweeted about it. At the time of this writing, the State Department website says the United States is committed to upholding WPS because, “Women’s and girls’ meaningful participation in peace and security processes before, during, and after conflict and crises is critical to achieving lasting peace. The data speaks for itself.”

Enter Defense Secretary Hegseth. On April 29 on X, he wrote that he had “ended” the WPS program within the Department of Defense, denouncing WPS initiatives as “divisive.”

This comes despite the Department of Defense having its own 2024 WPS plan which committed to integrating WPS across “the Total Force” to “build a more stable and resilient global security environment.” WPS was also integratedinto US defense agreements.

WPS is anything but divisive. One comprehensive study found that when women are involved in peace negotiations, those processes are more likely to lead to agreement, and agreements are more likely to be implemented. In a 20 year review of resolution 1325, UN Women wrote that research “comprehensively demonstrates that the participation of women at all levels is key to the operational effectiveness, success and sustainability of peace processes and peacebuilding efforts.”

With conflicts raging in many parts of the globe, effective peacebuilding is urgently needed, and the United States has a powerful influence. In the past, Trump understood that women’s participation was essential to peace. Let’s hope he still does.

Progress on Addressing Violence against Women in Africa

Thu, 01 May 2025 12:49:50 -0400

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People demonstrate against rising cases of violence against women during International Human Rights Day, Nakuru, Kenya, December 10, 2024.

On May 2, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ (ACHPR) is scheduled to meet for its first public session since the African Union adopted the Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (CEVAWG) and the ACHPR adopted a landmark resolution on the need to Develop Guidelines on the Elimination of Obstetric Violence and Promotion of Maternal Healthcare in Africa. The ACHPR now faces a critical opportunity to push for transparency and action on these two major advances in women’s rights.

The resolution on obstetric violence, adopted in March, marks progress toward preventing and addressing this harmful practice, which violates women’s and girls’ rights to life, health, dignity, education, and physical integrity. Obstetric violence, mistreatment, disrespect, and abuse exercised against women and girls in health care during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum contribute to high rates of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity in Africa, including by dissuading women and girls from seeking necessary health services, further compromising their health and well-being.

The resolution takes a comprehensive approach to obstetric violence, recognizing it as a form of gender-based violence experienced not only during childbirth but also when women and girls seek other reproductive services. It recognizes that obstetric violence includes physical, verbal, and psychological abuse, taking into account both physical and mental well-being. The resolution tasks the Working Group on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Africa and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa to develop guidelines on eliminating obstetric violence by March 2027 and urges African governments to contribute to this process.

Meanwhile the AU has lauded the CEVAWG as a “historic milestone” and a “landmark legal instrument.” Its adoption signifies a bold commitment toward eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, including obstetric violence, paving the way for a safer, more equitable future across the continent. But despite its significance, the Africa Union Commission has yet to publish the treaty’s final adopted version. This has hindered civil society access to information, which is crucial for civic engagement and efforts to lobby African governments to ratify the treaty.

At its upcoming session, the ACHPR should publicly urge the AU Commission to publish the CEVAWG text and clarify its roadmap for developing guidelines on eliminating obstetric violence. These steps are essential to turning promises into practical protection for women and girls across the continent.

UN Rights Review of Laos Spotlights Lack of Progress

Thu, 01 May 2025 09:50:11 -0400

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The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, June 13, 2022.

A United Nations review of Laos’ human rights record showed little progress since the last review about five years ago.

In its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on April 29, Laos received 271 recommendations from other countries, most of which echoed those of past reviews, underscoring the government’s failure to address longstanding human rights abuses.

In line with concerns from rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, countries reiterated calls for Laos to investigate attacks and enforced disappearances against dissidents, to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and to promote fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.

Yet the government has continued to target its critics, including activists Savang Phaleuth, whom police detained in April 2023, and Anousa “Jack” Luangsuphom, who was critically wounded later that month in a shooting that has yet to be investigated.

The continual failure of the government to impartially investigate attacks on critics is exemplified by the enforced disappearance of civil society leader Sombath Somphone in 2012. Despite claiming to be investigating his case, the government has never provided updates to Sombath’s family or to the general public.

Other incidents since 2020 have demonstrated the Lao government’s role in quid pro quo “swap mart” agreements with neighboring governments that have facilitated rights abuses against its nationals across its borders and vice versa, known as transnational repression. In May 2023, unidentified assailants shot and killed the exiled Lao political activist Bounsuan Kitiyano in Thailand. Later that year, Laos forcibly returned Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei to China where he has been sentenced to prison. The government has also failed to investigate other cases of presumed transnational repression that predate its last UPR cycle, including the enforced disappearance and presumed killing of five exiled Thai activists in Laos.

During the UN review, the Lao government emphasized the relationship between a country’s development and its promotion of human rights. But Laos has no excuse for not delivering on its rights obligations to cease arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, and by fully and impartially investigating attacks on Sombath Somphone and other dissidents.

The Lao government has until the next UN Human Rights Council session in September 2025 to signal its intention to support and implement the recommendations made during the latest review.

Street Vendors Are Workers – They Should Have Workers’ Rights

Thu, 01 May 2025 09:49:25 -0400

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Street vendor arranges oranges at her stall in a women-led street market in Diyarbakir, Turkey December 22, 2021.

From a hot dog vendor in the United States to a girl selling vegetables in the Democratic Republic of Congo to a woman running a tea stall in Bangladesh, street vendors are an integral part of the urban fabric around the world.

They boost local economies, supplying an array of affordable goods and services. But they also face unique risks.

Many face routine harassment, intimidation, and violence, often at the hands of local authorities, including the police. They often live in poverty, dependent on an unsteady income to support their families.

Compounding these difficulties, governments rarely treat these workers – many of whom are women – as legal workers with rights, and this means there is a constant threat of crackdowns that threaten their safety and livelihoods.

Like other informal workers, street vendors usually lack access to social security systems and labour protections and there is a lack of accountability for violence committed against them.

StreetNet International has been told by street vendors that officials sometimes demand bribes and threaten to confiscate the vendors’ goods.

We have also been told of law enforcement agents threatening to arrest women street vendors if they don’t have sex with them. Sometimes, we receive reports of local authorities sanctioning violence against street vendors, including in Peru and Rwanda.

Children of street vendors also suffer. In many countries, street vendors cannot access subsidies and grants for early childhood care, which are available to eligible parents employed in the formal sector. So they often have no choice but to bring their children to work – where they might face violence and harassment.

Faced with these grim realities, street vendors are finding new and imaginative ways to come together and organise against violence and harassment, build solidarity spaces, and protect their communities.

In South Africa, women vendors have created childcare centres, providing a safe and supportive environment for children while their parents work.

They have also set up social and solidarity funds where they pool their savings to pay school fees. Some groups use these funds to make monthly bulk purchases of food staples, reducing prices for individual families.

In Nigeria, Mile 12 market vendors in Lagos, with the support of other workers’ organisations, formed a committee against gender-based violence and harassment, implementing reporting and investigative procedures.

In Bangladesh, street vendors built a housing collective and a kindergarten for their children. Where countries have failed to protect the rights of these workers, street vendors are building community and filling the gaps.

Street vendors show extraordinary resilience and ingenuity in the face of challenges. They continue to imagine new ways of providing and caring for each other, even in the most hostile circumstances.

But they should not have to rely only on each other.

Following years of campaigning by feminist groups, labour unions, and other civil society groups, in 2019 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted Convention No. 190, focused on preventing violence and harassment at work.

This groundbreaking treaty requires governments to adopt comprehensive national laws against harassment and violence in the world of work, including prevention measures, complaints mechanisms, and support for survivors of violence.

StreetNet International was among a group of workers’ organisations that fought hard, and successfully, to ensure that workers in informal employment, including street vendors, were included under the treaty.

As of April 2025, 49 countries have ratified the Convention, including South Africa and Nigeria. Other governments should follow.

Governments should step up and affirm the rights of every worker – formal or informal – to a world of work free from violence and harassment, by ratifying and fully implementing C190.

But we also need urban, social, and economic policies that incorporate the realities of street vendors, support their rights, and uphold their dignity at the same time.

US: Repeal Alien Enemies Act

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:01:00 -0400

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Demonstrators in New York City protest outside the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations on April 24, 2025, demanding the release of Venezuelan detainees deported by the Trump administration and jailed in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT prison.

© 2025 Sipa via AP Images The Trump administration is the first in US history to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 outside a context of a declared war.The Alien Enemies Act is incompatible with US obligations under international human rights and refugee law.Congress should repeal the act, which, as recent enforced disappearances of Venezuelans show, is too dangerous to keep on the books.

(Washington, DC, May 1, 2025) – The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for mass deportations shows that the act is incompatible with international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Congress should immediately repeal the dangerous and antiquated law.

The 59-page report, “United States: Repeal the Alien Enemies Act, A Human Rights Argument,” describes how the Trump administration has utilized the act as a vehicle for its attempted end run around basic due process and human rights protections. Modern international law binds the United States to respect human rights through treaty frameworks and customary norms, many of which have been incorporated into US domestic law. The Alien Enemies Act is an archaic statute that predates these legal norms and is entirely incompatible with them.

“Congress has an important role in challenging the Trump administration’s use of this outdated law to supercharge its mass deportation machine,” said Akshaya Kumar, crisis advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Trump administration has already disappeared at least 137 men into a supermax prison in El Salvador, where Trump officials say they should stay for the ‘rest of their lives.’ Congress should repeal the act before more harm is done.”

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In March 2025, US President Donald Trump became only the fourth president to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, and the only one to do so outside the context of a declared war. Trump issued an executive order that deems Venezuelans whom it considers to be members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan organized crime group, as “alien enemies” subject to being “apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed.” The administration then used this order to summarily remove at least 137 Venezuelan men to El Salvador, where they are being held arbitrarily, indefinitely, and incommunicado in a notorious prison.

The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is being challenged in court, but the fact that this controversy is even possible shows there is an urgent need to repeal the law altogether, Human Rights Watch said.

International and US law both require the government to provide an opportunity to anyone who claims a fear of persecution and seeks asylum to have their claims assessed. Both international and US law also prohibit the return of people to places where they are in danger of being subjected to torture. International law also requires that anyone detained should be afforded due process, including the right to a hearing to challenge their confinement.

The Salvadoran government incarcerated the Venezuelans sent there without any apparent legal basis and on an indefinite basis, in a notorious prison called the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, CECOT). There, the detainees are at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said. Family members only found out where their loved ones were when they spotted them in a video of the deportees that the Salvadoran government posted on social media or after reading their names in a leaked list published by CBS News. Human Rights Watch concluded that these people are being held in arbitrary detention and have been subjected to enforced disappearances.

Many of the men were flagged by US authorities for their tattoos. One man, a gay makeup artist with an active asylum claim, was apparently singled out because of his tattoos of a crown on each wrist with the words “Mom” and “Dad” on them. Another was apparently flagged because of a clock on his arm showing the time of his daughter’s birth. A third had a tattoo with a symbol of autism awareness.

In a March 14 memorandum, “Guidance for Implementing the Alien Enemies Act,” which was recently made public, US Attorney General Pam Bondi told law enforcement officers they were authorized to enter the residences of “alien enemies” without a warrant if “circumstances rendered [obtaining one] impracticable.” According to the memo, a “reasonable belief” that individuals meet the “alien enemies” criteria is enough to apprehend someone, even without actually completing the process of “validation.”

The memo confirms the government’s view that supposed “alien enemies” are “not entitled to a hearing, appeal or judicial review,” that they are “ineligible for any relief or protection from removal,” and that the preparations for deportation should commence immediately upon apprehension.

In contrast, the US Supreme Court has found that each individual detainee needs to be given notice with a reasonable amount of time to seek habeas relief, a legal procedure any detainee can use to challenge the legality of their detention.

On April 19, the US Supreme Court stepped in to block what the American Civil Liberties Union contended were imminent additional deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, which would have carried 177 Venezuelans from a detention center in Texas to El Salvador. The Supreme Court’s unusual midnight order came as a lower court judge in Washington, DC, considered possible contempt charges against Trump administration officials for allegedly failing to respect key interim court rulings, including an order to turn planes carrying deportees around to return to the US.

“The last time this law was used was during the Second World War, before the development of a comprehensive body of international human rights law that seeks to prevent exactly the kinds of abuses the Trump administration is using the act to carry out,” Kumar said. “If the administration continues to detain and deport Venezuelans under the act, the United States should be prepared for the United Nations and other governments who care about the rule of law to call it out.”

For ‘Bread, Work, Freedom,’ Afghan Women Are Still Resisting

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 23:30:00 -0400

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Afghan women work in a sewing workshop in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 6, 2023.

It has been over three and a half years since Afghan women from all walks of life first took to the streets chanting “Bread, Work, Freedom,” a fierce assertion of their right to work and to be free from the Taliban’s systemic oppression. This International Workers’ Day, their call is more urgent than ever.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, they have imposed draconian restrictions on Afghan women, including barring them from most professions and severely curtailing paid employment, including in the aid sector. Taliban policies have effectively shuttered most women-run businesses outside the home, including beauty salons, which formerly employed an estimated 60,000 women.

Even when not banning women from entering specific professions, the Taliban have imposed measures that inhibit their access to paid occupations. This includes mandating that women be accompanied by a mahram (male guardian), sometimes preventing unmarried women from working, and banning women’s voices from being heard outside their houses. Officials from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, who are empowered to enforce these measures, often harass women who leave their homes to work and sometimes detain them.

Coupled with Afghanistan’s severe economic crisis, it is nearly impossible for women to access formal employment. As a member of the International Labour Organization since 1934, Afghanistan is obligated under international law to prevent all discrimination against women at work.

Before the Taliban takeover, female labor participation was already low at 19 percent. Now, it is estimated to be a mere 5 percent. This has driven even more families into extreme poverty, in a country where only 16 percent of Afghans say they can satisfy their daily material needs easily, while a further 22 percent more or less manage to meet their basic needs.

Despite all this, Afghan women have shown extraordinary resilience and ingenuity as they find new ways to make ends meet and demand agency. Whether running microenterprises from their homes, managing online businesses, or leading a campaign to make gender apartheid a crime under international law, Afghan women are at the front line of resistance against the Taliban’s oppression.

As Afghan women continue to defy their erasure from public life, the world needs to stand by them in their fight to assert their rights: for bread, work, and freedom.

Türkiye: Don’t Deport Turkmen Activists

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:38:53 -0400

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Caption: Turkmen activists Alisher Sakhatov (left) and Abdulla Orusov (right).

(Berlin, April 30, 2025) – Turkish migration authorities should immediately suspend any plans to deport two detained Turkmen activists to Turkmenistan, Human Rights Watch said today. If deported they would be at grave risk of torture and arbitrary imprisonment.

On the morning of April 28, 2025, migration authorities in Sinop, northern Türkiye, detained the two activists, Alisher Sakhatov, 39, and Abdulla Orusov, 31, and at noon transferred them to the Çankırı deportation center in Ankara. Turkish authorities should immediately release them.

“Turkmenistan tolerates no public criticism and does not spare those who openly criticize the government and its policies,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Sakhatov and Orusov face a serious risk of persecution, torture, an unfair trial, and enforced disappearance if they are sent back to Turkmenistan. Türkiye should not send them anywhere they could face ill-treatment and should immediately release them.”

Returning a person to a country where there is a real risk that the person will be tortured is a serious breach of international law, Human Rights Watch said. Türkiye’s international partners should call on Ankara to uphold its international legal obligations and not deport any activists to Turkmenistan, including those currently in custody.

In recent years, Sakhatov and Orusov have maintained online social media platforms on which they have openly criticized Turkmen government policies. These include the government’s refusal to renew passports through consular services abroad and other violations of freedom of movement, lack of support for Turkmen migrants abroad, the authorities’ suppression of free speech, and abuses by Turkmenistan’s Ministry for National Security and law enforcement agencies.

At time of their detention, Sakhatov and Orusov were in the process of applying for international protection in Türkiye, which protects applicants from deportation while their applications are under review.

On April 29, the activists’ lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the men are being deported because the authorities claim they are a threat to Türkiye’s public order and public security. Article 54 (1), items d) and i) of the Turkish Law on Foreigners and International Protection allows for the deportation of people who threaten public order, public security or public health, and whose international protection application has been refused, or whose application is considered withdrawn. The lawyer also said the authorities provided no concrete evidence or explanation to substantiate their claim.

Sakhatov has lived in Türkiye since 2018 and since 2023 has operated a Turkmen language YouTube channel “Erkin Garaýyş” which has about 5,000 subscribers. In April 2024, Turkish migration authorities granted him international protection applicant status, which expired on April 30, 2025.

Orusov, a blogger and founder of YouTube channel “Abdulla,” has been living in Türkiye since 2018. Orusov was allegedly detained after he was summoned to the Sinop’s migration department on April 28, reportedly for a routine check-in with the migration authorities.

His international protection applicant status was originally valid through July 3, 2025. However, on April 29, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation told Human Rights Watch that after Orusov’s detention, Turkish authorities allegedly terminated and cancelled his protection applicant status for violating the terms of residence registration.

On April 28, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation reported that Orusov and Sakhatov had declined the Turkish migration authorities’ request to voluntarily return to Turkmenistan. On April 29, the activists’ lawyer filed an appeal of the deportation decision with the Samsun Administrative Court in northern Türkiye. Under Turkish law, the court has seven days to issue a ruling, which is final.

Turkmen authorities severely punish peaceful critics of the government. They allow no independent media or human rights scrutiny, suppress all dissent, and have imprisoned or driven into exile the political opposition, human rights defenders and activists, and independent journalists.

Government critics who remain in the country face repeated harassment and intimidation. The justice system completely lacks independence and transparency. Torture is widespread and dozens of people have been forcibly disappeared in Turkmen prisons, some for more than 20 years. The Turkmen government routinely imposes informal and arbitrary travel bans on various groups, including activists and relatives of exiled dissidents. Turkmen consulates systematically refuse to renew the passports of Turkmen nationals abroad.

Sakhatov’s and Orusov’s public criticism of the Turkmen government through their social media platforms and in online chat groups in Türkiye puts them at immediate risk of persecution and torture and other ill-treatment upon return to Turkmenistan, Human Rights Watch said.

Turkish authorities should ensure that Sakhatov and Orusov are not forcibly removed to Turkmenistan and that they can be resettled to a third country where they can be safe from deportation to Turkmenistan, Human Rights Watch said.

Turkish authorities routinely detain and deport Turkmen migrants who have become undocumented due to the refusal by Turkmenistan’s authorities to renew passports through consular services in Türkiye. These include activists who had become government critics during their stay in Türkiye.

Turkmen rights groups in exile reported that Turkmen officials promptly detained several activists upon their return to Turkmenistan following deportation from Türkiye and imprisoned some on what appear to be politically motivated charges.

Türkiye’s treaty obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the 1951 Refugee Convention also require it to uphold the principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits the return of anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other ill-treatment, or a threat to life.

“Türkiye should take into account the credible reports documenting ongoing repression in Turkmenistan, including torture and ill-treatment, in considering the deportation of the activists,” Denber said. “The only right thing for Turkish authorities to do is to protect these men from torture and persecution by refraining from forcibly returning them to Turkmenistan.”

Deadly Attack on Tourists in Jammu and Kashmir

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:53:52 -0400

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Kashmiri boatmen protest the deadly militant attack on tourists at a famous tourist resort Pahalgam, Srinagar, India. April 24, 2025.

The April 22 attack by gunmen that killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, in the town of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir state has heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. The Indian authorities say the assailants are allied to a Pakistan-based Islamist group who, according to witnesses, confirmed that the victims were Hindu before shooting them.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged that the gunmen and those who organized the attack will be punished “bigger than they can imagine.”

However, angry rhetoric by nationalist broadcast networks and social media users is sparking fears of Hindu mob revenge attacks against Muslims, particularly Kashmiris. Some of India’s state governments carried out mass arrests of Muslims to identify irregular migrants. Police in the state of Uttar Pradesh filed criminal charges against two activists for posts criticizing the government’s failure to ensure security in Pahalgam. In Jammu and Kashmir, security forces have imposed summary punishment, blowing up the homes of alleged militants—actions that the Supreme Court has already prohibited after similar abuses elsewhere.

The government’s response is counterproductive. Despite decades of serious human rights violations by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiris came out in large numbers to protest against the attack in Pahalgam. Several survivors said that local Kashmiris had protected and supported them. A Kashmiri tour guide, the only Muslim among those killed, was targeted when he tried to stop the gunmen. Many Kashmiris have expressed anger with the militant groups. "Those who did this claim they did it for us,” Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said. “But did we ask for this? None of us is with this attack."

The Indian government has accused Pakistan of backing militant groups, particularly because Pakistan’s military chief recently declared support for Kashmir. Pakistan has denied the allegations. But both countries, each of which claims the region, are exchanging fire at the border as tensions escalate.

The Indian authorities have an important opportunity to enforce a rights-respecting response to the Pahalgam attack.

There is concern, however, that the incident will worsen relations between India and Pakistan. Kashmiris have long been caught between the two countries and suffer as a result. They are entitled to better.

Trinidad and Tobago Nationals Remain Stranded in Northeast Syria

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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A Trinidadian boy, then 16, looks out a window in the Houry detention center in northeast Syria on June 18, 2019. He was one of eight family members brought to Syria by his stepfather in 2014.

Trinidad and Tobago’s newly elected prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, should act quickly to repatriate more than 90 of the country’s nationals, including at least 50 children, who remain unlawfully detained in northeast Syria and Iraq for alleged association with the Islamic State (ISIS).

On April 25, two Trinidadian children who spent years in northeast Syria were finally reunited with their family in Trinidad and Tobago. They are the first of the country’s nationals to return home since 2019. Approximately 40 other countries have repatriated more than 12,000 nationals from northeast Syria in that time. As opposition leader, Persad-Bissessar had repeatedly called on Trinidad and Tobago’s previous government to repatriate women and children from the region.

Most of the Trinidadians were rounded up in late 2018 or early 2019 by the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as they toppled the last remnants of ISIS in northeast Syria, where approximately 42,000 foreigners from about 50 countries are still being held as ISIS suspects and family members.

Most of the Trinidadian detainees are children who never chose to live under ISIS. Many were taken to Syria by parents who sought to join ISIS or live in the “caliphate.” Thirty or more were born in Syria. Not one Trinidadian being held in northeast Syria has been charged with a crime or had access to a judge to challenge their detention, which is unlawful.

During visits to the camps and other detention centers in northeast Syria where most Trinidadians are held, Human Rights Watch found life-threatening and deeply degrading conditions. Those we interviewed said that more than anything, they wanted to return home.

In March 2023, former Prime Minister Keith Rowley appointed a team, headed by former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed, to facilitate the repatriation of Trinidad and Tobago’s nationals from northeast Syria and Iraq, but Mohammed has accused the government of deliberately obstructing the committee’s work.

Human Rights Watch has found that many children from other countries repatriated from the camps in northeast Syria are faring remarkably well. There is every reason to believe that Trinidadian children can also reintegrate successfully.

The Trinidadians still held in northeast Syria and Iraq have waited long enough. With her election, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar can finally bring all detained nationals back home to resume their lives.

The Long List of Trump’s Harmful Reproductive Rights Restrictions

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 06:30:00 -0400

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Abortion rights demonstrators outside the US Supreme Court as oral arguments are delivered in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in Washington DC, April 2, 2025.

A report compiling harmful actions taken by US President Donald Trump against reproductive rights was released today by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a legal organization defending reproductive rights globally. It’s a long list, including policy positions, personnel appointments, website takedowns, administrative changes, government agency shutdowns, and funding cuts.

Like Human Rights Watch’s feature detailing 100 human rights harms done during Trump’s first 100 days in office, this list is hard to summarize because so many dimensions of reproductive health and rights have been impacted, including infertility treatment, abortion care, family planning, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases – even the availability of basic health information on government websites.

While some of these actions made headlines, the CRR list highlights that many others have gone unnoticed amid the barrage of Trump-related news. Cuts to Title X grant recipients, including Planned Parenthood clinics, mean some clinics are now struggling to stay open. These funding recipients help the US government take steps towards realizing wider enjoyment of the right to health with contraception, cervical cancer screenings, and other lifesaving services for people who have no or few options for affordable care.

Cuts to the US Department of Health and Human Services “include[d] the majority of employees in the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health” whose work was, according to one former staffer quoted in the CCR report, essentially “eliminated overnight.” Additionally, the administration put on administrative leave the team that has collected pregnancy data since 1988 to better understand maternal and infant health, and that provided important information on why Black women have worse maternal health outcomes than white women in the US.

The report also describes Trump’s efforts to entirely roll back efforts to recognize and accommodate people’ gender identity, thereby denying the existence of transgender people.

It also notes his use of executive orders to define when personhood begins, a foundation for wider efforts to impose restrictions on abortion.

Such highhandedness would seem ridiculous were it not so frightening. They will significantly worsen the health and wellbeing of people across the US, a country with an expensive and inadequate healthcare system with cruel racial inequities, and which leaves many low-income people obliged to ignore their health care to put food on the table.

CRR has done an important service by making this damage visible. The question is what policymakers will do to halt this assault.

Venezuela: Brutal Crackdown Since Elections

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

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Relatives of detainees take part in a demonstration demanding the release of political prisoners in front of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Caracas on November 21, 2024.

© 2024 FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images Venezuelan authorities and pro-government armed groups have committed widespread abuses since the July 28, 2024 presidential elections that officials said Nicolás Maduro had won, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.The Venezuelan government has killed, tortured, detained, and forcefully disappeared people seeking democratic change and many others have fled the country.Governments should support accountability efforts for grave human rights violations in Venezuela, call on Venezuelan authorities to release people arbitrarily detained, disclose the whereabouts of those subjected to enforced disappearances, and expand access to international protection for Venezuelans fleeing repression.

(Washington, DC) – Venezuelan authorities and pro-government armed groups have committed widespread abuses since the July 28, 2024 presidential elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 104-page report, “Punished for Seeking Change: Killings, Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention Following Venezuela’s 2024 Election,” documents human rights violations against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics during post-electoral protests and the months that followed. It implicates Venezuelan authorities and pro-government groups, known as colectivos, in widespread abuses, including killings of protesters and bystanders; enforced disappearances of opposition party members, their relatives, and foreign nationals; arbitrary detention and prosecution, including of children; and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

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“The Venezuelan government has killed, tortured, detained and forcefully disappeared people seeking democratic change,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Foreign governments should recommit to supporting the fight for democracy and human rights in Venezuela and press to hold the Maduro government accountable for its atrocities.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 101 people, including victims, relatives, witnesses, human rights defenders, journalists, and other local sources by phone and in-person between July 2024 and April 2025. Human Rights Watch also analyzed and verified 76 videos and 17 photographs related to incidents of post-election repression posted on social media platforms or sent directly to researchers as well as death certificates related to those killed in the protests and judicial records relating to arrests and criminal proceedings.

Following the election, Venezuelan electoral authorities announced that Nicolás Maduro had been re-elected president. Independent observers—notably the United Nations Panel of Electoral Experts and the Carter Center—raised serious concerns about the legitimacy of the results. The Carter Center concluded that the tally sheets gathered by the opposition most likely showed that opposition candidate Edmundo González had won by a significant margin.

Twenty-four protesters and bystanders were killed during protests across the country immediately after the elections. Evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch points to the involvement of Venezuelan security forces in some of these killings and colectivos in others. Security forces initially used tear gas and carried out arrests, followed by colectivo members attacking or intimidating protesters as demonstrations continued.

Since the election, over 2,000 people have been detained for protesting, criticizing the government, or supporting the opposition. The authorities have charged hundreds with vague offenses, such as “incitement to hatred” and “terrorism,” which carry sentences of up to 30 years.

Several detainees have been subjected to enforced disappearances, forcing their relatives to search for them in multiple detention centers and even morgues. Victims of enforced disappearances include members of the opposition and their relatives, as well as dozens of foreign nationals.

On September 14, Venezuelan security forces detained Colombian Manuel Tique, 32, an employee of the Danish Refugee Council, as he crossed the Colombia-Venezuela land border for work. Venezuelan authorities have refused to provide his family with information about his whereabouts or the charges against him. His family suspects he is being held in Rodeo I prison, based on information provided by a former detainee who was held there.

On January 8, Lucas Hunter, a 37-year-old French-American tourist, told his sister that Venezuelan security forces had stopped him near the Colombian border. In an audio message sent to his family that day, he said security forces questioned him for four hours and they would probably take him to Caracas. His family has not heard from him since and has been denied information about his whereabouts and the reason for his detention.

Venezuelan authorities have arbitrarily detained people using serious due process violations. Many have been denied representation by a lawyer of their choice or access to their own case files, and some were prosecuted in virtual and group hearings that undermined their rights.

On December 10, Jesús Armas, a former Caracas councilman and opposition campaign member, was forcibly detained by hooded men as he left a coffee shop in Caracas. For nearly a week, authorities refused to confirm his whereabouts or accept the habeas corpus petition his family filed. Armas later reported to his partner that he had been held in an unofficial detention site, where Bolivarian National Intelligence Service officers tortured him by suffocating him with a bag during interrogations about opposition figures. He remains detained without regular access to his family or lawyer.

The Attorney General’s Office says it has released hundreds of detainees, though many remain under criminal investigation. Many have been forced to sign documents prohibiting them from disclosing information about their arrest or legal proceedings. Some were forced to record videos saying that their rights were respected during detention.

Many people have left the country since the crackdown began and are seeking protection abroad. They face slow asylum systems in Latin America and, in the United States, the suspension of resettlement proceedings under the administration of President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration appears to be prioritizing cooperation on migration issues and the release of American citizens held in Venezuela over broader efforts to uphold human rights and the rule of law. Given US influence and rising anti-migrant sentiment in Latin America, there is a serious risk that other governments may follow suit, Human Rights Watch said.

Maduro is likely to exploit this cooperation to legitimize his hold on power, leading to further repression and quite possibly triggering a new wave of Venezuelan refugees and migrants.

Governments should counter Maduro’s domestic carrot-and-stick incentives that reward abusive authorities and security forces, making them loyal to the government, while punishing, torturing, and forcing into exile critics, opponents, and even security force members who support democracy and human rights. They should support accountability efforts, including by imposing targeted sanctions and supporting the work of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela and the International Criminal Court.

Foreign governments should expand support for Venezuelan civil society groups, independent journalists, and groups advocating for democracy and rights. They should also urgently expand protections for those forced to leave the country.

“With eight million Venezuelans living abroad, the rights crisis in Venezuela remains the most consequential in the Western Hemisphere. A sustained and principled international response is crucial for the entire region,” Goebertus said. “Governments should use any engagement with Maduro to achieve verifiable human rights improvements, including the release of people forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained.”

Guatemala: Indigenous Leaders Face Terrorism Charges

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:00:00 -0400

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Guatemalan Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development Luis Pacheco arrives at the court after being arrested on charges of terrorism and other crimes in Guatemala City on April 23, 2025.

(Washington, DC) – Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office has detained two Indigenous leaders on spurious terrorism charges tied to their participation in peaceful protests, Human Rights Watch said today.

On April 23, Guatemalan police detained Luis Pacheco and Hector Chaclán in Guatemala City, after prosecutors accused them of serious crimes – including terrorism – in connection with their participation in peaceful protests during Guatemala’s 2023 general elections. Pacheco, who now serves as deputy minister of sustainable development, helped lead protests in response to efforts by Attorney General Consuelo Porras and others to unlawfully overturn the election results.

“Detaining Indigenous leaders under terrorism charges for participating in peaceful protests sends a chilling message to anyone who dares stand up for democratic principles and the rule of law in Guatemala,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should guarantee full due process protections, drop these abusive charges, and release Pacheco and Chaclán.”

During a news conference on April 23, 2025, prosecutors in the Organized Crime Unit said the charges against Pacheco and Chaclán stem from unspecified criminal complaints related to street blockades during the 2023 protests. They also said that protesters committed unlawful association, sedition, terrorism, and obstruction. The prosecutors claimed, without providing evidence, that protesters intended to take over the headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office.

The charges against Pacheco and Chaclán are part of a broader effort led by Attorney General Porras to bring politically motivated charges against anti-corruption prosecutors, independent judges, journalists, and officialsin the current administration of President Bernardo Arévalo.

On April 25, a judge ordered that both Pacheco and Chaclán be held in pretrial detention. The case is currently under judicial seal, a maneuver often misused by prosecutors in Guatemala to avoid public scrutiny over politically motivated prosecutions.

Under Guatemalan law, the offense of terrorism has an indefensibly broad definition that opens the door to abusive prosecutions. Its scope includes anyone who “carries out an act of violence, or an attack against life or human integrity, or against property or infrastructure” with “the purpose of altering the constitutional order” or “the public order of the State,” among other goals. The crime is punished with up to 30 years in prison.

Many countries have enacted laws that criminalize the offense of terrorism. These laws should be crafted very narrowly so as to capture only conduct that is genuinely of a terrorist nature and not, as is often the case, a much broader range of activity including acts of political protest. Terrorism charges should never be used against individuals engaged in peaceful protest, Human Rights Watch said.

By misusing the crime of terrorism to go after critics, Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office follows the footsteps of other abusive attorneys general in the region, including in Venezuela and Nicaragua, Human Rights Watch said.

Officials in the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, the United States, Latin American governments, and Canada should express concern over the prosecution of Pacheco and Chaclán. They should closely scrutinize the ongoing pattern of abusive, spurious prosecutions in Guatemala.

Diplomatic missions in Guatemala should closely monitor the judicial process against Pacheco and Chaclán and request access to hearings. Foreign governments should also provide sustained financial support to independent civil society organizations and media outlets documenting abuses. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union, which have imposed targeted sanctions against Attorney General Porras and other officials, should maintain and consider expanding these sanctions to other officials responsible for violating human rights and undermining the rule of law.

“Attorney General Porras, who led an effort to unlawfully stop President Arevalo from taking office, is going after his government and the Indigenous leaders who defended Guatemalans’ right to vote,” Goebertus said.

Azerbaijan Uses Old Criminal Case to Ramp Up Repression

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:28:10 -0400

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Police outside the building of Toplum TV, independent online media outlet, where law enforcement searched the offices and detained journalists, in Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6, 2024.

In an effort to annihilate independent activism, Azerbaijani authorities have reopened a 2014 criminal investigation that led to the country’s most sweeping crackdown on human rights defenders and journalists in recent history.

The 2014 investigation, reopened last month, targeted international donors and their grantees that operated in Azerbaijan with bogus charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and other accusations stemming from Azerbaijan’s prohibitive rules on grants. Activists were imprisoned on politically motivated charges, donors were forced to stop grantmaking, and many groups were forced to suspend work, move abroad, or even close. Beginning in 2016, the government gradually wound down the investigation.

Then, in mid-2023, authorities renewed their assault on government critics, arresting dozens of independentjournalists and civic activists, mostly on trumped-up money smuggling and other charges. By reopening the 2014 criminal investigation now, authorities make no effort to hide their desire to snuff out independent activism. The arrests and targeting of activists have already ramped up.

Authorities have questioned around 50 individuals, including employees of donor organizations and civic leaders. At least four are in pretrial custody. They are Asaf Ahmadov, head of a community group; Zamin Zaki, a social worker; Bashir Suleymanli, head of a legal aid and civic education group; and Mammad Alpay (known as Mammadzade), head of the Election Monitoring Alliance.

Others are under house arrest or police supervision. These include Galib Bayramov, brother of academic Gubad Ibadoghlu and director of the Economic Research Center, and Hafiz Hasanov, who heads a grouppromoting democratic institutions and legal reform. Others are abroad and wanted by authorities, such as Aytac Aghazade, a feminist activist.

They all face spurious charges such as money laundering, forgery, and abuse of office.

The activists are vulnerable to these charges because, since 2013, Azerbaijani laws and practices have made it impossible for independent organizations to comply fully or access funding, hire staff, or conduct public advocacy.

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that prosecutions deriving from the 2014 investigations “revealed a troubling pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention of government critics … though retaliatory prosecutions and misuse of criminal law.”

International actors should not look away as the Azerbaijani government strangles civil society. They should urge the authorities to release all detained for their legitimate work, implement European Court judgements, and reform laws and practices to ensure a safe and enabling environment for independent organizations.

Another ‘Bridge Man’ in China Forcibly Disappeared

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:20:52 -0400

On April 15, 27-year-old Mei Shilin (梅世林) put up three banners on an overpass outside Chengdu’s Chadianzi Metro Station in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. The banners stated: “There can be no national rejuvenation without political system reform”; “The people do not need a political party with unrestrained power”; and “China does not need anyone to show the way, democracy is the direction.” The authorities reportedly detained Mei soon afterward. His current situation and whereabouts are unknown.

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Three pro-democracy banners hang from an overpass outside the Chengdu Chadianzi Station in China’s Sichuan province on the morning of April 15, 2025.

Mei’s banners resemble, and appear inspired by, the protest banners of Peng Lifa (彭立发), who managed to display two banners on a highly visible Beijing bridge during China’s 20th Communist Party Congress in 2022, when security in the national capital would have been watertight. Peng’s act, news of which spread rapidly on the internet despite Beijing’s censorship, later sparked the nationwide, youth-led “White Paper” movement.

Peng has since been known as the “Bridge Man,” a nod to the Tiananmen Square “Tank Man,” who was famously captured on film blocking a column of Chinese tanks the day after the June 4, 1989 crackdown on the demonstrators. Like Tank Man, Peng’s fate remains unknown since police took him away.

At least one other bridge protest occurred last year, on July 30, when White Paper movement participant Fang Yirong (方艺融), 23, unfurled a Peng-inspired banner on a bridge in Loudi City, Hunan province. Fang posted a video online expressing his “hope that the Chinese will get rid of autocracy and live a better life as soon as possible.” Authorities arrested Fang in August 2024 and his current condition is also unknown.

Each of these protests bear the significant impact and influence of those that came before them. Even the world’s most powerfully repressive government, which imprisons activists and tightly controls all public space, finds it impossible to stamp out people’s desire for freedom.

International law prohibits enforced disappearances, defined as the arrest or detention of anyone without providing information on their fate or whereabouts. The Chinese authorities should disclose Mei Shilin’s location and immediately and unconditionally release all those being held for exercising their right to free expression.

“Democracy is the direction,” declared one of Mei’s banners. China’s government should heed that message.

Yemen: US Strike Reportedly Kills, Injures Dozens of Migrants

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:45:00 -0400

(Beirut) – US forces struck a migrant detention center in Saada, Yemen, on April 28, 2025, reportedly killing over 68 civilians and injuring dozens more. Human Rights Watch verified a video posted by the Houthi-run news channel, Al-Masirah, also verified by the newswire service Reuters, that showed migrants and asylum seekers dead and injured in the aftermath of the strike. Those killed and injured were reportedly all of African nationalities who were being held in the detention center in the Houthi-controlled area.

This airstrike is one of over 800 that the United States has carried out in Yemen since March 15, 2025, when the Trump administration began a new campaign of airstrikes in Yemen. Based on Human Rights Watch research, the airstrikes appear to have caused extensive civilian harm, likely killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.

Failing to take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are war crimes.

This is not the first time warring parties in Yemen have struck a migrant detention center and killed scores of migrants. In 2022, the Saudi-led coalition struck a detention center in the same compound in Saada, killing over 91 people and injuring 236; a possible war crime in which the United States may have been complicit.

The following quote can be attributed to Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch:

“US airstrikes are appearing to kill and injure civilians in Yemen at an alarming rate over the past month under a Trump administration that has loosened policy constraints on the use of force and is seeking to marginalize Pentagon offices charged with mitigating civilian harm.”

US: Human Rights Role in Foreign Policy at Risk

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:32:07 -0400

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance near the White House in Washington, DC, January 21, 2025.

(Washington, DC) – The Trump administration’s new US State Department structure may further hamstring rights and justice-related work, with programming already decimated by foreign aid cuts, Human Rights Watch said today. The new structure eliminates several human rights-focused offices and senior positions.

On April 22, 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a “comprehensive reorganization plan” with the goal of aligning with the president’s “America First foreign policy.” The new structure appears to disperse at least some of the functions of several eliminated offices throughout regional bureaus and elsewhere. Human Rights Watch is concerned that eliminating these offices signals eliminating human rights as a priority in US foreign policy.

“No US administration in modern history has lived up to its stated human rights ideals and each has contributed to human rights abuses somewhere in the world,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, “But the State Department has consistently made human rights a relevant part of US diplomacy, provided critical funding to human rights defenders, promoted independent media, championed some core women’s rights issues, and supported justice for victims of atrocity crimes.”

Those eliminated include the Office of Global Women’s Issues as well as the Office of Global Criminal Justice and its ambassador-at-large. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is slated to merge into the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

Concerned members of Congress, which authorized and appropriated funds for most of the programs now being dismantled, should pressure Secretary Rubio to reverse course and preserve initiatives that until recently had bipartisan support, including from Rubio himself when he served in the US Senate.

The administration has not explained whether and how work on crucial human rights issues will continue, or how staff working on them will be able to influence foreign policy decisions within the new structure. Human Rights Watch is concerned that human rights will no longer be of meaningful or positive policy relevance given other Trump administration actions that have harmed human rights. These included gutting US foreign assistance, which terminated thousands of programs that supported human rights defenders and independent media, and many that provided life-saving humanitarian assistance.

The reorganization creates a new Office of the Director for Foreign Assistance and Human Rights, which in a post on Substack, Secretary Rubio said will be charged with returning to the “original mission of advancing human rights and religious freedom.” Contained within that office will be a Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (though a previous version of the organizational chart renamed this the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom) and the Bureau of Populations, Refugees, and Migration. It is unclear whether they will keep their full range of functions after the reorganization and the reported impending staff cuts of 15 percent across the department.

The same uncertainty looms over other rights-oriented foreign policy work. Some functions of the Office of Global Criminal Justice, for example, are expected to be moved to the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, former government officials familiar with the reorganization told Human Rights Watch. But this office does not have a policymaking role. The specialized expertise of the Office of Global Criminal Justice has been key to its decades-long efforts to advance justice for atrocity crimes in US policy and diplomacy, Human Rights Watch said.

The Trump administration has already been scaling back efforts to promote democracy in its foreign policy since the inauguration and, in some cases, has undermined global human rights efforts through its actions. The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council and from a multinational effort to investigate Russian war crimes, and imposed sanctions against the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It has also rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an international document of principles that emphasizes opposition to abortion.

The State Department has eliminated offices and posts working on reproductive health issues; the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; and internal efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. The administration ended access to the US asylum process at the southern border and suspended all refugee resettlement, with the exception of white Afrikaners, underscoring fears of a broad shift toward a racist immigration policy. The State Department is also reportedly making sweeping changes to its annual human rights report, expected to be published in May, removing key sections such as LGBT rights, freedom of expression and assembly, and women’s rights.

During the rollout of the State Department reorganization plan on April 22, Secretary Rubio criticized the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor as “a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes.” He also claimed that the Bureau of Populations, Refugees, and Migration “facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border,” echoing President Donald Trump’s mischaracterization of immigration issues.

Secretary Rubio’s apparent distrust of two bureaus that protect and promote human rights globally raises questions about how the administration will shape these bureaus’ programs, Human Rights Watch said.

“As a senator, Secretary Rubio championed several US initiatives supporting democracy and human rights, but now he’s removing human rights from the senior levels of decision-making about US foreign policy,” Yager said. “The US Congress should not allow this to happen.”

Jordan: Informal Camp Residents Displaced

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

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Amman, Jordan, February 11, 2024.

(Amman) – Jordanian authorities have forcibly evicted and demolished homes and shops in an informal Palestinian refugee camp in Amman without adequate consultation, notice, compensation process, relocation assistance, or means of redress as part of a road expansion project, Human Rights Watch said today. More families are expected to be affected as the project continues.

The urban development project displaced scores of residents of al-Mahatta (Station) camp, and the government’s failure to follow international legal standards—such as proper notice, consultation, and compensation—violates their rights to housing, an adequate standard of living, and for families with children of school age, the right to education. The government should ensure that residents and shop owners receive fair and prompt compensation and ensure that future projects do not violate human rights.

“Displacing families and cutting off livelihoods without proper safeguards and a fair compensation process leaves scores of people with few places to turn for help,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Jordanian authorities should prioritize the rights of residents when considering infrastructure projects and ensure that no one is left without adequate housing or other fundamental rights.”

The demolitions in al-Mahatta camp are part of the Greater Amman Municipality’s 2022–2026 strategic plan. According to the chairman of the Old Amman Neighborhood Development Committee, the plan aims to redevelop informal and densely populated neighborhoods, including Jabal al-Taj, al-Joufeh camp, and downtown, by widening roads, reclaiming public land, decreasing population density, increasing green spaces, and easing traffic congestion.

The camp’s Defense Committee, which residents formed to negotiate on their behalf, said that as of February 2025, the municipality had ordered the demolition of 25 homes that housed at least 101 people, as well as several shops. Some shops were demolished on November 20, 2024, and the rest of the demolitions were carried out between November 27 and December 2.

Mayor Yousef Shawarbeh of Amman confirmed in a public statement on March 12 that the demolition work would continue in the area as part of ongoing development efforts. “In the next phase, we will continue removing all encroachments on Army Street and Rfiefan al-Majali Street, in accordance with the laws and regulations in effect,” he said.

Human Rights Watch interviewed eight camp residents, including home and shop owners and tenants, between November 2024 and February 2025. Human Rights Watch also wrote to the Greater Amman Municipality in November outlining concerns and asking questions, but did not receive a response.

Displaced residents told Human Rights Watch that the government gave them only two weeks to a month’s notice in November and vague, verbal promises of compensation of 80 Jordanian dinars (about US$113) per square meter, with little transparency about the process or timeline. The compensation promises did not meet basic international standards for compensation, which requires redress proportional to the harm suffered, including lost income, property value, and relocation costs. Compensation should not leave displaced residents worse off or force them into further hardship. Residents said that the amount verbally offered does not account for residents’ investments in renovating their homes and businesses.

In response to complaints about the inadequacy of the compensation, Mayor Shawarbeh said that residents were not entitled to compensation at all, as they were “encroaching on state land.” He clarified that what the municipality offered was not compensation but a “donation,” framed as a legal and humanitarian workaround rather than a right for the affected individuals.

The authorities ignored attempts by residents to halt the demolitions through peaceful public protests and dialogue, residents said. Later in December, authorities offered to increase “donations” for some residents.

Al-Mahatta, established after the 1948 mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during Israel's creation, is not recognized by the Jordanian government as an official refugee camp. Residents receive water, electricity, and sanitation services and pay property taxes, yet the lack of recognition has left them without legal protections.

The evictions and demolitions have affected residents’ access to employment. One resident, who was the only regular breadwinner in his family, told Human Rights Watch in January that he had not been able to find work since the evictions. “From my old home I used to take a bus from al-Mahatta and reach the al-Nuzha or al-Hashmi neighborhoods in five minutes,” he said. He is now living in Tabarbour, around five kilometers (three miles) away from his demolished home. “Now I need to take a taxi or the Rapid Bus Transit for 2.5 dinars [about $3.50] which is a big increase [in expenses].”

A shop tenant said that “one of the municipality employees came before I moved and asked me why I haven't vacated yet and said if I don’t vacate, they will demolish it over my head.” The move across the street to another building cost him about 5,000 dinars (about $7,052), which he borrowed from various people, not including items damaged during the move. He was not initially formally informed of a clear compensation mechanism and later received only 1,800 dinars (about $2,538) as compensation followed with verbal promises of more money, he said.

Affected families said that the evictions have disrupted their children’s schooling and made school transportation more costly and time-consuming. “It used to take [my son] 10 minutes to get to school from our old house and now it takes him around 30 minutes,” said one mother of three school-aged children. There is no free school bus, and the cost of those trips has also increased.

Another resident who was forced to relocate when his home in the camp was demolished said: “I used to give [my son] one dinar [about $1.40] for transportation when it took him 15 minutes to get there. Now I have to give him two dinars [about $2.80] and he rides two taxis to get to school.”

The family of a 9-year-old girl with paraplegia reported difficulty finding appropriate and accessible housing. Her family had to move to an inaccessible apartment with higher rent. Since the building has no elevators, her mother said that she carries her daughter up and down seven stairs to and from the school bus. The mother also said that they can no longer afford the private school that her daughter had been attending, which has better services. “The extra 75 dinars [about $106] we are paying for rent has changed our lives so much,” she said. “I still don’t know how to find a way to afford her education.”

In comments to Al Jazeera Arabic on November 14, a municipality official justified the demolitions in al-Mahatta camp as part of a long-term urban development plan to address encroachments on municipally-owned land. The official said that the targeted properties, including 24 homes and 19 shops, were built illegally and lacked proper licensing. He claimed that residents were notified over three months prior and a field survey was conducted to assess the situation.

But one resident said that the authorities did not formally notify them in June and only told them verbally that plans for the demolitions were under review. The official asserted that affected residents and shop owners will receive compensation exceeding the construction costs and insisted that the demolitions are lawful and necessary for the public benefit.

Under international human rights law, the authorities should explore all feasible alternatives before carrying out evictions, particularly those affecting large groups, and should consult with affected residents. Jordanian authorities did not carry out genuine consultation with affected residents, nor did they provide adequate and reasonable notice and information on the proposed evictions, compensation, relocation assistance, legal remedies, or alternative housing options, Human Rights Watch said.

“Jordanian authorities should ensure that residents who were denied adequate housing, especially those who are disadvantaged, have access to speedy and effective remedies,” Coogle said.

Al-Mahatta Camp and the Jordanian Government’s Obligations

Palestinian refugees sought refuge in the area now known as al-Mahatta camp, adjacent to Jabal al-Hashmi al-Shamali in Amman, following the 1948 Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) during which over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from or forced to flee their homes and more than 400 of their villages were destroyed in the events surrounding the establishment of Israel.

Over time, the area grew with residents gradually building, expanding, and renovating homes and shops. The camp houses approximately 8,000 residents according to the Encyclopedia of Palestinian Camps, a website that documents the history of Palestinian displacement and refugee camps in the region. Residents told Human Rights Watch that the camp also houses some residents who are not of Palestinian origin.

This is not the first time residents of the camp have faced expulsion. Up until 2019, the land was privately owned, and in 2017, private landowners filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the residents. The Jordan News Agency said that residents received eviction notices in 2017. In 2019, state media outletsreported that the government resolved the dispute by granting the landowners an alternative plot and transferring the ownership of the land to the municipality, allowing residents to legally remain in their homes.

Then-Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz assured residents via a government decision that they would no longer face eviction. Despite these guarantees, the authorities issued the new eviction notices in November 2024.

Under international law, evictions should not leave people homeless or vulnerable to other human rights violations. The authorities should ensure access to adequate alternative housing, located near the original residence and livelihood sources and meeting international standards for security, infrastructure, affordability, and habitability. People with disabilities have a fundamental right to housing that is safe, secure, accessible, and affordable.

The government is responsible for ensuring that evictions do not cause a retrogression in residents’ economic, social, and cultural rights. The authorities should also prevent the separation of families and communities due to forced evictions. Additionally, authorities should ensure that evicted residents have access to essential needs, including food, potable water, sanitation, basic shelter, medical services, education, and livelihoods.

Myanmar: Junta Assault on Health Care Hinders Quake Response

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:30:00 -0400

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People clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of an earthquake on March 28, in Naypydaw, Myanmar, April 7, 2025.

(Bangkok) – The Myanmar military junta’s years of unlawful attacks on healthcare facilities and health workers have severely hindered the emergency response to the devastating earthquake on March 28, 2025, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said today. A month after the earthquake, the junta has continued to obstruct access to lifesaving services in opposition-held areas and during military operations.

The junta’s arrests and prosecutions of over 872 health workers affiliated with the anti-coup movement and the closing of private hospitals that hire them has drastically reduced healthcare operations in quake-affected areas. The military and associated forces have attacked at least 263 healthcare facilities and killed at least 74 health workers since the coup, according to Insecurity Insight, a Swiss nongovernmental organization.

“Since the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military has been attacking the healthcare system in opposition areas, exacerbating an already serious public health crisis,” said Lindsey Green, deputy director of research at Physicians for Human Rights. “Governments supporting the earthquake response should call on the junta to cease airstrikes and other unlawful attacks targeting healthcare facilities and health workers and release all those wrongfully detained.”

Media reports tally over 5,350 deaths from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, although US Geological Survey estimates suggest that the final count could reach 10,000 or higher. The United Nations estimates that 2 million people need assistance, in addition to the nearly 20 million who already needed aid.

Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights spoke with five health workers providing emergency relief in Mandalay and Sagaing regions, in addition to health workers who had fled Myanmar and other humanitarian actors. They described an emergency response effort severely hampered by years of military attacks on health care.

The worst affected regions, Mandalay, Sagaing, Naypyidaw, Shan, and Bago, have long been subject to abusive military crackdowns. In just these areas, Myanmar armed forces had carried out at least 125 attacks on hospitals, arrested at least 258 health workers, and killed at least 32 since the coup, according to Insecurity Insight.

Myanmar’s healthcare system is severely under capacity, with many health workers having fled the country to escape the military’s campaign of arbitrary arrests and attacks on anti-coup health workers. A health worker who has remained outside the country since the coup due to safety concerns told Physicians for Human Rights that many who participated in emergency response training have since fled the country because of the junta’s assault on health care. Losing these colleagues has “drastically limited the effectiveness and timeliness of response,” the health worker said.

In Sagaing, more than 70 percent of health workers had fled since the coup. One doctor working in a mobile clinic said that the junta’s crackdown had left some areas without any staff, making it impossible to assess post-quake healthcare needs. Several health workers reported medicine shortages, which they said stemmed from restrictions on pharmaceutical imports that the junta has refused to lift since the earthquake. The junta has long imposed internet blackouts that are limiting information and emergency response, particularly in opposition and contested areas.

Remaining public hospitals have been unable to provide the care needed, the organizations said. A doctor in an emergency response team in Mandalay described multiple cases in which patients developed rotting wounds due to delays in treatment at the public hospitals.

Several health workers said they were afraid to operate in junta-held areas. A doctor in Sagaing said that he and other doctors affiliated with the anti-coup movement cannot safely pass through junta checkpoints to provide care where it was needed most because they fear being arrested. “It is heartbreaking,” he said. “It is unimaginable even to think that I cannot go help. Many of my friends lost their family members, and I can’t go help.” Another doctor in Sagaing said that he and others cancelled plans to visit a district because they considered it too risky since they had an anti-coup doctor on their team.

Since the coup, Myanmar’s junta has been responsible for numerous war crimes in conflict areas and crimes against humanity against anti-junta protesters. Military operations have continued, with the junta launching at least 160 aerial attacks since the quake, without facilitating relief efforts or access for aid workers. One doctor said he and his colleagues had turned back from a quake-affected area because of ongoing hostilities.

Response teams from donors and humanitarian organizations said the junta has restricted their access by delaying visas or limiting their work to major cities and junta-controlled areas. An April 2, 2025, internal UN document says that the junta is restricting access in areas outside its control, leaving them “largely devoid of external assistance.”

A doctor in Sagaing said that junta authorities have confiscated medicine being transported to opposition-held territories. The UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said he “received reports of humanitarian workers being stopped, interrogated and extorted at military checkpoints.”

Following an April 5 junta announcement that “rescue teams must request prior authorization and cannot independently act without approval from the relevant authorities,” support from local aid groups in some areas dwindled, given the risks of registering personal information with junta authorities that have criminalized local aid. Junta-affiliated militia reportedly blocked local rescue teams from recovering bodies.

Humanitarian agencies have warned that landmines dislodged by the quake pose a serious risk, with at least 32 of the 58 worst-hit townships contaminated.

Prior to the earthquake, aid blockages and a lack of access to medical care had already exacerbated malnutrition, waterborne illness, and preventable deaths, with over one million children missing vital vaccines. Hostilities and conscription by the Myanmar military has also led to mass displacement of over 3.2 million people and a rise in communicable diseases like tuberculosis and cholera.

Tens of thousands of people have been sleeping outdoors, exposed to extreme heat reaching 44 degrees Celsius and without access to clean water. This increases the risk of heat-related illness and waterborne diseases, especially for older people, people with disabilities, pregnant people, and children. Women and girls have reported increased sexual and gender-based violence.

Foreign funding has fallen drastically. The UN is appealing for US$241.6 million in additional aid, but the broader $1.14 billion response plan is only 7.5 percent funded. The sharp decline stems in part from the US government’s abrupt dismantling of foreign aid, reducing its share of support from 30 percent in 2024 to 3 percent in 2025.The three USAID workers sent to Myanmar to assess the earthquake were fired days after arriving.

China, Russia, India, Turkey, and ASEAN member states have sent response teams. Other countries have pledged aid, including a promised $137 million from China. These funds should be channeled through independent humanitarian actors to ensure aid reaches those most in need, the groups said.

The junta is obligated under international human rights law to uphold the rights to life, health, and shelter. Under international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflict areas, Myanmar’s military and opposition armed groups are prohibited from deliberately attacking civilians and civilian objects, including medical facilities and health workers. They are obligated to facilitate rapid and unimpeded impartial humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need and cannot withhold consent for relief operations on arbitrary grounds.

The UN Security Council should hold an open meeting on Myanmar and pass a resolution calling on the junta to immediately facilitate humanitarian relief efforts without obstruction and cease attacks on healthcare facilities, transportation, and health workers, the organizations said.

“Myanmar’s junta has spent four years destroying the country’s healthcare system and chasing away healthcare professionals,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Concerned governments should urgently increase humanitarian assistance and engagement with local partners and networks to ensure that aid reaches everyone who needs it.”

Liberia: Renew Mandate to Establish War Crimes Court

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:00:00 -0400

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A woman holds a placard during a peaceful demonstration in the Liberian capital Monrovia, July 4, 2006, calling on the visiting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to establish a war Crimes court in Liberia as a means to bring justice to the country.

(Monrovia) – Liberian President Joseph Boakai should follow through on his commitment to justice and human rights by renewing an executive order key to establishing a war crimes court to address accountability for civil war-era crimes in the country, six human rights groups said today. The order, signed on May 2, 2024, is set to expire on May 1, 2025.

The groups, Liberian and international nongovernmental organizations, are Advocates for Human Rights, Civitas Maxima, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, Global Justice Center, Global Justice and Research Project, and Human Rights Watch.

“Liberia’s quest to bring closure for victims of civil war atrocities, and ensure their access to justice, remains a major priority,” said Adama Dempster, secretary-general of the Civil Society Human Rights Platform of Liberia. “We call for government and international support to ensure the establishment of the court.”

Widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law characterized Liberia’s two brutal armed conflicts, which took place between 1989 and 2003. They included summary executions, massacres, rape and other forms of sexual violence, mutilation and torture, and forced conscription and use of child combatants. Nobody has faced criminal investigation or prosecution in Liberia for serious crimes committed during the civil wars. The only steps toward justice for serious crimes have been cases prosecuted abroad.

The country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in its final 2009 report, recommended the creation of an extraordinary criminal court, a hybrid court composed of Liberian and international judges, prosecutors, and other staff with a mandate to try those allegedly responsible for committing serious crimes. As the groups highlighted in a recent submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council in the context of Liberia’s upcoming November 2025 Universal Periodic Review, 16 years later, Liberia has yet to implement this critical recommendation.

The May 2024 executive order established an office to “investigate, design, and prescribe the methodology, mechanisms, and the process” for the establishment of a war crimes court and a national anti-corruption court (Office for the Establishment of War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia).

“President Boakai promised Liberians accountability for wartime atrocities, but for this to become a reality, he needs to renew the executive order,” said Michelle Reyes Milk, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “President Boakai should also work with the legislature to replace the executive order with legislation so the office can work sustainably to develop the framework for establishing the war and economic crimes court.”

Over the course of 2024, the Boakai administration took further steps toward setting up the office. President Boakai made a public commitment to advance the process during a speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2024. Additional steps included the withdrawal of the appointment of the first executive director for the office following strong reservations voiced by victim and civil society groups and the more consultative process involved in the second appointment, resulting in the selection of Jallah Barbu as the new executive director. President Boakai also wrote to the UN secretary-general requesting assistance in establishing a court.

However, progress remains limited. In January 2025, the groups wrote to President Boakai calling on the government to take necessary measures towards the establishment of the court. The organizations highlighted the need to ensure the office has requisite staffing and budgetary support and called on the office to adopt an action plan, or “roadmap,” to advance preparation for the court’s establishment.

The plan should address the model on which the war crimes court will be designed; the composition of the court; a clear procedure for the election and appointment of its officials; a proposed budget; and efforts needed for the adoption of a statute, among other issues, and have clear action points and intended outcomes.

Despite the challenges in the process, prospects for a war crimes court continue to offer thousands of victims a promise of justice that has long evaded them, the groups said. President Boakai should renew the executive order and ensure sufficient funding is in place so that the necessary work to establish the court can accelerate.

“A comprehensive roadmap that can ensure the office has both the resources and mandate to fulfill its key mission—establishing a sustainable war crimes court—is therefore vital and urgent,” said Hassan Bility, executive director of the Global Justice and Research Project. “We urge the office to move swiftly in the adoption and implementation of such a plan of action.”

‘Killer Robots’ Threaten Human Rights During War, Peace

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:01 -0400

(New York, April 28, 2025) – Autonomous weapons systems pose grave risks to human rights during both war and peacetime, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Governments should tackle the concerns raised by such weapons systems, known as “killer robots,” by negotiating a multinational treaty to address the dangers.

Report: A Hazard to Human Rights Load Report

The 61-page report, “A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making,” finds that autonomous weapons, which select and apply force to targets based on sensor rather human inputs, would contravene the rights to life, peaceful assembly, privacy, and remedy as well as the principles of human dignity and non-discrimination. Technological advances and military investments are now spurring the rapid development of autonomous weapons systems that would operate without meaningful human control.

“The use of autonomous weapons systems will not be limited to war, but will extend to law enforcement operations, border control, and other circumstances, raising serious concerns under international human rights law,” said Bonnie Docherty, senior arms adviser at Human Rights Watch, lecturer on law at Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, and lead author of the report. “To avoid a future of automated killing, governments should seize every opportunity to work toward the goal of adopting a global treaty on autonomous weapons systems.”

The report, co-published with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, was issued ahead of the first United Nations General Assembly meeting on autonomous weapons systems in New York on May 12 to 13, 2025.

Weapons systems with varying degrees of autonomy have existed for years, but the types of targets, duration of operation, geographical scope, and environment in which they operate have been limited. They include missile defense systems, armed drones, and loitering munitions.

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Autonomous weapons systems operating without meaningful human control would, once activated, rely on software, often using algorithms, input from sensors like cameras, radar signatures, and heat shapes, and other data, to identify a target. After finding a target, they would fire or release their payload without the need for approval or review by a human operator. That means a machine rather than a human would determine where, when, and against what force is applied.

Autonomous weapons systems would lack the ability to interpret complex situations and to accurately approximate human judgment and emotion, elements that are essential to lawfully using force under the rights to life and peaceful assembly.

Contrary to fundamental human rights principles, the weapons systems would be incapable of valuing human life in a way that is required to respect an individual’s dignity. In addition, systems relying on artificial intelligence would most likely be discriminatory due to developers’ biases and the inherent lack of transparency of machine learning.

Autonomous weapons systems would also violate human rights throughout their life cycle, not just at the time of use. The mass surveillance necessary for their development and training would undermine the right to privacy. The accountability gap of these black-box systems would infringe upon the right to a remedy for harm after an attack.

“Human beings, whether soldiers or police officers, often egregiously violate human rights, but it would be worse to replace them with machines,” Docherty said. “While people have the ability to uphold human rights, machines do not have the capacity to comply or to understand the consequences of their actions.”

Christof Heyns, the late UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, was the first UN official to raise the alarm about autonomous weapons systems in his 2013 report to the UN Human Rights Council. “A Hazard to Human Rights” charts how the UN secretary-general and numerous UN bodies and experts have stressed that the use of autonomous weapons systems would pose threats to international human rights law, and some have argued they should be prohibited.

More than 120 countries are now on record calling for the adoption of a new international treaty on autonomous weapons systems. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, have urged states to “act now to preserve human control over the use of force” by negotiating by 2026 a legally binding instrument with prohibitions and regulations for autonomous weapons systems.

Most treaty proponents have called for prohibitions on autonomous weapons systems that by their nature operate without meaningful human control or systems that target people, as well as for regulations that ensure all other autonomous weapons systems cannot be used without meaningful human control.

The upcoming UN meeting was mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems that was adopted on December 2, 2024, by a vote of 166 in favor, 3 opposed (Belarus, North Korea, and Russia), and 15 abstentions.

Countries have discussed lethal autonomous weapons systems at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings in Geneva since May 2014, but with no substantive outcome. The main reason for the lack of progress under the CCW is that its member countries rely on a consensus approach to decision-making, which means a single country can reject a proposal, even if every other country agrees to it. A handful of major military powers investing in autonomous weapons systems have exploited this process to repeatedly block proposals to negotiate a legally binding instrument.

“Negotiations for a treaty on autonomous weapons systems should take place in a forum characterized by a common purpose, voting-based decision-making, clear and ambitious deadlines, and a commitment to inclusivity,” Docherty said.

Human Rights Watch is a cofounder of Stop Killer Robots, which calls for a new international treaty to prohibit and regulate autonomous weapons systems. The coalition of more than 270 nongovernmental organizations in 70 countries supports the development of legal and other norms that ensure meaningful human control over the use of force, counter digital dehumanization, and reduce automated harm.