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Japan Should Adopt Regulation to Counter Uyghur Forced Labor
Japanese lawmakers and Uyghur activists gathered on February 25 at an event hosted by the Japan Uyghur Association in Tokyo to address the Chinese government’s atrocity crimes in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
“It’s important to send a big message to the world” about the Chinese government’s rights abuses against Uyghurs, said Keiji Furuya, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in his opening remarks. Furuya, chairperson of the Japan Uyghur Parliamentary Association, said last November that his caucus would draft a Japanese version of the United States Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Human Rights Watch, in a February 18 letter to the Japan Uyghur Parliamentary Association, underscored that import restrictions targeting state-imposed forced labor are crucial for increasing pressure on the Chinese government to end abusive labor practices in Xinjiang and beyond.
Human Rights Watch recommended that Japan should target any global region with a high risk of state-imposed forced labor. The law should also require companies seeking to import at-risk products to demonstrate that a product was not produced through forced labor.
Since 2016, Chinese authorities have detained up to a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang’s political reeducation camps, sentenced a half-million to prison without due process, and subjected many to torture, forced disappearance, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, family separation, and forced labor. State-imposed forced labor in Xinjiang affects global supply chains, including in Japan, in sectors including automotive, solar panels, apparel, seafood, agricultural products, and critical minerals.
The Japanese government has long been critical of Beijing’s abuses against Uyghurs. In 2024, during China’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as during a 2025 bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping, Japan expressed concern about China’s human rights situation, including in Xinjiang.
Import restrictions and other corporate accountability laws, such as the European Union’s corporate sustainability due diligence directive, are essential to integrate human rights with economic policies that protect consumer and local industries from “low rights” economic models in China and beyond.
Pakistan: Quash Longstanding Blasphemy Case
(New York) – Pakistani authorities should quash the unjust conviction of Junaid Hafeez, who was sentenced to death in 2013 under Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws, Human Rights Watch said today. Hafeez’s 13 years in prison raise grave concerns about the lack of due process and the broader misuse of the country’s blasphemy laws.
Police in Punjab province arrested Hafeez, then an academic in his twenties, on March 13, 2013, for blasphemy based on comments he allegedly posted on Facebook. In December 2019, a court in Multan sentenced Hafeez to death following a repeatedly delayed trial lasting several years that took place inside a high-security prison amid fears of mob violence. His appeal has yet to be heard and he has been held in solitary confinement since June 2014.
Click to expand Image Junaid Hafeez. © Junaid Hafeez/Twitter“Junaid Hafeez’s case is emblematic of the unjust and abusive nature of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should quash Hafeez’s conviction and safely release him and others held under the blasphemy laws.”
The blasphemy laws, section 295-C, and other provisions of Pakistan’s penal code carry what is effectively a mandatory death sentence. Although there have been no executions, several people are currently on death row, while dozens are serving life sentences for related offenses. Hundreds have been charged under the law in the past three decades.
The long delay in Hafeez’s trial was among the denials of due process that many charged with blasphemy face. Holding him for years insolitary confinement is cruel and inhuman treatment that may amount to torture, Human Rights Watch said. Blasphemy suspects often find it extremely difficult to find legal representation because of threats and violence against legal counsel. In May 2014, unidentified gunmen fatally shot Rashid Rehman, a prominent human rights activist and Hafeez’s defense lawyer, in his office in Multan. Rehman had been threatened with “dire consequences” for defending Hafeez.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long been used to prosecute members of minority religious communities or to carry out personal vendettas, extortion, and blackmail. In recent years, blasphemy laws have been increasingly invoked to jail and prosecute people for comments made on social media.
Discrimination in Pakistan’s criminal justice system against people accused of blasphemy has resulted in miscarriages of justice, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities almost never hold those who commit violence in the name of blasphemy to account, while those accused under blasphemy laws—generally without evidence—suffer long pretrial detention, lack of due process, and unfair trials that may result in years in prison.
The government’s indifference to the abuses under the blasphemy laws and the mob violence it provokes is discriminatory and violates rights to freedom of religion, belief, and expression.
In October 2025, the government announced that it would introduce procedural safeguards to the blasphemy laws. Introducing safeguards and safely releasing all those detained or imprisoned on blasphemy charges would be important steps toward repealing the blasphemy laws, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should investigate threats and attacks based on blasphemy accusations, with particular concern for members of targeted religious minorities and other marginalized groups.
“In recent months, the government has made progress in addressing some of the injustices of the country’s blasphemy laws,” Pearson said. “Hafeez’s case is an opportunity to demonstrate real intent and seriousness toward reform."
Cambodian Journalists Unjustly Sentenced to 14 Years
A Cambodian government-controlled court sentenced two journalists to 14 years in prison for treason after they appeared in a photograph with Cambodian soldiers near the disputed Thai-Cambodian border.
The journalists, Phorn Sopheap of the Battambang Post TV Online and Pheap Pheara of TSP 68 TV Online, were arrested last July and charged with “supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense” under article 445 of Cambodia’s Criminal Code. The sentence was announced on February 20, after a one-day trial in December.
The photo, taken near Ta Krabei temple in Oddar Meanchey province, appears to show anti-personnel landmines in the background. The temple is near the site of clashes between Cambodian and Thai forces in July and December 2025.
Thai government agencies and media outlets had earlier published the photograph, saying it shows that Cambodian soldiers had laid new landmines in the area in violation of international law.
Thailand and Cambodia have both ratified the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which comprehensively prohibits any production, transfer, stockpiling, or use of antipersonnel mines. Thailand has alleged that Cambodian forces used landmines in the recent fighting that injured Thai soldiers. Cambodia denied such allegations, claiming the mines were from decades-old conflicts.
Cambodian authorities have recently detained and charged at least two other journalists for reporting on the border conflict. On August 27, Meas Sara was charged with incitement after live-streaming interviews with Cambodian villagers displaced by the fighting. On February 13, Luot Sophal, a journalist with the independent Srotop Yuvakvey news, was arrested and charged with incitement to commit a felony and demoralizing the armed forces after reporting on an alleged water shortage facing frontline Cambodian troops.
The authorities have targeted journalists as a part of a broader crackdown on freedom of speech since the border conflict started.
Despite this, the Cambodian government has been eager to court the attention of international media, with Prime Minister Hun Manet granting a rare interview to Reuters about the situation on the border just days after Sophal’s arrest. Cambodian leaders should recognize that the best way to ensure Cambodia’s side of the story receives press coverage is to stop baselessly charging journalists for their reporting.
A Year On, Two North Korean POWs in Ukraine Fear Forced Return
More than a year after Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, the men’s future remains undecided. Under the Third Geneva Convention applicable to the armed conflict in Ukraine, prisoners of war (POWs) may be held until the end of active hostilities, but they can be repatriated or transferred to a third country before then.
These men, among the thousands of North Korean soldiers sent to fight alongside Russian forces, have said they want to go to South Korea, not returned home. Seoul has said it will accept them, and a senior European Union official recently affirmed the EU stands ready to assist.
North Korea’s military instructs soldiers to die rather than be captured, and state media glorifies such suicides as heroic. “I feel very uncomfortable just being alive,” said one of the soldiers. “Being a prisoner of war means betraying the country.” Returning POWs to North Korea would expose them to grave abuses, including enforced disappearance, torture, forced labor, and execution.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, in its 2020 Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention, states that the repatriation of POWs “must be understood as subject to an exception where the prisoners face a real risk of a violation of fundamental rights by their own country.” This is consistent with the principle of nonrefoulement under international human rights law, which prohibits the transfer of a person to a place where they would likely face persecution or torture.
In early February, the United Nations special rapporteur on North Korea, Elizabeth Salmón, stated that, “[t]he Ukrainian government is very well aware of the situation in North Korea, and they replied that there may be reasonable grounds to believe that they [the two POWs] could be subject to torture” if returned there. While Ukraine has no obligation to transfer the two men while hostilities are ongoing, prolonged uncertainty about the men’s future increases concerns that they could be returned to North Korea as part of a peace settlement.
Ukraine should work with South Korea and the EU to ensure that captured North Korean soldiers are protected from forced return to a government that is likely to treat them harshly.
US ‘Energy Dominance Agenda’ Drives Indonesia Trade Deal
On February 20, Indonesia and the United States agreed to a new trade deal, with US$15 billion specifically allocated for fossil fuel imports. This deal is part of a broader series of global fossil fuel agreements promoted under the US “Energy Dominance Agenda,” which aims to expand domestic fossil fuel production and boost exports. Key provisions of the Indonesia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement include a significant share of Indonesia’s current energy imports—oil, liquefied petroleum gas, and metallurgical coal—and favor US investment in Indonesia’s mining sector, echoing recent US-backed deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere.
Environmental experts warn the agreement pushes Indonesia further away from fulfilling its international climate and human rights obligations. Atina Rizqiana of CELIOS, a Jakarta-based research group, said that the deal “represents a significant setback in the energy transition agenda.” Provisions on fossil fuel imports raise concerns about Indonesia’s commitment to phase out fossil fuels. Despite earlier commitments to phase out coal under the $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership— an international financing mechanism to support the country’s energy transition—President Prabowo Subianto’s government has already approved a significant increase in coal generation.
The import of US fossil fuels comes as Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, have significantly expanded Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) import infrastructure, and new investor involvement in LNG projects could lock the country into decades of fossil fuel dependence. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has done little to promote renewable energy in electricity generation and mineral processing, or to prevent human right abuses in communities located near coal mines and nickel smelters.
The deal also exposes Indonesian and American companies to human rights due diligence risks. US investors shouldexercise caution when considering investments in the Indonesian nickel sector, which has been tainted with serious rights abuses. At the same time, US exports of metallurgical coal to Indonesia may carry additional human and environmental costs, particularly as the Donald Trump administration has pursued deregulation in the fossil fuel industry, rolling back key climate and public health protections.
Countries reaching energy deals with the US government should recognize the broader implications. They risk losing credibility on climate and human rights and jeopardizing financial resources needed for a safe and equitable energy transition.
Afghanistan: Accountability Needed for Gender Persecution, Other Grave Crimes
Mr. President,
We thank the Special Rapporteur for his comprehensive report on the Taliban’s systematic violation of women’s rights, including the right to health.
The Taliban have recently passed a new criminal procedure code that further deepens repression and discrimination in Afghanistan. The new law defines Muslims exclusively as adherents of the Hanafi jurisprudence and labels other religious groups, including Shia, as heretics. It prescribes strict punishments to silence dissent and recognizes only “excessive” beating as domestic violence against women, leaving survivors of other forms of abuse with no protection or pathways to justice.
We urge UN member states to listen to the women and girls of Afghanistan, center their voices, and do more to protect their rights and advance accountability for gender persecution.
The new mechanism that this Council created last October will be a key tool in holding perpetrators of grave abuses to account. Member states and the UN leadership should urgently operationalize it and ensure it has the necessary resources to fulfill its mandate.
In addition, states should recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, support and protect ICC efforts to prosecute those responsible for gender persecution and other grave international crimes in Afghanistan, support the initiative to hold the Taliban accountable for CEDAW violations at the ICJ, and pursue criminal cases through universal jurisdiction.
Thank you.
Greece Under Fire for Law Targeting Aid Groups
Led by Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, five United Nations experts have issued a damning critique of Greece’s latest attempt to criminalize human rights defenders working to support migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
In a letter to the Greek government, made public on February 24, the experts warn that a new migration law adopted on February 5 “would impose unfair restrictions on the work of NGOs working in the field of migration in Greece, while criminalising their activity of defence of human rights.”
Under the new law, membership in a nongovernmental organization is considered an aggravating factor in migration-related criminal offenses, meaning a person is punished more severely simply because they belong to a nongovernmental group. For example, if a private citizen is found to have helped an undocumented person find shelter, they might face a misdemeanor charge. But if an aid worker from a registered nongovernmental group does the exact same thing, the law converts that act into a felony.
The UN experts argue the law creates “de jure discrimination” against aid workers. They further warn that such legal “ambiguity is likely to generate a chilling effect on humanitarian actors,” as individuals and organizations providing essential assistance in good faith may face criminal charges.
The law also grants Greece’s migration minister unchecked authority to deregister nongovernmental groups without a court ruling. These measures complicate an already burdensome registration framework for nongovernmental groups that the UN experts have previously criticized.
The new legislation and the UN experts’ critiques of the law underline what we have documented at Human Rights Watch: Greek authorities are engaged in a systematic effort to smear and intimidate those who provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance to people on the move; who report on the government’s violent pushbacks against migrants; and who seek accountability for the mounting deaths of migrants and asylum seekers at borders.
By targeting and criminalizing civil society, Greece is fostering a climate of fear and undermining the rule of law in ways that ultimately put the lives of people on the move at risk.
The Greek government should heed the warning from the UN experts and annul abusive provisions of this law. The government should also preserve civil society space as a cornerstone of democracy, including for those defending the rights of people on the move.
Unknown Fate for Uyghurs Deported from Thailand to China
Last February, Thai authorities in Bangkok loaded 40 Uyghur men into blacked-out trucks and forcibly returned them to China. Their fates remain unknown.
The men had spent over a decade in Thai immigration detention after having fled repression in Xinjiang in northwest China. Because the men faced grave risks of torture and other abuses in China, Thailand’s deportation—under pressure from Beijing—violated the principle of nonrefoulement under of international law.
Both the Thai and Chinese governments portrayed the returns as family reunifications, but their family members abroad have heard nothing from the men since their deportation. Aside from a staged visit by a Thai government delegation to meet a few returnees in Xinjiang last March, no independent observers or United Nations experts have been granted access to the men. Thailand promised to regularly visit Xinjiang to ensure the returned Uyghurs’ well-being, but those visits appeared to stop in June.
The Chinese government’s refusal to report on their fate or whereabouts amounts to forced disappearances under international law.
The Thai government knew the risks facing the deported men. Since 2016, Chinese authorities under President Xi Jinping have carried out a widespread and systematic campaign of abuses against Uyghurs amounting to crimes against humanity. Uyghurs who leave China without state approval are, if returned, viewed with intense suspicion and subject to arbitrary detention, interrogation, torture, and other cruel treatment.
Thailand is not alone in yielding to pressure from Beijing. Over the past decade, Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained and deported after China’s request or pressure from Egypt, Cambodia, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and even Türkiye, once considered a safe haven for Uyghurs.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, which determines refugee status in Thailand, said it had “repeatedly sought access” to the group prior to their deportation, but Bangkok refused.
Because Uyghurs in Thailand and elsewhere have a well-founded fear of persecution if forcibly returned to China, governments and the UNHCR should recognize them as refugees on a prima facie basis—that is, as a group without individual determinations.
Governments should respect the principle of nonrefoulement and halt all deportations of Uyghurs, either directly to China or to a third country where they risk onward repatriation. Bangkok and others should press Beijing to allow unfettered access to the 40 men to monitor their conditions and well-being. They shouldn’t be forgotten.
Trump’s Selective War on Censorship
The Trump administration is framing its new forthcoming online portal, freedom.gov, as a bold defense of free expression. According to Reuters, the goal is to help users bypass European content restrictions and “counter censorship” in Europe and “elsewhere.”
But the European rules freedom.gov wants to help people circumvent are not about censorship at all.
Europe’s regulatory framework is not an authoritarian speech regime. Rather, it is an attempt to impose responsibilities on internet platforms to address illegal content within the bounds of European law and to identify and mitigate systemic risks to free expression and other human rights. While there are legitimate rights-based critiques to Europe’s approach and reasons to question their commitment to regulating tech companies, characterizing their regulations wholesale as censorship is wrong.
Ironically, as Trump protects US tech companies from European regulation out of supposed concern for free speech, his administration has taken actions at home to punish free expression. What’s more, when US foreign aid was abruptly cut last year, the US government put in peril many of the organizations that document internet shutdowns, develop the tools necessary to circumvent censorship and access the internet securely in repressive environments, and provide support to journalists and dissidents experiencing online attacks.
These organizations include many Human Rights Watch partners. For example, we spoke to Maria Xynou of the Open Observatory of Network Interference, which measures internet censorship. She said that with less monitoring, network-level censorship becomes invisible, and that there is a correlation between such censorship and rising authoritarianism.
A digital rights organization in South Asia told us that it lost 45 percent of its budget because of US funding cuts. It managed to keep its rapid response helpline that supports at-risk users running, but only for now. In a country where draconian cybercrime laws are threatening human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents, a helpline like this is critical.
On top of this, the State Department is threatening to deny visas to researchers and fact checkers because of their supposed involvement in “censorship.” It has already imposed visa bans on five Europeans, accusing them of pressuring tech firms to censor and suppress “American viewpoints they oppose.”
With digital repression on the rise, it is crucial to redouble efforts to support secure digital communications and the independent groups documenting and pushing back against repressive laws and online censorship. And for governments and tech companies to resist the criminalization of dissent, internet shutdowns, and the jailing of critics.
Free expression is a fundamental right, not a prop for political theater.
Ethiopia Shutters Key News Outlet
Ethiopian authorities are resorting once again to the authoritarian playbook.
On February 24, three months ahead of scheduled national elections, Ethiopia’s Media Authority announced the revocation of the Addis Standard’s operating license. The action risks silencing one of the last independent media outlets in the country.
Since its establishment in 2011, the Addis Standard has been a prominent independent voice in an increasingly repressive media environment, offering critical in-depth reporting on often sensitive issues. The government has repeatedly harassed the outlet and its staff. Authorities arrested an editor in November 2020, briefly suspended the magazine during the armed conflict in Tigray, and in April 2025 raided its offices and detained three staff members.
The Media Authority claimed that the outlet had repeatedly disseminated reports in violation of the country’s laws and media ethics and endangered national interests, but did not cite specific violations.
Yonas Kedir, the editor-in-chief, rejected the allegations, saying that the Media Authority “never formally notified the Addis Standard newsroom of any prior violations or enforcement actions.” He said that the publisher was “reviewing legal options to protect its rights.”
Since 2025, government efforts to muzzle independent media have only escalated. Ethiopian security forces have arbitrarily arrested several journalists and other media professionals reporting on important issues, while the Media Authority has revoked licenses of journalists and outlets.
In December, the government permanently suspended two Deutsche Welle journalists covering the war-torn Amhara and Tigray regions. In January, the Media Authority revoked the license of Wazema Radio, accusing it of ethics violations and working against national interests. On February 14, Reuters reported that the Media Authority “declined” to renew the accreditation of three of its journalists following its report that the Ethiopian government was hosting a secret camp to train fighters for the abusive Rapid Support Forces in Sudan.
As the country heads to the polls, and with renewed hostilities threatened in northern Ethiopia, a free, independent media is critically important. The government’s latest shutdowns shatter any remaining pretense that it is willing to allow the free flow of information. Ethiopia’s partners should speak out against these outrages if they want to reverse the country’s troubling direction.
Independent Monitoring Critical for Syria’s Transition
Syria is at a pivotal moment. After years of devastating conflict and decades of repression, the country’s transitional phase will determine whether it breaks with entrenched patterns of abuse or merely reproduces them. Decisions taken now about accountability and oversight will shape Syria’s human rights landscape and overall stability for generations.
As the United Nations Human Rights Council considers the future of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, it should renew the mandate in full. Syrian authorities should support that move. Doing so would send a clear signal that Syria’s new authorities—and their allies—are serious about justice, transparency, and reform.
Syrian authorities have indicated they would welcome continued support from the Human Rights Council but have not yet formally indicated if they will support the renewal of the commission’s mandate.
But it remains much needed. Syria remains in a fragile transitional phase and trust in state institutions is far from consolidated among Syrian society. Domestic investigations to date have lacked transparency, particularly regarding command responsibility. Serious abuses have continued, including identity-based killings during military operations in central and coastal Syria, summary killings and mass displacement in Sweida, and renewed northeast fighting.
The commission’s work on rights violations and abuse, supporting truth telling and recommending measures to strengthen human rights protection and advance accountability, remains vital. Its findings have already supported criminal proceedings and informed international courts. Its archives will be a vital resource for transitional justice in Syria itself. At a time when institutional norms are still being set, its continued presence reinforces standards and helps deter further violations.
In Libya and Yemen, when the Human Rights Council reduced its oversight, victims were left with fewer avenues for justice and international attention quickly faded. In Yemen, once scrutiny was weakened, it proved difficult to restore and violations continued.
Many Syrian civil society groups have appealed to the Human Rights Council to fully renew the commission’s mandate. Their joint statement makes clear that independent scrutiny remains essential.
For Syria’s authorities and influential regional actors such as Qatar and Turkey, durable stability is the shared goal. But stability built without trust is fragile. Syrian government support for a renewal of the commission’s full mandate would help reassure all sectors of Syrian society that accountability will not be selective or superficial. Sustaining independent oversight is not an obstacle to Syria’s transition but rather a critical element for its success. The UN Human Rights Council has a responsibility to sustain scrutiny and reporting through the Commission of Inquiry and ensure its work can continue until the national system is ready to take over independent investigations.
Jailed Critic in Rwanda Faces 30-Year Sentence
Last week marked six years since Rwandan gospel singer and peace advocate Kizito Mihigo died in police custody. While his suspicious death remains unexplained, it clearly signaled the government’s deepening repression of free speech.
A survivor of the 1994 genocide, Mihigo’s music centered on forgiveness and compassion. He was arrested in 2014 on charges of offenses against the state stemming from a song he wrote expressing solidarity with genocide victims and others killed in retaliatory violence. While authorities pardoned him in 2018, he told Human Rights Watch he remained under close scrutiny.
On February 17, 2020, Rwandan authorities announced Mihigo had died in a cell at Remera Police Station, four days after he was rearrested as he sought to leave the country. Before his death, Mihigo told Human Rights Watch he was being threatened and feared state agents might kill him.
Mihigo’s willingness to question elements of the government’s official narrative around the genocide made him a target. After his death, genocide survivors publicly criticized the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and demanded accountability. There has been no credible investigation into his death.
Six years on, other prominent critics continue to be imprisoned. Blogger and commentator Aimable Karasira has been detained since May 2021 and has reported being tortured in custody. Before his arrest, he had spoken publicly about losing family members to both Hutu extremists and the RPF during and after the genocide.
In September 2025, Karasira was convicted of inciting “divisionism” and sentenced to five years in prison. With less than a year of his sentence to complete, prosecutors appealed the decision to acquit him of several charges, including genocide denial and justification, and sought a 30-year sentence. His bank accounts remain frozen.
While governments have a duty to combat incitement to violence and hate speech, Rwandan authorities have repeatedly used broadly defined laws on “genocide ideology” and “genocide denial” to silence dissent.
Mihigo’s death in custody and Karasira’s prosecution highlight the reprisal those who challenge official narratives in Rwanda can face. As Karasira faces a possible decades-long sentence, Rwanda’s judiciary and its willingness to protect the right to free speech, including of victims and survivors of the worst crimes, is being put to test. Authorities should release all those jailed for exercising this fundamental right, starting with Karasira.
Lebanon: Deliver Justice, Truth, Reparations for War Crimes Victims
(Beirut) – The Lebanese government should take immediate, concrete steps to help secure access to justice, truth, and reparations for thousands of civilian victims of abuses stemming from the armed conflict with Israel, five Lebanese and international human rights organizations said today in a letter to Lebanon’s justice minister and deputy prime minister, who heads Lebanon’s National Committee for International Humanitarian Law.
The groups are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Legal Agenda, the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, and Reporters without Borders.
A year after the deadline for Israel to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, ongoing Israeli attacks and large-scale destruction of infrastructure have prevented tens of thousands of people from returning to their homes or rebuilding their lives. Israel has conducted near-daily attacks in Lebanon, killing over 380 people, including at least 127 civilians, since the ceasefire agreement came into effect. The Israeli military remains in parts of Lebanese territory and has continued to extensively destroy civilian structures along the border, leaving entire communities to grapple with destruction and loss.
The Lebanese government is ignoring a concrete set of legal actions it could have taken during this past year, starting with domestic investigations and accepting the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction over international crimes committed in Lebanon, the organizations said. They should now act on them as a matter of urgency.
Israel must immediately allow safe return for Lebanese still displaced from their villages and provide full, effective and adequate reparations for all serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by its military. For thousands of families, ‘post-ceasefire’ has not meant safety or stability. It has meant prolonged displacement, devastated livelihoods, and the anguish of living in limbo, while accountability and reparations are nowhere in sight.
The organizations are urging the Lebanese government to explore every available legal avenue, both at the domestic level and internationally, to ensure that crimes under international law are investigated and prosecuted. A critical step the government could immediately take is filing a declaration with the ICC, accepting the court’s jurisdiction under article 12(3) of the court’s treaty, the Rome Statute, to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law committed on Lebanese territory since at least October 7, 2023. The government should also consider ratifying the Rome Statute.
The government should support the establishment of prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial domestic judicial investigations into war crimes committed on Lebanese territory, the groups said. This includes providing judicial investigators with the authority, protection, and resources necessary to complete their work effectively and impartially. To provide a legal framework for these efforts, the government should urgently issue and introduce in parliament a law criminalizing war crimes and other acts that are crimes under international law.
The government should establish a registrar to record all killings, injuries, and other damages to civilians, and invite the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence to visit Lebanon and to recommend measures that Israel, Hezbollah, and the government of Lebanon should take to uphold victims’ rights.
The Lebanese government has the opportunity to take historic steps towards dismantling the entrenched impunity that has defined past periods of armed conflict in the country, the organizations said. By doing so, it can begin laying the foundation for victims and affected communities to fully realize their right to justice, truth, and reparations, and be able to rebuild their lives.
Other countries, especially the United States, should immediately suspend all arms transfers and other forms of military assistance to Israel, due to the significant risk that these weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law, the groups said.
Given the long-standing pattern of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israeli forces in Lebanon and beyond, other countries should also urgently step up efforts to ensure accountability, including by exercising universal or other forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction to investigate violations amounting to serious international crimes and, where sufficient evidence exists, bring prosecutions. The government of Lebanon should cooperate fully with such efforts.
The ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel entered into effect in November 2024 and included a requirement for the Israeli military to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days. However, on February 18, 2025, Israel announced it would maintain a military presence in, and temporarily control, five “strategic” vantage points in southern Lebanon.
On February 27, Israel’s defense minister stated that Israeli forces were “staying indefinitely” in a buffer zone on the border. In August, Israel’s prime minister further linked the “phased reduction” of troops to the disarmament of Hezbollah.
Lebanese and international rights groups have previously reported on the devastating impact on civilians caused by the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. This includes the Israeli military’s use of white phosphorus, indiscriminate simultaneous mass explosions targeting electronic devices, and attacks on journalists, health facilities, ambulances, and paramedics.
Other reports documented unlawful air strikes against civilians and civilian objects, the extensive and ongoing destruction of Lebanon’s border villages even after the ceasefire, as well as Hezbollah’s repeated firing of unguided rockets into populated civilian areas in Israel.
Sudan: People with Disabilities Targeted in North Darfur
(Nairobi) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of Sudan’s two main warring parties, targeted, abused, and killed people with disabilities during and after their October 26, 2025, takeover of El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Rapid Support Forces singled out people because of their disabilities, accused people with physical disabilities of being injured combatants, and mocked others as “insane,” and told them they were not “complete,” survivors and witnesses said. Targeted killings of civilians or others not participating in a conflict, including those with disabilities, are war crimes, as is subjecting them to cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment or similar outrages. When committed as part of a widespread attack on the civilian population, these acts may constitute crimes against humanity.
“The Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, burdens, or expendable,” said Emina Ćerimović, associate disability rights director at Human Rights Watch. “We heard how they accused some victims, particularly those missing a limb, of being injured fighters and summarily executed them. Others were beaten, abused, or harassed because of their disability with fighters mocking them as “insane” or for not being a “complete person.””
Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 survivors and witnesses from El Fasher between December 2025 and February 2026, including remote in-depth interviews inside Sudan and interviews with people with disabilities who fled to eastern Chad. Human Rights Watch also interviewed eight disability rights activists from other parts of Sudan who described similar RSF abuses in other parts of country.
The Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher on October 26, 2025, after an 18-month siege. As civilians attempted to flee, Rapid Support Forces attacked them, killing thousands. People with disabilities faced particular difficulties escaping and were at times singled out for abuse, extortion, and execution.
A 33-year-old man who uses crutches for a physical disability acquired from an explosive weapon attack in December 2024, said RSF fighters captured him and about 50 others, including women and children, as they tried to flee the city on October 26, and interrogated them.
“The RSF considered everybody who was missing a hand or a limb to be a soldier,” the man said. He said that RSF fighters also relied on skin color and accent to decide whether they were civilians, or members or supporters of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which RSF is fighting for control of the country. He said RSF fighters used machine guns and AK-style assault rifles to execute more than 10 people, the majority with physical disabilities, in front of the group.
The 33-year-old said he negotiated with the fighters to allow detainees to call their families to seek ransom payments. One fighter responded: “You are already weak and shattered in pieces, your family wouldn’t want you anyway.”
He was detained for 4 days and released after his family paid 17 million Sudanese pounds and he transferred 13 million Sudanese pounds from his bank account (totaling approximately US$8,830).
A 29-year-old female nurse said she saw RSF fighters kill a young man with Down syndrome, whom the fighters referred to as “insane,” a blind child, and a younger woman with a physical disability who could not walk, as civilians fled on October 26.
Sudanese disability rights activists documented additional cases in which RSF fighters killed people with disabilities because of their disabilities. Zainab Salih, former head of the Association of People with Disabilities in South Darfur, said she spoke with a father whose 14-year-old son with a physical disability was executed as they tried to flee on October 26 because RSF fighters claimed he was “slowing other people down.” Before executing him, she said, RSF fighters took his wheelchair.
Two other disability rights activists provided similar accounts of the Rapid Support Forces killing people with disabilities in other parts of Sudan during the conflict, with a family member saying an RSF fighter said, “let us help you get rid of them.”
People with disabilities also experienced other forms of abuse often based on ethnic targeting. A 31-year-old man who acquired a disability after being injured in shelling at Naivasha market in El Fasher, said RSF fighters beat and whipped him while he was sheltering at his uncle’s house following the fall of the city.
Fighters repeatedly accused him of being an SAF or Joint Forces soldier or sympathizer because of his disability and his ethnic background, calling him a “falangay,” a derogatory term for non-Arab ethnic groups.
Witnesses and survivors described RSF fighters looting fleeing civilians, including of assistive devices or their only means of mobility, such as the wheelbarrows used by the families of people with disabilities to transport them.
Witnesses also described people with disabilities being left behind. A 30-year-old woman fleeing with her 3 children, said: “What’s stayed with me the most is the image of wounded people, including people with disabilities, whose families were trying to evacuate along that road, but they were not able to, [so they] were left behind and no one knows their fate.”
Those who reached Tawila, also in North Darfur, described fleeing under extreme conditions, often without assistive devices or transportation. Some crawled, or family members carried them. Others were separated from their families or support networks, making escape and survival in displacement significantly harder.
They said they lacked access to assistive devices, medical care, and psychosocial support. People with disabilities and their families said the facilities in the Tawila camp for internally displaced people, including bathrooms, were inaccessible for people with physical disabilities.
The 31-year-old man mentioned above, who now advocates for people with disabilities in the Tawila camp, said he has repeatedly asked humanitarian organizations for disability-inclusive services. “The concept here is that if you have a disability, it’s on your family to provide help,” he said.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict must distinguish, at all times, between civilians and combatants, and civilians may never be the target of attack. People with disabilities who are not directly taking part in hostilities are entitled to full protection from deliberate attacks and ill-treatment. Deliberate attacks on and ill-treatment of civilians with disabilities are war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Sudan has ratified, obliges states to ensure the protection and safety of people with disabilities in situations of risk, including armed conflict. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2475 says that parties to armed conflict should protect persons with disabilities and ensure their full inclusion in humanitarian responses.
The United Nations Security Council should urgently act to prevent further atrocities in Sudan against civilians including those with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said, including by sanctioning the Rapid Support Forces leadership for ongoing atrocities, and publicly calling on the force’s backers, notably the United Arab Emirates, to end their support to the Rapid Support Forces.
Members of the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council should work together to secure the deployment of a civilian physical protection mission in Sudan. Humanitarian agencies should ensure that assistance is accessible and inclusive of people with disabilities, including by providing assistive devices and targeted support.
“Human Rights Watch has documented abuses against people with disabilities in armed conflict around the world for over a decade,” Ćerimović said. “But this is the first time we have documented this type and scale of targeted abuse, including killings, of people with disabilities because of their disabilities. Governments and the UN Security Council should act now to stop these crimes and ensure accountability.”
Killings and Abuse
A 29-year-old female nurse from El Fasher described a Rapid Support Forces fighter calling to another and saying, “Come and see this majnun [‘insane’ person],” referring to a young man with Down syndrome. Fighters ordered his sister, who was carrying him on her back, to put him down and they executed him. After killing her brother, they tied her hands, covered her face and took her away. Human Rights Watch ongoing research has found that many women and girls were abducted to be raped or held ransom.
The nurse also said RSF fighters shot and killed a young woman with a physical disability, as well as her mother who had been carrying her. She also described fighters ordering a woman carrying a blind teenage boy on her back to put him down. “She said ‘he cannot see’,” the nurse said. “They immediately shot him in the head.”
The 31-year-old man mentioned above described how, in September 2025, a driver abandoned him and his mother 20 kilometers from Hilat Al-Shaikh, a village they were trying to reach on their way to Tawila. His mother tried to push him in a wheelbarrow but became exhausted. He urged her to go ahead and pleaded with passing travelers to help take him back to El Fasher. They initially refused.
“They told me if the RSF saw me in that condition [with amputations], they would think I was SAF and cause them problems,” he said. Eventually, a man driving a donkey cart allowed him to climb aboard, and he returned to El Fasher where he was reunited with his father.
He and his father fled on October 26 under heavy shelling as the Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher. He was separated from his father and sustained additional injuries.
He managed to get back to his uncle’s house in El Fasher, but RSF fighters broke into the house a few hours later and accused him of being a member of a coalition of Darfuri armed groups aligned with the military because of his disability and ethnic background. He said:
“They started questioning me, ‘Are you a Joint Forces member?’ I told them I was sick in the hospital, I told them how I got injured while retrieving my goods at the market in August. They started arguing with me that I am a soldier. … They beat me for 20 minutes with a whip all over my body. I was bleeding. … A soldier said they need to kill me, and why did I stay, and that I should have left earlier. They kept asking if I was SAF or a Joint Forces member, I kept saying no.”
In February 2026, he said that he still had scars on his arms from the beating and showed photographs to Human Rights Watch.
Upon reaching Tawila, he was reunited with his mother. When Human Rights Watch interviewed him in February 2026, he still had no information about his father’s whereabouts.
Abandonment
A 39-year-old man described fleeing but having to leave behind his 41-year-old brother with a physical disability who could not walk. “My brother said to us, ‘I am finished, I will die here, please just leave with your children and leave me here.’ We couldn’t take him, there were no cars, no camels.”
The same witness described seeing injured people and people with disabilities asking for help while trying to flee El Fasher on October 27, “There were injured people on the ground, people who had lost limbs, asking for help, and you just couldn’t help them.”
A 22-year-old man who was injured in an attack in February 2025 was abandoned by the person carrying him as they fled El Fasher with a group of civilians. “He put me down and told me he would come back. I don’t know what happened to him, whether he was killed or arrested.”
Unable to move without support, he was eventually arrested by the Rapid Support Forces, detained for 10 days and released only after paying 15 million Sudanese pounds (about US$3,600).
Looting Assistive Devices
A 40-year-old teacher with a hearing disability was fleeing toward Garni from El Fasher in October 2025 when RSF fighters stopped and searched civilians on the road, confiscating personal belongings.
“They started searching all of us, stealing everyone’s nice watches and phones,” he said. “They found my hearing aid, asked what it was. I told them, and that it’s really important for me, but they didn’t believe me, and they took it away. They threatened to shoot me so I just let them take it.”
He said fighters also stole his clothes and phone.
Life in Displacement
A 47-year-old woman in an internal displacement camp fled with her 15-year-old daughter, who has physical and speech disabilities, and her 79-year-old mother, who also has a physical disability.
“Before the war, we used to go to physical therapy [for my daughter],” she said. “There is no such thing any longer, no technician or doctor to follow up with us.”
She said bathrooms and other facilities in the camp are inaccessible for people with physical disabilities: “There is no separate place for [people with disabilities] for bathrooms or food. My mother and daughter cannot go to these [inaccessible] bathrooms. We need to take them.”
Another mother of five children, including a 6-year-old daughter with a physical disability, said her daughter needs an assistive device and specific food that she cannot get in the Tawila camp for internally displaced people: “She needs an assistive device, otherwise she is just laying around. She only eats soft food, and it’s hard for me to find the specific food she needs. I am trying my best.”
Angola: Reject Bill to Restrict Civil Society
(Johannesburg) – A bill passed by Angola’s parliament on January 22, 2026, to regulate nongovernmental organizations would significantly expand government control over civil society and undermine fundamental freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today. President João Lourenço should not sign the bill into law but return it to parliament for revisions that ensure compliance with Angola’s international human rights obligations.
The draft Law on the Statute of Non-Governmental Organizations grants broad administrative powers allowing the authorities to authorize, monitor, suspend, and financially restrict organizations, undermining their independence and ability to operate freely. Parliament approved the bill, which the executive introduced in 2023, after review and revision, but without major changes.
“Angola’s draft law to regulate nongovernmental groups contains excessive and vague controls that endanger the free and effective functioning of civil society,” said Sheila Nhancale, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “President Lourenço should call for a revised bill that strengthens, rather than restricts, civil society’s work and that is in line with Angola’s human rights obligations.”
The bill passed with 106 votes in favor from the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) and the opposition Social Renewal Party (Partido de Renovação Social), and 77 votes against from the primary opposition party, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola or UNITA).
UNITA lawmakers criticized the legislation for treating civil society as inherently risky and shifting control of a fundamental right from the courts to administrative authorities.
Human Rights Watch found several provisions of the draft law incompatible with international human rights standards. Article 6 requires groups to obtain administrative authorization to carry out their activities, establishing a vague licensing system without clear criteria, timelines, or guarantees of judicial oversight. This effectively transforms the right to freedom of association into a privilege subject to government discretion.
Articles 7 and 34 allow extensive government monitoring of groups’ activities and finances, empower authorities to determine where projects may operate, and permit assessments of the “suitability” of leadership bodies. These provisions undermine organizational autonomy and raise serious concerns about privacy and data protection.
The legislation lacks strong safeguards to protect personal data, authorizing extensive collection and information-sharing between state bodies, exposing activists and organizations to potential misuse of sensitive information.
Article 30 authorizes administrative suspension of groups for up to 120 days, renewable, based on loosely defined “strong indications” of unlawful conduct or threats to national security, without requiring prior judicial approval. Such vague standards put groups at risk of abuse and risks silencing critical voices, Human Rights Watch said.
The draft law also imposes strict financial controls, including requiring all funds to pass through domestic banks and banning international capital transfers. These restrictions could obstruct legitimate humanitarian, development, and human rights work that depends on cross-border cooperation and assistance.
Throughout the bill, vague terminology such as “immoral,” “non-compliant,” “appropriate measures,” and “strong indications” grants wide discretion to the authorities, contrary to the principle of legal certainty required for any restriction on fundamental rights.
Civil society groups across Angola have criticized the law as unconstitutional and warned it will further shrink civic space.
“This framework allows authorities to control civil society through administrative measures rather than lawful, proportionate regulation,” Hermenegildo Teotónio, a lawyer and deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of the Angolan Bar Association, told Human Rights Watch. “Without clear limits and independent oversight, the risk of repression is high.”
Zola Álvaro, a human rights activist working with a local organization in Luanda, the capital, told Human Rights Watch that: “The law would make NGO work increasingly difficult due to excessive bureaucracy and government interference.”
Under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, restrictions on freedom of association, expression, and peaceful assembly must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, and subject to effective safeguards.
On January 22, parliament also approved, in general terms, a draft law addressing online misinformation. Media freedom groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, warned that vague definitions and harsh penalties could be used to suppress free expression.
Together, the two proposed laws signal a broader trend toward expanding government control over civic and public life in Angola, Human Rights Watch said.
“The draft law to regulate nongovernmental groups represents a serious setback for civil society and democratic freedoms in Angola,” Nhancale said. “Concerned governments should send a strong public message to the president and parliament that any law regulating civil society should advance the rights to organize and participate in public life.”
Israel: Aid Groups Barred From Gaza, West Bank
(New York) – Israeli authorities plan to bar 37 international nongovernmental organizations from operating in Gaza and the West Bank on March 1, 2026 for refusing to provide the government with lists of their staff and their biodata as part of new registration requirements, Human Rights Watch said today. The organizations say that these requirements violate the humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence.
International aid groups have long provided lifesaving humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, amid considerable duress and Israeli attacks. On February 22, more than 15 groups appealed to the Israeli High Court, saying the new registration requirements undermine international humanitarian law and threaten to cut off lifesaving assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Israel’s politicization of registration requirements for aid groups hamstrings their lifesaving activities while Israeli authorities continue to impose a crippling, unlawful blockade on Gaza,” said Michelle Randhawa, senior refugee and migrant rights officer at Human Rights Watch. “Israel should rescind the registration requirements and stop interfering with organizations trying to respond to the devastating humanitarian crises it has created in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The Israeli government has not committed to filling the aid gap, and only 27 organizations have approved registration.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), if these groups cease operations in Gaza, one in three health facilities would immediately close, 20,000 patients requiring monthly specialized care would lose access to care, waterborne diseases and sanitation conditions would worsen, and there would be immediate and severe gaps in detecting and treating malnutrition.
“We will not transfer sensitive personal data to a party to the conflict since this would breach humanitarian principles, duty of care, and data protection obligations,” an Oxfam spokesperson told Al Jazeera in January. Humanitarian principles emphasize that humanitarian organizations should operate without political interference and maintain autonomy from governments. In a May 2025 press release, 55 organizations operating in the region said that the new rules make INGO registration “conditional on political and ideological alignment, undermining the neutrality, impartiality and independence of humanitarian actors.”
The law, Government Resolution No. 2542, approved in December 2024, mandated all international organizations providing “Palestinian residents” humanitarian aid to register with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism by December 31, 2025, or lose their registration and be forced to cease operations by March 1, 2026. The law gives the Israeli government broad power to deny or cancel the registration of any organization or individual staff member deemed to be a “public safety or state security” risk. The law does not apply to organizations providing services to “Israeli citizens or residents, including residents of East Jerusalem.”
As of mid-October 2025, the UN Satellite Center reported that approximately 81 percent of all structures in Gaza had been damaged. All 36 hospitals and the majority of primary health care centers in the strip have been damaged or destroyed, and as of November, more than 97 percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global tracker of malnutrition and food insecurity, determined that between mid-October and the end of November, about 1.6 million people in Gaza—roughly 77 percent of the population—faced crisis-level hunger or worse.
Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Save the Children, and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) are among the 37 affected organizations that, together with Palestinian civil society groups and the UN, have provided lifesaving goods and services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. According to OCHA, international organizations in Gaza run or support 60 percent of field hospitals and all the stabilization centers for children with severe malnutrition, and they deliver 42 percent of all water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
Despite the ceasefire agreement in October, Israel’s continued restriction of aid entry into Gaza causes shortages of medicines, reconstruction equipment, food, and water. Israel’s deliberate restrictions to aid in pursuit of its political or military objectives violate its obligations as an occupying party under international humanitarian law and constitute a war crime when they amount to using starvation as a weapon of war
In November, the deputy UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said: “The Israeli authorities have rejected 107 requests for the entry of relief materials,” saying the materials were outside the scope of humanitarian aid or “dual-use” items. The Guardian reported in January 2026 that Israel has allowed commercial shippers to import “dual-use” items for sale on the market.
As of the end of October 2025, “almost $50 million worth of essential goods from operational INGOs, including food, medical supplies, and shelter materials, remain stockpiled at crossings and warehouses.”
Aid workers in Gaza have for the last two years operated amid Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, use of starvation as a weapon of war, extermination and acts of genocide, and massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, amounting to crimes against humanity. As of September, 543 aid workers were confirmed killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza. Human Rights Watch found in May 2024 that Israeli forces had attacked eight known aid-worker locations, where the organizations had provided their exact coordinates. Humanitarian workers are protected under international law, and targeting humanitarian workers is a war crime.
Since October 2023, at least 255 journalists, 1,700 medical workers, and 967 educational staff have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza.
The ban of the 37 groups follows Israel’s ban on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which severely limited the agency’s humanitarian assistance capabilities, including blocking aid distribution into Gaza and issuing closure orders for UNRWA-operated schools in East Jerusalem. In October 2025, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that Israel’s allegations that UNRWA lacks impartiality are unfounded and that its obstruction of the agency’s work is at odds with international law.
In the West Bank, settler violence is on the rise, illegal settlements are expanding, and campaigns of forced displacement and housing demolitions are ongoing. In January and February 2025, Israeli authorities forcibly displaced 32,000 people from three West Bank refugee camps, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. As of February 2026, the UN reports that Israeli authorities have not permitted any of them to return.
“Beyond providing immediate relief, humanitarian workers advocate for civilian protection under international law and work to preserve human dignity,” Randhawa said. “Making the distribution of humanitarian aid to Palestinians a national security concern is yet another Israeli ‘assault on dignity’ of Palestinians and part of a larger pattern of debilitating Palestinian civil society and the international presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
UN Body Finds “Hallmarks of Genocide” in Darfur
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan has released a damning report on atrocities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their takeover of El Fasher, North Darfur, in late October 2025.
It concludes that the RSF, which is fighting Sudan’s military for control of the country, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and that its “conduct, and inferred intent, present indications pointing to genocide.” The report warns that without decisive measures to advance accountability and protection of civilians, “the risk of further genocidal violence remains acute.”
The 18-month siege on El Fasher, the mission members found, was deliberately calculated to leave the population on its knees. It preceded “three days of horror” during which RSF forces rampaged through the city, killing, forcibly disappearing, and raping thousands. They further found that “[i]dentity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender, and perceived political affiliation was a central element of the RSF operation.” They concluded that the hallmarks of at least three underlying acts of genocide were present.
The atrocities in El Fasher were wholly predictable, fitting into what the fact-finding mission described as the RSF’s “modus operandi” across Darfur and making clear that only a radical shift in global response to RSF crimes can prevent further atrocities.
The report provides a compelling roadmap on protection and accountability as conflict expands into the Kordofan region.
The UN Security Council should immediately endorse the deployment of a civilian protection mission and enforce and expand the UN arms embargo from Darfur to the whole of Sudan. Other countries should speak out against the UAE’s ongoing military support to the RSF, and the UN should investigate the UAE’s potential complicity in these crimes.
UN member states, notably Security Council members, should act to advance accountability, including through targeted sanctions, supporting the International Criminal Court and expanding its jurisdiction across Sudan; and pursuing universal jurisdiction cases, which could draw on the confidential dossiers the FFM is preparing on individual perpetrators. States should work with UN leadership to support the mission’s ongoing investigations, ensuring it has the necessary resources.
States should commit to decisive action when convening to discuss the mission’s report in Geneva on February 26. Without such action yet more Sudanese civilians will suffer similar horrors to those laid bare in this report.
South Africa: Whistleblowers Under Attack
(Johannesburg) – South African authorities have failed to protect whistleblowers, who expose corruption and criminal activities in government and state-owned enterprises, from attacks and killings, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities need to conduct effective, prompt, and impartial investigations to hold those responsible to account and to ensure justice for the victims and their families.
During the State of the Nation Address on February 12, 2026, President Cyril Ramaphosa repeated a previous commitment to introduce a new Whistleblower Protection Bill in parliament. But the bill has not been passed and as the killings in 2025 of two whistleblowers, Mpho Mafole and Marius Van Der Merwe, demonstrate, whistleblowers cannot afford more unfulfilled promises.
“The scale and frequency with which whistleblowers are attacked and killed for exposing criminal syndicates and corruption is alarming and raises serious concerns for their safety and protection in South Africa,” said Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka, South Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “South African authorities should urgently enhance safety measures for whistleblowers and address limitations in the existing legal framework.”
Unidentified people killed Mafole in a drive-by shooting on June 30, 2025, in Johannesburg. Mafole was a 47-year-old municipal forensic auditor and group divisional head for corporate and forensic audits for the city of Ekurhuleni. He had flagged procurement irregularities in a 1.8 billion rand (approximately US$112.9 million) mobile chemical toilet tender and submitted his audit findings on June 26, four days before his killing. Investigative journalists have reported that Mafole was tracked by his killers starting when he left his home around 8 a.m. until shortly before 6 p.m., when he was killed.
Thabani Goodwill Ntshalintshali was arrested on July 25, and charged with Mafole’s murder. His trial is scheduled to start on March 24, 2026. A warrant has also been issued for a second suspect, Hlanganani Agripper Mncwango, who is still at large.
On December 5, 2025, unidentified people shot Van Der Merwe multiple times in full view of his family outside their home in Brakpan, east of Johannesburg. Van Der Merwe was a former police official who testified off-camera before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System (Madlanga Commission). He highlighted serious allegations of criminality and corruption in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department.
On February 5, 2026, Wiandre Pretorius, a police reservist, survived an attempt on his life by individuals who reportedly fired 16 bullets at his vehicle as he was leaving his home in Boksburg. On February 7, he allegedly died by suicide. He had been implicated by Van Der Merwe in the 2022 killing of Emmanuel Mbense, allegedly at the hands of the police .Three others out of twelve people identified as persons of interest in Mbense’s death have been killed, reportedly “execution style.”
“Whistleblowing is central to countering corruption and improving transparency, [yet] it has also proven to be fatal in too many instances,” Nkululeko Conco, attorney at Corruption Watch, a South African group, told Human Rights Watch. As such, legislative reform should “consolidate the fragmented approach to whistleblowing, which is articulated in various pieces of legislation.”
Whistleblower attacks in post-Apartheid South Africa have a long history with many whistleblowers over the past two decades being victims of targeted killings or abusive attacks, in retaliation for exposing corruption and criminality.
While the Protected Disclosures Act 26 of 2000 nominally provides legal protection against reprisals for workers who disclose information about wrongdoing in public and private sectors, the law is woefully inadequate, Human Rights Watch said. In 2023, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a discussion document proposing reforms to the whistleblower protection regime, which highlights how the act and other related legislation could be strengthened.
Proposals included expanding the definitions of whistleblower beyond the employer-employer relationship; shortening time frames for investigating a disclosure; improved measures to keep a protected disclosure confidential; making it an offense not to act on a protected disclosure; establishing a mechanism to help whistleblowers with legal assistance; and enhancing the powers of regulatory bodies such as the South African Human Rights Commission to deal with protected disclosures.
President Ramaphosa first made the commitment to “finalize the Whistleblower Protection Framework and introduce the Whistleblower Protection Bill in Parliament” during last year’s State of the Nation Address. One year later, this has not happened.
In this year’s address, President Ramaphosa made a similar commitment, saying: “We cannot accept that those who speak out against corruption are victimized and targeted. The Whistleblower Protection Bill will be introduced in Parliament. Among other things, this will criminalize retaliation and provide psychosocial, legal, and financial support to whistleblowers. And there will be a special focus on restructuring our procurement system with a view to ending corruption.”
The South African government urgently needs to translate the commitment into concrete actions, Human Rights Watch said. These include the prompt passage of the Whistleblower Protection Bill and the implementation of comprehensive safeguards for whistleblowers such as effective witness protection.
“South African authorities cannot afford to recycle empty promises because the lives of whistleblowers are at risk,” Masiko-Mpaka said. “Whistleblowers do not need promises, but specific, measurable, and tangible steps to ensure their safety and end the risk of retaliation and violence.”
Cameroon: Massacre Trial Short on Justice
(Nairobi) – The lenient prison terms for defendants on trial for the February 2020 massacre in Ngarbuh, in Cameroon’s North-West region, compounds the authorities’ insufficient efforts to hold senior military officers accountable and compensate victims’ families, Human Rights Watch said today.
On February 20, 2026, a military court in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, sentenced three security force members and a pro-government militia member who was tried in absentia for the killing of 21 people—as well as other abuses—by the military and Fulani militiamen in Ngarbuh on February 14, 2020. The court handed down sentences of between 5 and 10 years and modest fines.
“Prosecutors did not pursue any evidence about who planned and ordered the killings,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The failure of Cameroon’s prosecutors and judiciary to investigate those bearing command responsibility, combined with the denial of reparations, exacerbates the suffering of victims’ families.”
The trial, which lasted more than five years, was marred by serious shortcomings. Authorities never arrested or charged senior officers who authorized and oversaw the operation. Seventeen ethnic Fulani militiamen accused of murder remain at large. Victims’ families had only limited access to and participation in the proceedings, key evidence was excluded, and the court rejected claims for compensation.
Human Rights Watch research found that government forces and allied ethnic Fulani militiamen killed 21 people in Ngarbuh, including 13 children and a pregnant woman. The assailants also burned at least five homes, looted dozens of properties, and beat residents during what appeared to be a reprisal operation against a community suspected of harboring separatist fighters. Since 2016, brutalviolence has engulfed Cameroon’s Anglophone North-West and South-West regions, where armed separatist groups are seeking independence.
Initially, the government denied any involvement of its forces in the killings and publicly discredited human rights groups, United Nations agencies, and media outlets that reported on the massacre. On March 1, 2020, following domestic and internationalpressure, President Paul Biya established a commission of inquiry.
The commission concluded that security forces and members of “local vigilance groups” carried out a reconnaissance operation in Ngarbuh, where they confronted separatist fighters, killing five. In the ensuing violence, 13 civilians were killed. The commission found that soldiers then attempted to cover up the killings by burning homes and filing a false report.
President Biya ordered disciplinary proceedings against the commander of the 52nd Motorized Infantry Battalion (Bataillon d’Infanterie Motorisé, BIM), who had authorized the operation, as well as criminal proceedings against three members of the security forces—two lower-ranking soldiers and a gendarme—who were arrested in June 2020.
The trial opened on December 17, 2020. The defendants included the three security force members—Baba Guida, Gilbert Haranga, and Cyrille Sanding Sanding—and the 17 ethnic Fulani militiamen. Only one of them, Tata Nfor, also known as “Bullet,” was identified by name and tried in absentia.
On January 15, 2026, the court convicted the three soldiers and Nfor as co-perpetrators in murder, arson, and destruction; Guida and Sanding were also convicted of disobeying orders and Haranga of disobeying orders and violence against a pregnant woman.
On February 20, the court sentenced Haranga and Nfor to 10 years in prison, Guida to 8 years, and Sanding to 5 years. Each was also fined 183,100 CFA francs (about US$328).
Under Cameroon’s penal code, murder is punishable by life in prison, and co-perpetrators are subject to the same penalties as principal offenders unless otherwise provided by law. The sentences imposed on two defendants in this case are relatively light, taking into account the gravity of the crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
While international law does not prescribe strict sentencing guidelines, international practice provides that punishment for serious crimes should reflect the gravity of the crime and serve the purposes, among others, of deterrence and retribution.
Barrister Menkem Sother, the lawyer representing the victims’ families, told Human Rights Watch that the public prosecutor initially requested five-year prison terms for the three security force members, contending that they were “brave soldiers” who had long participated in military operations. The judges ultimately confirmed a five-year sentence for Sanding, who has already served that time and is expected to be released in the coming days.
Sother requested 1,700,000,000 CFA francs (about $3,049,970) in compensation on behalf of the victims. The court rejected the claim as “unjustified,” asserting that the victims had already received a total of 80,000,000 CFA francs (about $143,528). Sother said, though, that there is no proof that any payment has been made.
The Ngarbuh proceedings were repeatedly delayed, often due to the absence of judges and other court officials. The court refused to admit key evidence, including death certificates to identify all of those killed, and the victims’ families were allowed only minimal participation. The military court in Yaoundé is about 450 kilometers from Ngarbuh, making it difficult for family members to attend. Family members’ lawyers had expressed concern about the issue. Only three victims’ relatives and one witness testified before the court, Sother said.
Defense and civil parties’ lawyers have 10 days to appeal the court’s decision. Henri Athanase Atangana, a defense lawyer representing Guida and Haranga, told the media that he would consult his clients before deciding whether to do so. Sother told Human Rights Watch that he does not intend to appeal, saying: “I have carried this cross alone.”
At the outset of the trial, there was sustained mobilization in support of the victims’ families, with several lawyers offering pro bono representation and numerous national and international human rights and civil society organizations attending or closely monitoring the proceedings. However, this collective engagement gradually waned, and for the final three years the families were represented solely by Sother, who represented their interests with unwavering dedication.
The UN Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, which is based in Yaoundé and is mandated to promote and protect human rights, including through ensuring the rule of law and accountability for human rights violations, assigned a lawyer to attend one hearing in 2022. “But after that, I’ve never seen her again,” Sother said.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cameroon ratified in 1984, provides that states parties should ensure that any person whose rights are violated has access to an effective remedy, determined by competent judicial, administrative, or legislative authorities, and that such remedies are duly enforced.
“The Ngarbuh trial has delivered neither full accountability nor meaningful redress,” Allegrozzi said. “The United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa should offer legal and technical assistance to the victims’ families, to enable them to file a well-grounded appeal seeking reparations and to ensure continued protection of their rights throughout the process.”
FIFA Needs to Call Full Time on Discrimination
Just months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, the world of football is again rocked by cases of discrimination both off and on the pitch.
Members of the football community, including footballers and fan groups, have long warned of pervasive discrimination in the sport.
During a UEFA Champions League match this month, Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior reported Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni directed a racial slur towards him. Making matters worse, Benfica’s manager, José Mourinho, sought to blame Vinícius for instigating the alleged abuse in the way he celebrated a goal. Victim-blaming doesn’t just obstruct the fight against racism, it fuels and legitimizes it.
Reports allege that Prestianni later claimed he used a homophobic slur against Vinícius, not a racial one. If true, that would be an appalling attempt to refute the allegations.
Fellow players expressed support for Vinícius, who has been a repeated victim of racial abuse. UEFA, European football’s governing body, has opened an investigation and issued a provisional suspension for Prestianni.
Meanwhile in the UK, the Football Association (FA) recently charged Cardiff City in response to its fans directing homophobic chants at opponents Chelsea during a December English Football League Cup match. The FA also sanctioned Reading’s kitman, Richard Bone, for making homophobic comments toward referee Matt Corlett during an August 2025 game.
These cases come after FIFA, the global governing body for football, egregiously canceled its own planned anti-racism and anti-discrimination campaign at the 2025 Club World Cup in the US. FIFA did not share the reasons, and it has been described as a step backward by fans and rights groups including Human Rights Watch.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, FIFA has a responsibility to tackle human rights risks, including discrimination.
“Vinícius’ case and continued reports of homophobic chants remind us of the hate faced by many in football simply because of who they are,” said Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport and Rights Alliance. “We are concerned hate speech is likely to occur during the 2026 World Cup.”
Given the continued prevalence of discrimination in football, FIFA should be setting an example, not avoiding its responsibilities. FIFA should reinstate its anti-discrimination campaigns ahead of the tournament and consider imposing harsher punishments for any discrimination, whether by players, staff, or fans.