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Bahrain Should Urgently Release Prisoners Amid Airstrikes
As the United States and Israel carry out thousands of strikes on Iran and Iran carries out attacks across the Middle East, detainees in the region face even greater risks than usual. In Bahrain, an island state that Iranian forces have repeatedly attacked, the authorities should immediately release detainees.
Many of those behind bars in Bahrain are arbitrarily detained for exercising their freedom of expression. Some, including leaders of the 2011 pro-democracy protests, have been held for nearly 15 years. Others have been detained in recent days in crackdowns on now-banned protests and demonstrations against the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran, or in relation to social media posts with photos and videos showing the impacts of Iranian strikes in the country. All those arbitrarily or otherwise unlawfully detained should be released immediately and unconditionally.
Several detainees have urgent healthcare needs but have been refused adequate care. A Danish-Bahraini human rights defender, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, and Sheikh Mohammed Habib al-Muqdad, a dual Swedish-Bahraini national, both of whom have been arbitrarily detained since 2011, are in their 60s and have severe health issues from torture and long-term imprisonment. Authorities have continued to deny them adequate access to health care.
Human Rights Watch has received reports from prisoners at both Dry Dock and Jau prisons of nearby explosions during attacks by Iranian forces.
Witnesses in Bahrain report that airstrikes have damaged residential areas as well as Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), an aluminum smelter only 11 kilometers from Jau prison where al-Khawaja and al-Muqdad are held.
In the worst-case scenario, prisons may also be directly targeted, as Evin prison in Iran was by Israeli forces in June 2025. It could also resemble the aftermath of that attack, when Iranian authorities subjected detainees to enforced disappearances and ill-treatment, including by holding them in cruel conditions and denying them access to sufficient food, potable water, medical care, and any means of communication.
Nobody should be detained in Bahrain or elsewhere for exercising their right to peaceful expression. Now, as Bahrain continues to be caught up in the conflict between Iran and the US and Israel, it’s more important than ever for arbitrarily detained prisoners to be unconditionally released, and for others to be released temporarily on humanitarian grounds.
Libya: Surrender International Criminal Court Suspect
(The Hague) – Libyan authorities should urgently surrender Osama Elmasry Njeem to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he is wanted for serious crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also ensure full cooperation with the court for other ICC suspects believed to be in Libya.
Njeem is a senior member of the Deterrence Apparatus for Countering Terrorism and Organized Crime, a Tripoli-based militia affiliated with the Presidential Council. He is wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, and rape, committed in Mitiga Prison since 2015. Seven other Libyans remain fugitives of the ICC, and Libyan authorities are obligated to arrest and surrender those who are in Libya to the Hague.
“Those responsible for grave abuses in Libya have long been allowed to evade accountability,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Njeem’s reported arrest in Libya is a chance for authorities to demonstrate a genuine commitment to justice by cooperating with the ICC.”
Libyan authorities reportedly arrested Njeem in Tripoli on November 5, 2025, to face charges domestically, but his location remains unknown and authorities have not taken any public steps to surrender him to the ICC.
Human Rights Watch wrote to Libya’s general prosecutor in December requesting information on the charges against Njeem, his location, Libya’s cooperation with the ICC, and the status of other suspects believed to be in Libya, but has received no reply.
The ICC is a court of last resort, stepping in only when national authorities do not conduct genuine proceedings. Although Libya is not an ICC member, it is legally required to cooperate under the terms of the 2011 United Nations Security Council resolution referring the situation in Libya to the ICC prosecutor. In addition, Libyan authorities in May 2025 accepted the court’s jurisdiction over crimes within its jurisdiction committed in Libyan territory or by Libyan nationals from 2011 until the end of 2027.
Libya is required to surrender Njeem to the ICC. There is no public indication that Libya has filed a challenge with the court on the basis that it is pursuing similar charges in Libya. Only ICC judges can decide on such a challenge.
There has already been a missed opportunity to bring Njeem to justice, Human Rights Watch said. On January 19, 2025, Njeem was arrested in Turin, Italy, but Italian authorities sent him back to Libya instead of surrendering him to the ICC. In January 2026, ICC judges asked the court’s member countries to hold Italy to account for refusing to cooperate with the court.
The ICC opened an investigation into the Libya situation in 2011, following a referral by the UN Security Council. It has issued arrest warrants against 14 people for crimes committed during the 2011 revolution, during hostilities between 2014 and 2020, and in detention facilities, including against migrants. Nobody has yet faced trial before the ICC in the Libya situation.
Pretrial proceedings in the first case to come to the court are moving ahead following Germany’s December 2025 surrender of Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, on an ICC warrant for crimes allegedly committed in the same detention facility as Njeem.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, long wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 2011 uprising against his father’s government, was killed in Libya by unidentified armed men on February 3, 2026. Gaddafi had been living near the town of Zintan, under the protection of members of the same armed group who detained him in 2011 and subsequently released him in 2017, citing an amnesty law. On March 5, the general prosecutor’s office announced they had identified three suspects in Gaddafi’s killing and ordered their arrest.
The Libyan general prosecutor should ensure a transparent investigation into the assassination of Gaddafi, make the findings public, and hold those responsible accountable, Human Rights Watch said.
Of the seven other ICC fugitives in the Libya situation still believed to be alive, Saif Suleiman Sneidel, a member of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) wanted for war crimes of murder, torture, and outrages upon dignity, remains at large in LAAF-controlled eastern Libya. ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan called for his surrender to The Hague in her address to the UN Security Council on November 25, 2025. The others wanted for war crimes are Abdurahem Khalefa Abdurahem Elshgagi, Makhlouf Makhlouf Arhoumah Doumah, Nasser Muhammad Muftah Daou, Mohamed Mohamed Al Salheen Salmi, Abdelbari Ayyad Ramadan Al Shaqaqi, and Fathi Faraj Mohamed Salim Al Zinkal.
Human Rights Watch has documented inhumane conditions in migrant detention centers and prisons across Libya, many run by abusive and unaccountable armed groups nominally affiliated with the authorities. Detainees face severe overcrowding, torture, and other ill-treatment; prolonged arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance; as well as unlawful killings, beatings, forced labor, sexual violence, and deprivation of adequate food and water.
Human Rights Watch has found that Libya’s fragmented justice sector remains marred by serious due process violations and laws that breach international norms, and that the judiciary is unwilling and unable to meaningfully investigate serious crimes.
Nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have also criticized Libyan authorities’ lack of effective cooperation with the ICC and the absence of international oversight following the end of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya’s mandate in March 2023. The UN Security Council has failed to respond to previous requests from ICC judges for support to ensure Libya’s cooperation.
The justice minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity, Halima Ibrahim Abdelrahman, told Human Rights Watch in 2024 that “as a matter of principle,” she was against extraditing any Libyan national to be tried abroad, and that she had conveyed this message to the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, during his visit to Tripoli in April 2024.
UN Security Council and ICC members should press Libyan authorities to cooperate, including by promptly turning over Njeem and arresting and surrendering other suspects on Libyan territory subject to ICC arrest warrants. They should make clear they back the ICC’s mandate in Libya, including by enforcing judicial findings of noncooperation, said Human Rights Watch.
“Over 15 years after the ICC’s referral, abuses continue behind the locked doors of Libya’s prisons, enabled by the shortcomings of its judicial institutions,” Salah said. “To stop the cycle of crimes and impunity, other countries should press Libya to cooperate with the court, so that those responsible are finally held to account.”
New Sudan Atrocity Prevention Coalition Needs to Act Fast
On February 26, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway announced the formation of a coalition to prevent atrocities and promote justice in Sudan. As atrocities continue unabated the coalition has its work cut out.
The announcement—by the countries that make up Sudan Core Group at the Human Rights’ Council—follows the Rapid Support Forces’ capture of El Fasher in North Darfur, and the findings by the UN that the Rapid Support Forces unleashed attacks that bore the hallmark of genocidal violence. For 18 months prior, Human Rights Watch and many others warned of the risk of atrocities as the RSF besieged and bombarded El Fasher. But global efforts, including by members of the new coalition, to protect civilians fell short.
In recent months, both the Rapid Support Forces and the opposing Sudanese Armed Forces have made extensive use of drones, notably in the Kordofan region, reportedly targeting aid convoys, damaging civilian infrastructure and killing and injuring civilians. These events underscore the cost to civilians when abusive forces have access to arms supplies. The new coalition’s first move should be to try to cut off the flow of weapons.
Coalition members should focus on options to protect civilians physically by building political momentum around the creation of a new UN Security Council authorized protection mission and working on concrete plans for its operational architecture. They should also provide political and financial support to local responders, who are under continual attack—including by establishing a system to track attacks on local aid actors—and act against parties responsible.
The coalition can also act to advance accountability efforts, including by centering justice in political dialogues, calling for expansion of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction to the whole of Sudan, and encouraging cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
The success of this coalition will also be measured by its capacity to boost concerted international action on Sudan. It should work with the UN’s newly appointed personal envoy for Sudan, and bring more partners on board, including the African Union, states from the region, and more from the European Union.
This coalition could be a beacon of hope. But the countries involved need to be willing to put in the political capital required to stop warring parties and their backers from acting with such blatant impunity.
DR Congo: Enforced Disappearances Surge in Kinshasa
(Nairobi) – Congolese security forces have been responsible for numerous enforced disappearances in and around Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, since March 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch has documented that 17 people have been forcibly disappeared or reported missing in the past year and has received credible accounts of several additional cases. Many of those disappeared were found, often months later, in the custody of the National Cyber Defense Council (Conseil national de cyberdéfense, CNC), which has arbitrarily arrested and detained people alongside the Congolese National Police and the president’s Republican Guard.
“For the past year, Congolese security forces have secretly arrested and detained people on spurious grounds in the heart of the capital,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “In most cases, the arrests seem to be politically motivated or of people suspected of supporting the armed group that has taken over parts of eastern Congo.”
Between July 2025 and March 2026, Human Rights Watch interviewed over 34 people, including 9 former detainees of the CNC and 11 detainees’ relatives. Human Rights Watch has withheld the names of those interviewed for their safety.
The CNC was created in 2023 by presidential ordinance to investigate cybercrimes. International mediahave reported that it has acquired advanced technology allowing targeted eavesdropping, especially on messaging apps. It has expanded into arrests, interrogations, and secret detention without judicial oversight.
Former detainees said that uniformed Republican Guards and national police as well as officials in civilian clothes carried out the arrests, some in the middle of the night. Several said they were blindfolded when transported to, or between, CNC detention centers. They said that they were not shown an arrest warrant and were refused access to lawyers.
The CNC first held and interrogated them at facilities at the national stadium, the Stade des Martyrs, or at its offices at the National Transport Office (Office National des Transports, or ONATRA) in Kinshasa. They said they were then moved to other locations in Kinshasa, including private rooms, possibly in hotels.
Former detainees said their interrogations had little to do with cyber intelligence and were based on accusations of collusion with the M23 armed group, which controls part of eastern Congo; ties to former President Joseph Kabila, who is accused of supporting the M23; or coup plots. Other detainees said they believed, based on interrogation questions, that they were held because of their opposition political views. One said that when he requested a lawyer, officials told him: “there is no law in these rooms.”
According to their lawyers, five detainees were transferred from CNC custody into the military or civilian justice systems, where they face charges of crimes against state security or insulting the head of state. Two of these cases have reached trial and three are in preliminary proceedings. Eight other people have been released, while three more remain detained.
Former detainees said that other people may still be held in undisclosed detention centers without access to their families or lawyers.
In early September 2025, police, soldiers, and men in civilian clothes arrested at least 12 opposition members of parliament at a hotel in Kinshasa and took them to the CNC office at ONATRA. The lawmakers were accused of supporting the then head of the National Assembly, Vital Kamerhe, whom the ruling party eventually pushed out of his position. According to a former detainee and media reports, the detainees were blindfolded when taken to ONATRA, where they were accused of corruption. They were told their immunity as parliamentarians was irrelevant before they were finally released that night and early the next day.
CNC officials met with Human Rights Watch on November 20 and December 5, when an official said that the unit exists to “coordinate essential services” and that its officials have the right to intervene when necessary. However, the official was vague about detentions, alluding to the government’s authority to restrict people’s liberty for necessary security reasons. In response to a letter from Human Rights Watch, Jean-Claude Bukasa, CNC’s head and coordinator, wrote on February 17 that the CNC “does not have the power to arrest or detain” people.
Human Rights Watch had limited access to one CNC detention facility in November in the presence of Bukasa and his senior staff. A military magistrate and the president of the National Human Rights Commission were also present. Although controlled, the visit allowed Human Rights Watch to see the apparent living conditions of some detained military officers.
The CNC’s abusive arrest and detention operations violate Congo’s Code of Criminal Procedure as well as international human rights law, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
International law defines an enforced disappearance as the deprivation of a person’s liberty by state agents, or by those acting with the state’s acquiescence, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the person’s fate or whereabouts. All victims of enforced disappearances have a right to a remedy.
For those forcibly disappeared, the authorities should immediately acknowledge their detention, reveal their whereabouts, and allow them access to family members and legal counsel. The authorities should ensure that all those taken into custody by the CNC are immediately released or brought before a judge and that any further detention fully complies with Congolese and international law.
The authorities should impartially investigate all reported cases of enforced disappearances, even of those who have been subsequently released, and prevent such abuses in the future, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Congolese government is using the National Cyber Defense Council as a proxy to carry out arrests and detentions of civilians on dubious security grounds and we still don’t know how many are still in detention,” Mudge said. “The authorities need to release all those wrongfully held, investigate the CNC’s operations, and put an end to its enforced disappearances.”
For more details about the CNC’s enforced disappearances in Kinshasa, please see below.
Armed Conflict with Rwanda and the M23
Congo is engaged in an armed conflict in the east with Rwandan government forces and the abusive M23 armed group, which captured major cities in 2025. Hostilities have continued despite partial withdrawals, multiple fragile ceasefires, and peace accords brokered by the United States and Qatar.
Rwanda has been providing direct military support, including troops and logistics, to the M23, based on reports by the United Nations, Congo, and other governments, as well as Human Rights Watch, among others. The Congolese government has supported abusive Wazalendo militias, fueling the violence amid mutual accusations of backing proxy militias and threats to regional stability.
Congo’s government has accused former President Joseph Kabila of treason and support for the M23 and the Alliance Fleuve Congo, a political-military coalition that includes the M23 and other Congolese government opponents. Kabila, who visited M23-controlled areas in 2025 but is otherwise living in exile, received an in absentia death sentence in September after a politically motivated trial.
National Cyber Defense Council Arrests
President Félix Tshisekedi established the CNC in 2023 and tasked it with coordinating services related to cyber defense and cyber intelligence. However, as the hostilities between the government and the M23 and Rwandan forces escalated, the unit became increasingly implicated in targeted arrests of individuals that it claimed were in collusion with Kabila and opposition armed groups.
Arrests that Human Rights Watch documented typically occurred without warning or legal justification. Uniformed Republican Guard members and uniformed police or plainclothes officers entered homes, sometimes at night. In some instances, they pointed weapons at family members, including a child in at least one instance, and demanded compliance without presenting warrants or explaining charges. They took phones and belongings and blindfolded some people, then took them to CNC offices.
The wife of one detainee said, “Many men, including Republican Guards, forced their way into our home at about 4:30 in the morning.... They pointed their guns at my young son and forced him to show them his father’s bedroom.” The man, arrested in mid-December, is still in detention.
Congo’s Code of Criminal Procedure states that except for cases involving “flagrant délit” (being “caught in the act”), arrests should only be made when a competent judicial authority, such as a judge or prosecutor, has issued an arrest warrant stating the charges.
One former detainee, who spent two weeks in CNC detention, said that scores of police arrested him and a colleague outside a bar at a busy intersection in Kinshasa. Several police officers bundled them into vehicles and drove off. When a crowd started to form, the police shot their rifles in the air to disperse it.
While a CNC official told Human Rights Watch in December that only one detainee had requested a lawyer, detainees and their family members contradicted this assertion. “My nephew disappeared [and] we learned [three days later] that he was being held at the CNC headquarters,” a detainee’s relative said. “We tried to send lawyers to assist him, but they were denied access.” Someone with ties to the intelligence community told the family to try to settle the issue on their own “because the CNC does not allow lawyers.”
A former detainee said: “I told the officer who wanted to question me to let me speak to my lawyer because it’s my right.” He said the officer replied: “The law doesn’t apply here, the law stays outside the door.... You’re here because the other intelligence services failed, so don’t even think about a lawyer.”
Article 19 of the 2006 Congolese Constitution, revised in 2011, explicitly guarantees the right to counsel “at all stages of the criminal procedure, and including the police inquiry and the investigation before trial.” Article 14(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights similarly provides for the right to counsel of the person’s choice.
Former detainees said that CNC officials accused them during interrogations of plotting against the state. One detainee said: “I was told ‘You are here because the other intelligence agencies did not do their work. Why are you fighting against the president?’ They accused me of being a supporter of Kabila, but they only had some things from my Facebook account from a few years ago.”
Another former detainee said that while he was not beaten or physically mistreated, he was afraid he was going to be killed each time he was blindfolded and moved between detention locations.
The CNC official told Human Rights Watch in November that the National Human Rights Commission was the designated point of contact between the CNC and detainees’ families. While some family members were able to contact detained relatives through the commission, the government and the CNC are responsible for locating detainees and ensuring access by their lawyers and relatives, Human Rights Watch said.
Most family members interviewed failed to find their loved ones when they were in CNC detention. Family members of those forcibly disappeared said they had written to local and national authorities, asking for their loved ones’ location so they could visit, but received no information.
Some family members eventually confirmed that their relatives were in CNC detention through informal means. “My nephew disappeared on a Wednesday,” said one family member. “We searched all the city’s prisons without success. It was only three days later when we learned through informal channels that he was being held at the CNC, in the ONATRA [transport agency] building. However, no one confirmed his presence there.” The family was only able to verify this information after he was released two weeks later.
Several former detainees said that they were released in a manner almost as arbitrary as their arrest and made to sign declarations that they would not work against the government.
“I was brought into a room and told to sign a document,” a former detainee said. “It stated that I would not criticize the president, that I will stop political activism, that I will not disturb the public order, and that I will not talk about my detention at the CNC. I was told that if I break that contract, it will be used against me, and I was told I would not leave if I did not sign it. Even today that document makes me think I’m being followed.”
In late 2025 and early 2026, at least five cases were transferred to the public prosecutor’s office or the military prosecutor’s office. The detainees were sent either to Makala Central Prison or Ndolo military prison to await preliminary hearings. It is unclear whether the unlawful arrests and detention of the defendants will be considered in judicial proceedings.
On January 8, Justice Minister Guillaume Ngefa stated at a news conference that for arrests related to state security, the Ministry of Justice ensures that procedures are legalized as quickly as possible. He said that administratively, arrests can take time. Human Rights Watch did not find that these cases were handled with the necessary regard for due process.
Ugandan Police Arrest Two Women for Allegedly Kissing
Two women are currently in custody in Uganda for allegedly kissing in public. The pair, whom Ugandan police arrested on February 18, are detained under the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, one of the most draconian anti-LGBT legislations in the world.
Uganda criminalizes consensual same-sex relations under its British colonial-era Penal Code Act. Over the last decade, the Ugandan government has increasingly further restricted the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, culminating in the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The Act criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct with penalties of up to life imprisonment, attempted homosexual acts with penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, and the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes repeated same sex acts and intercourse with a person older than 75, or a person with a disability.
A police spokesperson said that the two women were arrested under suspicion of “practicing homosexuality” after community members reported them for engaging in “queer and unusual acts.” According to local media, they were held in police custody until February 27, then briefly released but re-arrested promptly.
While the Anti-Homosexuality Act originally included an obligation to report someone suspected of participating in same-sex acts, that provision was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2024.
The Act has had a devastating impact on the lives of LGBT people, activists, allies, and their families. LGBT activists in the country have reported an increase in physical attacks, violence, extortion, entrapment, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The arrest of the two women is only the latest in a series of many.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act contravenes Uganda’s obligations under international human rights law including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees equality before the law and protection from discrimination, violence, and arbitrary arrest. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has called on states to prevent violence and other human rights violations based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. These obligations require Uganda to protect LGBT people from harassment, arbitrary arrest, and abuse.
The Ugandan police should immediately release the two women. The Ugandan government should repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act and the Penal Code provisions criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct, and ensure equal protection and non-discrimination for all, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Child in the US Deprived of Hearing Aids during Deportation
A six-year-old child with a hearing disability was prevented from having his hearing aids delivered to him after being taken into custody with his mother and his five-year-old brother during an immigration check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco on March 3.
Click to expand Image Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez (R) and her two children, aged five and six, were detained by ICE in San Francisco, California, US, on March 3, 2026. © 2026 Nikolas De Bremaeker/Centro Legal de la RazaThe child’s mother appeared for the appointment as required as part of her ongoing immigration proceedings and had her two children with her. Immigration authorities detained them, transferred them to another location within the United States, and then initiated deportation procedures to Colombia.
Expedited transfers can undermine access to effective legal remedies. Moving detainees far from their lawyers immediately after arrest can make it extremely difficult to seek judicial review or file emergency legal challenges before removal takes place.
According to reports from the family’s legal representative, immigration authorities did not allow the waiting relatives to deliver the child’s hearing aids during the detention and deportation process.
For children with hearing disabilities, hearing aids are not simply medical devices, they are often their primary means of communicating with the world. Being suddenly deprived of them can leave a child unable to hear his mother’s voice, understand what is happening, communicate and interact with others, and receive information and explanations during stressful or unfamiliar situations. Research shows that cutting children with hearing disabilities off from their means of communication can cause intense confusion, fear, anxiety, and a profound sense of isolation.
This case comes on the heels of another alarming incident involving migrants with disabilities in US immigration custody. On February 19, US Border Patrol agents released a nearly blind Rohingya refugee by dropping him off, alone, at a closed coffee shop at night in sub-freezing weather. This was several miles from his home, and his family and lawyer apparently were not notified that he was being released. He apparently never returned home, and his body was found five days later.
These cases raise serious concerns about whether US immigration authorities are meeting their obligations to ensure accessibility and reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities at every stage of immigration enforcement. Authorities should in any case prioritize community-based alternatives to detention for migrants with disabilities rather than placing them in custodial settings that often fail to meet their basic accessibility needs.
Zimbabwe: Violence and Intimidation Against Opponents of Presidential Term Extension
(Johannesburg) - Authorities in Zimbabwe have intensified their crackdown against critics of an effort by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party to push forward a constitutional amendment to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed amendment has attracted considerable opposition from those who consider it an attack on the country’s democracy.
Under the constitution, President Mnangagwa would have to step down in 2028 after serving two five-year terms. However, following a controversial ZANU-PF resolution, the government gazetted Constitutional Amendment No 3 on February 16, 2026. The amendment would extend the term of office for both the president and parliament from five to seven years, effectively postponing the 2028 elections until 2030.
“Zimbabwe’s leaders should demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law by respecting the country’s constitution and international human rights obligations for freedom of expression and assembly,” said Idriss Ali Nassah, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Civil society, legal experts, and ordinary people should be allowed to peacefully express their views without fear.”
Over the last few months, the police and unidentified armed men have threatened, harassed, and beat up several people who are opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment.
On March 1, in Harare, about 5 to 10 armed men wearing balaclavas reportedly forced their way into the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an opposition political party. According to Lovemore Madhuku, a prominent lawyer and leader of the NCA, some of the men assaulted members who had gathered for a meeting, including injuring Madhuku. Madhuku has brought a constitutional court case seeking to halt the constitutional amendment process.
Madhuku told Human Rights Watch that the men accused him of “wanting to create problems in the country” and demanded to know why he was opposing the bill. Madhuku said the men identified themselves as police officers and accused his party of holding an “unsanctioned meeting.”
He said that they used the long batons commonly used by the police to beat him on his back and on the head and delivered blows to his face. He also said that uniformed officers remained stationed outside in their marked vehicles. After the attack, Madhuku said, the men left in two unmarked vehicles, followed by two Zimbabwe Republic Police vehicles. A police statement posted on X said that its officers “were not involved in the alleged incident” and that the police were “keen to know what actually transpired.”
Another civil society group, the Constitutional Defenders Forum, said that on February 27 the police gave them a letter ordering them to stop their opening meeting scheduled for the next day because it did not comply with the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act. The Forum is a citizen-driven initiative committed to defending Zimbabwe’s Constitution, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.
Under the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act, groups planning a meeting must provide written notice to the police seven days in advance of processions and demonstrations, and five days in advance of public meetings. The Forum maintains that it did. The police have frequently and selectively used the requirement to deny civil society and the opposition permission to hold meetings and to mobilize.
On March 5, the Forum posted a video to social media that Human Rights Watch geolocated, showing armed police officers in several vehicles at the Harare law offices of Tendai Biti, the Forum leader. In a post on X, the Forum reported that armed men besieged Biti’s premises, assaulted people there, and issued death threats against him.
The police admitted to having deployed officers at Biti’s offices “for the maintenance of law and order” but denied the assault allegations. Biti told Human Rights Watch that authorities had decided to “unleash violence and place the country under a state of siege” to silence alternative voices.
On October 28, 2025, the Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Trust’s offices in Harare was badly damaged in a suspected arson attack. The assailants reportedly abducted the night guard and locked the property’s gates with new padlocks before fleeing. The attack took place just hours before SAPES was to host a dialogue of civil society and opposition leaders in response to ZANU-PF’s effort to extend President Mnangagwa’s term.
A few hours later, the police and suspected ZANU-PF supporters reportedly shut down a similar event focusing on “Constitutional Crossroads: Citizens Respond to Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Crisis” in Bulawayo.
The authorities should appropriately investigate all of these alleged attacks and prosecute those responsible for abuses, including any members of security forces, Human Rights Watch said. More generally, Zimbabwe should reform its security force responsibilities and procedures to ensure that they act professionally and according to law.
Zimbabwe should respect rights to freedom of expression and assembly as provided by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, instruments that it has ratified.
“Members of the civil society and the political opposition should be allowed to freely operate and mobilize against the government’s proposals,” Nassah said. “Constitutional amendments need to be debated fairly and openly, without fear of repression.”
Ghana's Parliament Revives Dangerous Anti-LGBT Bill
Lawmakers in Ghana have reintroduced a draconian bill that jeopardizes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On February 17, the Ghanaian parliament formally received the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the anti-LGBT bill, marking the latest chapter in a prolonged legal and legislative process that started in 2021.
Click to expand Image Queer rights activist Angel Maxine opposing the anti-LGBT bill in Accra, Ghana. © Angel MaxineGhana’s parliament first passed a version of the bill in February 2024, but it expired without then-President Nana Akufo-Addo’s approval. At the time, Akufo-Addo said he would not allow Ghana to backslide on human rights and the rule of law. However, his successor, President John Dramani Mahama, who returned to office in January 2025, has signaled his support for the proposed law.
The reintroduced bill significantly expands criminal sanctions related to same-sex conduct and imposes up to three years in prison for anyone who even identifies as LGBT. It also subjects individuals and organizations who advocate for the rights of LGBT people, including parents of LGBT children, teachers, journalists, doctors, and human rights defenders, to prosecution. If enacted, the law would also force LGBT organizations to dissolve and put donors and partner organizations at risk.
Ghanaians who identify as LGBT suffer widespread discrimination and abuse in public and in family settings. Since 2021, they have faced increasing repression marked by arbitrary arrests and closures of community services, as well as hostile and misleading media coverage.
Ghana is set to host the fourth African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family and Sovereignty in Accra in May 2026, a platform with documented ties to US-based far-right advocacy groups. Previous editions have featured speakers who promoted Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act as a model for other African legislatures.
Opposition to the bill exists. Influential voices like Cardinal Peter Turkson and the prominent politician Samia Nkrumahhave called for dialogue and inclusion. Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice has likewise warned parliament that the bill would infringe on fundamental rights of Ghanaian citizens.
Instead of falsely juxtaposing ostensible Ghanaian values with human rights, Ghanaian leaders should uphold the international legal protections that guarantee every Ghanaian the rights to equality, nondiscrimination, freedom of expression, and privacy.
Mali: Armed Islamist Group Executes Truck Drivers
(Nairobi) – An Al-Qaeda-linked armed group summarily executed ten long-haul truck drivers and two teenage apprentices in late January 2026 in southwestern Mali, Human Rights Watch said today. The killings, in an attack on a fuel convoy, are apparent war crimes.
On January 29, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, or JNIM) attacked a military-escorted fuel convoy of at least 40 trucks enroute to the city of Kayes, Kayes region. Witnesses said JNIM fighters fired on the convoy, with soldiers returning fire, and then burned at least 12 trucks and executed the truck drivers and apprentices. The victims’ bodies were recovered two weeks later, blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats slit.
“JNIM’s summary execution of 12 truck drivers is the latest example of the armed group’s depravity and disregard for basic legal principles,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All armed groups are bound by international law to protect civilians.”
Between January 30 and February 28, Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 12 people, including 3 witnesses to the attack, a relative of one of the victims, and 8 journalists, union officials, and villagers. Human Rights Watch also geolocated a video shared online on January 29 showing at least 11 tank trucks burnt or still in flames on the road about seven kilometers south of Ambidedi village.
Click to expand Image Location of the convoy attack. Graphic © 2026 Human Rights WatchIn a statement released the day of the attack, JNIM claimed to have targeted Malian troops between Diboli and Kayes but provided no further information. Malian authorities did not issue any public statement on the incident and did not respond to a March 2 letter from Human Rights Watch seeking comments.
Since September 2025, JNIM has cut off fuel supplies into Mali, blocking and attacking tanker truck convoys from neighboring countries and triggering severe shortages that have halted transport, disrupted electricity, caused prices to spike, and paralyzed daily life in the capital, Bamako, and elsewhere. Bina Diarra, known as Abou Houzeifa Al-Bambari, one of JNIM’s senior leaders in Mali, wrongly stated in a November 2025 video that all fuel transport vehicles were “military targets.”
Three truck drivers and other witnesses said that the convoy left Dakar, Senegal, on January 27, and crossed the border to Diboli, Mali, on January 28. They said that travelers and bus drivers on National Route 1 warned them that the road was unsafe, with Islamist fighters stopping vehicles to check passengers’ identification. However, the drivers also said that Malian soldiers based in Kayes had traveled to Diboli without incident on January 28 to escort the convoy back on the same road the next day.
The truck drivers said that since there was no imminent threat, and prolonging their stay in Diboli would increase the risk, the convoy proceeded as planned on January 29. “When we left Diboli, we could feel the fear in our heads and stomachs,” said a 48-year-old truck driver. “We worried this would be our last journey.”
The truck drivers and residents said that the convoy was meant to supply fuel to Kayes and other localities in the region. While fuel is used for civilian purposes, it also plays a crucial role in sustaining military operations in Mali and can be a legitimate military target. There are several military bases in the Kayes region, including the 4th Military Region headquarters.
Witnesses said the convoy stretched along about 1.5 kilometers on National Route 1 with an escort of seven military vehicles. “There were six military pickup trucks and one [military] Landcruiser with at least four soldiers in each vehicle,” a 50-year-old truck driver said. “Four [military] vehicles [were] at the head of the convoy, and three others were moving between the end and the middle [of the convoy].”
JNIM fighters attacked the convoy at about 9:30 a.m., about 7 kilometers south of Ambidedi village and 43 kilometers from Kayes. Satellite imagery from January 29 captured at 11:55 a.m. shows massive smoke plumes from the attack location.
Click to expand Image Satellite imagery from January 29, 2026, captured at 11:55 a.m. local time, shows large plumes of smoke rising from the site of the attack, about seven kilometers south from Ambidédi village, Mali. Image © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Graphic © 2026 Human Rights WatchWitnesses said the attackers opened fire on the front of the convoy, triggering an exchange of gunfire, as forward-positioned soldiers responded and those at the rear advanced to reinforce them. The attackers then shifted their fire toward the middle and back of the convoy. “I saw jihadists on motorbikes, they wore turbans and shouted ‘Allah Akbar,’” the 48-year-old driver said. “They started shooting, the military responded and it was in the crossfire that I jumped out of my truck and fled.”
Witnesses said most drivers at the head of the convoy followed the soldiers’ advice not to panic or stop, while some drivers further back abandoned their trucks and fled or turned back. JNIM fighters captured several of those fleeing, later executing 12 while releasing others. JNIM abandoned the 12 bodies by the roadside. “No one dared recovering them out of fear of another attack,” said a 45-year-old truck driver.
On February 9, Mali’s truck driver union called a nationwide strike, urging authorities to retrieve the bodies and return them to their families or ensure their burial. On February 11, soldiers recovered the bodies. A man said that the victims, including two teenagers, were found blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats slit. The following day, the military buried the bodies in the Kayes cemetery.
The government has not provided information to family members of drivers who have been missing since the attack. The brother of one said he went to the Kayes regional hospital, where the military had taken several injured truck drivers. “The doctor told me he was not among the six injured admitted,” the man said, and he still did not know whether his brother was dead or alive.
Human Rights Watch received a list of six missing drivers: two Senegalese nationals, ages 39 and 49; two Malians, 46 and 52; one Burkinabè, 35, and one Ivorian, 47.
All parties to Mali’s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law. Under customary laws of war, attacking forces must distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants. Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects are prohibited. Common Article 3 to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 prohibits the murder and cruel treatment of anyone in custody, whether a civilian or a captured combatant. Serious violations of the laws of war committed with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes.
The legality of the attack on the fuel convoy would depend on whether the attackers took all feasible steps to verify that the fuel was intended for armed forces use. Whether the attack on the trucks was lawful or not, the cruel treatment and execution of the truck drivers was clearly unlawful, Human Rights Watch said.
“The massacre of truck drivers highlights the need for the Malian authorities to step up efforts to protect civilians and hold those responsible for abuses to account,” Allegrozzi said. “The government should seek assistance from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for this effort.”
Haiti: Drone Strikes Put Residents at Risk
(Washington, DC) – Haitian security forces and private contractors working with them have conducted extensive and apparently unlawful lethal drone strikes, Human Rights Watch said today. The strikes, at least some of which appear to be deliberate extrajudicial killings, have been carried out with quadcopter drones armed with explosives in densely populated urban areas, in some cases killing and injuring dozens of people, including children and other residents who are not members of criminal groups.
According to data from multiple sources reviewed by Human Rights Watch, at least 1,243 people were killed by drone strikes in 141 operations between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026, including at least 43 adults who were reportedly not members of criminal groups, and 17 children. The data also shows that the drone strikes injured 738 people, at least 49 of whom were reportedly not members of criminal groups.
“Dozens of ordinary people, including many children, have been killed and injured in these lethal drone operations,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Haitian authorities should urgently rein in the security forces and private contractors working for them before more children die.”
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti has attributed the drone attacks in Haiti to a specialized “Task Force” established by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé that is operated with support from the private military company Vectus Global. The US ambassador to Haiti has confirmed that the US State Department issued a license to Vectus Global to export defense services to Haiti.
Human Rights Watch interviewed five relatives of people killed or injured in a September 20, 2025, attack, as well as six community leaders, doctors, and others who either visited the site, or spoke to or treated victims afterward. Researchers also interviewed the relative of a woman killed in a different drone strike on January 1, 2026. The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) and the Eternal City Child Protection Committee (Komite pwoteksyon pou timoun Site Letènèl, or KPTSL), both Haitian civil society groups, facilitated interviews with relatives.
In the September 20 attack, a drone armed with an explosive device detonated near the “Nan Pak” sports and cultural complex in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital, where children had gathered for a gift distribution by the Simon Pelé criminal group. Human Rights Watch found that 10 people who were not members of criminal groups, including 9 children ages 3 to 12, were killed.
The number of armed drone attacks in Port-au-Prince has significantly increased in recent months, with 57 reported between November and January 21, nearly double the 29 from August through October. Over forty percent of reported killings took place between December 1 and January 21. The average number of people killed per operation is 8.8, with the most lethal operation killing 57 people.
The attacks occurred in nine communes in the West Department: Cabaret, Cité Soleil, Croix-Des-Bouquets, Delmas, Kenscoff, Léogâne, Pétion-Ville, Port-au-Prince, and Tabarre. Human Rights Watch reviewed information from multiple sources concerning the operations.
Click to expand Image Geographic distribution of reported armed drone operations by commune in Haiti’s West Department between March 1, 2025, and January 21, 2026. Source: Human Rights Watch analysis of attacks reported by organizations operating in Haiti. Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch.Researchers also analyzed seven videos uploaded to social media or shared directly with Human Rights Watch that demonstrate the use of armed quadcopter drones and geolocated four of them to Port-au-Prince. The videos show the repeated use of drones equipped with explosives to attack vehicles and people, some of them armed, but none who appear to be engaged in violent acts or pose any imminent threat to life. These videos bolster the impression that many of the drone attacks are attempts to target and extrajudicially kill people, rather than a law enforcement response that might justify the deliberate, lethal use of force.
Quadcopter drones can maneuver between buildings while tracking individuals and moving vehicles. They transmit detailed live video feeds to their operators, who control both the drones’ flight and use of weapons.
Some people living in Port-au-Prince told Human Rights Watch that drones are a constant source of terror, leaving some afraid to leave their homes. “I live with this fear, this anxiety, all the time,” said a shopkeeper living in Martissant. “I pray that the drones will no longer be in our area.”
Neither Prime Minister Fils-Aimé, the Haitian National Police nor the private military company Vectus Global responded to Human Rights Watch requests for comment.
Researchers have received information about two failed tests of armed drones by criminal group members in May 2025. The Central Directorate of the Judicial Police is investigating people allegedly involved in trafficking drones through the Dominican Republic for criminal groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti reported that criminal group leaders have tried to use and acquire drones. However, researchers did not find evidence of widespread drone use by criminal groups.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Haiti has ratified, protects the right to life. Under international human rights law standards, states are required to ensure that law enforcement officers, including those employed by private security contractors working on behalf of the government, seek to minimize injury and preserve human life.
The deliberate, lethal use of firearms and other weaponry is permissible only when strictly unavoidable in order to protect the life of any person. Any use of force, including nonlethal force, should be both necessary and proportionate.
Haitian officials have offered no indication that drone strikes were in response to any threat to life that might allow for the deliberate lethal use of force through such attacks. Instead, many of these attacks appear to be attempts to target and kill people in circumstances that amount to unlawful, extrajudicial killings.
Haitian authorities and any private military actors partnering with them should put in place strong safeguards to ensure that any deliberate lethal use of drones armed with explosives or other weaponry occurs only in the very narrow circumstances where human rights law allows it.
The authorities should also transparently investigate all allegations of unlawful killings, prosecute those responsible, and provide reparations to affected families. They should publicly clarify the command structure relevant to drone attacks, and the role private military contractors play in these operations.
The Gang Suppression Force, a UN Security Council–authorized international force created to help combat criminal groups in Haiti, should refrain from providing any operational support to the Haitian security forces until adequate safeguards are put in place to prevent unlawful killings, and should require transparency and accountability from Haitian authorities as a condition of any such cooperation.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented the use of armed quadcopter drones in attacks on civilians in populated areas in the context of armed conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any other situation where quadcopter drones armed with explosives have been used repeatedly in the context of law enforcement operations.
“Restoring security in Haiti is essential,” Goebertus said. “But unlawful attacks with armed drones are adding a new layer of abuses to the violence that has devastated communities for years.”
September 20 Attack and Aftermath
The densely populated neighborhood of Simon Pelé, where the September 20, 2025, attack took place, is controlled by the Simon Pelé criminal group. The group imposes its own rules and enforcement mechanisms and commits serious abuses against the population, including killings and sexual violence. Residents said that their phones are regularly searched, both in their homes and when they try to leave the neighborhood, and that they fear being killed if the group suspects residents of cooperating with the police.
Many families in extreme poverty rely on support distributed by the criminal group, residents and community leaders said. “You’re talking about an area where there are no services: no school, no health care, no sanitation,” said Rosy August Ducena, program director for RNDDH. “Most people there live below the poverty line.”
The day of the attack, the leader of the Simon Pelé criminal group, Albert Steevenson, alias Djouma, was preparing to distribute gifts for children at a recreation complex as part of his birthday celebration. Community leaders said such celebrations are a common practice by criminal groups. Videos verified by researchers confirm that the recreation complex, a large semi-enclosed area with colorful murals, had previously been used as a venue for concerts and has continued to be used as a gift distribution site and outdoor recreation complex for children since the attack.
Click to expand Image Location of an armed drone attack that took place in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on September 20, 2025. Source: Administrative boundaries: Centre National de l’Information Géo-Spatiale (CNIGS). While Simon Pelé is officially classified as a neighborhood within the Delmas commune, local sources primarily regard it as part of Cité Soleil. OCHA Field Information Service Section (FISS). Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch. Click to expand Image Human Rights Watch geolocation of an armed drone attack that took place in the Simon Pelé neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on September 20, 2025. Image: September 28, 2025 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and graphic © 2026 Human Rights Watch.People interviewed said many of the children affected were playing near the complex, waiting for the gift distribution or accompanying caretakers who were running errands there. Family members and witnesses described a scene of chaos and panic when the explosion occurred, with dozens of injured people waiting for help.
According to Doctors Without Borders, at least 17 people injured in the attack were treated at hospitals that day, 9 of whom, including 3 children, died. A doctor who treated victims said that the most common injuries she observed were partial and complete traumatic amputations, with most patients she treated losing at least one limb and having open and complex fractures.
The doctor said fragmentation injuries from the blast were also common. The most severe injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma, with the blast most likely having propelled people against objects or buildings or caused objects to strike them.
Family members said that the attack occurred just outside the recreation complex sometime between 7 and 8:30 p.m. Affected residents said that they were near the complex, some of them running errands while their children played in the area near the gift distribution site, when the explosion occurred.
A resident who lost both her 3-year-old daughter and her husband, an artisan working outside at the site of the explosion, said:
I heard the sound of the explosion.… My husband and daughter were together at the place where my husband makes his crafts.… There was panic, and I wanted to go and see what had happened.… I didn’t see [their bodies] at the scene. I saw blood in the areas where they had been.… I was taken to Terre Noire Hospital to see them. When I saw them, my daughter’s foot was crushed, and she had other holes in her body. [My partner] also had a crushed foot and many holes in his neck.
Another woman, whose 6-year-old daughter was killed, said she had been doing laundry in her home near the “Nan Pak” complex and briefly stepped out to buy food while her daughter played nearby: “When I arrived near the vendor, I heard an explosion. It was chaos, people were mutilated, there were noises everywhere.… It was full of children. Many people were dead.”
She buried her daughter immediately, by herself, explaining that she was too shocked to wait for help. “Her face and her rib cage, and even around her heart, all that area had been affected,” she said.
A resident who arrived shortly after the explosion saw a woman sitting at the site with her baby. “The explosion had taken off the baby’s two feet,” he said. “Two women and a man had also lost their feet. I didn’t get there right away, so there must have been more injured.”
Another woman said her 21-year-old daughter had been injured while buying food near the complex. A metal fragment propelled by the blast went through her daughter’s body, hitting near the hip and exiting through her back, she said. Her daughter survived but spent 22 days hospitalized.
A community member from another neighborhood in Cité Soleil said she agreed to help care for 3-year-old twins when their father told her their mother had been killed in the strike.
Click to expand Image Drone impact site where at least 8 children were killed and 6 others injured, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 22, 2025. © 2025 Pierre Luxama/AP PhotoHuman Rights Watch analysis of footage of the aftermath of the attack indicates that the damage is consistent with the detonation of a device containing high-explosives and pre-formed fragments. The damage is also consistent with the high-explosive payload of the size and weight that quadcopter drones known to be operated in Haiti are capable of delivering.
Several residents said that the explosion occurred in an area filled with families. The woman who lost her 6-year-old daughter said, “In the spaces where the gangs are, there are innocent people, people who raise their children, who follow normal paths.”
Some residents said that criminal group members prevented families from retrieving bodies or burying their family members, which they believed was to maintain control over the neighborhood and information about drone attacks.
A man, whose 43-year-old son sold juice in the area and was killed, said that some criminal group members transported injured people to a nearby hospital in their cars. He said that his son was not part of the criminal group.
The father of a man who was killed and several others said the criminal group organized and controlled access to a funeral inside the “Nan Pak” complex. “We could only watch from the outside, observe like any passerby, as if we were nobody,” the father said. Some residents said that only people who accepted money or support from the criminal group had been allowed to attend the funeral.
The woman who lost her daughter and her partner said she did not have the money for a burial and had to leave their bodies at the morgue.
Residents interviewed in November 2025 said that drones continued to fly over the community daily. One resident that she saw drones “all day, every day,” and that people kept their children close when they saw them for fear of what happened on September 20.
January 1 and Other Attacks
Human Rights Watch interviewed a witness to a different drone strike that took place on January 1, 2026, in downtown Port-au-Prince that killed at least one person who was not a criminal group member. Human Rights Watch confirmed the date and location of the drone strike with a source with reliable knowledge of drone operations.
A shopkeeper said that between 12:30 and 1 p.m., she was traveling with her cousin to downtown Port-au-Prince in separate vehicles when she saw a drone fall and explode onto the truck carrying her cousin.
The woman fled the explosion but returned to the scene a few minutes later, where she found her cousin dead. She said that she had been unable to recover the body because she would have had to pay criminal groups for the remains.
She stated that she had not seen or heard any sign of a threat before the explosion. “I was on the phone with my cousin when the explosion happened, so I knew that her [truck] had been hit, but I don’t know why they hit that [truck],” she said.
Human Rights Watch also reviewed and analyzed videos and images showing the use of explosive quadcopter drones in other apparent attacks on people, vehicles, and buildings in Port-au-Prince.
Video compilation uploaded to the social media platform X on June 16, 2025, showing four quadcopter drones striking a building in Martissant.
The videos analyzed by Human Rights Watch show quadcopter drones flying into their target, detonating upon or moments before impact. The videos that Human Rights Watch geolocated show quadcopter drone attacks on people in the street, as well as hitting buildings and vehicles in the Martissant and Village de Dieu areas of Port-au-Prince. One video uploaded to social media on June 17 shows the live feed of four quadcopter drones striking people and two buildings in Martissant.
Video uploaded to the social media platform X on May 31, 2025, showing an armed drone attack on a courtyard in Village de Dieu.
In another video, a drone films a quadcopter drone flying toward a courtyard in Village de Dieu and exploding just above the ground. Nine people, two of whom appear to be armed, rush to take cover shortly before the drone explodes. The video does not show the people attacked engaging in any acts of violence or appearing to pose an imminent threat to life prior to the attack. It is unclear from the video whether anyone was injured or killed. The video cuts to a road, also in Village de Dieu, where a drone is tracking a vehicle with its camera. A second drone strikes the car.
Click to expand Image Screenshot from a video uploaded to the social media platform X on November 28, 2025, showing a quadcopter drone on the ground and an apparent unexploded 3D-printed munition.Researchers also reviewed photos and videos uploaded to social media of quadcopter drones found on the ground, reportedly in Haiti’s capital, together with what appear to be unexploded munitions. The munitions appear similar to 3D-printed drone munition designs that can be found online. Researchers were unable to confirm the location of the drones and munitions due to lack of geographical information in the footage.
Unexploded ordnance left behind by armed drones that fail to function presents severe risks and can result in the direct loss of life or severe injuries that can cause a permanent disability or life-long scarring and psychological trauma.
Security Forces and the Role of Private Contractors
On March 1, 2025, Prime Minister Fils-Aimé announced that he and the Transitional Presidential Council had created a security “Task Force” to stop the advance of criminal groups. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti said the Prime Minister’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Security Unit, and the General Security Unit of the National Palace coordinate the Task Force, which is responsible for drone operations.
The prime minister said the Task Force was initially operated under the leadership of the police inspector general, Vladimir Paraison. Paraison became interim head of the Haitian National Police on August 8, 2025. Starting on January 4, 2026, the police and Paraison posted about several joint operations between the police and the Task Force on social media.
The UN Integrated Office in Haiti and other informed sources said the Task Force operates with the support of Vectus Global, a private military company led by Erik Prince. Prince’s former private military company, Blackwater, was implicated in serious crimes in Iraq in September 2007, when its employees opened fire on Iraqi civilians, killing 17.
Prince has said that Vectus Global signed a one-year contract with the Haitian transitional government and hired Salvadoran operators to support the Haitian police in using armed drones.
Human Rights Watch sent letters to Haiti’s prime minister, the Haitian National Police, and Vectus Global sharing its findings on the documented drone attacks and requesting a response. At time of writing, none had replied.
Click to expand Image Emblem seen on videos uploaded to the “Haitian Security Task Force” X social media channel.Human Rights Watch also analyzed two videos uploaded to an X page called “Haitian Security Task Force” in May 2025 showing six drone strikes, two of which researchers geolocated to Port-au-Prince. The videos are overlayed with an emblem that reads “Task Force Haïti Sécurité.” A source who archived the footage and shared it with Human Rights Watch researchers said the page first issued a post on May 8 and was taken down on May 26.
Prime Minister Fils-Aimé told the Wall Street Journal in August 2025 that the drone operations have “stopped the bleeding” and driven criminal group members into hiding. He also said that “keeping innocent citizens safe is a government priority” and that “one civilian [passing] away is one too many.” However, at time of writing, the families of victims interviewed said they had not had any contact with government officials in relation to the killings, nor access to justice or reparations.
Applicable International Human Rights Law
At least some of the drone strikes analyzed by Human Rights Watch appear to be attempts to carry out extrajudicial killings. Haitian officials have made no statements that would tend to push back against this analysis and have not replied to the request for comment on this and other points. Extrajudicial killings are unlawful violations of the rights to life and due process under international law, and officials responsible for such killings should be held accountable.
Under international human rights law, the deliberate, lethal use of force in law enforcement contexts can be permissible only when unavoidable in order to protect life. Some UN experts have warned that the use of drones may depersonalize policing, making it more difficult to ensure that force is applied minimally and appropriately, particularly in complex and crowded urban environments.
A UN resource book on the use of force and firearms in law enforcement notes that “military weapons”—which would include quadcopter drones armed with explosives designed to attack targets and produce area effects—“may be inappropriate for law enforcement, and given their nature, they may make it more difficult to comply with the obligation to apply the minimum force necessary to achieve the legitimate law enforcement objective.”
The guidance further states that military instruments “of the offensive type” should generally “not be used in law enforcement,” and that, “if they are needed for a particular situation, they must be used only by a special unit trained in their use, under special supervision and after strict authorization at the highest levels.”
Haitian authorities should refrain from using armed drones equipped with explosives, due to the difficulty of using these weapons in a manner that is consistent with the obligation to apply the minimum force necessary to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective. The use of explosives designed to produce lethal effects over an area, including with preformed or natural fragmentation, should at minimum be severely restricted in law enforcement operations.
Any further or proposed use of these types of armed drones and the individual types of explosive munitions they carry should be formally and thoroughly evaluated to ascertain whether and in what circumstances these weapons could be used in a manner consistent with international human rights standards.
Any evaluations should include a technical evaluation, taking into consideration drones’ limitations, reliability, and accuracy; an assessment of their effects, including the risks of the use of explosives in cities and towns; and an evaluation of the overall potential human rights impact of their use.
Authorities should also ensure transparency around and accountability for any unlawful death resulting from a security operation, and conduct prompt, thorough, and independent investigations to disclose, to the greatest extent possible, the number and identity of victims, and provide adequate reparation where violations have occurred.
Australia: Gender Equality Essential for National Security
(Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen gender-focused approaches across all crisis responses, Human Rights Watch said today following International Women’s Day. The authorities should acknowledge that gender equality is essential to global peace, security, and justice by supporting women-led organizations and ensuring that women are meaningfully included in decision making.
Human Rights Watch in February 2026 made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade inquiry addressing gender equality as a national security and economic security imperative. Human Rights Watch highlighted the gender-related impact of conflict, crisis, and climate change; the dangerous erosion of the basic principles of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; and the need to push for a gender-sensitive UN crimes against humanity treaty.
“International Women’s Day is a key opportunity for the Australian government to be thinking about gender equality, both domestically and abroad,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “Human Rights Watch’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee emphasizes that undermining gender equality violates international human rights law, fuels instability, and weakens countries’ resilience to crises.”
Amid rising militarism, attacks on women human rights defenders, and efforts to roll back gender rights across the globe, Australia’s leadership in advancing and defending the Women, Peace and Security agenda is paramount, Human Rights Watch said.
The Australian government should support the development of an international treaty on crimes against humanity, which provides a crucial opportunity to strengthen international criminal law protections for women and girls, and support such as creating the crime of gender apartheid. Australia should expand asylum pathways for women and girls fleeing persecution and adopt a feminist foreign policy that places the rights of women and girls at the center of all foreign policy, defense, and national security decisions, Human Rights Watch said.
“Australia has the tools to effectively promote women’s rights around the world, including a foreign minister committed to gender equality and having an ambassador for gender equality,” Gavshon said. “The Australian government can become a global leader on women’s and girls’ rights by making them a more prominent part of its foreign policy.”
Don’t Forget Tibet on Anniversary of 1959 Lhasa Uprising
Nearly seven decades since the 1959 uprising in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, the Chinese government still treats March 10 with vigilance. On that date, popular anger against eight years of control by the People’s Republic of China boiled over into protest, triggering the Chinese government’s bloody imposition of direct rule and the flight into exile of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader. Few Tibetans now dare to publicly commemorate the day as the risks are too high.
The repression of Tibet remains unrelenting. Apart from the torrent of state propaganda—well-funded and amplified in recent years by state-controlled social media—almost no independent news escapes Tibet. But a handful of exile-run platforms provide a rare window into life in this highly oppressed region. In 2024-25, they reported 45 politically motivated detentions—few about public protests—but mostly for what people did on their phones.
Nineteen Tibetans were punished for sending information abroad (many Tibetans have relatives in the diaspora), sharing “illegal” content about the Dalai Lama, or simply having such material stored on their devices. The authorities detained a waitress in Shigatse city after a random phone search—a surveillance tactic—before releasing her without charge after a year in detention.
At least 15 cases amount to enforced disappearances as the authorities have not revealed the whereabouts of the detainees, including three popular singers.
Among those 45 arbitrary detentions, two died in custody and two shortly after release.
Four senior religious figures have been detained, including Choktrul Dorje Ten and Khenpo Tenpa Dargye, both of whom ran government-approved vocational schools, highlighting the government crackdown on educational institutions that promote Tibetan language study.
Some reported detentions did stem from public protests. Five Tibetans remain in custody after the authorities arrested and mistreated hundreds for peacefully protesting the construction of a dam in Sichuan province in 2024. In March 2024, a lone Kirti monk was arrested after briefly protesting for freedom and the Dalai Lama’s return: his sentence remains unknown. And mass arrests reportedly followed large-scale protests against renewed gold mining in November 2025.
World leaders should use this moment to challenge China’s enforced silence surrounding Tibet, by pressing for information about the 45 known detention cases, accountability for deaths in custody, and genuine international access to the region.
Lebanon: Israel Unlawfully Using White Phosphorus
(Beirut) – The Israeli military unlawfully used artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over homes on March 3, 2026, in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated seven images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over a residential part of the town and civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in that area.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen. It can set homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian objects on fire. Under international humanitarian law, the use of airburst white phosphorus is unlawfully indiscriminate in populated areas and does not meet the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm.
Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated an image posted on social media the morning of March 3, showing at least two artillery-delivered white phosphorus munitions being airburst over a residential neighborhood in the town of Yohmor in southern Lebanon. Human Rights Watch identified the shape of the smoke cloud caused by the airbursts in the picture as entirely consistent with the “knuckle” made by the expelling and bursting charges of the M825-series 155mm artillery projectile that contains white phosphorous.
Earlier that day, at 5:27 a.m, Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson, issued an order stating that residents of Yohmor and 50 other villages and towns “should immediately evacuate [their homes] and move away from the villages to a distance of at least 1,000 meters outside the village to open land.” Adraee repeated the statement at 12:12 p.m. that day. Human Rights Watch has not verified whether people were in the area or injured as a result of white phosphorus use.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented the Israeli military’s widespread use of white phosphorus between October 2023 and May 2024 across border villages in southern Lebanon, which put civilians at grave risk and contributed to civilian displacement.
White phosphorus can be used for multiple purposes, including to obscure, mark, signal, or directly attack military personnel and materiel. Concerns over its use in populated areas are amplified by the technique shown in videos of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles, which spread 116 burning felt wedges impregnated with the substance over an area between 125 and 250 meters in diameter, depending on the altitude and angle of the burst, indiscriminately exposing more civilians and civilian structures to potential harm than a localized ground burst.
Human Rights Watch also verified and geolocated photographs posted to Facebook at 11:34 a.m. and 1:36 p.m. by the Civil Defense Team of the Islamic Health Committee in Yohmor, which is affiliated with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. The photographs show workers extinguishing fires on residential rooftops and in a car and smoke emerging from the balconies of a home, which the Civil Defense Team attributed to white phosphorous. The geolocated sites were inside a radius of less than 160 meters.
Human Rights Watch analysis indicates the fire was likely caused by felt wedges impregnated with white phosphorus given the proximity of the house and the car to the area where airburst munitions were observed, indicating that the munitions were used unlawfully over concentrations of civilians.
Since the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, at least 217 people have been killed in Lebanon as of March 6, according to the health ministry, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
The Israeli military has issued displacement orders for the entire population of Lebanon south of the Litani River and all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, which include hundreds of thousands of people. The sweeping nature of the Israeli military’s displacement orders raises concerns that their primary purpose is not to protect civilians but to instead spread terror and panic, especially in the context of recent large-scale displacement of civilians in Lebanon, raising serious risks of the war crime of forced displacement, Human Rights Watch said.
Israel should prohibit all use of airburst artillery-delivered white phosphorus munitions in populated areas because it puts civilians at risk of indiscriminate attacks. There are available alternatives to white phosphorus in smoke shells, including some produced by Israeli companies such as the M150 smoke projectile, which the Israeli army has used in the past as an obscurant, a means of hindering the visibility of its forces. These alternatives can have the same effect and dramatically reduce the harm to civilians.
Human Rights Watch has urged Israel’s key allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, to suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on officials credibly implicated in grave crimes. Lebanon’s judicial authorities should initiate domestic investigations of serious international crimes, and the government should accede to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Rome Statute and submit a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction prior to the date of accession, including since at least October 7, 2023.
Israel’s widespread use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon highlights the need for stronger international law on incendiary weapons, Human Rights Watch said. Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons is the only legally binding instrument dedicated specifically to incendiary weapons. Lebanon is party to Protocol III, while Israel is not.
Protocol III applies to weapons that are “primarily designed” to set fires or cause burns, and thus excludes certain multipurpose munitions with incendiary effects, notably those containing white phosphorus. In addition, it has weaker regulations for the use in “concentrations of civilians” of ground-launched incendiary weapons—like the ones used in Lebanon—than airdropped incendiary weapons, even though they produce the same horrific injuries.
“Concentrations of civilians” is defined broadly to encompass populated areas ranging from villages to refugee camps to cities. Human Rights Watch and many countries have long called for closing these loopholes in Protocol III and creating international norms that better protect civilians from the harm caused by incendiary weapons.
“Israel should immediately halt this practice and states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and push Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas,” Kaiss said.
US/Israel: Investigate Iran School Attack as a War Crime
(Beirut, March 7, 2026) – An unlawful attack on a primary school in southern Iran before midday on February 28, 2026, that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including many children, should be investigated as a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today.
The attack was carried out among hundreds of strikes across Iran by Israeli and US forces on the morning of February 28. Neither the United States nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack, and an Israeli military spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that it was “not aware of any [Israeli military] strikes in the area.” The Iranian government has blamed the US-Israeli coalition for the attack.
The Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the town of Minab, Hormozgan province, is on the interior border of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Naval Forces compound. However, information Human Rights Watch reviewed shows that the school is walled off and has a separate entrance to the street from the rest of the compound.
The pattern of strikes in which distinct structures across the compound, including the school, were directly struck, as well as the entry points of the munitions visible on multiple buildings, indicate that the attack was carried out by highly accurate, guided munitions, rather than errant weapons whose guidance or propulsion systems failed or were otherwise disrupted and randomly struck the area.
“A prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including if those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and their teachers before midday,” said Sophia Jones, open source researcher with the Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for an unlawful attack should be held to account, including prosecutions of anyone responsible for war crimes.”
Click to expand Image Map of the town of Minab, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School, the IRGC Naval Forces Compound and the Minab Hermud Cemetery. Graphics © 2026 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch verified and analyzed 14 videos and photographs posted on social media that were recorded immediately after the strike or during search-and-rescue operations, as well as 4 from funerals. Researchers also reviewed about 40 publicly available satellite images captured over the past 25 years as well as satellite images obtained commercially that were captured after the attack, showing both the attack site and the nearby cemetery where victims were apparently buried. Researchers also reviewed statements by the Iranian Red Crescent Society and government officials from Iran, Israel, and the United States, and reports by independent media outlets outside Iran.
Due to the internet shutdown and communications restrictions imposed by Iran’s authorities, Human Rights Watch was unable to safely speak with witnesses or family members of those killed in the strike, limiting researchers’ ability to verify the precise number and identities of children and other individuals killed and other details related to the attack. However, researchers interviewed two sources who had spoken with witnesses and relatives of victims. Human Rights Watch is also investigating Iranian forces’ strikes on targets in countries in the Middle East.
The exact nature of the different sections in the IRGC compound, the extent to which the facilities were in use for military purposes at the time of the attack, and what may have been stored there was not immediately apparent. If any of the facilities within the compound were used for military purposes, Iranian authorities would appear to have been placing civilians at unnecessary risk and therefore also would have been in violation of the laws of war.
Satellite imagery analysis shows that at least eight structures across the compound were directly struck by munitions, including at least one that struck and severely damaged the school, which was walled off from the rest of the compound.
Two videos filmed next to the school in the immediate aftermath of the attack and verified by researchers show black smoke billowing from the top of the school and part of its roof collapsed. In one video, white lines of a soccer pitch, a volleyball net, and brightly painted school walls are clearly visible, as are two smoke plumes from elsewhere on the compound. In the second video, people are gathered around the school, screaming. A third video verified by researchers shows a different angle of the compound, from the south, and plumes of smoke from at least a third location within that compound.
High-resolution satellite imagery reveals that, between February and September 2016, an inner wall was built that separates the school from the rest of the compound. Moreover, a separate entrance without a security post was created during that time frame, allowing street access to the school without having to enter the military compound. Two watchtowers, previously visible on satellite imagery and less than 50 meters from the school building, were also removed in 2016. The front of the school was cleared and marking lines of a soccer pitch were drawn in the courtyard by August 2017.
The compound also contains a medical clinic, under the auspices of the IRGC’s Naval Forces. State media reported that it was inaugurated in January 2025 by Major General Hossein Salami, the then-commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
Low-resolution satellite imagery from March 2, 2026, shows at least seven other impact sites within the IRGC compound in addition to the school, including a clear impact on the medical clinic’s roof. An analysis of very high-resolution satellite imagery captured on March 4 confirms that explosive weapons detonated in at least eight points, including five sites where damage is consistent with a munition entering the structures from the roof and detonating.
Click to expand Image Satellite imagery captured on March 4, 2026, shows the main impact sites and damaged structures within the IRGC Naval Forces Compound, including Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School, following the February 28 attack. At least eight impact sites are visible, including destroyed buildings and structures showing significant damage consistent with the point of detonation of an explosive weapon. Neighboring buildings appear to have sustained damage caused by blast effects or fire consistent with having been directly hit by an explosive weapon. Image: March 4, 2026 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights WatchDamage to two other structures, as well as the relative distance between these and others attacked, indicate that both structures were most likely also directly attacked with explosive weapons, bringing the total number of impact sites most likely directly attacked to ten. The number of individual strikes and the apparent accuracy with which they struck individual structures across the base, observed in part through the relatively small circular holes that were points of entry for the munitions, indicate that the attack was carried out across a wide set of individual targets on the base with highly accurate, guided munitions.
The school’s location within the IRGC Naval Force’s compound did not, in and of itself, make the school a legitimate target. The school was in use, and children were in attendance on the day of the attack. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that would indicate that the school was being used for military purposes, though researchers were not able to speak to witnesses of the strikes, families of those killed, or other informed sources.
Even if the attackers were targeting a legitimate military target in the vicinity of the school, the laws of war prohibit attacks on military objectives if the anticipated harm to civilians and civilian objects is disproportionate compared to the expected military gain from the attack.
Both the US and Israeli militaries possess and have used advanced and expansive multi-domain intelligence collection methods in their conduct of many combat operations, which allow for enhanced monitoring, assessment and verification of targets.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the US and Israeli militaries on March 2 and to Iranian authorities on March 3. The Israeli military responded on March 3, writing: “After an initial examination[,] [t]he [Israeli military]is not aware of any [Israeli military] strikes in the area,” and that “the incident is being examined.” Neither the US military nor Iranian authorities have responded.
On March 4, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to a question in a media briefing about the attack on the school. “All I can say is that we’re investigating that,” he said. “We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we’re taking a look and investigating that.” During that briefing, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said that US forces from the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group were providing “pressure” along the “southeastern side of the coast and has been attritting naval capability all along the strait,” as he pointed to an area of a map that included Minab, where the map shows there had been US/Israeli strikes.
A thorough, independent investigation into the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School should be conducted, including to determine whether war crimes were committed, Human Rights Watch said. War crimes are serious violations of the laws of war committed with criminal intent, that is deliberately or recklessly. Those responsible for any war crimes or other serious violations of the laws of war, including military and civilian commanders, should be held to account, while victims and their families should be appropriately compensated.
Schools and other educational facilities are civilian objects and protected from attack. They lose that protection when used for military purposes, although all parties must still comply with international humanitarian law including respecting the principle of proportionality and taking all feasible measures to minimize harm to civilians. The mere presence of military personnel in civilian infrastructure does not in itself automatically make such facilities as whole a legitimate military target. Human Rights Watch has seen no information to indicate that the Shajareh Tayyebeh school was used for military purposes.
Iranian authorities should ensure the protection of schools and other civilian infrastructure.
The United States should immediately assess its responsibility for this strike and make the findings public. If the US military carried out the strike, it should conduct a full investigation into the operational and policy failures that led it to strike a school, fully account for the civilian harm caused, hold those responsible accountable including through prosecution, and commit to changes that would ensure such failures will not be repeated in future operations.
“Allies of the US and Israel should insist on accountability for the Shajareh Tayyebeh school attack and for an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure in all of their operations across the region, before more civilians, including children, are unlawfully killed,” Jones said.
For additional details, please see below.The school and work week in Iran begin on Saturday morning. The first reports of the US and Israeli attacks in Iran surfaced online before 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 28. The Shajareh Tayyebeh school administration called parents to pick up their children, but “the time between the announcement of the school’s closure and the moment of the explosion was extremely short; many families had not yet arrived,” the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said in a statement on March 1.
Satellite imagery from February 28 shows the school intact as of 10:23 a.m. The attack took place sometime before 11:47 a.m., when the first video of the attack surfaced on social media. Local media, citing Iranian officials, said the attack on the school took place around 10:45 a.m.
As of March 4, the death toll from this attack had risen to 168, Iranian state media reported. Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently verify that number. Researchers reviewed a list of 57 names announced by the Special Governor’s Office of Minab County and circulated by news outlets on March 2. Of the names on that list, at least 48 appear to have been children, according to their birth dates on the list. Researchers analyzed this list of names, which included girls, boys, women, and men, and in some cases were able to immediately match names with other identifying information, such as photographs, caskets, body bags, or funerary materials with names, ages, names of family members, and whether they were identified as a student or teacher at the school. The list included the apparent principal of the school and several teachers.
Researchers identified an additional 25 names by reviewing a list published by Iran’s Gymnastics Federation and names written on body bags, caskets, or funerary materials, as seen in photographs and videos published by state media between March 3 and 6. At least 15 of them appear to be children; researchers were unable to determine the ages of the remaining 10. Human Rights Watch was not able to immediately obtain information regarding the remaining individuals reported to have been killed or about people who may have been killed in strikes elsewhere on the compound.
Videos shared on social media on February 28 and analyzed by researchers show an ambulance arriving at the Hazrat Abolfazl hospital roughly two kilometers from the school. Other videos show 12 body bags lying on the ground, and photographs show the bodies of what appears to be 4 girls, their faces covered in dust, dressed in school uniforms lying in body bags. Another video analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows the body of a child with a head wound, who is wearing the same green checkered school uniform as a surviving boy seen in another video analyzed by researchers.
Additional verified photographs taken by Mehr News on February 28 and circulated by the Associated Press show men, including some in uniform, digging through the rubble of the school. At least one body buried in the rubble is visible in these photographs.
On March 2, a video published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) shows graves being dug at the Minab Hermud cemetery in preparation for funerals on March 3. Aerial imagery of the cemetery published on March 2 shows at least 100 new grave locations, 83 of them being dug with the use of heavy machinery. Ground preparation for the burials within the same cemetery plot seen in the photos and videos began in the afternoon of March 1, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch.
Satellite imagery captured on March 1 and 4, 2026 shows changes at Minab Hermud Cemetery located roughly 3.5 kilometers from the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School. Imagery from March 1, captured less than 24 hours after the attack, shows soil preparation for new burials within one plot of the cemetery. By March 4, rows of freshly dug individual graves are visible in the upper half of the same plot.
Image left: March 1, 2026, and Image right: March 4, 2026 © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights WatchPhotographs published from the funerals on March 3 show crowds of people at the cemetery standing next to the graves. Fourteen caskets had been placed into the graves, while others were empty in one photograph. Human Rights Watch was unable to verify whether all 100 graves were used for people killed in the attack on the school. According to reports online, at least two people’s funerals took place elsewhere outside of Minab.
Further Analysis of Structures in the IRGC Compound and Strike ImpactsIn addition to the unguarded entrance from the street to the school, which was walled off from the rest of the compound, at least seven other entrances to different parts of the compound can be seen on satellite imagery from February 19. An undated photograph shows a sign at a southern entrance on the main road that reads “Seyyed Al-Shohada Cultural and Educational Complex” alongside an IRGC logo.
Sixty meters north, at another entrance on the main road, a photograph uploaded to Google Maps in February shows a sign for the “Shaheed Absalan Specialist Clinic, the Health Commandment of the IRGC’s Naval Force.” Human Rights Watch also geolocated a picture published in 2025 showing the facade of the clinic. At the main entrance of the complex, an undated photograph shows a sign with the IRGC logo and the word for “barracks” or “unit.”
Analysis of images taken over the last 25 years shows structural changes within the military compound itself, including the construction of additional inner walls that separate different areas within the compound between 2022 and 2024. As a result, additional separate gates to access the different sections of the compound were constructed between 2022 to 2025.
Click to expand Image Satellite imagery captured on February 19, 2026, shows the IRGC Naval Forces Compound nine days before the attack. Analysis of previous satellite imageries by Human Rights Watch and overlayed on the map shows how and when the compound was partitioned into several sections. © Image © 2026 Vantor. Source: EUSI. Analysis and Graphics © 2026 Human Rights WatchLow-resolution satellite imagery from March 2, 2026, shows at least seven other impact sites within the IRGC compound, in addition to the school, including a clear impact on the rooftop of the Shaheed Absalan clinic. The buildings all appeared intact on satellite imagery captured at 10:23 a.m. on February 28. A very high-resolution satellite image from March 4 shows at least eight areas that were directly struck. Five buildings, including the school and the medical clinic, show damage consistent with a large munition striking and entering the roof before detonating. Four other buildings are completely destroyed, indicating they were also directly struck by a munition with a large high-explosive yield. Two of the buildings are immediately adjacent to one another, indicating that they were struck by at least one munition.
Two other buildings on the compound exhibit fire damage. Due to the relative distance between them and the nearby structures that were also struck, it is likely that the fire damage is the result of these buildings also being individually struck by explosive weapons, bringing the total number of buildings most likely directly attacked to 10. In all, 14 buildings across the site were damaged, nearly all of the structures within the compound.
Further Legal BackgroundThe laws of war obligate warring parties to take constant care to spare the civilian population. All feasible precautions must be taken to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Unless circumstances do not permit, warring parties should give “effective advance warning” of attacks that may affect the civilian population. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any warning having been given in advance of the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school.
The laws of war also obligate warring parties to avoid locating military targets near densely populated areas.
Serious violations of the laws of war carried out by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. A combatant or commander may have acted recklessly when they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk of causing prohibited harm—such as death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects—during an armed conflict.
Investigations into the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school should consider whether those responsible acted recklessly, including if they should have known that they were attacking a school, and that an attack during the middle of the day on a school day would have most likely resulted in a large number of civilian casualties.
Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime. Civilian and military commanders may be held criminally liable for war crimes committed by their subordinates that they knew or should have known about and failed to take reasonable measures to prevent the crimes or submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution. All state parties to an armed conflict are obligated to investigate alleged war crimes by members of their armed forces.
Further Context on Access to Information in IranOn February 28, 2026, internet traffic dropped significantly in Iran, indicating a nationwide blackout following strikes across the country by the United States and Israel. Cloudflare Radar, a network measurement platform that provides real-time information on internet traffic, said that internet traffic dropped by 98 percent, signaling a near-complete blackout. Iranian authorities have a track record of imposing internet disruptions and shutdowns during times of conflict and crisis, including during protest crackdowns, to restrict access to information, conceal atrocities they commit, and obstruct independent documentation of violations.
United Nations member states should urge Iranian authorities to restore internet access, which has been shut down since the start of US and Israeli forces’ attacks on February 28. The near-total internet shutdown across the country severely restricts access to information, including evacuation orders and safety measures, which can be lifesaving. International policymakers and companies should also support the provision of internet services for the civilian population affected by internet shutdowns, including by building out satellite communication services.
Further Context on US and Israeli Attacks on Iran and the United StatesDuring a March 2 press briefing on military operations in Iran, Gen. Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the preparations for the overall attacks were extensive. He added that “[o]n the U.S. side, this marked the culmination of months, and in some cases, years of deliberate planning and refinement against this particular target set.” Caine emphasized that this preparation spanned across multiple aspects of the US operations “[f]rom precision strikes against key military infrastructure, to persistent intelligence and targeting integration, to the close coordination of the components across vast distances.” The Israeli military stated on February 28, as strikes were ongoing in Iran, that the attacks were based on “precise intelligence,” and has since continued to assert that the attacks are intelligence-based.
Human Rights Watch is concerned that under the second Trump administration, the Defense Department has deliberately and systematically weakened its domestic protections meant to ensure its compliance with the laws of armed conflict. Those include the termination of senior military lawyers, reported loosening of targeting protocols, and the elimination of “civilian environment teams” and “red-teams” within the operational chain of command. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commented at a news conference on March 2, 2026, about “stupid rules of engagement,” suggesting that they may interfere with “fight[ing] to win.” The US Congress should hold hearings to understand how and if these rollbacks contributed to any civilian harm verified to be caused by the US military in Iran.
Cameroonian Separatist Leaders Arrested in Belgium
On March 3, Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrest of four individuals—three of whom remain in detention—as part of an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by an armed separatist group in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.
The investigation focuses on individuals in Belgium suspected of holding leadership roles in the Ambazonia Defence Forces,the armed wing of the Ambazonia Governing Council, a movement seeking independence for Cameroon’s minority English-speaking regions. While officials have not yet publicly identified the suspects, they confirmed the men are members of the Ambazonia Defence Forces.
Authorities believe that “instructions for attacks” were issued from Belgium.
Since 2015, armed separatist groups in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have carried out serious abuses: killing civilians and using violence to enforce school boycotts that have deprived thousands of children of an education.
The four arrests in Belgium are not the first efforts to pursue accountability for alleged crimes by Cameroonian separatist leaders abroad. In April 2025, a US grand jury issued an indictment against Eric Tataw, a Cameroonian living in the United States. Tataw is charged with offenses including threatening violence against civilians in the Anglophone regions. In September 2024, Norwegian police arrested Lucas Cho Ayaba, leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council, on suspicion of inciting crimes against humanity in Cameroon.
Since the 2015 Anglophone crisis began, Cameroon’s security forces have also been implicated in grave abuses, including extrajudicial killings, the burning of homes, arbitrary arrests, and torture of suspected separatists. Yet efforts to hold government forces accountable have been weak.
A recent ruling on the 2020 Ngarbuh massacre illustrates the problem. In February, a Cameroonian military court convicted three soldiers and a pro-government militiaman for killing 21 civilians but issued lenient sentences and neither investigated those who ordered the attack nor provided reparations to victims’ families.
Justice for Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis cannot be selective. All those responsible for serious international crimes should face credible investigations and prosecutions.
New Report Warns Trump EPA Undermining Health
Weaker regulations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are putting millions at risk of higher exposure to deadly air pollutants, hundreds of former EPA scientists said in a new report. Published on February 27, “Terrible Toxics” found that under President Donald Trump, the EPA has abandoned safeguards necessary to protect communities’ health.
The Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit made up of over 700 former EPA officials, studied how a dozen toxic pollutants are poised to wreak even greater havoc due to recent EPA rollbacks. This includes air pollutants that have been linked to respiratory diseases, reproductive health harms, and early deaths: particulate matter, ozone, benzene, formaldehyde, and vinyl chloride. Human Rights Watch has documented how air pollution often directly harms front line communities, which frequently includes low-income communities of color.
According to the report, the EPA is worsening exposure to these air pollutants by repealing emissions standards for power plants, delaying requirements for the oil and gas industry to cut pollution, and ending its longstanding policy of considering health costs when determining pollutant limits. These pollutants, most of which are also known carcinogens, are emitted at dangerous levels by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry.
In 2024, Human Rights Watch found that communities at the front lines of these industry operations in Louisiana face elevated risks of cancer, respiratory ailments, and reproductive and newborn health harm. That 85-mile corridor known as “Cancer Alley” was singled out in the EPN report as being especially threatened by the Trump EPA’s sweeping reversal of regulations.
“When EPA weakens standards on all five pollutants at once, [Cancer Alley] residents don’t face five separate health burdens,” the report said. “They face a multiplied, cumulative health burden. Children breathe a chemical cocktail daily.”
The former EPA scientists also chided the agency for dismantling protections for communities of color, who are among those who will suffer most from higher pollution. One of the earliest attacks on human rights under Trump’s EPA was the shuttering of environmental justice offices that invested in preventing and addressing environmental harm disproportionately concentrated within Black and minority communities.
The EPA under Trump should stop its assault on regulations essential to protect the health of millions of US residents. By providing the fossil fuel industry with greater leeway to contaminate the air, the rights of communities at the front lines are being needlessly sacrificed.
Iran: Internet Shutdown Violates Rights, Escalates Risks to Civilians
(Beirut) – Iranian authorities should immediately end the ongoing internet shutdown and communications restrictions, which place civilians at risk of further harm, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should also support internet access for the civilian population.
On February 28, 2026, internet traffic dropped significantly, indicating a nationwide blackout following strikes across the country by the United States and Israel. Cloudflare Radar, a network measurement platform that provides real-time information on internet traffic, said that internet traffic in Iran dropped by 98 percent on February 28, signaling a near-complete blackout. State affiliated media have indicated that only pre-approved websites are accessible through the National Information Network.
“Shutting down the internet during times of crisis restricts access to lifesaving information, such as where strikes are taking place and how to safely access medical care,” said Tomiwa Ilori, senior technology and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Internet shutdowns can also contribute to severe psychological harm on people during the conflict as they are unable to contact their loved ones.”
Iranian authorities have a track record of imposing internet disruptions and shutdowns during times of conflict and crisis, including during protests, to restrict access to information, conceal atrocities they commit, and obstruct independent documentation of violations. On January 8, authorities imposed a 21-day internet shutdown along with severe communications restrictions as security forces massacred thousands of protesters and bystanders across the country within the span of two days. During the 12-day Israel-Iran armed conflict in June 2025, Iranian authorities imposed a similar near-total internet shutdown.
Other recent examples include in November 2019, a near-total 12-day internet shutdown that was imposed by Iranian authorities as nationwide protests engulfed the country and the authorities lethally repressed the protests, killing and injuring protesters and bystanders. Similarly, during the brutal repression of Women, Life, Freedom protests of September to December 2022, the authorities imposed a range of measures to restrict internet access, including localized and short-term shutdowns.
The ongoing military attacks from the United States and Israel and Iran’s in military actions against a number of countries in the region do not justify blanket internet shutdowns in the country.
Such sweeping internet shutdowns violate a range of human rights. They help conceal large-scale atrocities, contribute to the spread of mis- and disinformation, and unlawfully restrict access to information. At the same time, the shutdowns severely hamper the work of journalists and human rights monitors, including documentation and reporting on possible laws of war violations by all parties. Communications blackouts could also contribute to impunity for human rights violations,
These shutdowns place civilians at further risk of serious harm, including injury and death, with numerous daily military strikes across the country. The shutdowns prevent people from timely access to information about safety measures, lifesaving services, and sources of food and shelter. Internet shutdowns during conflicts and humanitarian emergencies also inflict psychological harm by cutting people off from their loved ones.
International human rights law protects the right of people to freely seek, receive, and provide information and ideas through all media, including the internet. Any security-related restrictions on the use of the internet should be implemented according to clear law and be a necessary and proportionate response to a specific security concern.
Any shutdown of communication networks during conflict, including mobile data, which is regularly used for both civilian and military purposes, would need to take into account the basic principles of the laws of war, including necessity and proportionality.
While in some circumstances imposing restrictions on the internet and communications may serve a legitimate military purpose, such as denying belligerent forces a means of communicating with one another and carrying out attacks, any such restrictions need to also comply with the principle of proportionality, which prohibits actions in which the expected civilian harm is excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage.
The blanket and widespread shutdown of the internet and civilian communications, being imposed by the Iranian authorities, would not be justified under international humanitarian or human rights law, taking into account the significant harm this inflicts on civilians and the lack of proportionality in such sweeping bans, Human Rights Watch said.
In their 2015 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Responses to Conflict Situations, United Nations experts said that even in times of conflict, the use of communication “kill switches” (i.e. shutting down entire parts of communications systems) can never be justified under human rights law.
The government should restore unrestricted access to the internet and communications networks throughout the country. The international community should also support internet access for the civilian population.
“The international community, including policy makers and companies, should explore technical and regulatory measures to help civilians access the internet in conflict settings,” Ilori said. They should also support populations affected by internet shutdowns, including by building out satellite connectivity for use in humanitarian contexts.
Russia Declares Leading LGBT Rights Group ‘Extremist’
Last week, a St. Petersburg court in a closed door hearing, designated a leading Russian LGBT rights group, Coming Out, as an “extremist organization.” The ruling delivers another severe blow to a community that has become a key target of the Kremlin’s harmful “traditional values” crusade.
Coming Out is the first LGBT rights organization to be formally designated “extremist” since Russia’s Supreme Court in 2023 prohibited the so-called International LGBT Movement, opening the floodgates for arbitrary prosecutions of LGBT individuals or those perceived to be, along with anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them.
The case against Coming Out stemmed from a classified lawsuit filed by Russia’s Justice Ministry and authorities did not disclose any details of the proceedings. It represents yet another example of Russian authorities weaponizing the justice system to marginalize and censor LGBT people and their supporters, flagrantly violating their rights to free expression, association, and nondiscrimination.
In a statement released on social media, the organization, which now operates from outside Russia, said it had long anticipated such an outcome in light of the 2023 ruling and that it will continue assisting LGBT people inside Russia and in exile.
“This [designation] is another confirmation that our work is important and needed – otherwise, the government would not have made all these efforts to stop it,” the group said. No court ruling cancels out the reality of people needing psychological support, legal assistance, information and human empathy. Today, it is particularly important not to succumb to fear and not to stay in isolation. Our community is stronger than any [extremism or other] labels, which has been proven by history. Love is stronger than hate. We will be with you for as long as you need us.”
The extremist designation puts Coming Out activists at risk of criminal prosecution facing up to ten years’ imprisonment. Those who continue to engage with the organization risk up to six years in prison.
The Justice Ministry has brought similar cases against two other groups, LGBT Network and Irida, which are currently pending.
Other governments and international institutional should call on the Kremlin to end its crackdown on LGBT people and their supporters. Governments should also provide safe haven and meaningful protection to those fleeing Russia for fear of prosecution.
US Abortion Restrictions Causing Preventable Deaths
State restrictions on abortion, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the US constitution does not confer a right to abortion, are creating risks to pregnant people nationwide. Women are dying preventable deaths because abortion care is denied or delayed due to state restrictions.
Thirteen states enforce complete abortion bans, while others impose harsh limits on when a pregnancy can be ended. According to the Gender Equity Policy Institute, women in states with abortion bans are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as those in states where abortion is legal and accessible. Women of color, in particular, are disproportionately harmed.
Women’s access to reproductive healthcare services, an essential element of their right to health, has also been severely restricted by financial cuts and limitations, including for Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Pregnant women and adolescents have been detained under the administration’s ongoing brutal immigration enforcement and are unable to access adequate healthcare services while in detention. Some have had miscarriages while experiencing medical neglect.
Two Tennessee Republicans recently proposed a bill that would make it possible to sentence women to death for having an abortion.
Anti-abortion groups are also attempting to block or severely restrict access nationwide to mifepristone, the drug used for medical abortion. Despite its more than two decades of safe use in the US, and its recognition as a safe, effective medication used in nearly 100 countries worldwide. Six states are currently engaged in three federal lawsuits challenging the use of mifepristone.
International human rights law affirms that access to reproductive health care is closely linked to the rights to life, health, privacy, equality, and freedom from discrimination. Restrictive abortion laws can also constitute discriminatory access barriers that undermine women’s right to health.
The US continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations around the globe, even as it is attempting to further limit access to reproductive health services. Data shows that 80 percent of maternal deaths in the US are preventable. On this International Women’s Day, it is time to remind US decision-makers that access to reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion, is a human right.
Kyrgyzstan: Women, Girls with Disabilities Face Abuse
(Bishkek, March 6, 2026) – Women with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan face alarming rates of harassment, physical and sexual abuse, and economic discrimination, despite legal reforms, Human Rights Watch said today, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2026.
The Kyrgyz government has taken positive steps in the last year to address violence against women with disabilities and to uphold their rights. But the government needs to provide effective protection from harassment and abuse.
“Women and girls with disabilities are still not heard and believed, and are unable to access Kyrgyzstan’s justice system, even as progress is made on paper,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kyrgyz authorities should make their promises a reality and address existing gaps.”
Based on March 2025 research by Equality, a grassroots organization of women with disabilities, although violence was widespread, very few women reported it or received meaningful support from the government. The group surveyed 150 women with disabilities across seven regions of Kyrgyzstan, with nearly 93 percent reporting having experienced abuse and, in some cases, multiple forms.
Of those surveyed, 140 reported psychological abuse, 80 reported harassment, 70 economic problems, 60 physical violence, and 40 sexual violence. Only eight had ever sought help from the police or medical services, citing deep distrust of law enforcement, lack of information about their rights, fear of shame and social judgment, and concern for their own safety in cases where the abuser was a family member.
This data echoes findings that Human Rights Watch documented in its December 2023 report, “Abused by Relatives, Ignored by the State”, based on interviews with 56 survivors across three provinces of Kyrgyzstan. As Human Rights Watch reported at the time, families frequently concealed the existence of relatives with disabilities from society, while law enforcement routinely minimized reported cases, and shelters and legal services were largely inaccessible to survivors with disabilities.
In February 2025, President Sadyr Japarov signed into law legal amendments to the criminal code introducing harsher penalties for sexual violence offenses against people with disabilities, and recognizing disability as an aggravating factor. It also eliminated exemptions from imprisonment for convicted offenders who had committed sexual violence against persons with disabilities. While these changes respond to the heightened risk of sexual violence faced by many women and girls with disabilities, framing disability itself as a basis for harsher penalties and grouping people with disabilities with children can risk reinforcing paternalistic attitudes and stereotypes of inherent vulnerability rather than ensuring equal protection, Human Rights Watch said.
In August, President Japarov signed a law on “Rights and Guarantees of People with Disabilities” which aligns the country’s legislation on disability rights issues with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This requires Kyrgyzstan to move away from what is referred to as the “medical model” of disability, which largely focuses on a person’s medical condition, and toward the social model, which recognizes the human rights of people with disabilities, including social protection and full legal capacity on an equal basis with others.
Among the new approaches is the acceptance that the government has a responsibility to support citizens with disabilities to acquire, develop, and maintain skills for independent living. It also would require the government to provide support to enable people with disabilities to, for example, perform a job, access services, or participate in public events.
Throughout 2025, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Labor, Social Welfare, and Migration organized educational seminars for law enforcement and judicial personnel across the country on supporting women with disabilities to access justice. In 2024, a practical guide was developed by lawyers and human rights defenders for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and social workers on protecting women with disabilities from violence. Local nongovernmental organizations, funded by the country’s international partners, are providing more social justice and empowerment projects focusing on women with disabilities.
However, serious gaps remain in access to justice. While the authorities collect data on domestic violence, it is still not disaggregated by specific populations, including women and girls with disabilities. Official statistics on victims and survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, and forced and child marriage do not include any information about disability, nor are there any official or nongovernmental studies that accurately measure the prevalence of the various types of domestic violence against women and girls with disabilities.
Based on the Equality research, Kyrgyzstan’s justice system is still structurally unprepared and often unwilling to handle cases involving women and girls with disabilities. Courthouses and police stations remain physically inaccessible: only 25 percent of all buildings in Bishkek, the country’s capital, are equipped with ramps. There are still no adapted information materials, and sign language interpretation is almost entirely absent in legal proceedings. Survivors of violence still face an entrenched culture of disbelief and dismissal.
In one case documented by Equality from the town of Karakol, a judge has refused to admit the recorded testimony of a young woman with disabilities whom two men kidnapped and raped over the course of three days. The court cited her legal incapacity status as reason for refusal, a direct result of Kyrgyzstan’s outdated guardianship system, which strips people of legal standing and heightens their risk of abuse. Another case, involving a girl from the village of Tyup, ultimately resulted in a conviction and was referred to the Supreme Court, showing that justice is achievable, but only through exceptional effort and often years of persistence, Human Rights Watch said.
International partners, UN agencies, and development organizations operating in Kyrgyzstan should continue prioritizing funding for organizations led by or serving people with disabilities and should support independent civil society monitoring of the implementation of the 2025 legal reforms.
“The laws Kyrgyzstan passed in 2025 are a testament to what is possible when governments listen to advocates,” Sultanalieva said.” Now the government needs to show that these are not just symbolic gestures. Women and girls with disabilities should be safe: in their homes, in their communities, and before the law."