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Bangladesh: New Government Should Prioritize Human Rights
(London) – Bangladesh’s recently elected prime minister, Tarique Rahman, and his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government face many urgent challenges but can use this opportunity to bring lasting protections of human rights, nine rights groups wrote in a letter to Rahman published today.
Prime Minister Rahman came to office following a landslide election victory in February 2026. The election was conducted by an interim government that had replaced the increasingly abusive 15-year rule of the former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled by mass protests in 2024. While the widespread rights violations including enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings under Hasina’s rule ended, the interim government continued to arbitrarily detain political opponents, and was unable to end mob violence against journalists, religious minorities, and cultural centers.
“Tarique Rahman has been given a wide mandate to bring change, including by many Bangladeshis who risked their lives to overthrow an autocratic government,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Success will require meaningful reform to ensure that independent institutions are capable of delivering accountability and upholding the rule of law, and real commitment to upholding rights such as freedom of religion and expression.”
Among the priorities highlighted in the letter are ending arbitrary detention, holding those responsible for past violations accountable, abolishing the abusive Rapid Action Battalion, and protecting ethnic and religious minorities. The groups also said that the government should protect the rights of over a million Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh and establish a strong and independent National Human Rights Commission. The groups made specific recommendations in their letter for policy measures and legislative steps.
During the election campaign, the BNP made numerous commitments to safeguard rights, including economic rights, by increasing the resources available for health, education, environmental protections, and social security.
Ecuador: Government Defies Court-Ordered Oil Ban
(Quito) – Ecuador is failing to comply with key provisions of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples, Human Rights Watch said today. The groups live in voluntary isolation near oil facilities inside Yasuní National Park.
On March 14, 2025, the court ordered Ecuador to take measures to protect the Indigenous groups, including by immediately stopping oil operations in an area of Yasuní National Park called Block 43. Ecuador’s government was already obliged to stop oil production in Block 43 based on a 2023 national referendum. Despite a court-ordered deadline of March 2026 to improve protective measures and monitoring, the government has produced few results.
“Ecuador continues to allow extraction from Block 43, putting oil production above the rights of Indigenous communities,” said José Rodríguez Orúe, Kenneth Roth practitioner-in-residence at Human Rights Watch. “Ecuador should take immediate steps to suspend oil extraction in Block 43 and fully comply with the court’s ruling to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples in the national park.”
Despite the court order, during 2025 the government allowed oil production from Block 43 to continue and has not provided information on nearby environmental conditions. The government has also failed to meet a September 2025 deadline to establish a court-ordered technical commission to monitor the movements of people living in the area to determine whether a protected zone inside Yasuní National Park should be expanded to protect Tagaeri and Taromenane territory.
In November and December 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 leaders and community members of the Waorani Indigenous people and a leader from a Kichwa community situated within Block 43. Human Rights Watch also interviewed eight representatives of civil society organizations, journalists, academics, and economists. Researchers reviewed a range of external sources, including academic studies, news reports, legal documents, satellite imagery, oil industry publications, and publications by the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE). The semi-nomadic Tagaeri and Taromenane live in the Ecuadorian Amazon, including a section of Yasuní National Park. In 1999, Ecuador established the “Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone,” a core area of the national park where all extractive activity is forbidden. A ten-kilometer buffer zone separates oil facilities and the no-go zone.
Oil operations continued in other park areas, including an adjacent area to the north, oil Block 43. A 2024 government report that explained the challenges of complying with the referendum noted “signs of presence” of the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples to the south of Block 43 and acknowledged that oil operations “posed a threat” to their survival.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that oil extraction in Block 43—which overlaps with ancestral Indigenous territory—generated environmental pollution and increased the risks of forced contact with the Tagaeri and Taromenane, potentially exposing them to diseases, displacement, food shortage, and conflicts over resources. The court also noted the result of the national referendum on August 20, 2023, ordering the facility’s closure within one year.
It ordered the government to take “all necessary legislative, administrative, and other measures to ensure that this [referendum] is effectively implemented and that oil exploitation in Block 43 is prohibited.” Environmental defenders filed a compliance case against the government in November 2025 for failing to close Block 43.
Data from the state oil company, Petroecuador, showed that, except for a period in July 2025 when national oil production dropped due to damaged pipelines following a landslide, Block 43’s crude output remained constant throughout 2025, with an average of 1.2 million barrels of oil extracted each month.
The authorities have failed to provide public access to information about the required environmental monitoring since April 2024. Under Ecuadorian law, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition must submit these reports to the National Assembly every six months. An August 2025 ministerial letter on file with Human Rights Watch confirmed the submission of the October 2023-April 2024 monitoring report, yet the ministry has not disclosed the two subsequent reports that were legally due by that date.
The Tagaeri and Taromenane are part of the broader Waorani Indigenous people. Oil extraction near their territory increases the risk of unwanted encounters with outsiders and may expose them to pollution, severe health risks, and conditions that could make return to isolation virtually impossible.
The interviews with Waorani community members—who share the same language and culture and live in nearby areas affected by the oil operations—provide insights into how the Tagaeri and Taromenane might experience the impacts of oil operations in Block 43.
The Waorani community members said they believed that oil activity in and around Block 43 negatively affected the water quality of rivers—the primary source of drinking water—as well as the health and well-being of their communities. “Our rivers are being polluted, the animals are dying, rashes cover our skin after we bathe, we have no drinking water,” said Isabel Baihua, leader of the Waorani Women’s Association of Orellana.
The American Convention on Human Rights and the Escazú Agreement, to which Ecuador is a party, require the government to ensure people can access information needed to protect the rights to health and to a healthy environment. But Waorani community members said the authorities do not provide the information they need to make informed decisions to protect their health from the environmental impacts of oil extraction in Block 43.
The government has also not established the commission the court ordered to monitor the movements of the Indigenous groups to recommend expanding the no-go zone’s boundaries.
Ecuador’s ability to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples has been further weakened by changes that have undermined key ministries. President Daniel Noboa downgraded the previous Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition into a vice-ministry within a new Ministry of Environment and Energy. The Ministry of Women and Human Rights was also downgraded to a vice-ministry under the Government Ministry. In its judgment, the court had flagged concerns that institutional changes and budget cuts had led to the state’s failure to prevent incursions of loggers and other third parties into Tagaeri and Taromenane territory.
The government of Ecuador should work with the Waorani people and communities affected by oil extraction in Block 43 to ensure its suspension and progressive closure.
“The Ecuadorian government’s refusal to close Block 43 undermines the democratically expressed will of its people, and its refusal to comply with the Inter-American Court of Human Right’s orders erodes its commitments to the regional human rights system,” Rodríguez Orúe said. “The government needs to respect the rule of law, and ultimately, the will of the Ecuadorian people.”
Oil-Related Threats to Indigenous Peoples in Yasuní National Park
Click to expand Image Map of the Block 43 Infrastructure in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch. Data sources: Oil Concessions: Ecuador Ministry of Non-Renewable Natural Resources. Global Forest Watch. Protected areas: Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE). EcoCiencia. Oil extraction infrastructure: PetroEcuador, 2024.Yasuní National Park is one of the most culturally diverse and biodiverse areas on Earth. The national park was established by law in 1979 and was designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1989. It overlaps with the ancestral territories of the Kichwa and Waorani Indigenous peoples. The Waorani were the last Indigenous group in Ecuador to be contacted by the outside world, in the 1950s. After contact, the Waorani fragmented into several clans and communities, with the Tagaeri and Taromenane deciding to remain in isolation.
Dr. Patricio Trujillo, an Ecuadorian anthropologist who researches the Tagaeri and Taromenane, said that these groups follow semi-nomadic cyclical mobility patterns on ancestral hunting trails and rivers.
In 2013, Ecuador’s National Assembly declared oil exploitation in Blocks 31 and 43 inside Yasuní National Park to be “of national interest,” overriding prohibitions on extraction in national parks. Block 43—with the highest oil production in Yasuní—contains 247 wells across three fields. Ishpingo, the field furthest south, is the newest and most productive field, and the one closest to the Indigenous groups’ buffer zone.
In 1999, Ecuador established the Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone, a core area of the park with the greatest environmental protection, to protect the “lands of habitation and development” of the groups. While all extractive activity, including oil operations, is banned in the zone, a 2024 government report identified the area south of Block 43 as suitable for hunting and seasonal mobility of the Tagaeri and Taromenane, acknowledging that “competition for subsistence resources in these areas may lead to situations of ... forced contact with Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.” Maps produced by the citizen-led Critical Geography Collective that were used by the Inter-American Court, show that the impacts of oil extraction in the Ishpingo field already extend to the buffer zone.
Waorani community members interviewed by Human Rights Watch affirmed that the Tagaeri and Taromenane still appear to use territory near Block 43 infrastructure. They said they hear war cries as they cross ancestral hunting paths and find pottery and animal carcasses left behind by their relatives living in isolation.
According to official spills reports disclosed by Petroecuador, 29 spills occurred in Block 43 between 2016 and 2024, the most recent period for which data is available. However, in the company’s 2024 statement on the feasibility of closing the oil block, it said that “no spills have been recorded,” classifying the 29 incidents as “operational events” that, it said, “had no environmental impact” and were properly contained.
By contrast, in an official document on file with Human Rights Watch, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition said that the last publicly reported incident in Block 43, a June 2024 diesel spill, reached the Salado River that flows through the Tambococha field, affecting a Kichwa community dependent on fishing.
Block 43 Spills 2016 - 2024(crude, hydraulic oil, diesel, and chemicals) Show Spill Clusters Map of spills inside Block 43, Yasuni National Park, Ecuador.
Note: This map omits a March 31, 2023, chemical leak at the Ishpingo field caused by a tank plug failure; irregular coordinates in the official record prevented its precise mapping.
Graphics © 2026 Human Rights Watch. Data source: EP Petroecuador; Official spill registry submitted to the Citizen Oversight Committee in 2024 and 2025.
Human Rights Watch has documented that, around the world, communities most exposed to the extraction, manufacturing, use of, and disposal of fossil fuel products often face ongoing rights violations or other harmful human rights impacts tied to toxic air, unsafe water, and polluted ecosystems.
Many Waorani communities live close to Yasuní oil facilities, and people interviewed said they believe they are exposed to harmful water pollution. They said that children and older people have become ill after bathing or drinking river water and that fish deaths have reduced the availability of staple food.
“When the oil spills, animals, fish, trees, and people die,” one said. A Waorani elder leader born in what is now Block 43 said that two older people from her community had fallen ill after bathing in the rivers: “their whole body was red, blisters covered their skin … now we avoid the big river and seek nearby streams. Before oil extraction began in Block 43, my family and I were free to bathe and fish in the river. Now we can’t bathe in it; the fish are not healthy; they’re covered in oil.”
Ministry of the environment monitoring reports to the National Assembly from 2016 to 2024 repeatedly show “very polluted” and “moderately polluted water” in Block 43 under the Biological Monitoring Working Party Index, which assesses river water quality but doesn’t determine whether pollutants related to oil production are causing that pollution.
In its last publicly disclosed monitoring report issued in April 2024, the ministry noted that Petroecuador had not presented its biotic monitoring data since 2022, as required under Ecuadorian law, and that it failed to “submit biotic monitoring data for the exploitation phase of Block 43 from October 2023 to April 2024 for review and comment.” The ministry started an administrative proceeding against the company in May 2024.
Spills in Block 43 are part of a broader pattern of chronic oil pollution in Ecuador. Between 2020 and 2022, the ministry recorded an average of 22.5 oil spills each month. In the Amazon, the impacts have historically fallen heavily on Indigenous peoples and communities that depend on rivers for water, bathing, and fishing. Oil contamination in Ecuador’s Amazon has long been associated with skin irritation and dermatitis and newer research continues to document the wider pollution of rivers and fish, on which Amazonian communities depend.
Waorani community members also described poor air quality, which they attributed to gas flaring from nearby oil operations in Block 43. A Waorani leader from the Nampaweno community inside Yasuní said, “When it rains, pollutants fall to the ground harming our cassava and plantain crops. Communities that have no flaring have healthy crops.”
Scientific literature shows that gas flaring can produce acid rain that damages staple crops such as cassava, with effects strongest in closest proximity to flare sites. Throughout 2025, satellite imagery analysis and remote sensing carried out by Human Rights Watch detected intermittent flaring from the Central de Procesos Tiputini, an oil and gas processing facility to the north of Block 43.
Waorani community members also reported that sound and light pollution from oil operations in Block 43 have driven animals away from traditional hunting areas, affecting their ability to hunt wild games, another staple food source.
“It’s like having a helicopter outside of your home every hour, every day,” said Sofía Torres Caiza, president of the Citizen Oversight Committee, which was intended to oversee compliance with Block 43’s closure between 2023 and 2025.
One Kichwa leader living in the area said: “Before Block 43 we lived without noise, now it’s 24 hours of nonstop noise. When the animals hear that noise, they start to move away. They used to stay within our territory, and we rely on hunting to feed our families, but now there isn’t as much wildlife anymore.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Ruling
In March 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights formally communicated to Ecuador a ruling it had finalized in September 2024. The court found that Ecuador violated the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation by, among other things, authorizing oil operations that surround the area where oil extraction is forbidden without proper environmental and human rights risk assessments and failing to stop illegal loggers from operating inside the zone. This exposes the Indigenous groups to a serious risk of human rights violations associated with forced contact, pollution, and conflicts over limited resources, the court said.
The court held that, given the close relationship between territory, natural resources, and the survival of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, Ecuador should have applied the precautionary principle when determining and implementing measures to protect their territory. Under that principle, a government may be required to implement mandatory preventive measures to head off the risk of irreversible harm, even where there is no scientific certainty about the environmental or health impacts at issue.
The court concluded that, with the expansion of extractive activities in Yasuní, oil fields surrounding the no-go zone and its buffer have impacts that encroach upon those areas. The court underscored that oil blocks adjacent to the no-go zone, including Block 43, pollute that area, and that roads enabling access to oil facilities have enabled illegal logging, fishing, and hunting to proliferate inside Indigenous territory, increasing risks of forced contact, disease transmission, and conflicts, jeopardizing the survival of the Indigenous groups.
The court underscored that while authorities knew local groups lived and moved near Block 43, the government failed to demonstrate how the risks posed by oil operations were “taken into account when analyzing the granting of permits and concessions.”
The court found that oil extraction in Block 43 violated several rights enshrined under the American Convention on Human Rights, including the rights to health, territory, a healthy environment, self-determination, and to live with dignity. It acknowledged that “there is a risk that an oil spill affects waterways and, therefore, ends up affecting the territory” of the Indigenous groups.
In 2023, Ecuadorians voted in a referendum to halt oil extraction in Block 43. Protecting Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation from the impacts of oil production was a core component of the underlying 10-year campaign that sought to keep oil in Block 43 “indefinitely underground.”
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ordered that the government should implement the result at the latest by August 2024, progressively halt extraction, protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane, revoke permits, and restore the environment. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered that compliance with the referendum would help minimize the harmful impacts that oil extraction on the rights of the Indigenous groups and ordered Ecuador to adopt “all necessary legislative, administrative, and other measures to ensure that this [referendum] is effectively implemented and that oil exploitation in Block 43 is prohibited.” The government has not complied.
The court also ordered Ecuador to identify additional measures to fix serious gaps in producing reliable information about environmental conditions in the no-go zone, including potential contamination of water, air, and the broader ecosystem, and noise from nearby extractive activity. The court also ordered Ecuador to take steps to improve monitoring of the movements of peoples in isolation in areas surrounding the no-go zone.
Non-Compliance with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Ruling
Ongoing Oil Production
In a letter to a National Assembly member dated August 1, 2025, on file with Human Rights Watch, the ministry of the environment acknowledged that there was no final plan for phasing out oil production in Block 43, despite the referendum and the court order. The ministry also acknowledged that environmental licenses had not been revoked, and withdrawal of infrastructure remained stalled. As of March 2026, Ecuador has shut down a handful of wells in Block 43.
Oil production in Block 43 remained stable throughout 2025, according to Petroecuador’s yearly production reports, with an average of 1,245,225 oil barrels extracted each month. Ecuador was still extracting over 44,000 barrels of oil per day from Block 43, based on Petroecuador data, 9.4 percent of the country’s total crude output in 2025.
Despite President Noboa’s initial promise to comply with the 2023 referendum, his government has continued extracting oil from Block 43, alleging that an immediate compliance would harm the country’s economy and therefore postponed the closure until 2029. However, experts, environmental human rights defenders, Indigenous leaders, and academics interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Block 43’s closure presents a critical opportunity to start a transition away from fossil fuels, on which Ecuador depends for about 12 percent of its GDP.
In February 2026, Human Rights Watch wrote to Petroecuador requesting comments on our finding that oil operations in Block 43 continued after the Inter-American Court's Ruling. At the time of publication, Petroecuador had not replied.
Reduced Access to Information
The ministry of the environment is required to present environmental monitoring information to the National Assembly every six months by law, but currently there are no publicly available monitoring reports. Pedro Bermeo from the citizen collective Yasunídos said, “These reports are rarely uploaded online; we always struggle to find them.”
As a result, interested parties are forced to seek information through freedom of information requests—which are often denied or ignored—said Indigenous leaders, oversight bodies, civil society organizations, and legislators.
Waorani leaders and community members also reported that the authorities provide little information about the potential health impacts of oil activities in Block 43. They said that the government does not warn them about potential pollutants and health hazards in the rivers from which they draw water, including when an oil spill or other associated polluting incidents occur. When coupled with the skin irritation and blisters that some community members have experienced, and the dead fish observed in surrounding areas, this lack of information leaves community members to consider their water unsafe for drinking or bathing.
“Information about the environmental conditions in Block 43 is kept secret, the government has never given it to us, even though we’re the affected people – it puts our lives at risk,” said Nemo Andy Guiquita, a Waorani leader from the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador.
In September 2025, the Citizen Oversight Committee established by the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control—the public entity charged with promoting public participation to monitor implementation of the 2023 referendum—reported repeated refusals by state institutions to provide information regarding environmental impacts of oil extraction in Block 43 and measures to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples.
In April 2024, in a response to a freedom of information request filed by the Citizen Oversight Committee, the ministry of the environment provided information on the environmental conditions inside Block 43 in a Google Drive folder with data up to October 2023. Human Rights Watch reviewed the folder and concluded that monitoring reports showed no cumulative risk assessments to determine the environmental impacts of continued oil extraction over the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples. Much of the information from the ministry was from monitoring data by the state oil company.
Mariana Yumbay, a member of the National Assembly, filed a freedom of information request in 2025 asking the ministry of the environment to provide information on the closure of Block 43 and the environmental impacts of oil operations in the area. In its August 2025 reply, the ministry provided an additional environmental monitoring report for the October 2023-April 2024 period, but by that time authorities had been legally required to have produced two additional reports.
“[The ministry] takes far too long to provide us with incomplete information, and from what little they have given us, it is evident that the government is not complying with the orders to shut down Block 43,” Yumbay said.
Government Inaction on Protection Measures
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Ecuador to act with the utmost diligence within defined timelines to correct failures in monitoring and protection of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples.
The court acknowledged that Ecuador had established a protective framework for the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples but found the implementation of these measures insufficient to stop illegal logging, fishing, and hunting in their territory.
The court ordered Ecuador to create a Technical Evaluation Commission to map the presence of isolated peoples outside the no-go zone every two years and recommend expanding the protected zone if needed in light of those findings. The commission was to include Waorani and civil society representatives and operate under the supervision of the court. Ecuador had until September 2025 to establish it.
The Waorani Nationality of Ecuador and counsel for plaintiffs before the court confirmed that the government had not yet established the commission. “The government does not have the will to dialogue with the Waorani people … we don’t want to just participate, we deserve the right to speak and decide on how the closure and reparation of Block 43 happens,” said Juan Bay, president of NAWE.
The court found that Ecuador had failed to establish the required commission and criticized its existing protection measures as inadequate due to their lack of implementation. Human Rights Watch analyzed information presented by the Women and Human Rights Ministry to the Oversight Committee in June 2025 regarding the measures it was taking to ensure the protection of the Indigenous peoples. Although the ministry reported that it had carried out three patrols in the no-go zone to look for signs of Tagaeri and Taromenane presence and had also provided routine training to oil workers on how to avoid contact with Indigenous peoples living in isolation, it did not provide any information regarding third party incursions into the region or any measures it has taken to prevent such incursions.
The now downgraded Vice-Ministry of Women and Human Rights is responsible for conducting patrols to look for signs of Tagaeri and Taromenane presence and to monitor any threats to their rights, including by third-party incursions. However, the Citizen Oversight Committee noted in September 2025 that the entity lacked a protection plan or targets to carry out these functions.
In its final 2025 report concluding that the government had not complied with the 2023 referendum, the Citizen Oversight Committee emphasized that, “Although the ministry acknowledges the existence of protocols, patrols, and training, the reported actions are merely formal and do not constitute concrete measures for redress or effective protection … the absence of an operational and funding plan confirms the lack of actual implementation.” The committee noted that the ministry failed “to demonstrate cumulative risk assessments for ongoing operations in Block 43 (such as traffic, noise, gas flares, and construction), nor did it include safety measures to prevent exposure.”
Reimagining Albinism Rights Advocacy
It is a hot afternoon in a rural district in Malawi. People gather around a tent set up at the Local Trading Center, eager to witness a community outreach program that aims to combat rising violence against people with albinism.
The organizers passionately encourage greater understanding of albinism and the protection of the rights of people with albinism. They ask questions to ensure the listeners have comprehended what has been discussed. At the appointed time, the advocates depart, pleased with the community’s feedback during this short session. “This outreach has been a success,” they say.
While these sessions raise awareness, they often do not actively engage participants in challenging the underlying stigma. They’re mostly passive, so attendees may remember the information briefly, but there’s little follow-up or practical engagement to transform attitudes or behaviors in the long term. Tracking lasting change or impact is difficult.
As a disability rights advocate, I have seen how unsustainable this approach can be. Also, as a theater practitioner, I aim to combine what I learned in class with my advocacy work. In my efforts to help the community understand albinism, I have utilized an applied theater technique called forum theater.
I create short plays based on real-life injustices faced by people with albinism, illustrating how these barriers deprive both individuals and their communities of their full participation. I offer the audience a glimpse into our lived experiences and let them feel what we feel.
Applied theater approaches usually include follow-up or visits to address any emerging issues and reinforce learning. This makes applied theater more effective for sustaining behavioral or attitudinal change.
Forum theater also invites community members to literally step into the shoes of the characters during the play to suggest and enact their own solutions. This co-creation of ideas empowers the community to address injustices and actively support people with albinism.
Furthermore, this approach enables me to record the community’s proposed solutions and turn them into tangible commitments. These then serve as a foundation for tracking progress to ensure that the rights of people with albinism are actively protected through the very actions the community itself suggests.
I believe that, to be fully effective and sustainable, advocacy needs to move beyond just performance. It has to become a shared act of critical reflection, one that is sustainable and bears fruit long after the advocacy activities have ended.
Corruption-Linked Arrests in South Sudan Raise Questions
In a wave of arrests that began on February 24, South Sudanese authorities have detained at least six current and former officials linked to the country’s oil and financial sectors.
While authorities have yet to publicly clarify if charges have been brought, Minister for Information Ateny Wek Ateny told media that the arrests were not political and that a committee was investigating “financial malpractices.”
However, previous high-profile detentions give reason to scrutinize such claims.
Those detained in the recent wave of arrests include former Finance Ministers Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol and Dr. Marial Dongrin Ater; former Governor of the Bank of South Sudan Moses Makur Deng Manguak; former Director of Security at the Ministry of Petroleum Maj. Gen. Mannasseh Machar Bol; former Petroleum Undersecretary Deng Lual Wol and former Commissioner General of the South Sudan Revenue Authority Simon Akue. Authorities also detained businessman Bol [Abuk] Kuanyin Bol.
Six are being held at the National Security Services headquarters in Juba, which has a reputation as a place of detainee abuse, and one is under house arrest, a local source told Human Rights Watch.
The same source said that the arrests were carried out by National Security Service and the presidential guard, Tiger Division, however officials from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Ministry of Interior are the ones leading a joint investigative committee. The roles in the investigation of the Office of the Auditor General and the South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission, both constitutionally mandated to ensure oversight and accountability in public spending and both plagued by a lack of independence and chronic underfunding, are unclear.
All action taken in pursuit of the investigation, detentions—be it under house arrest or on remand in a detention center—asset freezes, or confiscations requires a clear legal basis, including where appropriate prior judicial authorization, and be subject to judicial review.
Government corruption in South Sudan is endemic and has direct human rights consequences. For example, diversion of oil revenues and public funds has undermined delivery of essential public services, including health care and education, as well as payment of civil servant salaries.
However, for anti-corruption efforts, though badly needed, to be credible, authorities need to address the systemic nature of the corruption that permeates most institutions in South Sudan, as well as ensuring transparency and respecting fundamental rights of all involved.
Governments Should Support Vanuatu’s UN Climate Resolution
The world’s highest court has spoken: tackling climate change is not a choice: it’s a legal obligation. Now it’s up to the United Nations General Assembly to speak up and urge its 193 member countries to take action.
Millions of people around the world have already lost their homes, livelihoods, and lives, due to climate change. It is vital states take action.
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice delivered a unanimous landmark Advisory Opinion on states’ obligations under international law to address climate change. The Court ruled that states are legally required to protect the climate system, prevent transboundary harm, and regulate activities driving greenhouse gas emissions. The court also made clear that failing to act on climate change can violate human rights, including the rights to life, health, food, water, housing, and culture.
Human Rights Watch has documented how fossil fuel production harms communities around the world, particularly those living near its infrastructure. The court’s opinion makes explicit that governments have existing legal duties to address those harms.
Vanuatu, alongside a cross-regional group of countries, has circulated a draft UN General Assembly resolution to motivate member countries to transform the court’s findings into action. In practice, this means urging states to adopt stronger national climate plans, phaseout fossil fuels, and better protect communities displaced by climate change. It also proposes mechanisms to document and track the losses communities are already suffering.
The General Assembly has a history of translating advisory opinions into resolutions that demand action by governments. The US, backed by oil-producing states in the Gulf amongst others, has urged Vanuatu to withdraw the resolution. But the Pacific island state, which is itself threatened by rising sea levels, has refused. Vanuatu and its partners have worked hard to accommodate a range of concerns by different countries, including from the European Union which has pushed back on a more expansive interpretation of the advisory opinion.
Human Rights Watch and its partners are urging governments to engage constructively in the ongoing consultations and vote in favor of the resolution. It’s imperative they resist efforts to water down its core elements, especially those protecting human rights, international law, and advancing international cooperation on climate change.
US/El Salvador: Deportees Forcibly Disappeared
(Washington) – El Salvador is forcibly disappearing and arbitrarily detaining Salvadorans deported from the United States, Human Rights Watch said today, one year after some of the men were sent to El Salvador.
The detained people are among more than 9,000 Salvadorans deported by the United States since the start of 2025. Some of them were deported on March 15, 2025, alongside the Venezuelans who were tortured and, in some cases, sexually abused in the Center for Terrorism Confinement (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, CECOT) mega prison.
“Whatever the criminal history of these Salvadoran men, they have a right to due process, to be taken before a judge, and their relatives are entitled to know where they are being held and why,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Deportation cannot mean enforced disappearance.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 relatives and lawyers of 11 Salvadorans who were deported from the United States between mid-March and mid-October 2025 and then immediately detained in El Salvador. Like most detainees in El Salvador, these men have not been allowed to communicate with their relatives or lawyers.
None of the relatives or lawyers have had any indication from the authorities that the men have been brought before a judge since their arrival. Some have not been informed of where their loved ones are held, or why. In five cases, relatives learned about deportees’ whereabouts only though litigation at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The Trump administration has alleged that several of the Salvadorans are members of the MS-13 gang. The United States disclosed that one of them is César Humberto López Larios (“El Greñas”), a known MS-13 gang leader. Neither US nor Salvadoran authorities have provided evidence or information to substantiate the claim that any of the others are gang members.
Human Rights Watch analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data indicates that, of the at least 9,000 Salvadorans deported to El Salvador since January 2025, only 10.5 percent had a conviction in the United States for a violent or potentially violent crime. Relatives of ten of those detained said that they had served sentences in the United States: some for possession of drugs and two for violent crimes, including one for homicide and one for sexual assault.
Some of the people interviewed said their relatives had fled domestic or criminal violence, including recruitment-related threats and extortion by gangs in El Salvador. Some had apparently been living in the United States for several years.
On March 15, 2025, US authorities deported 23 Salvadorans to El Salvador, including Kilmar Ábrego García, whom the Trump administration said was deported due to an “administrative error.” On June 6, he was returned to the United States, following an order by a federal judge. Ábrego’s lawyers told US courts that he was physically abused in Salvadoran prisons. On December 11, a U.S. District Court in Maryland ordered his release from ICE custody.
On April 14, 2025, the White House published the names of 12 more deported Salvadorans, without specifying when they were removed. On July 17, 404 Media published a leaked list of Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals deported to El Salvador. However, neither the US nor the Salvadoran government has confirmed the list’s authenticity.
Most relatives interviewed said they tried to locate their relatives through ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System but found no results. They said US officials then told them that their relatives had been deported to El Salvador.
All of the relatives Human Rights Watch interviewed said they had asked Salvadoran authorities about their loved ones’ whereabouts. Authorities refused to provide information, claiming they “lacked a legal mandate” or that they had no record of them.
Relatives of five deportees submitted a request to the IACHR. In October and December 2025, El Salvador informed the commission that four of them were being held at the Santa Ana prison, and one other at CECOT. The commission said that El Salvador should disclose the detainees’ legal status, end their incommunicado detention, and take steps to protect them.
In two additional cases, relatives believe their loved ones are being held at CECOT. In one other case, family members believe their relative is detained at Santa Ana prison because they identified him in photos and videos posted by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. In the remaining three cases documented by Human Rights Watch, relatives have no indication of their family members’ whereabouts.
Salvadoran courts have also refused to provide information. Relatives and lawyers of five of the deportees said they filed habeas corpus petitions before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, in May, August and October 2025. The court rejected one petition, claiming the facts presented were not sufficiently “precise.” It has not responded to the others.
Under international law, an enforced disappearance occurs when authorities deprive a person of their liberty and then refuse to disclose that person’s fate or whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law.
Salvadoran authorities have not clarified the legal basis for the deportees’ detention or whether they will be brought before a judge. In some cases, the Salvadoran government told the IACHR that it had asked the United States for information and that the men remain in the Salvadoran prison system “pending the decision of the sending State regarding their migratory and legal status.”
The sister of one of the deportees said that her 32-year-old brother migrated to the United States in 2022 because of police abuse. US authorities deported him on March 15, 2025. “I kept calling the migrant shelter in El Salvador, but they never gave me any information, so I filed a complaint with the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office,” she said. “An official told me that my brother was deported on March 15 [but] because of the state of emergency they would not provide any information.”
The mother of another deportee, who had lived in the United States for 11 years beginning at the age of 17, said that the last time she spoke with her son was on March 13, 2025, when he said he would shortly be deported to El Salvador. On March 15, when she tried to locate him using ICE’s online locator system, no results appeared.
“That same day I started looking for lawyers in El Salvador, but several told me they could not take those cases because they feared government reprisals,” she said. “I called several institutions, the Attorney General’s Office, the Ombudsperson’s Office, a migrant shelter, and government ministries in El Salvador, but they gave me no information. At the Ombudsperson’s Office, they told me that due to the state of emergency, they were not obligated to provide me with information. I feel abandoned.”
El Salvador’s state of emergency has been in place since March 2022, The government has used it to suspend, among others, the rights to be informed promptly of the grounds for arrest, to remain silent, to legal representation, and the requirement to present any detainee before a judge within 72 hours of arrest. Human Rights Watch has documented widespread human rights violations during the state of emergency.
“The desperation of families to find disappeared loved ones evokes the darkest days of dictatorships in Latin America,” Goebertus said. “The United States should stop casting people into the black hole of El Salvador’s prison system.”
European Parliament Urges Niger to Free Detained Ex-President
Over two-and-a-half years after Niger’s military coup, the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, and his wife remain detained without legal basis.
On March 11, the European Parliament unanimously adopted an urgent resolution condemning their arbitrary detention, as well as that of “other individuals detained in the coup,” and calling for their immediate release.
Niger’s Foreign Affairs Ministry reacted sharply, summoning the European Union’s representative in the capital, Niamey, and accusing the EU of interfering in Niger’s internal affairs.
International bodies have previously denounced Bazoum’s detention as illegal and called for his release. In February 2025, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an independent expert body that investigates cases of deprivation of liberty, found that detaining Bazoum and his wife was arbitrary in violation of international human rights law and called for their immediate release. In December 2023, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice ruled that Bazoum and members of his family were being held unlawfully and ordered their release.
Instead, Niger’s junta moved to prosecute Bazoum. In April 2024, military authorities initiated proceedings to strip him of his presidential immunity so he could face charges related to alleged crimes during his time in office. In June 2024, a court lifted his immunity during proceedings that fell short of basic due process rights. The authorities have since said they intend to prosecute him for high treason.
Bazoum’s case reflects a broader crackdown on the political opposition, media, and activist groups engaging in peaceful dissent. The military authorities have tightened their control over political life by restricting opposition activity, delaying a return to civilian democratic rule, and targeting critics in the media and civil society.
At least 30 officials from the former government have been detained without due process. A prominent human rights activist and critic of the junta, Moussa Tiangari, arbitrarily arrested in December 2024, remains in detention on fabricated terrorism-related charges. Six journalists, arrested in October 2025, also remain detained under a draconian cybercrime law.
Rather than dismissing international criticism, Niger’s military authorities should heed the growing calls from regional and global bodies and immediately release Bazoum, his wife, and others detained on politically motivated grounds.
New OSCE Report Finds Sharp Democratic Backsliding in Georgia
A new report prepared under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) documents a significant deterioration in human rights and democratic standards in Georgia and calls for urgent reforms to protect fundamental freedoms.
Published on March 12, the report was prepared by an OSCE fact-finding mission after 23 participating states invoked the rarely used “Moscow Mechanism” to investigate concerns about democratic backsliding and repression of dissent in the country.
The report details a pattern of violence and other abuses against protesters, journalists, political opposition figures, and government critics, combined with what it describes as “near-total impunity for perpetrators.” The findings echo concerns Human Rights Watch and other groups have previously raised about Georgia's growing human rights crisis.
Among the most serious concerns are violations of the right to peaceful assembly. The report documents excessive and disproportionate use of force by police, noting that in some instances the treatment of protesters may amount to torture or other forms of prohibited treatment. It also finds that authorities have failed to conduct effective investigations into these abuses.
The report also examines legislative changes since 2024 that significantly restrict fundamental freedoms, concluding that these laws are aimed at marginalizing independent groups and media outlets. Additional changes affecting broadcasting regulation, protest rules, and so-called family values legislation further narrow civic space and public participation.
The report raises concerns about the misuse of criminal and administrative proceedings against political opponents and other critics. It highlights cases in which individuals appear to be serving prison sentences following unfair convictions and highlights broader concerns regarding judicial independence and fair trial guarantees, including misuse of administrative detention and over-reliance on police testimonies to imprison protest participants.
The report also analyses the 2024 parliamentary elections, noting concerns raised by observers about pressure on voters, misuse of administrative resources, and an uneven playing field. It warns that attempts to ban opposition parties threaten political pluralism.
The report recommends Georgian authorities repeal restrictive legislation, release individuals detained on political grounds, ensure accountability for abuses by security forces, and implement reforms to safeguard judicial independence and electoral integrity.
Georgian authorities should urgently heed the report’s recommendations. OSCE participating states should ensure the report’s findings inform the work of other international bodies, including the United Nations and the Council of Europe. They should closely monitor the situation and support efforts to protect human rights and the country’s democratic institutions.
Landmark Court Ruling in Ukraine a Step Toward Equality
A ruling this week by Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognizing a same-sex couple as a de facto family marks a significant victory for equality.
The case involves Zorian Kis, a Ukrainian diplomat, and his partner Tymur Levchuk. After years of legal struggle, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision recognizing that the couple constitutes a family under Ukrainian law.
While the ruling sets an important precedent for lower courts, legislation that would allow same-sex partners to register a civil union has remained stalled in parliament for three years.
Without formal legal recognition, same-sex couples in Ukraine are not considered immediate family members, blocking access to spousal hospital visits, medical decisions, inheritance, and other rights.
Public opinion in Ukraine on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights has shifted in recent years, particularly since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. The service of LGBT soldiers in Ukraine’s armed forces has reshaped public debate. A 2024 survey found that over 70 percent of Ukrainians support equal rights, a figure that remains high today.
In June 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ukraine violated prohibitions against discrimination and the right to respect for private and family life by failing to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. The court rejected the government’s claim that protecting “traditional families” justifies excluding same-sex couples and highlighted that Ukraine offers two forms of legal recognition for different-sex couples.
A new draft civil code defines “de facto family unions” as different-sex partnerships, explicitly excluding same-sex families. If adopted, Ukraine could run afoul of obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and complicate its path toward European Union membership, which requires compliance with nondiscrimination standards.
The Supreme Court has made a clear determination: same-sex couples are families and the law must respect their rights. It is beyond time for the law on the books to catch up.
For LGBT Ukrainians, including many serving on the front lines and their loved ones, the continued legislative delay leaves them in a legal vacuum.
Ukraine is fighting for a future based on human rights and rule of law, but its democratic credentials are damaged if it continues to treat some citizens as second class. Parliament should adopt the civil partnerships bill without further delay.
Doing so is not just a matter of law, but of dignity.
In the Shadow of War, Settler Violence against Palestinians Intensifies
While many Israelis are taking shelter from missile and drone attacks, armed settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of the fog of war to seize land and advance Israel’s ongoing dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
On a daily basis, settlers are invading Palestinian communities, firing live ammunition, setting homes and cars on fire, and attacking families in their homes. Over the past 11 days, armed settlers—three in uniform—have reportedly shot and killed five Palestinians in the West Bank; a sixth reportedly died from cardiac arrest after inhaling tear gas fired by the Israeli army. These events put 2026 on track to surpass 2025, a year that saw Israeli settler violence reaching a two-decade high with armed settlers killing nine Palestinians.
The Israeli military said the recent incidents were under investigation.
At the end of 2025, Israeli NGO Yesh Din said that of the hundreds of settler violence cases it documented since October 2023, only three percent resulted in convictions. By providing settlers with weapons and failing to hold them accountable for criminal acts, the Israeli government abets and enables settler violence.
The Israeli government also emboldens settlers by approving and funding the growth of illegal settlements. Last August, Israel formalized plans to develop the illegal E1 settlement project, long declared a “red line” by the international community, and published a tender for 3,401 housing units last December. If completed, the project will fully separate the southern part of the West Bank from its northern part. Construction tenders will be awarded to bidders on March 16.
The International Court of Justice in July 2024 ruled that Israel’s 59-year occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and that Israeli authorities are responsible for apartheid. The court ordered Israel to evacuate all settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes and provide compensation for Palestinians. But in the shadow of war, the opposite is underway.
States should act to prevent further atrocities across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including by imposing targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing grave abuses, suspending arms transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements, suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel, and supporting the International Criminal Court and its ongoing investigations, including by executing its arrest warrants. Failing to act now will have grave consequences for Palestinians’ future.
Formula One: Put Human Rights in the Driver’s Seat
(Paris) – Formula One (F1) and its governing federation, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), should address the risk of governments using upcoming 2026 Grand Prix events to whitewash human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. The Formula 1 Grand Prix season in 2026 includes races in 24 countries, including in Bahrain, China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented serious human rights violations in countries where authorities might use the scheduled 2026 Grand Prix races to launder their rights record on the world stage, known as “sportswashing.” Without strong policies, the FIA and F1 risk falling short of their stated mission to “leave a legacy of positive change wherever [they] race” and tarnishing motor sport’s integrity by providing a platform for abusive authorities to conceal their abuses.
“Abusive governments around the world relish the Grand Prix because it offers them a dazzling distraction from their human rights records,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “Formula One and its governing federation should roll out comprehensive due diligence to identify and remedy any adverse human rights impacts of their activities and use their influence with governments to urge rights reforms.”
On February 24, 2026, Human Rights Watch wrote to the FIA and F1 asking whether any policies would be adopted to address human rights risks arising from their activities, but received no response.
In China, where the second 2026 Grand Prix will be held, the authorities systematically deny the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion; persecute critics of the government; and have, since 2016, committed various crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang region. The Chinese authorities have long sought to use international sporting competitions to distract from the government’s appalling rights record, while targeting athletes.
A Grand Prix event is scheduled for April in Bahrain, where detainees face brutal treatment, including torture and denial of medical care. Although the government recently pardoned scores of inmates, the authorities still wrongfully imprison prominent human rights defenders and political leaders, some of whom have urgent unaddressed medical needs. Human Rights Watch previously documented the Bahraini authorities’ crackdown on protesters and critics of the race. Domestic and international organizations have also raised concerns about arrests before or during F1-related activities.
Later in April, a Grand Prix event is scheduled in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government’s abysmal human rights record was compounded by the recent surge in executions in 2025, including at least 356 as of December. The authorities continued to arbitrarily detain and imprison many for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, and belief, while migrant workers continue to face widespread labor abuse.
Ongoing developments since the United States and Israel began carrying out strikes on Iran on February 28 and Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Gulf region may affect the race agenda. However, this should not prevent FIA and F1 from carrying out needed human rights due diligence.
The sixth Grand Prix circuit event will be held in October and November in the US, where President Donald Trump’s second term has been characterized by a slide toward authoritarianism, including the repeated domestic deployment of national guard forces and retaliatory acts against perceived political enemies and former officials. The Trump administration has imposed broad anti-immigrant policies, arresting and summarily deporting primarily Black and Brown immigrants, while security forces committed abuses, at times deadly, in the context of raids and other law enforcement operations.
The Trump administration has sought to use the upcoming 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, which the US is cohosting with Canada and Mexico, to burnish its international reputation, exemplified by Trump’s receipt of FIFA’s newly created “Peace Prize.”
Human Rights Watch has reported on abuses in other countries hosting a 2026 Grand Prix event, including Azerbaijan and Japan, as well as in countries reportedly bidding to host future races. All prospective host countries should be subject to human rights scrutiny, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch underscored the risk of the FIA sportswashing abuses in Uzbekistan, which is reportedly bidding to host a Grand Prix. FIA held its 2025 General Assemblies in Tashkent, the capital. Upcoming FIA assemblies reportedly will be held in China.
The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights set out how businesses should put in place policies and conduct due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how they address their impacts on human rights. Since the UN Guiding Principles were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, they have increasingly been adopted by sport governing bodies, including FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, in recognition of their applicability to effectively address human rights risks associated with their activities.
Formula One’s Statement of Commitment to Respect for Human Rights affirms that the organization is committed to “respecting internationally recognised human rights in its operations globally” and commits F1 to “take proportionate steps” to conduct human rights due diligence. The FIA statutes require the FIA to “promote the protection of human rights and human dignity” while its Code of Ethics affirms it “bears a special responsibility to safeguard the integrity and reputation of motor sport.”
The FIA and F1 should formally endorse the UN Guiding Principles and make public the steps they are taking to implement human rights due diligence measures to address the human rights impacts of their operations. This should include human rights strategies tailored for each Grand Prix based on meaningful consultations with a diverse range of stakeholders, including national and local human rights groups, trade unions, fan groups, and workers.
The FIA and F1 should also apply clear, objective human rights criteria to all countries vying to host a motor sport event, and establish a fair and transparent bidding procedure. They should also use their leverage with host governments to promote the protection of internationally recognized human rights.
“While many nations wish to host Grand Prix, F1 and the FIA carry a responsibility to safeguard against adverse human rights impacts arising from these events,” Worden said. “If F1 and the FIA are serious about their ambition to drive positive change wherever they race, they need to do much more to protect human rights.”
Iranian Footballers Gain Asylum in Australia
The Australian government’s decision to grant asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s national football team and one official shows the importance of protecting courageous athletes who stand up for what they believe.
The six Iranians sought protection in Australia after their final match of the Asian Women's Cup on March 8. In their opening match against South Korea on March 2, the players had, in protest, refrained from singing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic, prompting Iran’s state television to call the squad “wartime traitors.”
The women’s team’s silent protest echoed that of the Iranian men's team at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, following Iranian authorities’ repression of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising after the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini. Australia has in the past offered a safe haven to members of Afghanistan’s women’s national football team after the Taliban banned all sport for women and girls.
Since arriving in Australia, days before the conflict in Iran started on February 28 and the Iranian authorities’ ongoing internet shutdown, players on the team have reported being followed by Iranian security and handlers. Iranian athletes have previously told Human Rights Watch how government political “minders” travel with the national team to monitor them.
FIFPRO, the global players’ union, has said the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should have foreseen the risk and have done too little to protect the players. By permitting political officials who restrict women’s rights to travel with delegations, the AFC and FIFA do not merely tolerate abuse, they provide it a platform beyond its country of origin.
The implications extend beyond Australia. The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, comes amid a rights crisis in the US that includes a widespread immigration crackdown, threats to freedom of expression, and a wider slide towards authoritarianism.
Before the World Cup begins in June, FIFA needs to put in place safeguarding protocols including a grievance mechanism, confidential referral pathways, and prohibitions on political minders in football federations who actually restrict the rights of the athletes they are accompanying. This will protect athletes who choose to exercise their right to protest human rights abuses.
Central African Militia Leader Dies in Custody
Earlier this week the Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic (CAR) announced that Maturin Kombo, who was in the court’s custody charged with crimes committed in 2014, died in hospital in Bangui.
Twelve years ago, as CAR was in the throes of a civil war, I arrived in the village of Guen, in the southwest of the country, to conduct research. While there, we confirmed that in early February 2014, anti-balaka forces had attacked Muslim civilians, killing at least 72 men and boys, some as young as nine.
I will never forget a conversation I had with the father of 10-year-old Oumarou Bouba. “As we were running away, he was shot,” he told me. “He fell down, but they finished him off with a machete.”
Anti-balaka militias rose up across CAR to fight the Seleka, a predominantly Muslim coalition that took control of the country in 2013. They began to target Muslim civilians, particularly in the west, equating them with Seleka or their sympathizers.
At the time, we met with Maturin Kombo an anti-balaka leader who was in charge in Guen. He denied the massacre occurred but was open about his disgust towards Muslims. He was a brazen and proud leader who thought he could evade justice.
Then the transitional government created the Special Criminal Court (SCC) to help curb widespread impunity. The court is mandated to investigate and prosecute grave crimes committed during the country’s armed conflicts since 2003 and is staffed by both international and national judges and prosecutors. It began its work in 2018 and Kombo was arrested in 2022.
The trial against him and six other co-defendants, including fellow anti-balaka leader Edmond Beïna, for the atrocities in Guen is ongoing.
The fact that Kombo will not see the end of the trial is a loss for survivors and relatives of victims of the massacres. But his death also highlights the continued need for justice, for the crimes committed in Guen and elsewhere in the country, and the key role the SCC plays in delivering it. The Central African government and the court’s international partners should step up efforts to ensure the court has the resources it needs to continue its essential work and can deliver on its crucial mandate.
Kombo may have died before the end of his trial, but the ongoing proceedings against his co-defendants provide hope that justice, no matter how long it takes, will be served.
Iran: US School Attack Findings Show Need for Reform, Accountability
(Washington, DC) – Reported findings that the United States is responsible for the recent deadly school attack in Iran, and that it was based on outdated targeting data, highlight the need for reform and accountability within the US military to minimize civilian harm during conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.
The New York Times reported on March 11, 2026, that an ongoing US military investigation has preliminarily determined that the United States is responsible for a Tomahawk missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the town of Minab on February 28.
“The findings of the US military investigation into the Minab school attack show a violation of the laws of war that cannot be boiled down to a blameless mistake,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “Even if those responsible for the strike did not deliberately target a school full of children, the US military has an obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm, which it clearly did not do in this case.”
The New York Times reported that the investigation found that the attack was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military, which was carrying out strikes on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base of which the school building had previously been a part. The report said that US Central Command officers created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
Iranian authorities told the New York Times that the attack killed at least 175 people, including scores of civilians. Human Rights Watch reviewed lists with dozens of names of children and adults reportedly killed in the attack, and was able to immediately match some names with ages and other identifying information on body bags and caskets.
Under customary laws of war applicable to the armed conflict in Iran, an attacking force must do everything feasible to verify that targets are military objectives or cancel or suspend the attack if it becomes apparent that the target is not a military objective. The laws of war prohibit indiscriminate attacks, which include attacks that are not directed at a specific military objective. No evidence has been put forward suggesting that there was a military objective in or near the school grounds at the time of the attack.
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.
Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. Investigations into the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school should consider all circumstances of the attack, including whether those responsible acted deliberately or recklessly, and what knowledge they would or should have had about the school before and during the attack, which took place during a school day.
A government responsible for violating the laws of war is obligated to make full reparation for the loss, including compensation, rehabilitation, and other appropriate redress. Governments have an obligation to investigate and appropriately prosecute violations of international law, including war crimes, committed by their own forces. Those responsible for the Minab school attack should be held accountable, including through prosecutions where appropriate.
US forces had improved targeting processes over recent years to minimize civilian harm, including relying on multiple intelligence sources, teams to advise on the civilian environment, and confirmation that the target is a lawful military objective before a strike is approved. If the attack on the military base in Minab relied on outdated or incomplete information about the site or if other changes in the targeting process resulted in less oversight of strikes, it suggests a breakdown in those safeguards.
Congress should hold a hearing specifically to understand current US military processes to distinguish between civilians and combatants as required by international humanitarian law, including the role that any artificial intelligence or automated systems play in determining targets. The use of AI in military targeting decisions raises new risks for accountability in conflict. Military targeting decisions should not be made based solely on automated or AI-generated recommendations.
“Accountability is not just about acknowledging what went wrong, but about ensuring that failures in intelligence, target verification, or decision-making are identified and fixed so this never happens again,” Yager said. “The United States should make the findings public, discipline or prosecute those responsible, and carry out reforms to ensure its forces are minimizing civilian harm to the greatest extent possible.”
NHS England Blocks Access to Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapies
England’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced it will block new referrals for gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender youth under 18, restricting access to evidence-based care and undermining young people’s rights to health, bodily autonomy, and nondiscrimination.
The decision came into force on March 9 and will undergo a 90-day consultation period after which the NHS will issue a longer-term policy. During this period, youth already receiving hormone therapy will be allowed to continue treatment, but clinicians will no longer be permitted to initiate new referrals. The policy applies to publicly provided health care by NHS England and does not affect doctors working in private practice or public healthcare providers in other parts of the UK.
The restrictions are worrying. Medical care for adolescents is typically tailored to the needs of each patient. A blanket prohibition on referrals prevents clinicians from recommending a course of treatment appropriate for a particular young person.
Hormone therapy is widely recognized by major medical associations as a component of best-practice care for some transgender youth. Clinical guidelines generally recommend that treatment be provided following comprehensive psychological assessment and counseling. Medical guidelines also require that practitioners obtain informed consent from patients prior to treatment. A 2024 systematic review found that hormone therapy has been associated with a reduction in gender dysphoria and did not identify any harmful health outcomes.
Research indicates that gender-affirming hormone therapy can significantly improve mental health outcomes for transgender youth, including reductions in suicidality.
NHS England’s decision comes in the wake of the Cass Review, a 2024 government-commissioned study which called for restrictions on gender-affirming medical care. Medical experts have since criticized the study, questioning its review of evidence and clinical practices.
Following the Cass Review, the NHS also restricted access to puberty-delaying medications for transgender youth to clinical trials, a decision criticized by the the British Medical Association. These medications, widely considered reversible, allow young people additional time to explore their gender identity before making decisions about further treatment.
Transgender youth in England have long faced significant barriers to health care. Young people often waited an average of two years for an appointment at a state-run gender clinic. Of those treated at the clinic, only a small share were referred to endocrinology for puberty-delaying medication or hormone therapy.
NHS England should reverse this harmful decision and ensure transgender youth can access evidence-based, gender-affirming care consistent with their rights to health, bodily autonomy, and nondiscrimination.
Ecuador: Court Affirms Adolescents’ Right to Gender Recognition
(Washington, DC, March 12, 2026) – Ecuador’s Constitutional Court’s ruling, made public on March 10, 2026, that people under 18 cannot automatically be refused a request to modify their gender on identity documents is an important victory for the rights of transgender youth, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling affirms that constitutional protection cannot rest on rigid assumptions about age while ignoring adolescents’ lived realities, evolving capacities, and right to be heard.
The case arose after Ecuador’s civil registry denied a request by the parents of a 15-year-old to change the gender marker in his identity documents. The registry relied on article 94 of the Organic Law on Identity and Civil Data Management and, by extension, article 32 of its regulations, which require applicants to reach the age of majority for gender recognition. In Judgment 4-24-CN/26, the court held that applying that rule automatically is unconstitutional in a case like this one, where the adolescent had the support of his guardians and psychosocial evaluations showing sufficient maturity to make a free, informed, and voluntary decision regarding his gender identity.
“This ruling makes clear that dignity and identity cannot be postponed until adulthood,” said Cristian González Cabrera, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The court rightly recognized that transgender youth are rights holders with progressive autonomy, not mere objects of protection.”
The court anchored its reasoning in the rights to identity and to the free development of personality, as well as the principles of the best interests of the child, progressive autonomy, and the right of adolescents to be heard. It stressed that gender identity is “an essential dimension” of those rights and that timely recognition of gender identity is closely linked to adolescents’ integral development.
The judgment contains remarkably clear language in defense of trans youths’ rights, Human Rights Watch said. The court found that conditioning rectification of the gender marker on reaching adulthood can negatively affect adolescents. It also warned that the age requirement rests on “a static and homogenizing conception of adolescence,” one that assumes all adolescents lack the capacity to understand the consequences of their decisions.
The court went further, recognizing the real harm caused by bureaucratic refusal to acknowledge a young person’s lived identity. It found that the restriction, when applied automatically, may “generate adverse effects on the emotional, social, and psychological well-being” of adolescents with the maturity to decide, and that it gives to the civil registry the power to deny “identity that has already been constructed, lived, and recognized in other spaces of social life.”
At the same time, the court emphasized that it was not eliminating safeguards. Rather, it required a more tailored approach, which could include individualized assessment, psychosocial support, family accompaniment, and effective listening to the person concerned. The court made clear that “age cannot be required as the determining and sole criterion” for evaluating an adolescent’s capacity for understanding, discernment, or autonomy, and that less restrictive alternatives exist to protect adolescents without sacrificing their rights.
International human rights standards increasingly recognize that requiring medical or psychological evaluations as a condition for legal gender recognition can violate the rights to privacy, autonomy, and self-determination, and many countries have moved toward procedures based primarily on a person’s self-declared gender identity.
The ruling does not strike down the statutory provisions but will change their application in similar cases. The court ordered the civil registry and the Judiciary Council to broadly disseminate its ruling among registry officials and judges nationwide.
The decision builds on a significant ruling made public in January 2025 in favor of a transgender student whose rights had been violated when their school refused to recognize their gender identity. The court held that the student’s rights to equality, free development of personality, education, and the best interests of the child had been violated, and ordered the education authorities to develop and disseminate a mandatory protocol on respecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children in schools within six months. The protocol was required to include guidance on the use of a child’s chosen name, dress, and bathroom access consistent with their gender identity.
Implementation of that decision has been uneven and controversial. Reporting in Ecuador has documented that the updated protocol issued in 2026 still leaves important questions unresolved, including guidance for evaluating a student’s evolving capacity and the lack of a clear procedure for resolving disagreements.
That gap between formal legal recognition and practical implementation matters, Human Rights Watch said. In a 2024 report, Human Rights Watch research documented that sexual violence remains endemic in Ecuador’s education system and that protective measures have progressed too slowly and unevenly to keep all children safe. The researchers underscored the need for stronger institutions, clearer protocols, and effective follow-through.
The ruling also comes at a critical moment for Ecuador’s democratic institutions. Human Rights Watch reported that the government organized demonstrations against the Constitutional Court and that senior officials called its judges “enemies of the people,” prompting concern from international human rights bodies about threats to judicial independence and security. Respect for the court’s authority is essential, particularly when it is protecting the rights of groups that often face discrimination and political hostility.
“Ecuadorian authorities should carry out the gender recognition judgment promptly by issuing clear guidance to civil registry officials, training judges, and administrative personnel, and bringing all relevant legislation in line with the constitutional standards the court has articulated,” González said. “Officials should respect and faithfully carry out Constitutional Court rulings and refrain from attacks that undermine the court’s role in safeguarding human rights.”
Thailand: Don’t Return Vietnamese Activist
The Thai authorities should immediately release Le Chi Thanh, a prominent Vietnamese anti-corruption activist, and ensure that he is not forcibly returned to Vietnam, Human Rights Watch said today.
Le Chi Thanh’s lawyers told Human Rights Watch that the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok has been pressing Thai authorities to deport him as soon as possible to Vietnam, where he would be at serious risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and an unfair trial.
“Returning Le Chi Thanh to Vietnam would place the outspoken anti-corruption activist in grave danger,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Thai authorities should immediately release him, reinstate his visa, and ensure he is not put in harm’s way.”
On March 6, 2026, Thai immigration police arrested Le Chi Thanh, 43, at his house in Pathum Thani province. The arrest came after Vietnamese authorities cancelled Le Chi Thanh’s passport, which contained his visa, leaving him without a valid travel document to stay in Thailand. He is currently detained at Bangkok’s Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center while he appeals the Immigration Bureau’s order to revoke his visa and deport him to Vietnam.
Le Chi Thanh is a former police officer who uses social media to expose police corruption in Vietnam. Before coming to Thailand in September 2025, Le Chi Thanh suffered persecution in Vietnam for years.
In April 2021, Le Chi Thanh was arrested and tortured in police custody in Vietnam. After that, a Thu Duc city court sentenced him to two years in prison for having previously resisted arrest. In June 2022, a Binh Thuan provincial court sentenced Le Chi Thanh to an additional three years in prison under article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code for allegedly “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy in order to infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.” The charges are related to a number of videos he posted on Facebook criticizing corruption in the country. He was released in June 2025 and subsequently traveled to Thailand.
Vietnamese authorities have long used vague provisions in Vietnam’s penal code and other laws to crush all forms of dissent, including criticism of even low-level officials, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch, in a November 2025 report, documented a pattern of transnational repression in which Thai authorities in recent years have been assisting the Vietnamese government to undertake unlawful actions against exiled Vietnamese activists and dissidents, including those recognized as refugees by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). In exchange, Thai authorities have been able to target exiled Thai dissidents living in Vietnam. Most recently, in November 2025, Thai authorities forcibly returned to Vietnam the prominent Montagnard human rights activist Y Quynh Bdap.
Thailand’s Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act prohibits extradition when there is a substantial risk of torture or ill-treatment upon return.
In addition, Thailand is obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious ill-treatment, or a threat to their life. This principle is codified in the United Nations Convention Against Torture, to which Thailand is a party, and customary international law.
“As Thailand prepares to have its human rights record reviewed at the UN Human Rights Council in November, concerned governments should urge Thailand to end its collusion with Vietnam to repress critics and dissidents in exile,” Pearson said. “Releasing Le Chi Thanh will show that Thailand is on the right track to meet its human rights obligations.”
Vietnam: Free Political Prisoners Needing Medical Care
(Tokyo) – The Vietnamese authorities should give priority to releasing political prisoners with urgent health problems, Human Rights Watch said today.
Le Huu Minh Tuan, Can Thi Theu, and other unjustly imprisoned political activists should be urgently freed to obtain appropriate medical care in Vietnam or abroad. Le Huu Minh Tuan, a 37-year-old journalist who has been in prison since 2020, suffers from internal bleeding and other health issues, and has repeatedly been denied medical care. Can Thi Theu, 64, an activist imprisoned since 2020, has been suffering what her family says is “dizziness, tremors in hands and feet, lack of appetite, and unsteady gait” since early January 2026. The authorities have reportedly rejected her requests to be examined at a hospital.
“The Vietnamese authorities have compounded the wrongful imprisonment of Can Thi Theu and Le Huu Minh Tuan by denying them the medical care they urgently need,” said Patricia Gossman, senior associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should immediately release them so they can get proper medical treatment.”
Le Huu Minh Tuan is a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam and has written about the democracy protests in Hong Kong and politics in Vietnam. He has said that he writes “to campaign for a better society by contributing a critical voice on every front of life.” Police arrested him in Quang Nam province in June 2020 and charged him with “anti-state propaganda” under article 117 of the penal code. In January 2021, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, along with fellow journalists Pham Chi Dung and Nguyen Tuong Thuy.
Can Thi Theu is serving an eight-year prison sentence for participating in protests against land confiscation and environmental degradation, and for publicly supporting other human rights activists and political prisoners. This is the third time she has been imprisoned for her peaceful activism.
In separate arrests in June 2020, police detained Can Thi Theu and her sons Trinh Ba Tu and Trinh Ba Phuong. The three were convicted and imprisoned under article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, which prohibits “conducting propaganda against the state.” In September 2025, Trinh Ba Phuong received an additional 11-year sentence for allegedly having material critical of the Communist Party of Vietnam in his prison cell.
Vietnam’s prison system is notorious for abuses and poor conditions, Human Rights Watch said. In February 2026, Dinh Van Phu, an imprisoned political commentator on social media, died of an infection while serving an eight-year prison sentence for “anti-state propaganda.” In September, the political prisoner Vuong Van Tha, a Hoa Hao Buddhist activist, died under unclear circumstances while serving a 12-year prison sentence for criticizing the authorities. In December 2025, Dao Ba Cuong, a former political prisoner whose son had earlier died in police custody, died 10 months after his release.
Families of political prisoners including Tran Duc Thach, Nguyen Nang Tinh, Phan Van Bach, Le Dinh Luong, Nguyen Trung Ton, and others have raised serious concerns about similar health problems. Two political prisoners who were diagnosed with cancer while incarcerated, Nguyen Thuy Hanh and Dinh Van Hai, were released and have been receiving medical treatment.
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) state that the “provision of health care for prisoners is a State responsibility. Prisoners should enjoy the same standards of health care that are available in the community.” Furthermore, “[a]ll prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals.”
“Vietnam’s trade partners and other governments should press the Vietnamese authorities to prioritize the release of Can Thi Theu and Le Huu Minh Tuan so they can get urgent medical care,” Gossman said. “Governments shouldn’t let up the pressure until Vietnam releases all those imprisoned for peaceful dissent.”
UN Urges Ethiopia to Tackle Pollution at Gold Mine
“The company’s chemicals have contaminated our land, water, and people,” 28-year-old “Elizabeth” recently told Kontomaa Darimu Alliance, an Ethiopian nongovernmental organization. Elizabeth’s 2-year-old son died a few years ago and she suffered miscarriages in 2024 and 2025; she believes the mine is to blame.
Residents living near Lega Dembi mine, located in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, have complained of serious health impacts for years, including miscarriages, stillbirths, and children born with long-term health conditions. Severalstudies have found high concentrations of toxic heavy metals and other chemicals, including cadmium, mercury, lead, and arsenic, near the mine.
A recent decision by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child could bring hope to residents. In February, the committee called on the Ethiopian government to “urgently and effectively” resolve the mine’s “social, health and environmental effects on children.” It urged the government to pay compensation, rehabilitate affected children, and create an “independent mechanism for transparency and accountability from the mining company.”
In 2018, following large-scale demonstrations, the Ethiopian government closed the mine, promising to reopen it only after environmental concerns had been addressed. The government signed an—unpublished—memorandum of understanding with the global company operating the mine, Midroc Investment Group, and reopened the mine in 2021. Midroc stated in a 2023 letter to Human Rights Watch that it had taken steps to address the mine’s impacts, including paying compensation to victims, improving cyanide waste management, and providing clean drinking water.
But local residents have continued to report ill-health and miscarriages since the mine reopened. A new report by Kontomaa Darimu Alliance with powerful accounts from 2025 includes shocking cases of children’s ill-health and deaths, as well as stillbirths. Residents also say they have to drink water from Midroc’s tailings dams because there is insufficient clean drinking water.
In response to Human Rights Watch questions, Midroc denied that there were any human rights impacts resulting from its operations, stating that its monitoring system found the contaminants to be in the “allowable range of international standards,” and highlighting its recent certification under the International Cyanide Management Code. Midroc also said it constructed a hospital, and that the drinking water provided was sufficient.
The findings of the UN committee and the Kontomaa Darimu Alliance should prompt the Ethiopian government to finally tackle the pollution at the mine fully and transparently. The families of Lega Dembi have waited long enough.
Russia: Digital Iron Curtain Falls on Internet Freedom Protection Day
(Berlin, March 12, 2026) – Russian authorities have escalated their internet censorship efforts over the past month, Human Rights Watch said today, a day marked by free speech defenders as World Day Against Cyber Censorship. The government has blocked the most popular social media platform in Russia, coercing users to switch to a state-approved application, as well as circumvention tools.
“State control over internet infrastructure has long been the top priority for the Russian government,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The recent escalation of internet censorship raises serious concerns over the ability of people in Russia to access an open and free internet.”
On February 10, 2026, users in Russia started reporting difficulties accessing Telegram, one of the most popular messengers and social media platforms in the country. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), responsible for internet censorship, confirmed the “gradual restrictions” on Telegram in relationto its failure to comply with Russia’s legislation. Russian media reported that the authorities are planning to block Telegram fully in April.
In August 2025, the authorities announced that they were blocking calls using Telegram and WhatsApp as a crime prevention move, claiming it was necessary to counteract scam calls and prevent the “involvement of Russians in sabotage and terrorist actions.” In 2018, Roskomnadzor obtained a court ruling to block Telegram based on a 2016 law requiring internet companies to hand over encryption keys to the government but later lifted the formal ban after unsuccessful attempts to block it. Roskomnadzor said that the Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, had agreed to cooperate with the government on combating terrorism and extremism.
Durov, who is facing “aiding terrorist activities” criminal charges in Russia, said that the current effort by Russian authorities to block Telegram is “an attempt to force citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.”
The platform MAX was created in March 2025 by VK, also known as Vkontakte, which is owned and controlled by companies and individuals with close ties to the Russian government. In July, the government appointed MAX, a “national multifunctional messenger,” which is a government program to create a platform integrating messenger functions with state services. The app includes features such as messaging, calls, and access to state services and digital documents. MAX can be used as an age verification tool on a digital marketplace.
In September, the government said that MAX should be preinstalled on all smartphones and tablets sold in Russia. The authorities and VK carried out a broad campaign to increase the number of MAX users, including via promotion by celebrities. Communications from schools and universities were mandatorily moved to MAX, and the government also coerced housing associations and maintenance services to switch to the app, including by threatening them with hefty fines. Russian users also reported being locked out of Gosuslugi, the digital state services portal, unless MAX is installed.
By February 2026, MAX had reached 77.5 million monthly users in Russia, compared with 95.7 million Telegram users and 80.3 million WhatsApp users. Telegram and WhatsApp had lost 280,000 and 9 million users, respectively, between January and February.
Both internet users and internet censorship experts have expressed concerns over the vast amounts of data collected by MAX, as well as overly the broad range of permissions requested by the app. In March, experts said that the app sent repeated requests from the device to WhatsApp and Telegram domains and has potentially checked whether the user’s device is connected to a VPN. MAX denied all allegations.
The Russian authorities continue to increase their technical capacities to achieve tighter information controls, Human Rights Watch said.
Since 2019, all internet service providers in the country are legally required to install the so-called “TSPU” equipment, distributed and controlled by the state. This technology allows authorities to intercept and manipulate internet traffic. It also allows for internet shutdowns, for instance, during public protests or drone attacks by the Ukrainian army.
Another component of the “sovereign internet law” is the national domain name system, which works as the address book for the internet, parallel to the international domain name system (DNS). In February, internet censorship experts noted that domains of at least 13 websites, including YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, The Moscow Times, and RFE/RL, disappeared from the national DNS registry, meaning that users will see that such websites do not exist when trying to connect to them via a national DNS.
In February 2026, Roskomnadzor confirmed that it had blocked 469 of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) services used to overcome internet censorship. Since December, the authorities have been blocking the three most popular VPN protocols. In January 2025, the Federal Antimonopoly Agency issued the first fine for advertising VPNs, in accordance with the ban on Internet advertising. Starting September 2025, Russian users can be fined for “intentionally” searching for “extremist” content on the internet, including via VPNs.
In February, President Vladimir Putin signed into law amendments allowing the Federal Security Service to require internet service providers to fully block internet and phone connections without a court order on grounds to be defined by the president.
The Russian authorities should respect and uphold freedom of expression under international law by ending all censorship of protected free expression on the internet. Any online regulation must meet the criteria of having a lawful basis and a legitimate purpose, while also being necessary and proportionate, meaning it is the least intrusive measure that can achieve the purpose. They should also disclose the technical specifications and capabilities of tools the authorities use to collect data and censor internet traffic.
“The rights to freedom of expression and access to information, offline and online, are rights guaranteed under international human rights law,” Williamson said. “And yet Russian authorities don’t hesitate to blatantly violate these rights.”
The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other states and intergovernmental organizations should support groups working to protect access to information in Russia, including VPN developers working to secure rights-respecting VPN services.