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South Sudan: Both Sides Blocking Aid, Displacing Civilians
(Nairobi) – South Sudan’s military and opposition forces are blocking humanitarian access and unjustifiably ordering civilians to evacuate populated areas, Human Rights Watch said today. Since late 2025, the military has issued multiple evacuation orders, at least three of them sweeping in nature and the opposition forces at least three, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee.
“Repeated pressure, from both South Sudanese authorities and opposition forces, on civilians to evacuate populated areas is placing hundreds of thousands of people in harm’s way,” said Nyagoah Tut Pur, South Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Warring parties should not force people to flee towards further danger and destitution and are obligated to protect civilians whether or not they evacuate areas of military operations.”
Since December 2025, clashes between Sudan’s military, the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF), and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA/IO), and their respective allies have intensified in the country’s northeastern Jonglei state. At least 280,000 people have been displaced, many fleeing government bombardments, fearing government and opposition forces abuses, or following evacuation orders.
Based on interviews with humanitarian actors, United Nations human rights experts, and media reports, Human Rights Watch understands that in the days and weeks after the evacuation orders, the government carried out indiscriminate aerial bombardments of the areas under evacuation orders. Forces from both sides have reportedly committed abuses, including killings and raping of civilians, as well as looting and burning of civilian property, Human Rights Watch said. Deliberate, targeted attacks on civilians and civilian property, unlawful killings, and sexual violence may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On December 29, 2025, government forces bombarded the town of Lankien, in Nyirol county, Jonglei state, an opposition held area, hitting the airstrip, but also the nearby market killing 11 civilians and injuring 12 including children and older people, according to the medical agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
On January 25, 2026, the military issued an order for civilians, aid workers, and UN personnel to evacuate opposition-controlled areas in Nyirol, Uror, and Akobo. This followed a narrower order on December 30 to “vacate around military barracks and assembly points.”
On March 6 the military ordered civilians, UN personnel, and aid organizations, to evacuate Akobo County. Many of the 270,000 people in the area had already been displaced. Following the order, most of the population fled, including 110,000 people into neighboring Ethiopia. Several aid groups were forced to evacuate.
On March 15, the Nasir County commissioner in Upper Nile state in a statement, ordered civilians and aid workers in Mandeng town and surrounding villages, “under opposition control” to relocate within 72 hours, saying, the area would be the next target of the government’s counteroffensive. The commissioner said this was a follow-up to a similar March 1 order.
On December 27, 2025, the SPLA/IO warned civilians in northern Jonglei to flee to towns under opposition control including Pieri, Motot, and Palony. They also instructed civilians to stay indoors during shelling, and to avoid clothing associated with the army.
On January 8, 2026, civilians in Ayod county fled after armed actors reportedly issued a 72 hour evacuation order. On January 12, the opposition ordered humanitarian workers and civilians in “Bor, Ayod, Gaatdiang, Poktap, and surrounding areas” to leave immediately. On January 16, it ordered civilians and aid workers in “designated areas” including Bor, Duk, and Poktap, to vacate areas near military bases within 72 hours.
Under international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, parties to a non-international armed conflict may not order the displacement of civilians for reasons related to the conflict unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons demand it. Forced displacement of the civilian population is a war crime.
For an evacuation order to be lawful the displacement must be necessary, not issued for military convenience or advantage, temporary, and civilians must be able to return once hostilities end. Those ordering an evacuation need to ensure that displacement protections are in place and that displacement occurs in a manner consistent with returning the population after the threat is no longer present and consistent with the protection of the civilians’ human rights.
Evacuation orders differ from advance warnings under international humanitarian law, the latter being an obligation to give advanced and effective warning of impending targeted attacks that might affect a civilian population, unless the situation does not permit it. In contrast, evacuation orders are not necessarily linked to a single specific action.
Civilians who remain in place after an order to evacuate or warning of impending military actions do not lose their civilian status nor the protections of international humanitarian law and may not be subject to targeted or indiscriminate attacks, nor retaliated against for failing to leave.
The orders to evacuate have also occurred while both parties and their allies have attacked humanitarian infrastructure and imposed severe obstacles on humanitarian access, deepening civilian suffering.
On February 3, government bombardments hit an MSF hospital in Lankien, Nyirol county, injuring a staff member and destroying the hospital’s warehouse and medical supplies. MSF said it had provided coordinates for the hospital to the warring parties. On the same day, armed fighters looted an MSF health facility in Pieri, Uror county. UN Children’s Fund reported the suspension of at least 28 health and nutrition facilities and 17 incidents of looting of humanitarian supplies between January and March.
The government in particular has imposed staunch restrictions on access for humanitarians to opposition-controlled areas. In the first two months of the year the government-imposed a no-flight zone in opposition-held areas, including Lankien, Pieri, and Akobo, preventing the delivery of critical supplies and lifesaving evacuation of critically ill patients, the UN and MSF reported.
Government and opposition authorities have also issued contradictory and coercive administrative measures effectively restricting how and where aid can be delivered, Human Rights Watch said.
In a March 23 letter to aid agencies, the opposition-aligned county commissioner of Ulang in Upper Nile state warned that humanitarian agencies accessing the government-controlled town center would be considered government aligned and that their permission to move within the county would be suspended. The next day, the government-allied county commissioner of Ulang ordered aid organizations to relocate to Ulang town by March 31. On April 8, the same commissioner issued another letter to five international organizations giving them 72 hours to relocate to Ulang town or be treated as hostile to the government and face “legal and security penalties.”
Civilians forced to flee are facing dire humanitarian conditions. In Nyatim, Nyirol county, for example, about 3,000 displaced people who fled violence in Lankien and Pieri are sheltering in swamp areas without food or medical care, with ongoing government blocks on aid access, MSF said. It also said that at least 58 people had died over a four-week period. Several conflict-affected areas have been projected at risk of famine.
All parties to a conflict are required to allow and facilitate humanitarian assistance.
“South Sudan’s authorities appear to be instrumentalizing aid access to meet their own agenda, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians in desperate need,” Pur said. “International and regional actors should ensure accountability for the massive man-made humanitarian crisis and ongoing attacks on civilians and aid restrictions.”
Remembering a Steadfast Hong Kong Democracy Activist
Koo Sze-yiu was a fixture of Hong Kong’s protest scene. Standing out with his close-cropped hair and long gray beard, the gruffy activist and other leaders of the League of Social Democrats nevertheless fit right in marching next to lawyers and tens of thousands, sometimes millions, of ordinary Hong Kongers demanding democracy.
Protesting in Hong Kong had never been easy. Demonstrations often took place at the height of summer, with sweltering heat and packed crowds. In particular, the anniversary of Hong Kong’s July 1,1997 transfer of sovereignty from British to Chinese rule became a recurring day of mass protest. Koo, whose activism began in the 1960s, opposed both British colonial rule and the Chinese Communist Party.
But Koo was present at marches big and small, often carrying a coffin, a signature prop used by the League of Social Democrats meant to shame the Chinese government for its abuses, particularly the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.
For his activism, Koo was convicted more than 13 times and imprisoned on 10 occasions. Still, he continued protesting even after Beijing imposed the draconian National Security Law in 2020, under which dissent is punishable by life imprisonment. He also continued after being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2020. As growing repression intimidated most Hong Kongers into silence and forced many into exile, Koo stayed. He protested the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. His last arrest came in December 2023for “attempted sedition” after he planned to protest Hong Kong’s sham elections.
Koo never wavered from his values. At one of his final court appearances, where he represented himself, he said what few dared to anymore: “Human rights transcend political power; the people stand above the state.” Of prison, he said: “Being imprisoned is part of my life—although I fail, I rise to fight again; each term makes me wiser.” Following his cancer diagnosis and reflecting on how he might not live to see democracy in China, he said: "As long as I know when I die that I've spent my whole life fighting and going to jail, I'll have no regrets."
Koo Sze-yiu often painted political slogans on the coffins he carried. One captured his legacy and that of those who refuse to stop fighting for democracy:
“The people’s heroes, they shall remain forever immortal.”
World Cup: 2 Months Out, FIFA and Host Cities Sideline Rights
(New York) – World Cup city host committees and FIFA have fallen short on the steps needed to protect players and fans, Human Rights Watch said today, with the tournament two months away.
All but one of the host city committees have either failed to present action plans required by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) or produced plans that ignore or fail to adequately address risks, including those faced by immigrants, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and journalists.
“Despite years to prepare, the specter of immigration enforcement at FIFA events, and emerging threats to media freedom, host committees have failed to deliver coherent plans for the world’s largest sporting event,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “FIFA and these cities need to act immediately to strengthen human rights protections or risk a tournament defined by exclusion and fear.”
Click to expand ImageFrom January 20, 2025 to March 10, 2026, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested at least 167,000 people in and around the 11 US cities where games will be played, based on ICE data provided in response to a freedom of information request to the Deportation Data Project newly analyzed by Human Rights Watch. Those arrests are part of an abusive campaign of immigration enforcement that has entailed widespread human rights violations across the United States. At the FIFA Club World Cup final in 2025, ICE detained a fan initially arrested for a minor civil offense.
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup was the first with human rights bidding requirements, the first with a Human Rights Strategy as part of the award of the tournament, and the first with a mandatory Human Rights Framework imposed on host city committees. The framework states that “all FIFA World Cup 2026™ Host City Committees will develop tailored Host City Human Rights Action Plans in consultation with FWC26, local governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, and community groups.” The framework includes guidance covering migrant workers’ rights, “regardless of employment or immigration status.” The framework also acknowledges groups or populations that face “heightened” rights risks, including immigrants, migrant workers and their families, refugees and asylum seekers, journalists, and LGBT people.
Host city committees are nonprofit local organizing bodies responsible for coordinating with host city authorities and delivering tournament-related activities, including fan festivals, transportation coordination, volunteer programs, and community engagement. The original March 2025 deadline for the plans was extended to August 29, 2025. But of 16 host cities, only Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Vancouver have published plans. Boston, New York/New Jersey, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, San Francisco, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey have not.
“For the Miami Host City Committee—the city where FIFA bases its North American operations—failing to release a human rights action plan for stakeholder input is a clear ‘own goal,’” said Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, policy coordinator at American Friends Service Committee Florida. “Miami and other host cities should fulfill their responsibility to protect fans, workers, and athletes and put in place the rights protections we need to make the World Cup a success, not only in soccer but in human rights.”
The four host cities that have published plans have articulated some useful information and commitments. Both the Houston and Dallas plans state that the host committees will establish a “Worker Support Hub” to address grievances and provide other services. But the plans don’t explicitly address risks faced by undocumented workers and fans.
The risk of abusive immigration enforcement in Houston and Dallas is real. Local authorities in both cities have signed 287(g) agreements, which deputize local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, ICE has arrested 22,388 people in Dallas and 26,483 in Houston. Human Rights Watch has called for an “ICE Truce” during the games.
Atlanta’s plan contains more explicit information on immigrants’ rights, stating that the Atlanta Police Department does not operate under federal enforcement agreements. However, 287(g) agreements are in effect and, according to media reports, actively expanding in the metro area and throughout Georgia. Under Georgia’s 2024 state law HB 1105, the Atlanta Police Department must comply with immigration status checks for certain misdemeanors. Since January 2025, ICE has arrested 13,985 people in the Atlanta area, according to the Deportation Data Project.
The published action plans do little to address discrimination against LGBT people. Soccer has long struggled with homophobia and in 2025, FIFA canceled previously planned additional anti-racism and anti-discrimination messaging at the US Club World Cup venues without explanation. The Dallas and Houston action plans contain no references to LGBT people. The Atlanta plan, in contrast, promises at least “two FIFA-connected community events developed in partnership with Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ organizations.” The first half of the World Cup takes place during Pride month, June, which will bring increased visibility and protests related to LGBT rights.
“An overwhelming sentiment among stakeholders in host cities is that the World Cup is something that will happen to them, rather than for or even with them,” said Jennifer Li, coordinator of Dignity2026 and director of the Center for Community Health Innovation at Georgetown Law, who works closely with local groups across host cities. “The failure to publish human rights plans shows a lack of both investment and experience by host committees and FIFA alike, who have procrastinated for months and are now afraid to show their homework. The list of host cities was announced four years ago and the FWC26 Human Rights Framework was published in June 2024. That we are still unclear on the action plans or timeline for implementation is reckless.”
Although they discuss freedom of expression, the Houston and Dallas action plans also contain no references to the risks faced by journalists covering the World Cup. In Los Angeles, which has not published a plan, Human Rights Watch documented that US officers fired tear gas, pepper balls, hard foam rounds, and flash-bang grenades directly at protesters, journalists, and other observers at protests against immigration raids in June 2025.
Human Rights Watch wrote to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on January 13, 2026, about what steps FIFA would take to address US immigration enforcement and ICE activities at World Cup events. FIFA did not reply in writing. Human Rights Watch wrote to FIFA on April 6 requesting details on steps to protect journalists.
FIFA and host city committees need to take concrete steps in the weeks remaining before kickoff.
FIFA should insist that all 16 host committees work with local stakeholders to publish and implement full Human Rights Action Plans before May 11. Every plan should explicitly address immigration enforcement risks, including that ICE could target World Cup venues, fan festivals, and surrounding areas with abusive operations. Given the abusive nature of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, FIFA should seek a public guarantee from federal authorities to refrain from immigration enforcement at games and venues. Every plan should include LGBT-specific protections and anti-discrimination messaging. FIFA and host committees should plan to support abuse victims. FIFA should update and strengthen its media freedom policy to help guarantee the safety and accreditation of journalists covering human rights issues in all three host countries, consistent with FIFA’s commitments to human rights defenders and media representatives. Host cities in states with 287(g) immigration enforcement agreements should publicly clarify how those agreements will impact the tournament and what protections and legal support services exist for workers, residents, fans, and other groups at risk of detention.FIFA should make clear that failure to publish a Human Rights Action Plan may affect cities that want to host events in future tournaments.
“Since awarding Trump the ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ in December, FIFA has gone silent on every concrete human rights promise it said it would stand up for,” Worden said. “The irony is that FIFA is still expecting ‘Human Rights Action Plans’ when the organization itself has taken no public action to address key risks and uphold the full spectrum of human rights at the world’s largest sporting event.”
Russia: Memorial Rights Group Declared ‘Extremist’
(Berlin) – The Russian Supreme Court on April 9, 2026, designated “International Public Movement Memorial” as an “extremist” organization in a dramatic escalation of the Kremlin’s efforts to suppress human rights work, Human Rights Watch said today. The sweeping “extremist” designation entails a ban on engaging in any of Memorial organizations’ activities under the threat of lengthy prison sentences.
Memorial is one of Russia’s oldest and most respected rights groups. In 2022, it became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for its “outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power.” Numerous independent Memorial organizations in Russia and abroad also conduct historical research and document Soviet-era repression and the contemporary human rights crackdown.
“Russian authorities should lift this punitive designation on Memorial and support civil society, not seek to dismantle it,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The Justice Ministry filed the lawsuit seeking to designate Memorial “extremist” on March 27. The sham process concluded in one hearing, behind closed doors, and the case file is classified “top secret.” The court did not allow Memorial’s attorneys to participate in the proceedings. Memorial Human Rights Defence Center and Memorial’s political prisoners project denounced the verdict as “unlawful and unfounded” and said they would continue their work.
In a news release, the Supreme Court called Memorial’s activities “vocally anti-Russian, aimed at destroying the foundations of Russian statehood, undermining territorial integrity, and eroding historical, cultural, spiritual, and moral values.” The Justice Ministry claimed that Memorial “disregards” court rulings by recognizing some individuals convicted of participation in terrorist organizations as political prisoners. Memorial’s political prisoners project currently lists 1,504 people, with over 5,000 more considered imprisoned unlawfully on apparent political motives.
The Justice Ministry also said it had identified 196 “active participants” in the movement. Participating in or financing an extremist organization is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. Symbols of “extremist” organizations are banned, and displaying them is punishable with up to 15 days in detention for the first offense and up to four years in prison for a repeat offense. The authorities may include individuals suspected of involvement with an extremist organization in the countrywide “list of extremists” and freeze their bank accounts.
In 2021, Russian authorities liquidated two legal entities, Memorial International and Memorial Human Rights Center, on bogus and politically motivated charges of repeatedly violating Russia’s toxic “foreign agents” legislation. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2022 that Russia had violated the right to association in respect of the prosecution and dissolution of Memorial organizations under these laws. In 2025, the Justice Ministry also designated dozens of Memorial’s members “foreign agents” in their personal capacity, which entails onerous and burdensome labeling and reporting requirements and prosecution for supposed violations.
On February 9, 2026, the Prosecutor General’s Office also designated Zukunft Memorial and International Memorial Association as “undesirable,” banning them in Russia under threat of prosecution for anyone who engages in their activities in Russia or overseas.
In recent years, Russian authorities have intensified their efforts to enforce so-called traditional values, stifle dissent, and hinder human rights work, using their extensive toolbox of repressive legislation, including laws on combating extremism. Authorities banned many prominent human rights groups, such as Human Rights House Foundation, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, European Prison Litigation Network, Fédération internationale pour les droits humains (FIDH) and Reporters without Borders.
United Nations experts called the Justice Ministry’s lawsuit “a deliberate and calculated strategy to spread fear among the Russian people and deprive them from independent information, human rights defense, advocacy and legal assistance.”
“By designating Memorial ‘extremist,’ Russian authorities essentially outlaw human rights work,” Williamson said. “This is yet another low blow in the Kremlin’s staggering assault on civil society. Memorial and other Russian rights groups now need the support of the international community more than ever.”
Thailand: Security Agency Implicated in Attack on Muslim Lawmaker
(Bangkok) – Thai authorities should urgently, thoroughly, and impartially investigate the assassination attempt on Kamonsak Leewamoh, a Muslim member of parliament and prominent human rights lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today.
On March 20, 2026, at about 1 a.m., gunmen in a pickup truck opened fire with M-16 assault rifles at Kamonsak’s minivan as he was arriving at his house in Narathiwat province’s Bacho district. Kamonsak was not hit, but his assistant and the driver were seriously wounded. The authorities issued arrest warrants for three alleged gunmen, who are former military personnel. The police impounded a white Toyota pickup truck registered with the Internal Security Operations Command, which is responsible for counterinsurgency operations and security affairs in Narathiwat and other southern border provinces.
“The alleged involvement of a key security agency and former military personnel in the assassination attempt against a Muslim member of parliament raises grave concerns,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai government needs to ensure that the police can fully, fairly, and impartially investigate this case and bring all those responsible to justice, regardless of their affiliation or rank.”
A police investigation found that the attack was an assassination attempt on Kamonsak and identified three alleged gunmen. One of them, a former marine, has been arrested. The other two gunmen, a former marine and a former volunteer with the Thaharnpran paramilitary force, remain at large.
Kamonsak represents the predominantly Muslim Prachachat Party in Narathiwat province. He is also well known as a prominent human rights lawyer at the Muslim Attorney Center Foundation, which works with victims of the Tak Bai massacre trials and other cases related to counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces. In parliament, Kamonsak has been calling for legal reform to allow the holding of criminal prosecution trials of military personnel in civilian courts.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also the director of the Internal Security Operations Command, should ensure that investigators can independently and impartially pursue responsibility for the attempt on Kamonsak’s life, Human Rights Watch said.
Since the outbreak of armed insurgency in the southern border provinces of Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat in January 2004, Thai authorities have failed to resolve cases related to attacks on those who speak out about human rights violations by state officials, deepening the climate of fear. Successive governments have done little to address threats and violence against Muslim human rights defenders, activists, and politicians.
“The attack on Kamonsak is a crucial test of the Thai government’s pledges to promote and protect human rights,” Pearson said. “Thai authorities should take concrete measures to protect the rights of those in the southern border provinces who denounce security force abuses and demand justice.”
Georgia: Deported Azerbaijani Journalist at Risk
(Berlin, April 10, 2026) – Georgian authorities forcibly returned an exiled Azerbaijani journalist, Afgan Sadigov, to Azerbaijan, exposing him to a credible risk of politically motivated prosecution and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today.
The authorities deported him without a meaningful assessment of these risks in proceedings that raise serious due process concerns. Their actions call into question the good faith of both governments with respect to their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
“This deportation should not have happened, and how it happened is particularly disturbing,” said Giorgi Gogia, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Georgian authorities returned Sadigov to a country where he faces a real risk of persecution, without properly assessing that risk and in summary proceedings that raise serious fairness concerns.”
Sadigov, editor-in-chief of Azel.tv, a media platform reporting on crime and alleged government corruption in Azerbaijan, had been living in Georgia since December 2023, where he continued his journalistic work. Since 2016, Sadigov has faced multiple charges in Azerbaijan, including two criminal cases widely viewed as retaliation for his reporting. In November 2020, a court in Baku sentenced him to seven years in prison on dubious extortion charges. He was released early in 2022, following a pardon.
On August 3, 2024, Georgian authorities detained Sadigov with a view to extraditing him to Azerbaijan after the authorities there brought new charges. He spent more than seven months in detention. Sadigov sought international protection in Georgia, but authorities rejected his asylum claim and subsequent appeals despite his well-founded fears of persecution in Azerbaijan.
In January 2025, Sadigov filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights on the basis that his extradition to Azerbaijan would violate the European Convention on Human Rights. On February 28, 2025, the court issued an interim measure, an extension of one that had been initially granted in January, ordering Georgia not to extradite Sadigov pending completion of its review of the case. Tbilisi City Court released him on bail on April 16, 2025.
Following his release, Sadigov participated in protests in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Courts fined him dozens of times for alleged administrative offenses related to obstructing traffic during assemblies, imposing cumulative fines totaling 275,000 lari (approximately US$102,000). The authorities also sentenced him to detention twice, for 14 and 7 days, for administrative offenses. In January 2026, a judge referred him for potential criminal investigation under recently adopted amendments criminalizing repeated administrative offenses.
Events escalated rapidly early this month. On April 1, Azerbaijani authorities discontinued criminal proceedings against Sadigov and notified the Georgian authorities. On April 3, a Georgian court lifted his bail and movement restrictions. Late on April 4, police arrested Sadigov at his home. Sevinc Sadigova, his wife, told media that officers forcibly entered the apartment and removed him without providing a clear explanation.
Shortly after midnight on April 5, police stated that Sadigov had been detained for allegedly insulting a police officer on social media. At approximately 4 a.m., Tbilisi City Court found him guilty, fined him 2,000 lari (approximately $745), ordered his expulsion to Azerbaijan, and imposed a three-year entry ban. Georgian authorities transferred him to Azerbaijan later that day.
Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs sought to justify the expulsion by citing Sadigov’s alleged involvement in multiple administrative offenses and unspecified “security-related concerns” communicated by Azerbaijani counterparts. The ministry contended that the European Court’s interim measure applied only to extradition in the context of criminal proceedings, which Azerbaijan had discontinued.
However, the Social Justice Center, which represents Sadigov, said that interim measures are binding and remain in force unless and until they are lifted by the court itself. Both Azerbaijan and Georgia are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights and are legally bound to respect the court’s decisions.
Sadigov’s lawyer said that the Georgian court, sitting in the middle of the night, rejected all defense motions, including those based on the interim measure, and failed to consider less restrictive alternatives, such as voluntary departure or seeking asylum in a third country. He was then deported.
In Azerbaijan, on April 6, law enforcement officials detained Sadigov without explanation and took him to a police station where they held him for approximately 40 minutes. He was later told that the purpose was to remove him from a wanted person’s database and to take his fingerprints, after which he was released.
Sadigov’s return is particularly concerning given a longstanding pattern of prosecution of journalists and government critics in Azerbaijan, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities have repeatedly used criminal and administrative charges to target journalists, activists, and political opponents, with critics frequently facing arrest, travel bans, and other forms of harassment.
The circumstances of Sadigov’s removal raise serious concerns that Georgian authorities acted in bad faith and colluded with Azerbaijani officials to circumvent their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Council of Europe member states should investigate Georgia’s actions and ensure accountability for any breach of its obligations. These include the absolute prohibition on return to a risk of persecution, torture, or serious human rights violations (the non-refoulement principle), as well as guarantees of due process, the right to a fair hearing, an effective remedy, and compliance with interim measures.
Georgia should also investigate the circumstances of Sadigov’s deportation and ensure full compliance with its human rights obligations.
“There needs to be accountability for Georgian authorities’ apparent cooperation with Azerbaijan to engineer Sadigov’s removal despite clear risks to his safety, in defiance of their international human rights obligations,” Gogia said. “Azerbaijani authorities should guarantee Afgan Sadigov’s safety, that he will not be arbitrarily detained or prosecuted, and that he is free to exercise his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, including to leave his country.”
Belarus Imports Russia’s 'Propaganda' Playbook
Belarus’s parliament adopted a new law on April 2 banning “propaganda” of same-sex relationships, of “gender reassignment,” and even of “childlessness.” This furthers the legal and political alignment between Belarus and Russia,which both seek to stigmatize minority groups, control public discourse, and suppress dissent.
“Propaganda” is vaguely defined in the law as the dissemination of “appealing” information “intended to influence citizens’ perceptions.” Violation of the ban is an administrative offense penalized by fines of up to 20 base units (currently about US$310) for individuals, and up to 150 (approximately $2,320) for legal entities. If the information is deemed accessible to minors, sanctions include higher fines, community service, and detention.
The new law creates a climate of fear in which the boundaries of lawful expression are deliberately unclear and perpetuates the escalating state crackdown on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.
The law targets not only LGBT people, but with the ban on promotion of “childlessness,” targets the personal autonomy and private life of all in Belarus. The law also bans propaganda about pedophilia, conflating serious criminal conduct with discussions of sexual orientation, gender identity, and personal life choices. By lumping all these categories together within the same regulatory framework, legislators are intentionally using pedophilia to stigmatize and criminalize LGBT people. These discriminatory conflations provide authorities with sweeping discretion to silence journalists, educators, health professionals, and ordinary people.
The new law builds on previous abusive measures: In 2024, Belarusian authorities classified depictions of LGBT people as “pornography,” which may lead to criminal liability, placing LGBT expression alongside offenses such as pedophilia under the stigmatizing “non-traditional” sexual behavior classification. They also banned advertising and disseminating cultural and educational content promoting LGBT relationships.
The approach mirrors developments in Russia, where an “LGBT extremism” designation and propaganda bans have facilitated arrests, fines, and the closure of civil society organizations, while fueling stigma and violence. Belarus appears to be following the same trajectory in efforts to establish full control over public narratives, including those about gender and sexuality.
Belarus’s authorities present this legislation as a defense of “traditional values.” In reality, it continues to purge Belarus of independent thought and civil society. The international community should recognize this new law for what it is: not just an attack on LGBT people, but a broader assault on fundamental freedoms.
Lebanon: Israeli Strikes Kill Hundreds, Damage Vital Bridge
(Beirut) – More than 100 Israeli strikes across Lebanon on April 8, 2026, including in densely populated neighborhoods in Beirut, killed over 300 people and damaged the last main bridge linking southern Lebanon with the rest of the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli strikes making bridge crossings over the Litani River unusable threaten to sever tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon from access to humanitarian aid, food, and health care.
“For the last two years, the Israeli military’s deplorable violations and war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza have wreaked havoc on civilians, as the continued flow of arms to Israel and the silence of other countries has only emboldened the Israeli military’s atrocities,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Cutting off southern Lebanon from the rest of the country would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and cause grave harm for the tens of thousands of people who remain there.”
On March 31, Human Rights Watch researchers visited the southern Lebanese city of Tyre and interviewed eight people, including four municipality officials; members of the Lebanese Civil Defense and the Islamic Health Committee, a civil defense and ambulance organization affiliated with Hezbollah; and an official at Jabal Amel Hospital, one of the main hospitals in Tyre.
“If they strike the bridge, where will we go? There is nowhere to go,” said Hassan Hamieh, a displaced resident who had fled to Tyre from the southern town of Beit Leif.
The Israeli military said on April 8 that it had launched over 100 strikes “within ten minutes and across multiple areas [in Lebanon] simultaneously,” including in densely populated areas in Beirut, killing at least 303 people and injuring over 1150 according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It was the deadliest day in Lebanon since the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2.
Later that day, the Lebanese Armed Forces reported that they evacuated the Qasmieh bridge near Tyre, the last main crossing point into the area south of the Litani River.
Photographs and videos taken by journalists at the scene and verified by Human Rights Watch show that Israeli strikes destroyed a footbridge near the bridge, with a large, mangled section of the footbridge landing on the main bridge, temporarily cutting off access on one side of the road. On April 9, the Israeli military said that they had “struck two key crossings” over the Litani River, accusing Hezbollah of using the crossings to transfer combatants and weapons.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,888 people in Lebanon since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. This includes more than 130 children, 102 women, and 57 medical workers, as of April 7. Hezbollah attacks have killed at least two people in Israel, Reuters reported.
Between March 12 and April 8, Israeli forces systematically destroyed or severely damaged all main bridges connecting areas south of the Litani River to the rest of the country, making the Qasmieh bridge the sole main remaining operational crossing. These attacks include strikes on nine bridges over the Litani River and its tributary, some of which were struck repeatedly, in addition to the main road leading to Al-Khardali bridge.
Human Rights Watch analyzed videos posted online showing the moment three of the bridges were struck, as well as photographs and videos of the aftermath from the strikes on the nine bridges and the road leading to Al-Khardali bridge. Many videos were geolocated by Sky News journalist Ben van der Merwe and corroborated by Human Rights Watch researchers.
These strikes had significantly limited the ability of civilians to move safely and of state institutions, humanitarian organizations, hospitals, and healthcare facilities to deliver aid and provide medical care. Despite some damage to the Qasmieh bridge and the destruction of the footbridge that runs parallel to it, the bridge remains operable and serves as the only lifeline for the tens of thousands of residents who remain south of the Litani River.
Other countries should press Israel not to cut off residents in southern Lebanon from the rest of the country and ensure they have sustainable and predictable access to humanitarian aid and are not being denied access to items essential for their survival, such as water, food, and medicine. They should further ensure safe passage for those who choose to leave.
Israel’s allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other European Union states should suspend all arms sales, arms transit, and military assistance to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on officials credibly implicated in ongoing grave crimes. The EU should immediately suspend the trade pillar of its Association Agreement with Israel as long as Israel’s atrocity crimes persist, Human Rights Watch said.
The Israeli military stated that the strikes on the bridges were “to prevent the movement of reinforcements and means of combat” into southern Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of using the bridges for military purposes.
Even if bridge crossings become military objectives—that is, if they are making an effective contribution to military action—attacks on them are still subject to the rules of proportionality. Disproportionate attacks include those that may be expected to cause excessive damage to civilians and civilian objects in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack. These attacks are prohibited under the laws of war.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated on March 23 that the destruction of key bridges has “significantly [disrupted] movement and humanitarian access,” with strikes “severing connectivity” between Tyre and Nabatieh, and “[restricting] movement between south Lebanon and West Bekaa, including Marjayoun and Hasbaya.”
“The destruction of key bridges has cut off districts, isolating over 150,000 people and severely limiting humanitarian access,” OCHA said, adding that the damage to key transport routes is also “impeding the delivery of essential supplies, and limiting the ability of civilians to move safely”
Mortada Mohanna, director of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Unit Management at the Union of Tyre Municipalities, which consists of at least 55 municipalities, said that about 71,000 people remained in Tyre and surrounding towns and villages, as of April 8.
“Those who have stayed in southern Lebanon now face heightened isolation and growing obstacles to access humanitarian aid as Israeli airstrikes have destroyed bridges linking the south to the rest of the country,” said Thameen al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on March 17.
Local authorities in Tyre told Human Rights Watch that food supplies would last a week if the last remaining bridge was attacked and rendered inoperable. “By sea, by air, nothing can come in,” said Alwan Charafeddine, Tyre’s vice mayor. “That bridge is a lifeline. Our food stock is almost empty because everything we get, we are giving out.”
Charafeddine said that “the five major supermarkets in the city and the areas around it all closed,” with only five bakeries still operating in the city, and that pharmacies in the city have also shut down, with medicine now being provided by local authorities and nongovernmental organizations.
OCHA said that “markets south of the Litani River appear to have largely ceased operations, with many monitored shops closed or evacuated and supply deliveries significantly reduced.”
Access to medical treatment, medicine, and medical supplies has also been severely hampered due to the bombing of bridges, said a medical worker and a hospital official in Tyre.
An official at the Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre said that all doctors and staff still working at the hospital are living there because travel to and from the hospital has become risky. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that hospital staff in the southern cities of Nabatieh and Marjayoun are doing the same.
Dialysis patients have also had to move into Jabal Amel Hospital, the official said, because they cannot travel easily or risk being cut off from the hospital all together. He also said that some doctors have even had to conduct surgeries that typically require medical tools, such as orthopedic drills used in brain surgeries, with hand-operated drills because staff are unable to replace these tools or send them for repair easily.
“To get medical supplies we have to take a hospital car, go to Sidon [more than 30 kilometers north], get the medical supplies and come back,” the official at Jabal Amel Hospital said. “But this is risky because sometimes we have to go late at night […] if the [last] bridge is struck, we’d be completely isolated.” At least six hospitals in Lebanon have had to shut down since March 2, the World Health Organization said, including three south of the Litani river.
Since March 4, the Israeli military has repeatedly issued displacement orders for the entire population of Lebanon south of the Litani River, which includes the district of Tyre. Since March 12, it has expanded the areas subject to displacement orders, ordering residents to move north of the Zahrani River, 15 kilometers north of the Litani River and 40 kilometers north of Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
Under international humanitarian law, all parties to the conflict are obligated to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in need. They must respect and protect aid workers, warehouses, and other objects used for relief operations.
Civilians who do not evacuate following warnings are still fully protected by international humanitarian law. Forced displacement is prohibited under the laws of war, except in cases in which the protection of the civilians concerned is involved or for imperative military reasons. A person who commits serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent—that is, intentionally or recklessly—may be prosecuted for war crimes. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for assisting in, facilitating, aiding, or abetting a war crime.
Israeli forces have committed numerous violations of the laws of war in Lebanon with total impunity since October 2023, including apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on journalists, civilians, medics, financial institutions, reconstruction-related facilities, and peacekeepers.
Human Rights Watch has also found that Israel has flouted orders from the International Court of Justice requiring Israel to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in relation to Israel’s intentional and systematic deprivation of “the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival,” including by obstruction of aid and attacks on and killing of aid workers.
Lebanon’s judicial authorities should initiate domestic investigations of serious international crimes, and the government should accede to the ICC’s Rome Statute and submit a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction prior to the date of accession, including since at least October 7, 2023.
“To prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, the international community should act immediately to demand that civilians across Lebanon are protected and that the last working bridge connecting the area south of the Litani River to the rest of Lebanon remains functional,” Kaiss said. “Civilians are paying the price of the international community’s silence and unwillingness to hold Israeli officials to account.”
Israeli Pressure Silences a Key Group Defending Palestinian Children
Since its establishment in 1991, one of the most reliable messengers about life for Palestinian children under Israeli occupation had been a group called Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP).
But on April 7 the group ended its operations due to what it said were “challenges resulting from Israel’s targeted criminalization of Palestinian human rights organizations.”
It’s a testament to the dedication of its staff that DCIP persevered so long.
The Israeli military outlawed DCIP and five other Palestinian human rights and civil society groups in 2021, declaring them “terrorist organizations.” The military’s charges were bogus—as international human rights groups, the United Nations, and governments that investigated them found—but they were hard to fight because, as is often the case in Israeli military prosecutions, they were based on “secret evidence.”
European states suspended their funding to the group, took more than a year to investigate the Israeli accusations, and finally concluded they were baseless. A month after the EU concluded its investigation, Israeli forces raided DCIP’s offices in Ramallah, confiscated equipment and clients’ files, and welded the doors shut. As DCIP noted, the United States remained silent.
It’s not hard to see why DCIP was a target. Day in, day out, for decades, DCIP has documented Israeli military abuses against children, from arbitrary arrests, torture, coerced confessions, and unfair trials, to the needless use of lethal force.
The group’s work informed a 2013 UNICEF report that found “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized.”
DCIP reports have played a critical role in shining a spotlight on Israeli abuses of children and many have garnered global attention and outrage. One such case is that of Mohammed Bani Odeh, 5, his brother Othman, 6, and their parents Wa’ad and Ali, who were returning home from a holiday shopping trip last month when Israeli forces riddled their car with bullets, killing them all. As DCIP noted, two other brothers, 8-year-old Mustafa and Khaled, 11, were wounded but survived. When they staggered from the car, Israeli forces beat them.
In scores and scores of cases, were it not for DCIP’s invaluable documentation and reporting, abuses against Palestinian children, of lives cut short and bodies withheld from their families, might never have come to light.
The rate of children being forcibly displaced, arbitrarily jailed, and killed by Israeli forces in both Gaza and the West Bank is at extraordinary high levels. Other criminalized and targeted Palestinian rights groups are, somehow, still hanging on. These vital messengers, like DCIP, are needed now more than ever.
Another Disturbing Surprise From ICE
Emboldened by President Donald Trump’s abusive mass deportation agenda and Congress recently approving a supersized budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun purchasing warehouses across the country to detain people in its custody.
One of the most alarming developments of this initiative is unfolding in Surprise, Arizona, where ICE has awarded a $313 million contract to GardaWorld Federal, the private contractor running “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, to convert and operate an immigration prison with the capacity to detain up to 1,500 people. The planned Surprise facility spans 400,000 square feet, roughly the size of seven football fields, and was originally built for industrial use. It is expected to open by September 2026.
The US government’s expansion of immigration detention, particularly through the purchase of warehouses not designed to house people at all, let alone humanely, raises grave human rights concerns.
The United States has a terrible record of endangering the lives of immigrants in its custody by holding them in facilities where disease, medical neglect, and physical abuse are rampant, including tent camps at military bases and notorious detention centers across the country. This is particularly concerning as a shocking number of people are dying in immigration detention. Last year, at least 32 people died in ICE custody, and 2026 is already on track to be even worse, with 14 deaths reported since the beginning of the year. Given this dismal track record, it is extremely difficult to believe that the Surprise warehouse will be converted into a humane facility whose conditions are safe and compatible with US human rights obligations.
The Surprise City Council, and any city where ICE has bought warehouse space, should do everything in their power to block these developments absent convincing, ironclad guarantees that the facilities will meet the basic standards of humane treatment ICE has habitually flouted.
Thailand: Journalists Sued for Reporting Minister’s Bribery Case
(Bangkok) – A senior cabinet minister in Thailand has brought criminal defamation lawsuits against two prominent journalists who reported about a bribery case, raising serious concerns for media freedom, Human Rights Watch said today. The trial court can dismiss the case if it lacks legal merit or is without basis.
On February 27, 2026, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Suchart Chomklin, filed a lawsuit against Hathairat Phaholtap, editor-in-chief of the Isaan Record. The summons related to Hathairat’s Facebook posts citing the Isaan Record’s report that Thai politicians were involved in trafficking Thai berry pickers and took bribes from brokers supplying Thai workers to a berry company in Finland. Suchart later filed a separate criminal defamation case against Kowit Phothisan, another editor at the Isaan Record, for sharing Hathairat’s posts.
“The criminal defamation suits against the journalists Hathairat and Kowit highlight the danger of cases filed in retaliation for reporting on human rights abuses,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The courts need to ensure that such cases fully respect media freedom.”
In the criminal defamation case against Hathairat, Suchart alleged that her posts made readers believe that she was referring to him. The minister seeks THB50 million (US$1.6 million) in damages from Hathairat. Suchart is also seeking THB1 million (US$31,000) in damages in the separate case against Kowit.
On January 24, Suchart filed a malfeasance complaint with the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases against the director-general of the Justice Ministry’s Department of Special Investigation and other officials for media comments implying that Suchart was involved in a bribery scheme linked to Thai berry pickers sent to Finland during 2020 and 2023. The National Anti-Corruption Commission is currently reviewing the department’s investigation implicating Suchart and several senior Labor Ministry officials for allegedly taking bribes from berry picker brokerage companies.
On April 1, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand issued a statement raising concerns about the growing use of strategic litigation to silence public participation (known as SLAPP) and calling for the enactment of an anti‑SLAPP law to protect human rights defenders, the public, and journalists who report on issues in the public interest. The human rights commission cited the criminal defamation cases filed by Suchart against Isaan Record journalists.
During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review of its human rights status at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Thailand supported multiple recommendations regarding freedom of expression, including issues related to the abuse of SLAPP lawsuits, but has not carried them out.
Thai authorities have not protected activists and whistleblowers from harassment or retaliatory lawsuits by state agencies and private companies, despite the adoption of the National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights in 2019 and 2023, Human Rights Watch said. The absence of effective anti-SLAPP protections impedes media freedom and public scrutiny of government officials and companies.
The apparent aim of such lawsuits is to intimidate and discourage members of the public, human rights defenders, and the media from scrutinizing corruption and human rights violations, ultimately silencing reporting in the public interest. Such practices seriously undermine the right to freedom of expression under the Thai constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Thailand is a party. The Human Rights Council will next review Thailand’s right record in November.
“The United Nations and concerned governments should urge Thailand to strengthen anti-SLAPP protections,” Pearson said. “The Thai government should curtail the use of such retaliatory lawsuits as its promises on business and human rights will ring hollow without forceful action.”
Senegal: A Decade of Unresolved Climate Displacement
(Dakar) – Senegalese families remain in limbo in a site called Khar Yalla, a decade after coastal floods destroyed their homes, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite recent progress, the government has not yet provided displaced families with a permanent, durable solution.
The approximately 1,000 people who lost their homes to tidal surges in 2015 and 2016 lived in historic fishing communities on the Langue de Barbarie peninsula of the northern city of Saint-Louis. After the families lived in tents for months, local authorities moved them to Khar Yalla in late 2016, providing them with temporary occupation permits pending a permanent solution. Local and national authorities noted that because the site floods and lacks essential services, it is not fit for permanent habitation. Yet, nearly 10 years on and with the next flood season coming in September, the families have not been provided with an alternative and continue to face violations of their right to permanent, adequate housing.
“A decade of living in uncertainty is an unacceptable reality for families already traumatized by climate displacement,” said Erica Bower, climate displacement researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Senegalese government should provide families with the bare minimum for Khar Yalla to feel like home again: permanent permits to regularize their tenure.”
During a March 24-26, 2026 visit, Human Rights Watch found that some progress has been made since the publication of its August 2025 report about the situation. Around a dozen out of 68 households now have electricity, though the installation costs are prohibitive for many. Local and regional authorities are investigating the situation and have visited the Khar Yalla families for the first time in years.
While these developments are encouraging, the Senegalese government should remedy the situation by providing families in Khar Yalla with permanent permits, paving a path towards a truly durable solution. Permanent permits would allow families to expand their overcrowded homes, complete their women’s center, build a wall to prevent floods, and pursue more dignified futures.
Khar Yalla families are not alone. Hundreds of other families have been internally displaced across Senegal by coastal tidal surges. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, over 57,000 people were displaced by floods in Senegal in 2024 alone. As climate change accelerates, the number of people who are displaced by disasters and require a durable solution is likely to increase.
Senegal has already invested more than many countries to support climate-displaced communities, but the authorities left the families in Khar Yalla out of those efforts. Khar Yalla’s experiences offer lessons about the process of planned relocation that should be considered in subsequent efforts. Such lessons include conducting a comprehensive census to identify those displaced the longest, selecting sites that are not flood prone, and providing families with permanent rather than temporary permits.
Ad hoc, temporary, and reactive measures should not become the norm. To prevent poorly planned relocations from becoming protracted displacement, Senegal should plan ahead. This means systematically documenting lessons from existing cases and adopting legal frameworks to ensure that planned relocations are rights-respecting.
Planned relocation for people displaced by climate change comes with serious risks and should be a last resort, while priority should be given to adaptation solutions that enable them to stay in their communities. Planning should respect human rights principles such as informed consent, meaningful participation, and nondiscrimination. A national policy framework on planned relocation should provide guidance on how to carry out these principles in practice, take comprehensive censuses of displaced peoples, and create criteria to ensure the sites selected fulfill beneficiaries’ rights.
Some governments, such as the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, have developed such standalone policies, and others such as Panama are in the process of developing national protocols. No country in Africa has yet taken this step. Senegal is uniquely positioned to set the standard for rights-respecting adaptation across Africa, Human Rights Watch said.
Given the recent announcement that the government is holding consultations about a possible climate change law, Senegal has an opportunity to create the legal foundation for a national decree on climate displacement and planned relocation. “Members of displaced communities like Khar Yalla should have a seat at the table as any laws and policies about their lived experiences are developed,” said Fatoumata Kine Mbodji from Lumière Synergie pour le Développement, a nongovernmental organization that works closely with fishing families in Saint-Louis.
The Senegalese government is obligated under national, regional, and international law to respect and fulfill people’s economic, social, and cultural rights and to protect them from reasonably foreseeable risks to their rights, including climate change impacts such as sea-level rise. Climate adaptation should be carried out in a manner that does not violate their rights.
“The protracted crisis in Khar Yalla demonstrates that without a national policy, ad hoc relocations perpetuate precarity rather than provide durable solutions,” Bower said. “But with political will, Senegal can become a regional and global leader on this critical climate justice issue.”
273 Million Children Out of School
A new United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report delivers a sobering message: the number of children out of school has risen for the seventh consecutive year, reaching 273 million worldwide.
While nearly 90 percent of children globally complete primary school, the greatest gaps are in early learning and secondary education. Most out-of-school children—194 million—are of secondary school age, and roughly one-third of young people worldwide do not complete secondary school. At current rates, UNESCO estimates the world will not achieve 95 percent upper secondary completion until 2105.
Children are also missing out on early childhood education. Only 60 percent of primary school students have had at least one year of pre-primary education; a critical stage when children’s brains are developing most rapidly. In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than one in four children of pre-primary age are enrolled.
For many of these children, cost remains the primary barrier to schooling. While primary education is nearly universally free, in line with international law, families are often required to pay for preschool and secondary schooling. In Uganda, for example, where there is no publicly funded preschool system, Human Rights Watch and the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights found that a majority of children miss out, because private preschool fees are prohibitively expensive for most families.
These findings underscore the need for a new international treaty to guarantee free pre-primary and secondary education for all children. Under current international law, free education is explicitly guaranteed only at the primary level.
Formal consideration of such a treaty, an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, began at the UN last year and more than 60 countries have already expressed support.
A treaty will not bring every child into school overnight. But one that clearly guarantees free education can serve as a powerful catalyst for change, pressing governments to ensure that every child can attend school, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.
When states reconvene in Geneva this August, they should seize the opportunity to close a longstanding gap in international law and open the door to a better future for millions of children.
Trump Administration Wields New Threat to Reproductive Rights
The Trump administration is using a US federal funding provision to make abortion care less accessible, threatening states with devastating federal funding cuts for protecting the right to abortion.
The provision, known as the Weldon Amendment and attached to federal spending bills since 2005, is meant to prevent states from treating differently under state law health care providers, practitioners, and insurance plans who refuse to provide abortion care.
Although the Weldon Amendment’s emphasis on the prerogatives of such providers has always been misguided, the administration’s aggressive use of the provision is a new and dangerous turn.
In January, the Trump administration threatened the US state of Illinois with funding cuts over its policies requiring healthcare providers who refuse abortion care due to conscientious objection to refer patients to providers who can. An additional 13 states are under investigation for policies that aim to secure wider access to abortion care, which could result in devastating consequences including perhaps even the loss of all their federal health funding. This puts women’s health care and the millions of Americans who rely on federally funded health centers at risk.
Human Rights Watch has documented in Argentina and Romania how weakly regulated and inconsistently applied conscientious objection provisions can prevent women and girls from finding safe and timely health care and how women from marginalized groups have fewer resources to access alternative care in a timely manner.
Since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, 13 states now enforce total abortion bans, while others impose harsh limits on when a pregnancy can be ended. Dangerous delays and restrictions on abortion have led to women dying from preventable deaths after being denied timely care.
The Weldon Amendment is not only a threat to women’s health, it is also inconsistent with international human rights standards on conscientious objection. Under these standards, only individual providers should be able to exercise conscientious objections, not institutions – which is not the case under Weldon. Secondly, states should ensure conscientious objection does not become a barrier to health care access, guaranteeing that a provider who refuses care must also make referrals in a timely manner.
Everyone has the right to health, which requires access to the best possible quality health care, and access to abortion is an essential component of this right. The US Congress should repeal the Weldon Amendment, ensuring it can no longer be weaponized to restrict the right to health.
Cuba’s Prisoner Release Excludes Critics
On April 2, the Cuban government announced the release of 2,010 prisoners, framing it as a “humanitarian gesture.” While the announcement raised hopes among many political prisoners’ families, neither Human Rights Watch nor other civil society groups, including Prisoners Defenders and Justicia 11J, have identified any political prisoners among those released.
In its announcement, the Cuban government said it would exclude, among others, people sentenced for “crimes against authority.” Under Cuban law, these include crimes such as “contempt,” “propaganda,” and “assault” that the government has used for decades to target and arbitrarily prosecute critics.
Over 700 political prisoners remain behind bars in Cuba, according to groups like Justicia 11J and Prisoners Defenders, and hundreds more face house arrest and other restrictions. Among them is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, an artist who was sentenced to five years in prison for “insulting national symbols,” among other crimes, after wearing a Cuban flag on his shoulders in protest of a new law on the use of national symbols. He was detained after posting a video saying he would join the landmark July 2021 protests.
In March 2026, Leonard Richard González Alfonso, also an artist, was sentenced to seven years for “propaganda against the constitutional order” after painting “How long? They are killing us” on a wall.
Former detainees released after Vatican-led negotiations in January 2025 reported abuse in Cuban prisons, including beatings, solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, and lack of access to food and clean water. Many of those released told Human Rights Watch they remain under constant surveillance and restrictive conditions, and fear being arrested again. At least seven political prisoners have since been sent back to prison for actions such as posting critical content online or failing to appear before the authorities.
Cuba should immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners. Cubans should be able to express themselves freely, without fear. The US embargo and its brutal oil blockade are no excuse to keep critics in jail.
Sudan: Arbitrary Detention by Army, Security Forces
(Nairobi) – Security and military forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and otherwise ill-treated civilians in areas under their control, and denied them due process rights, Human Rights Watch said today.
Security and army forces have detained civilians for allegedly collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in conflict with the military, particularly in areas over which the military has regained control, and often based merely on their ethnic identity, real or perceived political affiliation, or humanitarian work. Unlawful deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment, and torture of civilians may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces and its allies have led a campaign of fear and retaliation against people they label collaborators, because of their identity, humanitarian work, or political activity or simply for having lived under the Rapid Support Forces’ control,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Accounts by former detainees, their relatives, and lawyers paint a grim picture of arbitrary abuses emboldened by a climate of impunity.”
The Sudanese military and affiliated forces have held detainees incommunicado, leaving families with limited information about, or access to, their loved ones, and in some cases forcibly disappeared people, Human Rights Watch found. Prosecutorial and judicial oversight is inadequate, and detainees have no or limited access to legal counsel. Human Rights Watch was told about at least two deaths from torture and ill-treatment in custody. The authorities are presumed responsible for deaths in custody, creating an obligation to conduct prompt, impartial, and effective investigations.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 28 people, including 7 former detainees, 9 relatives of detainees, 11 lawyers and activists, and a member of the security forces, between June 2025 and February 2026. They described abuses against men and women detained by the SAF and its affiliates in areas controlled by the army or that the army retook from the RSF since 2024, including Khartoum, Gezira, Gedaref, Red Sea, and Northern states.
Click to expand Image Graphic © 2026 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch wrote to the office of the chairperson of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, and the Office of the Attorney General on March 18, 2026, about its findings. Both offices responded on April 2. In her response, the attorney general rejected the allegations of arbitrary arrests and custodial deaths with the exception of one case in which she acknowledged that criminal proceedings are ongoing but did not provide details on those accused.
While reports suggest that some of the abuse has been reduced, abusive detention persists with weak prosecutorial or judicial oversight.
Those interviewed said that multiple forces organized into so-called security cells have been involved in unlawful detentions. The security cells include the General Intelligence Service, Military Intelligence, and on occasion a military-affiliated militia, the al-Baraa Ibn Malik battalion.
A police officer who had been integrated into a security cell in Omdurman, part of Greater Khartoum, the capital, said that in April 2025, he saw his fellow cell members ill-treat a woman, accusing her of collaborating with the RSF: “We rode in three vehicles [to her house]. Two men from al-Baraa Ibn Malik battalion barged into her house, armed, and soon brought her out half naked, beating her, slapping [her] on the face, before throwing her in the back of one of our pick-up trucks.”
Rights groups have also documented the detention of hundreds of women on charges of collaborating with the RSF based on their ethnicity or residence, with at least 25 sentenced to death. In January 2026, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the military leader, visited Omdurman’s women’s prison and ordered the release of 400 women, including some accused of collaboration, and instructed officials to review the status of detainees’ case in prisons. However, lawyers and monitors said that many women remain in detention in Omdurman and other prisons without due process.
A 35-year-old woman and her two brothers fled to Port Sudan from Gezira state, which in late February 2024 was controlled by the RSF. Security cell officers in Port Sudan detained them, accusing them of being collaborators. “I was beaten everywhere, despite pleading that I have diabetes,” the woman said. “They kept beating and slapping me with their hands and sticks and whips and insulting me. I felt so degraded, as if I was not a human anymore. They beat me until I involuntarily defecated on myself.” The woman was released after a week, without charge, and fled the country.
Former detainees and lawyers said that security cells, as well as Military Intelligence acting alone, have unlawfully held people in military facilities, including military bases, as well as in homes converted into detention sites. The attorney general in her response denied both allegations, saying detainees are only held in police custody or prisons and subject to regular visits by public prosecutors to assess detention conditions in accordance with the law.
Among those recently arbitrarily detained is a 25-year-old man who was arrested by armed men, some in military uniform, at his home in early February 2026 and then forcibly disappeared: “They came into the house and started beating him badly, accusing him of being a collaborator,” said his 40-year-old brother. “We asked where they are taking him, but they refused to say. One said: ‘You better move on; your brother is not coming back.’” He said he believed his brother was detained because he took part in protests during the military coup in 2021. The last time the family saw the 25-year-old was in custody of the local security cell as they took him away, and as of March 9, despite multiple efforts to establish his situation and whereabouts, he remained forcibly disappeared.
The evidence indicates that the military has targeted individuals based on their identity, focusing on people from Darfur, western Sudan, whom they profile as collaborators since the RSF originates from Darfur. One detained man told Human Rights Watch that he and other Darfuris sheltering in Khartoum were beaten and detained by security cell members, who said: “You Darfuris are troublemakers; you brought the war to us here.”
The military and affiliates have also appear to have targeted civil society members, including local aid responders, accusing them of collaboration. A responder working in east Khartoum said after the military regained control of the area in March 2025, security cell forces interrogated members of his volunteer group and forcefully evicted displaced civilians from their shelter. He said that in April, they detained him for 17 days, interrogating him about the soup kitchens the group ran and their funding sources. The attorney general denies such targeting.
The Office of the Attorney General, working with the judiciary, should immediately release all unlawfully detained people and grant independent monitors and investigators access to formal and informal detention sites. With April 15 marking three years since the conflict’s outbreak, it is past time that authorities granted full and unfettered access to the country for the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan and the Joint Fact-Finding Mission on the Human Rights Situation in Sudan mandated by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The attorney general has reasserted the position that there is no need for the Fact-Finding Mission as the office and local authorities are carrying out investigations and there is no need for any international investigative mechanisms.
International and regional actors and entities should publicly call on the military leadership and affiliated authorities to end their discriminatory targeting of communities and categories of people, including local volunteers, ensure that any legal proceedings are based on credible evidence, and strictly follow due process.
In late February, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands formed a Sudan atrocity prevention coalition. This body should take concrete steps to address the abusive detention practices, including ongoing arrests on the basis of ethnicity, humanitarian work, or political activism. They should support ongoing investigations and press for independent access to detention facilities, and support efforts to expand the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to cover the whole of Sudan.
“The authorities should end arbitrary detentions and provide redress to detainees and their families,” Osman said. “International and regional actors should make clear to the Sudanese Armed Forces leadership that they will be held to account for these abuses.”
For more information on the Sudanese Armed Forces abuses against detainees, please see below.
History of Abusive Detention, Impunity
Sudan’s security forces have a long history of abusing detainees, especially those detained for their actual or perceived political affiliation, because of their association with pro-democracy and protest movements, or because they are from Darfur and perceived to be affiliated with Darfuri armed groups.
In 2008, Human Rights Watch documented fair trial violations connected to ethnic targeting of Darfuris in Khartoum following a rebel group attack. In 2018, at the start of the protests that ended Omar al-Bashir’s presidency, security forces rounded up over 30 Darfuri students in Sennar state, accusing them of affiliation with armed opposition groups and reportedly tortured them.
Reports of abusive detention by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have circulated throughout the three-year-long conflict. Human Rights Watch previously found that both warring parties have summarily executed detainees in areas under their control.
Between January and June 2025, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights “confirmedv at least 10 deaths in custody of individuals detained by both RSF and SAF during the reporting period, including a well-known Sudanese football player, volunteer medics, and local humanitarian volunteers.”
The UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan reported in September 2025 that military arrests “were mainly based on suspicion of collaboration with the Rapid Support Forces.”
‘Security Cells’
Since the conflict began, and especially as the army began to regain control of territory in 2024, state governors in military-controlled areas have established “security cells,” consisting of members of the police, the General Intelligence Services, Military Intelligence, and in some cases, al-Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade.
In May 2024, the Khartoum governor declared a state of emergency in the capital and announced the formation of a security cell to gather information, conduct raids, and detain people suspected of posing a security threat. The announcement did not clarify the legal basis on which the cells would operate, or any legal constraints such as compliance with human rights law including due process. The attorney general replied to Human Rights Watch that security cells are formed by state governors based on emergency laws.
In most cases documented, those arrested by security cells and other forces were unlawfully held in housing used as ad hoc detention facilities, although some were held in official military sites. The attorney general, citing the law and claiming bias against the military, has denied housing is used as detention facilities or that civilians are held on military sites. Interviewees said that authorities transferred detainees between premises controlled by different security forces, making it harder for families and lawyers to track their whereabouts.
Abuse
The abuses documented occurred in areas that have been under army control throughout the conflict – including parts of Omdurman, River Nile state, Northern state, Gedaref state, and Red Sea state – and areas previously under RSF control, including Gezira state and the south of Khartoum, after the military and allies retook them in January 2025, and Khartoum itself, where the military regained control in March 2025.
Custodial Death, Torture, and Ill-treatment
Human Rights Watch documented five cases of torture, inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment by security forces affiliated with the military and two reported deaths in custody.
A 39-year-old man said that soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint in the western part of Omdurman, one of Khartoum’s three sister cities, in December 2025. They accused him of moving supplies to RSF controlled areas, detained him, and beat him as they took him to an unofficial detention site.
“They took me to a room and three SAF forces interrogated me, saying that as I work as a trader, I must be smuggling food to Kordofan [region, currently one of the conflict’s main front lines]. One of them kept punching me in the chest really hard. Another accused me of being a spy and a traitor and said I will never see the sun again. I was kept there for around 12 hours with no food then was released after they took my money – I had US$200 on me.”
A local responder in Gedaref state, which has been under army control throughout the conflict, was detained for 55 days. He said armed men in civilian clothes arrested him on April 9, 2024, and took him to the town’s security cell premises. There, officers from both General Intelligence Services and Military Intelligence interrogated him about his activism and tortured him:
In the corner of the office, there was a pit of sand; they dragged me there, tied my hands behind my back and covered my eyes with my shirt, and started beating me. Two were pulling my legs down and one was pushing my head down with his shoe and the other was beating me on my back. Every few minutes when I started to pass out, they would throw cold water on me. I was beaten so badly I started vomiting and bleeding. This continued for more than 30 to 40 minutes.
He received no medical care during his detention.
A humanitarian volunteer said that military forces stopped him at a checkpoint in October 2024 in a part of Omdurman then under army control. They drove him to a house where people who said they were from Military Intelligence interrogated him:
Two men came to me, one with an iron rod and one with a hammer. The one with the iron rod asked me to raise my feet up and started beating me on my bare feet. The other man started to beat me with the hammer all over my body. He also hit me on the head with a wooden plank. They kept beating me until I lost consciousness.
He said he was detained for five days and as of October 7, 2025, when he was interviewed, he continued to need medical treatment because of the torture.
Salah al-Tayeb, a lawyer and opposition party member, reportedly died in Military Intelligence custody in May 2024. Intelligence services in al-Azazi village in Gezira state in central Sudan detained him on April 17, 2024, and held him at a school in the village. A former detainee who had been held in the same cell said he saw intelligence officers beat al-Tayeb and question him about his political activism: “I saw [him] being beaten for a long time, then he was taken to a separate room. [Officers] beat him from 10 p.m. to midnight. I heard him screaming. His screams stopped after midnight.” Al-Tayeb’s family was later told he died in custody on May 5, 2024, based on media and rights groups reports.
The attorney general rejected allegations of custodial deaths resulting from ill-treatment and torture however said that in the case of the death of al-Tayeb, immunity of the perpetrators had been lifted and that a trial is ongoing.
Security cell members detained a resident of East Nile district in Khartoum in April 2025, shortly after the military regained control of the area. He said he saw a detainee being severely beaten in a military intelligence facility in eastern Khartoum:
Military Intelligence brought in someone who was already badly beaten … he was unconscious. He was bleeding from his back and his head. That day, a major or high-ranking officer visited. The soldiers and officers locked the detained man in the bathroom and ordered him not make any noise until the visit was completed. When they opened the bathroom a few hours later, he was in bad condition. He died in the morning.
At least three former detainees said they were also denied access to adequate food, toilet facilities, or medical care. A 28-year-old man who fled the fighting in Khartoum to Gedaref state said he was detained for 15 days by military personnel. During this time, he said, “…[We] were given only one meal a day, consisting of lentils. We were denied access to the bathroom for 48 hours, so I avoided eating to prevent the need to use the bathroom.”
Targeting Based on Assumptions about Ethnicity
Security forces have targeted people based on their ethnicity or for their real or perceived political activism, accusing them of collaborating with the RSF. They include rights defenders and local aid responders as well as political activists. The Attorney-General denied any targeting on such grounds, without specifically addressing allegations and findings shared by Human Rights Watch.
A 44-year-old man originally from Darfur was in a house with other Darfuris in Omdurman, having escaped an area of Khartoum controlled by the RSF. He said armed men, who later identified themselves as security cell members, broke into the house in May 2025:
One fighter said, ‘You Darfuris are troublemakers; you brought the war to us here.’ I said, ‘It is the [RSF] who killed my people in the past…. We have nothing to do with them.’ They started slapping us and hitting us with the butts of their guns. We were thrown like animals into the back of the trucks.
Individuals taken from the house were held for over a week in a private house that the security cell had turned into a detention site, where they were beaten and denied medical care, then released.
A woman from Darfur was on a bus from Northern Sudan to Khartoum in April 2024 when a group of military intelligence officers and local forces pulled her and her husband off the bus. She said that once the officers discovered she and her husband were Massalit [a non-Arab community from West Darfur], they “called a car, covered our eyes and took us to the 19th military division.” She was released the same day and left for Egypt shortly afterward. Her husband remained in detention. When she returned in April 2025, soldiers at the military base told her that her husband had died in detention.
In April 2025, the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies reported an uptick in unlawful detention and torture by the military which they attributed mainly to Military Intelligence targeting women human rights defenders, aid workers, and displaced people from Darfur, in Sinjah town, following the army’s retaking of Sennar state in November 2024.
The attorney general told Human Rights Watch that there is no targeting based on ethnicity, or affiliation with specific states.
Targeting Based on Humanitarian Work, Political Activism
Three former detainees said that forces detained them because they were local responders or associated with pro-democracy groups. Since the outbreak of the conflict, humanitarian volunteers, many organized in Emergency Response Rooms, have faced attacks and reprisals from both warring parties.
The local volunteer from Gedaref said: “The officers [his interrogators] said to me, ‘You are from the [Emergency Response Rooms], we know you send the reports and spy for the RSF, you are political supporters of the RSF.”
The man detained in Omdurman in 2024, said he was targeted based on his activism. “A military intelligence officer took my phone and forced me to unlock it, he saw pictures from the June 3, 2019, sit-in [ in Khartoum] and pictures of protests the following years. He shouted at me: ‘You belong to the [political opposition]. Sit down.’ And he started to beat me with a machete.”
The attorney general told Human Rights Watch that there is no targeting of humanitarian volunteers.
Incommunicado Detention and Enforced Disappearances
Four former detainees and a detainee’s relative said the military has held detainees incommunicado, meaning that they are not allowed any contact with the outside, with lawyers, family, or friends. Two people whose relatives had been detained by security or intelligence forces said that the authorities refused to acknowledge the detention or provide any information on the detainees’ whereabouts or situation, constituting an enforced disappearance.
One man said that in January 2025, he was unable to locate his 27-year-old brother who had fled to Atbara, River Nile state, from Khartoum. After days of searching, the family heard from officers that he had been arrested at a checkpoint controlled by Military Intelligence, and accused of being an RSF spy:
The Military Intelligence told us my brother was with them and would soon be transferred to the police. Days after, the Military Intelligence denied having him. We have not heard anything further. We are fearing the worst.
As of January 2026, the brother is still apparently detained, but the authorities have neither confirmed it nor provided information on his whereabouts or fate to his family or lawyer.
Another man said in July 2025 that his family had informed him that army and security forces detained his father on January 14, 2025, in Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira state, central Sudan.
For two months, the family had no information about the father’s whereabouts. Eventually, they received information from contacts in the security forces that the father had been detained by a security cell, had been seen in the General Intelligence Services office in a nearby town, and was then moved to a hospital as his health deteriorated. The family heard that he had developed a kidney infection due to detention conditions. The family said they heard that he was transferred to another detention facility in Madani on May 26. However, when interviewed in July 2025, they still had no confirmed information on his detention, his whereabouts or fate.
Death Penalty Cases Involving Due Process Violations
Lawyers and human rights defenders said that the authorities have sentenced civilians to death following detention and trials that violated multiple due process and fair trial guarantees, including little or no access to legal counsel. The military and affiliated authorities have charged people with collaboration using two offenses from the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code, both punishable by death: article 50, undermining the constitutional system, and article 51, waging war against the state.
Khadm Allah Musa, a 23-year-old woman, was sentenced to death by a court in Khartoum on August 18, 2025, for collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces. A lawyer who worked on her defense team said the authorities “interrogated her throughout without being allowed legal counsel.”
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in June 2025 that Sudanese courts handed down at least 108 death sentences between January and late June 2025, predominantly for alleged collaboration with the Rapid Support Forces. It also raised concerns that people from Darfur and Kordofan were disproportionately prosecuted and sentenced, particularly on allegations of affiliation with the Rapid Support Forces.
Decorated Australian Soldier Arrested for Afghanistan War Crimes
On April 7, Australian police arrested Ben Roberts-Smith, a decorated Australian soldier who stands accused of committing five counts of war crimes in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Many of the details of Roberts-Smith’s alleged crimes were made public when he sued media outlets that had first reported on the allegations. He lost the defamation case.
For victims of abuses in Afghanistan, this is a long-awaited but significant step toward accountability.
Almost six years have passed since the release of the Independent Afghanistan Inquiry (known as the Brereton Report), which detailed alleged war crimes committed by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan spanning 2005 to 2016. So far no one has stood trial for these crimes, and no victims or their families are known to have been compensated.
In March 2023, Australian police made their first arrest of a soldier for war crimes in Afghanistan. Oliver Schulz is accused of murdering an Afghan civilian in 2012; however, his trial, which has been plagued by delays, will not begin until 2027.
In addition to identifying some of the alleged war crimes that led to Schulz and Roberts-Smith’s arrests, the Brereton Report recommended the Australian government pay compensation to survivors and families of victims unlawfully killed without waiting for the establishment of individual criminal liability.
After many years of advocacy by victims and rights groups, in October 2024 the Department of Defence laid out a compensation scheme for victims and family members of victims of incidents identified in the report. However, the scheme falls short, lacking due process safeguards, clear criteria on compensation, and a requirement to inform and consult with victims. There is currently no publicly available information indicating that any compensation has been paid.
Despite the sluggish pace of justice for Afghan victims, Roberts-Smith’s arrest sends a powerful message to Australia’s armed forces that even those deemed “war heroes” are not above the law. It also sets a striking example for other countries about the importance of adhering to international law and pressing for accountability, no matter how long it takes. This latest arrest should be backed by continuing efforts to identify and hold accountable all those responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and to ensure victims receive their rightful compensation.
Kazakhstan: Feminist Activist Facing Criminal Charges
(Berlin, April 6, 2026) – Kazakhstan’s prosecuting authorities have filed criminal charges for battery against a feminist activist who was aggressively accosted at a café in Astana, the capital, while meeting with feminist and queer colleagues and friends, Human Rights Watch said today.
The charges, brought on March 26, 2026, follow an investigation into Zhanar Sekerbayeva, which appears to have been in retaliation for her activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. The first hearing in the case is expected to be on April 7.
“The Kazakh authorities should drop the charges against Sekerbayeva and put an end to the manufactured case against her,” said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia adviser at Human Rights Watch. “No one in Kazakhstan should fear criminal retaliation for being lesbian or for peacefully advocating for the rights of LGBT people.”
Sekerbayeva is co-founder of the feminist initiative Feminita and a prominent advocate for the rights of women and LGBT people. In recent years, she has repeatedly faced harassment, threats, and arbitrary detention in retaliation for her peaceful activism.
Police detained Sekerbayeva and a fellow activist, Temirlan Baimash, after a group of people showed up at a café in Astana on November 22, 2025, and accosted Sekerbayeva, Baimash, and others. They shouted anti-LGBT slurs, filmed attendees without consent, and behaved very aggressively toward some of the activists, including Sekerbayeva. One of the women involved in causing the disruption, Ziuar Zhumanova, filed a complaint with the police. So did both Sekerbayeva and Baimash.
In the months since, police appear to have carried out a one-sided investigation based solely on Zhumanova’s complaint. The authorities do not appear to have taken any action in response to Sekerbayeva’s and Baimash’s complaints or to hold accountable any of the people who accosted them at the café that day.
On February 12, Sekerbayeva filed a second complaint with the police, asking them to pursue administrative sanctions against Zhumanova for causing the disturbance, blocking and pushing Sekerbayeva, and injuring her arm. Sekerbayeva has publicly alleged that police have committed procedural violations in handling her complaint, including failing to consider her evidence, and said that the case against her is fabricated, politically motivated, and in retaliation for her peaceful activism for the rights of LGBT people.
Baimash, co-founder of the youth-led initiative QUEER KZ, told Human Rights Watch that the police similarly ignored his complaints that he and his friends and colleagues at the café were the victims of the attack, and instead detained and interrogated him in a hostile manner. The authorities do not appear to have made Baimash a target of their investigation, but as a witness, he is still vulnerable to pressure and intimidation by police.
The environment for LGBT rights activism in Kazakhstan has become increasingly hostile in recent months. Legislation banning so-called propaganda of nontraditional sexual orientation was adopted in December 2025 and took effect in March 2026, putting LGBT rights advocates, and others working on nondiscrimination, at increased risk of harassment and prosecution.
Kazakhstan is bound under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a party, to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and due process. It is also bound to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The so-called LGBT-propaganda law is blatantly discriminatory, violates freedom of expression, and has no place in a rights-respecting country,” Rittmann said. “The authorities have a responsibility to ensure that LGBT people in Kazakhstan and people advocating for their rights can live free from discrimination, harassment, and politically motivated prosecution.”
Kazakhstan: Feminist Activist Facing Criminal Charges
(Berlin, April 6, 2026) – Kazakhstan’s prosecuting authorities have filed criminal charges for battery against a feminist activist who was aggressively accosted at a café in Astana, the capital, while meeting with feminist and queer colleagues and friends, Human Rights Watch said today.
The charges, brought on March 26, 2026, follow an investigation into Zhanar Sekerbayeva, which appears to have been in retaliation for her activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. The first hearing in the case is expected to be on April 7.
“The Kazakh authorities should drop the charges against Sekerbayeva and put an end to the manufactured case against her,” said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia adviser at Human Rights Watch. “No one in Kazakhstan should fear criminal retaliation for being lesbian or for peacefully advocating for the rights of LGBT people.”
Sekerbayeva is co-founder of the feminist initiative Feminita and a prominent advocate for the rights of women and LGBT people. In recent years, she has repeatedly faced harassment, threats, and arbitrary detention in retaliation for her peaceful activism.
Police detained Sekerbayeva and a fellow activist, Temirlan Baimash, after a group of people showed up at a café in Astana on November 22, 2025, and accosted Sekerbayeva, Baimash, and others. They shouted anti-LGBT slurs, filmed attendees without consent, and behaved very aggressively toward some of the activists, including Sekerbayeva. One of the women involved in causing the disruption, Ziuar Zhumanova, filed a complaint with the police. So did both Sekerbayeva and Baimash.
In the months since, police appear to have carried out a one-sided investigation based solely on Zhumanova’s complaint. The authorities do not appear to have taken any action in response to Sekerbayeva’s and Baimash’s complaints or to hold accountable any of the people who accosted them at the café that day.
On February 12, Sekerbayeva filed a second complaint with the police, asking them to pursue administrative sanctions against Zhumanova for causing the disturbance, blocking and pushing Sekerbayeva, and injuring her arm. Sekerbayeva has publicly alleged that police have committed procedural violations in handling her complaint, including failing to consider her evidence, and said that the case against her is fabricated, politically motivated, and in retaliation for her peaceful activism for the rights of LGBT people.
Baimash, co-founder of the youth-led initiative QUEER KZ, told Human Rights Watch that the police similarly ignored his complaints that he and his friends and colleagues at the café were the victims of the attack, and instead detained and interrogated him in a hostile manner. The authorities do not appear to have made Baimash a target of their investigation, but as a witness, he is still vulnerable to pressure and intimidation by police.
The environment for LGBT rights activism in Kazakhstan has become increasingly hostile in recent months. Legislation banning so-called propaganda of nontraditional sexual orientation was adopted in December 2025 and took effect in March 2026, putting LGBT rights advocates, and others working on nondiscrimination, at increased risk of harassment and prosecution.
Kazakhstan is bound under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a party, to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and due process. It is also bound to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The so-called LGBT-propaganda law is blatantly discriminatory, violates freedom of expression, and has no place in a rights-respecting country,” Rittmann said. “The authorities have a responsibility to ensure that LGBT people in Kazakhstan and people advocating for their rights can live free from discrimination, harassment, and politically motivated prosecution.”
Singapore: Drop Charges against Human Rights Defender
(London) – The Singaporean government should immediately drop all charges against a human rights activist, Jolovan Wham, for organizing and participating in peaceful gatherings, Human Rights Watch, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Amnesty International, and CIVICUS said today.
Wham is scheduled to stand trial at Singapore’s State Court on April 6, 2026, facing three charges under the Public Order Act for his alleged participation in candlelight vigils commemorating death row prisoners between 2022 and 2025 that were held without a police permit.
Singaporean authorities frequently use overly broad and restrictive laws—including the Public Order Act—to restrict individuals’ rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to silence criticism of the government, particularly regarding its use of the death penalty. The persistent legal harassment of Wham and other human rights defenders and anti-death penalty activists is part of a wider crackdown on dissent that has stifled informed public debate on capital punishment in Singapore.
Under the Public Order Act, any “cause-related” assembly requires a police permit—even for an individual acting alone—if it is held in a public place or in a private venue if members of the public are invited. The law also grants the police commissioner broad discretion to reject applications for an assembly “directed towards a political end,” particularly when a foreign national is involved.
Human rights groups have long documented the pattern of judicial harassment of Wham for his activism.
In February 2017, Wham was fined S$8,000 (approximately US$5,900) for organizing a silent protest on a train during the 30th anniversary of Operation Spectrum, a government crackdown on political dissent in 1987, when scores of activists were arrested for allegedly being part of a “Marxist conspiracy” to undermine the government.
In October 2018, the High Court of Singapore found Wham guilty of contempt for a Facebook post in April 2018 in which he questioned the independence of Singapore’s judiciary. He served seven days in jail, instead of paying a S$5,000 (US$3,700) fine.
In January 2019, Wham was convicted for organizing an indoor event called Civil Disobedience and Social Movements. He served 10 days in jail for violating the Public Order Act by not having a permit for a foreigner to speak at the event. At the same time, he was also fined S$1,200 (US$900) for refusing to sign the police statement, he contended that the police refused to provide him with a copy.
In November 2020, Wham faced two charges of staging an “illegal assembly” for holding a cardboard sign with a smiley face drawn on it to show his support for climate activists and for a 2018 protest calling on authorities to drop criminal defamation charges against two journalists and human rights defenders, Terry Xu and Daniel De Costa.
In February 2022, Wham was also fined S$3,000 (US$2,200) for holding an “illegal assembly” by displaying a sign outside the State Courts in 2018 during which he took a photo. Wham opted to serve a 15-day jail sentence instead of paying the fine.
On February 3, 2025, Wham was charged with five additional offenses under the Public Order Act for his alleged participation in candlelight vigils between March 2022 and April 2023. Activists who gathered outside the court on the day of his hearing are currently under investigation, believed to be linked to their peaceful assembly.
The continued criminalization of peaceful assemblies in Singapore directly contravenes international human rights law and standards and is a blatant attempt to silence criticism of the government, including its continued use of capital punishment.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is widely considered to be reflective of customary international law, states in article 20 that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.” While Singapore has not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), article 21 guarantees the right of peaceful assembly.
The statement by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which interprets the covenant, General Comment No. 37 (2020) states that peaceful assemblies should not be criminalized, and that states must facilitate and protect such gatherings. It also states that “[t]he right of peaceful assembly … [t]ogether with other related rights … constitutes the very foundation of a system of participatory governance based on democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and pluralism.”
On May 12, Singapore’s human rights record will be reviewed by other countries at the UN Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review. During its previous cycle in 2021, Singapore supported several recommendations on peaceful assembly, including to “ensure that laws and policies on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association comply with the relevant international human rights standards.” However, Singapore authorities have continued to file cases against Wham and other activists for their peaceful activism under the draconian Public Order Act.
The Singaporean authorities should immediately drop all charges against Wham and other activists who are being prosecuted solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly, and cease any further judicial harassment against Wham, Human Rights Watch, FORUM-ASIA, Amnesty International, and CIVICUS said.
The Singaporean government should also ratify the ICCPR and its optional protocols, joining the vast majority of countries worldwide that have already ratified it, and take concrete steps to uphold the right to peaceful assembly.