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Belarus Releases Opposition Politician, 13 Other Political Prisoners
Last Saturday, Belarusian authorities released by presidential pardon 14 prisoners, all jailed as a result of politically motivated prosecutions, and transferred them to neighboring Lithuania. They include prominent opposition politician Siarhei Tsikhanouski and independent journalists and activists.
Some of those released held foreign passports, including from the United States, Japan, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Sweden.
More than 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus.
Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger who aspired to become a presidential candidate, was arrested by the authorities in the run up to the 2020 election. His wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, ran for president in his stead and is recognized by many as the winner of the elections rigged by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who has occupied the president’s office in Belarus since its establishment in 1994. Since then, Sviatlana became an opposition leader in exile and a tireless advocate for her husband, who was sentenced to prison for 19 years and 6 months on bogus criminal charges.
The prisoner release took place the day US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg visited Belarus’ capital, Minsk, and was apparently negotiated by Washington.
Captured on camera, the moment Sviatlana and Sirhei embraced each other after five years apart is truly moving. But the families of at least 1,177 other political prisoners did not find their loved ones among the released.
Since July 2024, Lukashenka has released 314 political prisoners, apparently hoping to thaw his relations with the European Union and the United States. However, politically motivated repression in Belarus continues, and prisoners regularly face ill-treatment and incommunicado confinement.
Tsikhanouski and other released prisoners attested to the prolonged isolation, psychological pressure, and other inhumane treatment that they suffered in Belarusian prisons. Tsikhanouski’s children did not immediately recognize him due to his severe weight loss: a result of malnutrition behind bars.
Those remaining imprisoned and isolated from the world include Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate and founder of Viasna human rights group; Ales Bialiatski, opposition politician Maria Kalesnikava; and journalist Ihar Losik. Some political prisoners have died behind bars, including from denial of adequate medical care.
We don’t know yet what Lukashenka received or hopes to receive in return for releasing Tsikhanouski and the other 13 prisoners. But people’s lives should not be a currency for political bargaining. Belarusian authorities should immediately release all those prosecuted for exercising their human rights and freedoms.
UK Social Security Plans Will Harm People With Disabilities
The United Kingdom government has just published draft legislation seeking to “reform” key disability-related aspects of its complex social security system. While the government claims its moves “will protect the most vulnerable,” in reality its plans to cut £4.5 billion in disability-linked benefits by 2030 will have a devastating impact on people’s rights.
The bill proposes freezing, until 2030, the amount of additional health-related support for people with qualifying health conditions or disabilities as part of their Universal Credit payments, the UK’s main social security program. New claimants will only receive half the health-related amount (although the standard component of Universal Credit payments, that all recipients get, will go up). The bill also seeks to freeze rates of an older benefit that supports people who have limited capability for work because of qualifying health conditions or disability.
The bill would also raise eligibility barriers for the daily care component of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a key disability-linked benefit. The current qualifying test for PIP—already considered inhumane and degrading because of how it quantifies people’s ability to perform daily tasks like dressing, using the toilet, bathing, and preparing food—will be further tightened if this bill becomes law.
The government’s own analysis shows that up to 800,000 people will no longer be eligible to receive PIP and that the changes could lead to 200,000 more people (50,000 of them children) in poverty by 2030. Organizations working on social security and disability rights, including Citizens Advice, the Disability Charities Consortium, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, have warned of the poverty the cuts will create.
Last month, the chair of the UK Parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee wrote to the government asking it to delay these plans, given the risk of poverty. Earlier this week, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty and Inequality published a report recommending the government abandon the proposals. The government is proceeding anyway.
The government says it will protect those it considers to have the highest support needs, or nearing the end of their life, ensuring they do not lose their PIP eligibility and continue to receive the full health-related element of Universal Credit. But that is cold comfort to hundreds of thousands people with disabilities anxious about the impact of losing thousands of pounds a year.
Parliamentarians should reject the planned legislation, and be clear that budget savings, however desirable, should not come at the cost of the rights—in particular the right to social security—of people with disabilities. Human dignity must come first.
Pride Banned, Hate Authorized in Hungary
Police in Hungary have banned lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Hungarians and their supporters from peacefully assembling to celebrate Pride, while instead allowing a hate group to march on the same day.
A separate LGBT related event, planned to coincide with the official Budapest Pride march on June 28, was banned by police three times. Organizers challenged the ban at the Supreme Court, but despite twice ruling in their favor and ordering police to reexamine their request, the Court ultimately upheld the ban.
In response to authorities’ attempts to thwart freedom of assembly, Budapest’s Lord Mayor announced on June 17 that the city, alongside co-organizers the Rainbow Mission, would host the official Pride as a municipal event—one that does not require police approval. Police issued a ban on the event anyway, while the Lord Mayor insisted that Pride will go ahead on June 28. The legal status of the June 28 Pride remained unclear at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, a far-right extremist and known hate group notified police on June 16 that it would hold its own assembly on the same day as Pride and along the traditional Pride route. But unlike the peaceful Pride event, police have not banned this march.
The Hungarian government has a long history of discriminating and fueling hatred against LGBT people. A controversial 2021 law bans any public LGBT expression as harmful to children, wrongly conflating LGBT identities with pedophilia.
New draconian legal reforms underpin authorities’ recent attempts to ban Pride and other LGBT events, including constitutional changes in April under the guise of prioritizing “child protection” over most fundamental rights, and amendments to the Assembly Act in March.
These bans and discriminatory laws have drawn international criticism. In May, 20 European Union member states issued a joint statement condemning Hungary's legal measures that ban Budapest Pride and urged the European Commission to deploy its full rule-of-law enforcement tools unless Budapest revises the measures.
Pride is more than a march—it’s a celebration of love, diversity, equality, and the freedom to be yourself. In Hungary, that freedom is under attack. The right to peaceful assembly is a cornerstone of democracy. Hungary’s government is dangerously treating it as optional.
Hungary’s leaders should reverse these bans, repeal discriminatory laws, and ensure Budapest Pride can proceed safely and visibly. Pride is not a threat; hate is.
Vietnam: Free Prominent Journalist at Medical Risk
(New York) – The Vietnamese government should immediately release the imprisoned journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan and allow him to obtain medical treatment in Vietnam or abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. Tuan’s family says that he is suffering from internal hemorrhoids causing severe bleeding and needs urgent care.
“Le Huu Minh Tuan is among a long list of Vietnamese imprisoned for their peaceful opinions,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By wrongly prosecuting him and then not providing the health care he needs, the Vietnamese authorities are culpable for his worsening condition.”
Tuan, 36, is a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam. He has written about the democracy protests in Hong Kong and politics in Vietnam. He has stated that he wants “to campaign for a better society by contributing a critical voice on every front of life.”
Police arrested Tuan in Quang Nam province on June 12, 2020, and charged him with “making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under article 117 of the penal code. In January 2021 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, along with fellow journalists Pham Chi Dung and Nguyen Tuong Thuy.
Since he was imprisoned, Tuan has suffered periodically from bloody bowel movements, abdominal pain, and other gastrointestinal problems. The United States Lantos Human Rights Commission reported that in January 2024 Tuan described severe weight loss, indigestion, numbness in both calves, insomnia, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.
Under rule 27 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), “[a]ll prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals.”
“The Vietnamese authorities need to be held accountable for denying Le Huu Minh Tuan adequate health care,” Gossman said. “They should immediately free Tuan and all other prisoners wrongfully detained.”
EU: Suspend Trade Agreement with Israel
(Brussels) – The European Union should immediately suspend its trade agreement with Israel as long as Israel’s atrocity crimes persist, Human Rights Watch and over 110 organizations and trade unions said in a joint statement on June 19, 2025. This would be the first measure taken by the EU in the last two years to ensure some accountability for Israeli authorities’ egregious abuses of Palestinians.
EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the EU-Israel Association Agreement on June 23, when they will receive an assessment of Israel’s compliance with article 2 of the agreement, which qualifies “respect for human rights and democratic principles” in “internal and international policy” as an “essential element” of the agreement. The review was initiated on May 20, when 17 out of 27 EU foreign ministers supported a proposal by the Dutch government. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner and suspending the trade pillar of the agreement would reinstate tariffs on bilateral trade.
“As parties to the Genocide Convention, all EU states are bound to ‘employ all reasonable means’ to stop Israeli atrocities, but, instead, many EU states have stood by, quiet and at risk of complicity,” said Claudio Francavilla, acting EU director at Human Rights Watch. “EU foreign ministers shouldn’t let the escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran take focus away from the ongoing extermination and apartheid against the Palestinians; they should suspend the trade pillar of the EU-Israel Association Agreement without further delay.”
Review of the EU-Israel agreement is taking place as Israeli authorities continue their military operations in Gaza, during which they have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide. Israeli authorities have also flouted three binding orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention. The court’s measures included requiring Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.
Human Rights Watch has long called on states to use their leverage to press Israel to halt its abuses and comply with the ICJ’s orders. As parties to the UN Genocide Convention, all EU member states have an obligation to “employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.” That obligation arises as soon as a state learns, or should normally have learned, of a serious risk that genocide may be committed. A definitive determination that genocide is already underway is not required, as Human Rights Watch set out in an April 2025 intervention challenging the UK government’s continued licensing of military equipment used by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The capacity of a state to influence the actors at risk of committing genocide weigh substantially on how courts assess their international responsibility for failing to prevent genocide. This includes factors such as geographic proximity, political and other links, and the means available to the state to exert influence. When considering this responsibility, the ICJ has held that states that have “means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harboring specific intent” are “under a duty to make such use of these means.”
Israeli authorities have also failed to comply with the obligations from a landmark July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion, and in a September 2024 UN General Assembly resolution largely endorsing its content. The ICJ found Israel’s occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be illegal and marred by serious abuses – including apartheid and racial segregation – and said that it should be dismantled, along with Israel’s illegal settlements. A March 2025 report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights documented a significant expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have ratcheted up repression, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians at a scale not seen there since 1967 and killing over 930 since October 2023.
In its advisory opinion, the ICJ also referenced the obligation of all states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention – including all EU member states – “to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.” The advisory opinion also said that states should take steps to prevent trade relations that “assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel” in the occupied territories, including with relation to “economic or trade dealings.”
Yet, amid sharp divisions, the EU has not adopted any measure to pressure Israeli authorities to comply with the laws of war and prevent genocide.
Unlike measures that require unanimity – such as targeted sanctions, an EU-wide arms embargo, or the suspension of the whole EU-Israel Association Agreement – the suspension of the agreement’s trade pillar would require the support of a qualified majority of EU member states. The suspension, first requested by Spain and Ireland in February 2024, would not result in a complete trade ban but would reinstate tariffs on bilateral trade.
In November, EU foreign ministers received a (recently leaked) report by the then-EU special representative for human rights, Olof Skoog, compiling findings by independent UN bodies and international courts on Israel’s abuses throughout the occupied territory. Shortly afterward, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader who has since been killed.
At that time, EU foreign ministers could have taken concrete measures, such as a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Instead, they reconvened an official meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council with their Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar.
During that meeting, held in February amid a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, the EU said the Israeli government should take a number of actions, including implementing the ICJ binding orders to allow unhindered provision of humanitarian aid at scale throughout Gaza and ending Israel’s illegal settlement policy in the West Bank. Israeli authorities defied those calls, and instead imposed a total siege on Gaza and approved new West Bank settlements.
A UN conference on a two-state solution and Middle East peace, set to be held from June 17–20, was postponed due to the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran. In a June 5 letter, Human Rights Watch urged EU member states to use the conference as an opportunity to move beyond repeated affirmations of support for human rights and international law, and toward concrete, time-bound measures – such as suspending arms transfers and bilateral deals and banning trade with settlements – to ensure their enforcement.
In fact, with the exception of notable initiatives by individual member states and targeted sanctions against some violent Israeli settlers, EU action has largely been paralyzed by the European Commission’s reluctance and opposition by a core group of governments – chiefly Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and Austria, but also Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Romania – creating a sense of impunity among Israeli authorities.
The ongoing review of the Association Agreement is the closest the EU has come to holding Israeli authorities to account; however, the review will have little practical effect if not followed by the suspension of the trade pillar, Human Rights Watch said.
“For nearly 21 months now, the EU has watched escalating atrocities against Palestinians without taking any real measure to uphold international law,” Francavilla said. “Reviewing and suspending the agreement is a chance for the bloc to salvage what’s left of the credibility of its commitment to human rights and international law, and to finally take action to respond to Israeli authorities ongoing acts of genocide.”
Myanmar: Stop Recruitment, Use of Child Soldiers
(Bangkok) – The Myanmar military’s recruitment and use of child soldiers has surged since the 2021 coup, including a significant number recruited after the junta enacted a conscription law in February 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 19, 2025, the United Nations Secretary-General reported that the UN had verified 2,138 grave violations against children in armed conflict in Myanmar in 2024, including recruitment of children, with about 1,200 additional violations pending verification.
Since the coup, the UN has verified over 1,800 cases of recruitment of children as young as 12 by junta and affiliated forces, though noting that “cases are likely significantly underreported due to monitoring challenges and the fear of retaliation.” Local civil society groups and opposition activists told Human Rights Watch that child soldiers have been found among captured combatants and military defectors. Military recruiters have abducted or opportunistically recruited children when unaccompanied, displaced, or working, and then concealed or failed to verify their ages. The military has sent children to the front lines and used them as guides, porters, and at times as human shields.
“The Myanmar military has a long and appalling history of using children as porters, guides, and in combat roles,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The junta should immediately stop using child soldiers and cooperate with UN officials to release all child recruits from their forces.”
The Myanmar junta is the sole state actor listed by the UN Secretary-General for five grave violations against children in armed conflict: recruiting and using child soldiers, killing and maiming, sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and abduction. This annual listing of state forces and non-state armed groups is commonly known as the “list of shame.”
“I’m shocked at the level of violence endured by the children of Myanmar and by the sharp increase in grave violations committed by all parties to the conflict, in particular by the Myanmar Armed Forces,” Virginia Gamba, the UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, said in April.
Fighting between Myanmar junta forces and alliances of anti-junta and ethnic armed groups has escalated throughout the country since late 2023. In February 2024, the junta activated the 2010 People’s Military Service Law, enabling the conscription of men ages 18 to 35 and women ages 18 to 27 for up to five years during the current state of emergency. Although excluded under the law, children have been increasingly swept up in conscription drives as the junta has faced growing losses of troops and territory.
The military has reportedly recruited 14 batches of conscripts since April 2024, totaling an estimated 70,000 based on its plans for 5,000 per batch. The Myanmar Defense and Security Institute, an independent research group run by military defectors, reported that underage recruitment has increased since the seventh batch, along with abusive conscription tactics such as abducting young men and boys and detaining family members of missing conscripts as hostages.
Two recent military defectors told Human Rights Watch that children have been recruited in growing numbers due to rising pressure from senior leaders to meet conscription quotas, as well as a lack of clear instructions and oversight across the chain of command. An unknown number of young men have fled the country to escape conscription.
The Myanmar Defense and Security Institute documented 23 child recruits, including some as young as 15, from among three rounds of conscription being trained at four separate camps, based on camp rosters and accounts from military trainers.
Military recruiters have deliberately falsified or ignored children’s ages. In some cases, children lacked identity documents or were taken when adult relatives on conscription lists were not found.
A 17-year-old boy told local media that he was abducted late at night in September 2024 on his way home from work in Yangon. He was taken to an immigration office where officials issued him a National Registration Card stating that he was 19, despite his insistence on his correct age and date of birth. He trained for three months and was sent to Brigade 101 before managing to desert.
The military’s recruitment methods have disproportionately targeted the urban poor, displaced people, people without documentation, and ethnic and religious minorities, including Rohingya Muslims. The junta has unlawfully recruited thousands of stateless Rohingya, who cannot be conscripted under Myanmar law because they are denied citizenship.
Since the coup, the military has recruited children across all 14 states and regions, compared with only 4 previously. Junta forces have also abducted and tortured children for alleged association with opposition forces.
Children have been among the combatants captured by anti-junta and ethnic armed groups.
An official from the Karenni Interim Executive Council, which governs opposition-controlled Karenni State, said that they captured at least three soldiers who were 17 when they were recruited by the junta. One had been abducted, while the other two were recruited when separated from their families – one had run away from home and the other was working.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported in September 2024 that families in Myanmar increasingly resort to child labor to keep their children from being recruited. “Children who are near or of recruitment age live in fear, not only of being forced into military service but also of being used in violent actions against those opposing the military,” the ILO reported in March 2025.
In June, the ILO invoked the rarely used article 33 of its constitution in response to Myanmar’s failure to comply with its recommendations, including “to end any forced recruitment into the military, including the forced recruitment of children.”
In 2012, the Myanmar military signed a joint action plan with the UN to end recruitment and use of children. On February 6, 2025, the junta defense minister said the military had released 1,057 child soldiers to their families since the plan was signed. On March 19, the UN announced that the Myanmar military had released 93 people recruited as children.
The UN Secretary-General also listed seven non-state armed groups in Myanmar for recruiting and using child soldiers. An adviser to the opposition National Unity Government said that there are many child soldiers within resistance-controlled areas, some of whom volunteered to join the opposition.
In September 2019, Myanmar ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which establishes 18 as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities and prohibits any forced recruitment or conscription of children under 18. The 2007 Paris Principles, which Myanmar has endorsed, prohibits the use of children as porters, cooks, messengers, or for sexual purposes. Myanmar’s 2019 Child Rights Law also forbids recruiting anyone under 18 into the armed forces or non-state armed groups.
“Concerned governments with influence over the junta or opposition forces in Myanmar should urge the end of this harrowing exploitation of children,” Bauchner said. “Donors should work with local groups to provide support and rehabilitation for all child victims in Myanmar.”
Violations Soar Against Children in Armed Conflict
Last year was the most devastating year for children in armed conflict in two decades, according to the new annual report from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The UN verified 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024, a 25 percent increase over 2023, the previous record high.
While non-state armed groups were responsible for approximately half of all the report’s recorded abuses in 2024, government forces were behind most attacks on schools and hospitals, killing and maiming of children, and denial of access to humanitarian aid. Other grave violations monitored by the UN include abduction, sexual violence, and the recruitment and use of children by armed forces or groups.
The highest number of abuses verified in 2024 took place in Israel/Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti. The 8,554 violations documented in Israel/Palestine are more than double any other context, with nearly 85 percent committed by Israeli forces. The Israeli authorities have starved, killed, and maimed thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza and are responsible for ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.
Violations in Ukraine sharply decreased in 2023, but doubled last year. The large majority were by Russian forces, which were responsible for nearly 700 attacks on schools and hospitals, the highest of any country monitored.
Each year, the secretary-general lists the governments and non-state armed groups responsible for grave violations in an annex, known as the “list of shame.” Russian forces were added to the list in 2023, and Israeli forces were included for the first time in 2024. Abuses by both have since escalated, and neither state has engaged with the UN to negotiate and implement an action plan to end these violations, the only way – according to UN criteria – that parties can be removed from the list.
The secretary-general removed several parties from his list this year despite their continued violations. These included the Somali National Army, and the Houthis and Security Belt Forces in Yemen.
UN data captures only a fraction of actual violations against children. In Sudan, for example, warring parties have committed widespread atrocities against children, but many violations are never reported or verified due to parties’ deliberate restrictions on humanitarian access.
The horrific toll of armed conflict on children demands action. All UN member states should use their influence – whether diplomatically, by not arming abusive forces, and through investigation and prosecution of war crimes – to better protect children from war.
Transforming Mental Health Crisis Support
Turning my own lived experience into advocacy is what motivated me to participate in the UN’s global annual disability rights conference this June.
And indeed, joining the Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was an excellent opportunity to share two decades of experience and to learn from other disability rights advocates from around the world.
I learned from personal experience. In the early 2000s, as a university student in Uganda, I experienced psychological distress and sought support. Confined to the national psychiatric hospital, I was left alone in a room over long periods of time - with no help, little food, and no support. Following this traumatic experience, I decided that it was worth dedicating my life to human rights activism so that other people wouldn’t have the same experience. I also initiated an ongoing challenge to these abusive practices in court.
I became an advocate and started an organization called the Mental Health Recovery Initiative in Uganda, which provides community support to people with psychosocial disabilities.
Through our work and community, we offer alternatives to institutional responses that can violate a person’s autonomy and bodily integrity. We work with families and provide information so that they can respond more helpfully. In addition to providing mental health peer support, we also look at other issues such as finding housing or jobs.
Last year, I received Human Rights Watch’s Marca Bristo Fellowship to expand my understanding on disability rights research and advocacy. This fellowship brought me to the United States, where, along with attending COSP, I also visited Access Living in Chicago, founded by disability rights activist Marca Bristo. There, people put a holistic support system into practice.
I shared these experiences with member state representatives during the UN conference, urging them to heed the voices of people with lived experience. We come from countries around the world and know that different forms of mental health support are possible – and we shall not stop pushing for change. People with psychosocial disabilities are part of the rich diversity of human beings. They should not be locked away but listened to and treated with equal respect.
Benon Kabale, a Ugandan disability rights advocate, is the 2024/2025 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Marca Bristo Fellowship for Courageous Leadership in Disability Rights.
South Sudan’s Man-Made Humanitarian Catastrophe
South Sudan is once again on the brink of full-scale humanitarian catastrophe, propelled by conflict, attacks on civilians and humanitarian infrastructure, and political turmoil.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, more than half the population, 7.7 million people, are facing acute food insecurity, and at least 83,000 people are facing catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5). IPC 5, the most severe classification, is associated with “an extreme lack of food” where “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.”
In Upper Nile State, particularly Nasir and Ulang, the number of people facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity are so numerous and the restrictions on aid access so severe that these areas have been identified as at risk of Famine. Months of conflict, including government use of incendiary bombs has killed and injured hundreds, and forced tens of thousands more to flee. Hostilities have destroyed civilian infrastructure and livelihoods, while the government’s failure to facilitate humanitarian access has meant aid agencies have struggled to support an increasingly vulnerable civilian population. A hospital in Ulang, run by the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), was looted by gunmen and eventually forced to close.
This is not just a humanitarian catastrophe: it is a human rights crisis. If parties are using starvation as a method of warfare, whether through deliberate action or criminal neglect, it is a war crime: one the UN has previously found to have been committed in South Sudan. It can trigger UN Security Council accountability mechanisms.
According to media reports, recent government aid drops on Nasir and Ulang were supported by a US based private firm in conjunction with a Ugandan aviation company that also supports the government’s military action. Delivery of aid is to be based solely upon need, nonpartisan and impartial. The use of companies with ties to the South Sudanese government raises concerns that these drops did not comply with this core humanitarian principle.
In neighboring Fangak, Jonglei state, to the east, fighting including government bombardment, has destroyed healthcare facilities and markets, bringing communities to the brink of a health and food emergency, according to aid group REACH.
As needs rise, donor funding is shrinking. Foreign aid cuts have had a devastating impact on South Sudan and are undoubtedly exacerbating an already overwhelming humanitarian situation. Save the Children, a leading humanitarian organization, recently announced that USAID cuts had forced it to close seven health clinics in Jonglei state.
The international community should act now. South Sudan’s donors and regional partners should fully fund the humanitarian response plan, demand safe, unrestricted access for aid groups, and pressure armed actors to end attacks on civilians and infrastructure. They should also sanction those who deliberately obstruct aid.
Famine can be averted. But without immediate and decisive political and humanitarian intervention, it risks becoming a reality for tens of thousands of people who are already enduring unimaginable suffering.
EU Foreign Ministers Should Pledge to Defend Justice
When the EU’s 27 foreign ministers meet on June 23, they should make defending the International Criminal Court (ICC) from escalating attacks by the Trump administration a top priority.
On June 6, the US administration sanctioned four ICC judges. The new designations follow sanctions imposed by the US in February against the court’s prosecutor, and strike at the core principle of independent, impartial justice. In imposing the latest sanctions, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the judges, who include an EU national from Slovenia, were targeted because of their roles in the ICC’s Palestine and Afghanistan investigations.
The impact of these sanctions goes far beyond the targeted people and investigations. They could create a chilling effect on companies and organizations that provide services and support to, or that cooperate with, the ICC, raising fears of legal and financial repercussions from the US government. If these companies and organizations are forced to back away from the court, this will have serious consequences for the court’s ability to execute its global mandate.
Following the announcement of the latest US sanctions, several EU governments and EU leaders – along with other member countries of the court – rightly expressed regret and reaffirmed support for the ICC.
More is needed now to ensure the court can continue its vital work.
The court’s member states are its frontline defense against this attack. The Netherlands, where the court is located, has of course a critical role to play, but it cannot do it alone.
The EU has a unique tool it can use to defend justice: the blocking statute. It prohibits EU entities from complying with sanctions programs listed in its annex. The European Commission can add the US sanctions on the ICC to its annex.
The Commission recently said that it is “monitoring implications” and “examining all possible measures” before responding. Slovenia and Belgium, alongside the European Parliament, urged the Commission to act after the US announced this new round of sanctions. Sweden, too, publicly signaled its openness to explore the statute’s activation.
The EU should follow through on its stated commitments and ensure its responses include both strong words and strong action on its support for the ICC. On Monday, EU foreign ministers should clearly signal their support for the court and request that the Commission employ all measures – including the blocking statute – to preserve victims’ access to justice.
Ecuador: New Laws Endanger Rights
(Washington, DC) – New laws passed by Ecuador’s National Assembly and signed by President Daniel Noboa include dangerous provisions that threaten the rights of Ecuadorians, Human Rights Watch said today.
On June 7, 2025, the newly appointed National Assembly approved through an expedited process the National Solidarity Law, which grants the president sweeping powers to declare and respond to an “internal armed conflict.” On June 10, the Assembly approved an Intelligence Law that creates a legal framework for intelligence and counterintelligence activities and operations. The legislation opens the door to the unjustifiable use of lethal force, threatens accountability for abuses by security forces, and undermines safeguards on intelligence gathering.
“While Ecuador urgently needs to address insecurity and organized crime, these new laws will do more harm than good,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Security won’t be built on rushed, poorly drafted, and overly broad legislation. It requires careful debate, strong safeguards, and respect for rights.”
In recent years, Ecuador has experienced a sharp rise in violence linked to organized crime, driving homicide rates to record levels in 2023, with more than 47 homicides per 100,000 people, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory for Organized Crime. In 2024, the Observatory reported a roughly 15 percent decrease in homicides. Yet homicides, in most cases committed by criminal groups, have increased again in 2025, according to government data.
The Assembly approved the National Solidarity Law based on a proposal sent by President Noboa in May. The law allows the president to declare an armed conflict, which allows security forces to use lethal force in situations in which international human rights law and Ecuadorian law would otherwise prohibit it. The apparent aim of the law is to give the authorities a freer hand in combating crime by dispensing with crucial human rights protections.
The Constitutional Court in several rulings has not accepted “internal armed conflict” as a justification for President Noboa’s declarations of a state of emergency, because the government’s arguments did not allow the court to verify the existence of the criteria established under international law for the existence of such armed conflict.
States of emergency under Ecuador’s Constitution have limitations on their duration and on the rights that can be suspended, and they are subject to oversight by the Constitutional Court. The new law creates a special legal regime that attempts to circumvent the constitutional framework for states of emergency, including Constitutional Court review.
The “armed conflict” framework established by the National Solidarity Law opens the door to serious human rights violations and will have consequences for Ecuadorians, Human Rights Watch said. The law allows security forces to conduct raids without warrants and to set aside restrictions on the use of lethal force that are essential to rights-respecting law enforcement.
The law defines “organized armed groups” who can be targeted as parties to an armed conflict vaguely to include groups made up of as few as three members who engage in “prolonged violence.” Law enforcement officials have the authority to determine which groups qualify as parties to the conflict.
The law allows the president to pardon members of the security forces who are under investigation for crimes committed during the supposed “armed conflict.” The law also prohibits the use of pretrial detention, house arrest, or electronic monitoring against members of security forces under investigation and establishes that they will continue performing their duties even while they are under investigation.
The Intelligence Law establishes a National Intelligence System composed of military, police, financial, tax, customs, penitentiary, and presidential security agencies, all coordinated by a governing body whose head is appointed by the president.
The Intelligence Law contains risky provisions that seem to depart from the constitution’s protections of the rights to personal data, which require the authorization of the owner or a legal mandate to collect the data; to personal and family privacy; and to the inviolability and secrecy of all types and forms of communication. Under the constitution, this information may not be accessed except in the cases provided for by law, after judicial authorization.
Under the new law, state entities, public and private institutions, companies, and individuals are required without exception to provide information to the National Intelligence System., with no court order required. This includes telephone operators, who will be required to hand over both previous and real-time data on people’s communications and connections without a court order. In addition, the National Intelligence System may intercept communications on vague grounds of “national security” without a court order.
These provisions undermine privacy and interfere with the right to private life and correspondence, Human Rights Watch said. The law could also create a chilling effect for free speech and put at risk professions protected by confidentiality—such as doctors, lawyers, and journalists—by potentially requiring them to disclose sensitive information.
These laws should be reviewed to ensure their alignment with the constitution and international human rights obligations.
“Ecuadorians should not have to choose between security and human rights,” Goebertus said. “Lasting security won’t come from granting unchecked power to security and intelligence agencies, but from strengthening the justice system, dismantling illicit economies, and protecting the rule of law.”
Juneteenth and the Path Toward Justice
Juneteenth, celebrated annually in the United States on June 19, commemorates the liberation of enslaved Black people. It marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and ordered the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it was issued. While it is a day of reflection and celebrating resilience, it also reminds us how anti-Black racism continues to shape our society.
The fight for reparations is central to the broader movement for racial justice. The legacy of enslavement and subsequent discriminatory policies and practices have imposed lasting harm on Black communities, including economic, education, employment, health, and housing inequalities. The fight for reparations isn’t solely about financial compensation, but also acknowledgment of past harms, restorative justice, and systemic change for the future.
In recent years, the reparations movement has gained momentum, particularly with local and state governments that took steps toward enacting comprehensive reparations plans. Some areas established task forces and committees modeled after H.R. 40, federal legislation which would establish a committee to study and develop proposals for reparations, including financial payments, housing assistance, and scholarship programs. These efforts demonstrate that addressing historical injustices requires tangible action rooted in local communities, as well as an understanding of the importance of healing for victims of racial trauma and systemic inequities.
History teaches us that the legacies of historic injustices tend to fester if left untreated. The observation of Juneteenth is a positive step in the right direction, but like public apologies, it isn’t enough. The United States should also heed the call for reparations if it is serious about achieving racial equity. Justice for the descendants of enslaved Black people isn’t just about righting the wrongs of the past but about building a foundation for a more equitable future.
To better understand the reparations movement and how to get involved, please view our “Why Reparations” question-and-answer document, which addresses common questions about reparations, the avenues available to achieve reparations, and how to get involved in the movement.
France: Many Children in Overseas Territory Lack Education
(Paris) – A bill before France’s National Assembly for the reconstruction of the overseas department of Mayotte should include access to education and other core economic and social rights of children, Human Rights Watch said today.
Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean northwest of Madagascar, has long been neglected by French authorities, and its educational system has for years faced a lack of school facilities, overcrowding, and teacher shortages. Children with undocumented parents and others living in shantytowns are disproportionately likely to face barriers in school enrolment. A drought has caused frequent water shortages, and a devastating cyclone in December 2024 caused widespread destruction to homes, schools, and other infrastructure.
“Education is not only a right for all children, it is compulsory throughout France from age 3 to 16,” said Elvire Fondacci, advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “Yet thousands of children in Mayotte, due to their nationality or migration status, cannot effectively access education or other basic social support.”
Human Rights Watch met with more than 40 children and parents, as well as civil society organizations, independent institutions, teachers and education staff, and government and local officials during a 10-day research trip to Mayotte in May 2025.
Mayotte is one of 13 overseas territories of France, all legacies of its colonial past. It is France’s poorest department and one of the most disadvantaged parts of the European Union. More than 75 percent of its population lives below the poverty line.
Nearly half of Mayotte’s population is under age 18, and 8 out of 10 children live in poverty. With overcrowded schools and classrooms, Mayotte’s education system was under strain well before the 2024 cyclone.
A 2023 University of Paris-Nanterre study found that as much as nine percent of Mayotte’s school-age population were not enrolled in school. The French Defender of Rights found in October 2023 that as many as 15,000 children did not have access to a full school day in public school. Education is free, compulsory between the ages of 3 and 16, and by law should be available to all children in France regardless of migration status.
Primary education is largely the responsibility of municipalities, some of which have imposed additional burdensome administrative requirements for school enrolment. Some require newly issued birth certificates or documents to establish children’s addresses: paperwork that families living in informal settlements or with irregular status may not be able to obtain.
Some local authorities are also reluctant to build new schools, perceived as primarily benefitting children of immigrant families from the neighbouring Comoro Islands or encouraging further migration. Depriving children of their fundamental rights, including education, should never be used as a deterrent to migration, Human Rights Watch said. The French Defender of Rights observed at the beginning of June that shortcomings in Mayotte’s education system exacerbate and entrench inequality.
Fear of arrest by border police near schools and municipal offices discourages many families from accompanying their children to school or accessing essential public services such as vaccination, and makes school enrollment procedures more difficult.
Increasingly restrictive migration policies – even more so than in mainland France – that apply specifically to Mayotte mean an increasing number of people become undocumented at age 18, regardless of how long they have lived there, and even if they were born there. Children’s uncertainty about their future causes anxiety and leads some to leave school early.
A staff member at a local organization supporting out-of-school children said, “At 13 years old, some students are already asking whether it’s worth staying in school.”
Thousands of children in Mayotte live in the islands’ many informal settlements, often in makeshift dwellings lacking access to running water or electricity. Some students study by candlelight or using a phone flashlight; others leave their notebooks at school to avoid rain damage.
Children in all informal settlements often experience malnutrition, and teachers report that some students fall asleep in class or are unable to concentrate because they are hungry. Unlike in mainland France, where students receive a full lunch, most schools in Mayotte only provide a snack. For many students, this may be the only meal of the day.
“My parents can’t find rice anymore” since the cyclone, a 12-year-old girl said. “One day we eat, the next we don’t. It’s every other day. I eat the snacks at school.”
Other children whose families cannot afford the fee for the snacks – for instance, €65 per year in primary schools in Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s largest city – end up going without food at all. One 15-year-old student said: “It’s hard to live in a slum. If you haven’t paid for the snack, you don’t eat. It’s really hard to go to school when you’re hungry.”
Many children, including French children born in Mayotte, long-term residents without French citizenship, and recent arrivals, do not speak French as their first language and may have limited French proficiency. Failure to support these students and provide teacher training, and to recognize that the region’s linguistic diversity is in apparent contradiction with national education requirements, makes learning extremely difficult for students and poses additional challenges for educators.
Children of asylum seekers or other recently arrived migrants from Central and East African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Somalia, live in particularly dire conditions in dilapidated tents in an informal settlement with no toilets for its hundreds of residents and no access to education.
The National Assembly will soon debate a bill setting forth the priorities and framework for a specific public policy regarding Mayotte’s reconstruction.
Lawmakers should ensure that children living in Mayotte can exercise their fundamental rights, including the right to education. National and local authorities should urgently ensure that schools are equipped to meet children’s basic needs, including access to drinking water, sanitation, nutritious food, and a safe learning environment, and end discriminatory practices in school without waiting for new legislation, Human Rights Watch said.
“The bill before the National Assembly is an opportunity to correct decades of underinvestment, mismanagement, and persistent lack of political will that have severely undermined education in Mayotte,” Fondacci said. “Ensuring the right to education for all children in France is not optional in Mayotte simply because it is an overseas territory.”
Nepal Police Search for Journalist Who Reported on Political Family’s Business
In Nepal’s latest attempt to silence online speech, police are trying to arrest a well-known journalist who published on his YouTube channel claims about the business interests of a leading political family.
Click to expand Image Dil Bhushan Pathak. © PrivateDil Bhushan Pathak reported three weeks ago about the alleged investments of a member of a political family. Kathmandu’s district court issued an arrest warrant for him on June 11 following a complaint by the family to the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police.
On June 16, the Patan high court issued a temporary order that Pathak should not be arrested, but on June 17 police issued a fresh summons to Pathak in apparent disregard of the court order. At the time of writing this dispatch, police had not been able to locate Pathak.
Pathak is being sought under Nepal’s Electronic Transactions Act, a law which is purportedly designed to regulate online transactions, but which has previously been used to arrest people in relation to online speech. On the same day that the district court issued the arrest warrant it also used the same law to order two news sites to remove stories referring to the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal.
Last week, a government minister reportedly telephoned the director of a separate media company and threatened that to “take action to bring [the company] down” if it did not remove reporting of Pathak’s case from its website. The minister has denied the allegation
While Nepali authorities have sometimes sought to silence traditional newspapers and broadcasters, most recent cases relate to social media and online news portals. Last year, police used cybercrimes charges to arrest at least two people who had posted photos or videos critical of political leaders. “Whenever someone raises questions about a public figure in Nepal, there is a tendency to file a cybercrime case without any investigation,” former Supreme Court Justice Balram KC told the Nepali Times.
Earlier this year, Nepal’s parliament adopted a controversial new Media Council Act, which empowers the government to appoint the head of a new media regulator. Press freedom advocates have also expressed concern at a proposed new law that would create vague, new criminal offences related to social media, punishable with jail terms of up to five years and fines up to NRs1.5 million (US$10,800).
The Nepal Police should withdraw the arrest warrant against Dil Bhushan Pathak and the government should stop trying to silence journalists and other Nepalis.
Nigeria: Prioritize Security Amid Rising Violence in Benue State
(Abuja) – Nigerian authorities should urgently strengthen security in vulnerable communities following deadly attacks on June 14, 2025, in Yelewata, Benue state, Human Rights Watch said today. This should include steps to ensure collaboration with members of affected communities to establish an effective rapid security response system to prevent further violence and protect lives at risk.
On the night of June 14, unidentified armed assailants suspected to be tied to herder communities brutally attacked Yelewata community in Benue state, killing 59 people, according to the state governor. However, media reports citing detailed lists of victims put the death toll at over 100.
“This brutal attack is the latest reminder of how badly the government has failed to protect communities from violence and secure accountability,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should move quickly and effectively to investigate this attack.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed three people, including one journalist who visited Yelewata in the aftermath of the attack.
Benue is among Nigeria’s North Central states plagued by recurring intercommunal violence, largely driven by longstanding tensions between nomadic herders and mostly sedentary farming communities over access to and control of land, water, and other natural resources.
In May, 42 people were killed in a series of attacks across Benue state, according to media reports. In April, 56 were reportedly killed by herders during the Easter period. Despite these alarming figures, there is little evidence of meaningful efforts toward justice. Nobody has been arrested or prosecuted for these attacks.
In a 2013 report, “‘Leave Everything to God’: Accountability for Inter-Communal Violence in Plateau and Kaduna States, Nigeria,” Human Rights Watch analyzed the decades-long cycles of violence in two North Central states, Kaduna and Plateau, which persisted largely due to the government’s failure to hold attackers accountable. More than a decade later, the continued bloodshed—most recently the attack in Yelewata—underscores the urgent need to end this pattern of impunity.
Reverend Father Yugh, a priest and archivist at the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, the capital of Benue state, told Human Rights Watch that he has tracked violence in the state for many years and that security forces consistently fail to respond effectively, leaving the situation dire.
Based on media reports, attackers arrived in Yelewata just before midnight, armed with sophisticated weapons, and laid siege to the community for over two hours with little or no resistance from security forces. The authorities, however, claim that police officers, tactical teams, and reinforcements responded swiftly and killed some of attackers.
A 34-year-old man, Godwin Amatembe, said his sister and three of her children were killed when the assailants set fire to their one-room home using petrol. Amatembe’s nephew who escaped the attack told him that the family was asleep, and when they tried to escape the blaze, the assailants fired on them. The nephew managed to flee despite being shot in the back, but the attackers dragged his wounded mother back into the house, where she burned to death with the three other children.
“I am weak, I am broken, and my heart is bleeding,” Amatembe said. “How could my sister and her innocent children, who were just struggling to survive, be wiped out in such a brutal way?”
Based on media reports, some of the people killed in the attack were internally displaced people who had fled to Yelewata from their communities due to insecurity, only to be brutally killed in the very place they had hoped would offer them safety.
The Yelewata attack sparked protests in Benue state on June 15, with calls for an end to the killings and for justice and accountability. The authorities dispersed the protests, which they claimed had been hijacked by violent instigators.
The military and police authorities have announced a joint operation to pursue those responsible for the killings. As President Bola Tinubu engages with affected communities and stakeholders during his announced visit on June 18, he should prioritize regular consultations with local communities to establish a rapid security response system to detect and deter impending attacks and prevent further bloodshed. Without swift and coordinated action, the human toll of the seemingly endless cycles of violence will continue unabated.
“The way forward should begin with coordination of state policing and intelligence operations, as well as community-driven security initiatives that can respond rapidly to threats,” Ewang said. “But protection alone is not enough. There must also be justice for the victims of these attacks and accountability for the perpetrators of massacres.”
DR Congo: M23 Armed Group Forcibly Transferring Civilians
(Nairobi) – The Rwandan-controlled M23 armed group has deported over 1,500 people from occupied eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Watch said today. The Rwandan government and the M23 should immediately stop forced transfers of Congolese citizens and Rwandan refugees, which are war crimes.
Rwanda’s military, logistical, and other support to the M23 was critical for its capture of Goma and Bukavu, the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu respectively, from Congolese forces in early 2025. In February, the M23 ordered several hundred thousand people to leave displacement camps around Goma and dismantled virtually all the camps. In May, the M23 rounded up and transferred previously displaced people to Goma, where many were unlawfully deported to Rwanda with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“The forcible transfer of civilians to Rwanda, whether Congolese citizens or Rwandan refugees, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Rwanda’s control over the M23 in eastern Congo makes it ultimately responsible for the armed group’s numerous abuses.”
Rwanda’s effective control over parts of eastern Congo through its own armed forces and the M23 appears to meet the international humanitarian law standards for a belligerent occupation. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits, as a war crime, forcible transfers within a country and deportations from occupied territory to other countries, regardless of the motive. On June 9, 2025, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Rwandan authorities with its findings but has not received a response.
Human Rights Watch from February to May interviewed 14 people who were forced to leave displacement camps near Goma after the M23 ordered them dismantled, including 8 people who were forcibly transferred to Goma in May.
On May 12, the M23 rounded up as many as 2,000 people from the town of Sake, 25 kilometers west of Goma, and forcibly transferred them to Goma, where many were then deported to Rwanda. This appeared to be part of a broader M23 operation against suspected members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, or FDLR), a largely Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose leaders took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Many of those in Sake were originally from Karenga, in Masisi territory, which is considered an FDLR stronghold.
Click to expand Image Map of the chronology of the displacement of civilians between Karenga and surrounding villages, Sake, Goma, and Rwanda. Graphic © 2025 Human Rights Watch.M23 officials used the Lake Kivu Christian Center (Centre Chrétien du Lac Kivu or CCLK) transit center, named after its location in Goma, to deport people to Rwanda. Between May 17 and 19, 2025, several convoys departed from the transit center to Rwanda. UNHCR usually uses the transit center for voluntary refugee repatriations to Rwanda. However, eight people at the center said that both Congolese citizens and Rwandan refugees were among those being deported against their will. Many expressed fear that they would face abuse in Rwanda. The M23 deployed forces around the facility to prevent people from escaping.
Some of the people deported spoke to the media to criticize the manner in which they were forcibly transferred to Rwanda. The Rwandan authorities have long targeted those who have criticized the government publicly, including refugees and asylum seekers under UNHCR protection. UNHCR should take steps to protect the safety of those deported to Rwanda. Human Rights Watch has not been able to communicate with any of those deported from the transit center since their deportation to Rwanda.
UNHCR wrote to Human Rights Watch on May 27 that “1,600 [Rwandan refugees] were brought to the CCLK transit center in Goma as a result of cordon and search exercises conducted by the de facto authorities,” that UNHCR’s screening was “done under pressure,” and that for this group, returning to Rwanda “was the only available option.”
Under the Geneva Conventions, the transfer or deportation needs to be “forcible” to constitute a war crime. Consent to be moved has to be voluntary and not given under coercive conditions. A transfer is not voluntary when people agree or seek to be transferred as the only means to escape risk of abuse if they remain.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor has announced that his office would renew investigative efforts in Congo with a focus on crimes in North Kivu since January 2022. The court can prosecute the war crime of “the deportation or transfer [by the Occupying Power] of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory,” as well as the crime against humanity of “deportation or forcible transfer of population.”
“The Rwandan government and the M23 are committing war crimes by forcibly transferring and deporting people within occupied territory and to Rwanda,” de Montjoye said. “Concerted international pressure is needed on Rwanda to immediately end the deportations, ensure the security of everyone in occupied areas, and hold those responsible for abuses to account.”
For additional details on the deportations, please see below.
The People Transferred
Since the resurgence of the M23 in late 2021, Congolese and Rwandan armed forces, along with the armed groups they support, have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in North and South Kivu, often multiple times over prolonged periods. Combatants have forced civilians from their homes and lands, looted their property, and punished them for suspected collaboration with enemy groups. Many of the internally displaced people who were living in camps around Goma before the M23 captured the city had fled abuses from both sides, including killings, rape, burning of property, pillaging, and forced recruitment and labor.
On February 24, 2025, in Karenga, a local chief accompanied by armed M23 fighters told people originally from Karenga, Tuonane, and Mugando, near Virunga National Park, that they had to leave by the following day. Many then sought shelter in schools and other locations in nearby Sake.
“They chased us from Karenga saying those who refuse [to leave] will ‘get a bullet,’” said a 25-year-old woman Human Rights Watch interviewed. A man, 36, said that the chief “told us that those who need an explanation should go to Kitchanga [a strategic town under M23 control] to ask the authorities there. He also said the Red Cross will collect the body of anyone who is found in the village after the deadline.”
Many of the displaced people interviewed who returned to Karenga in February had fled ahead of the M23’s capture of the area in November 2023. The M23 provided no reason for expelling the population, although some sources thought the decision was related to suspected FDLR members in the area. Interviewees said that although some of the people formerly displaced from Karenga were of Rwandan origin, many were Congolese citizens or had lived in Congo their entire lives.
Of the people forcibly moved from Sake on May 12, 2025, the M23 transferred some of the men, and later their relatives, to the Stade de l’Unité (Unity Stadium) in Goma. The M23’s military spokesperson, Willy Ngoma, presented 181 men at the stadium to the media, calling them “Rwandan subjects,” even though they had Congolese documents. Witnesses said the M23 burned people’s Congolese electoral cards, the main form of identification in Congo, and told people perceived to be of Rwandan origin to return to Rwanda.
Congolese citizenship is difficult to establish due to the absence of a functioning national ID system and decades of cross-border population movements, driven by both conflict and economic opportunities, between Congo and Rwanda. The voter’s card is the only documentation available to many people, if they are registered and of voting age. At the stadium, the M23 accused people of having “falsified” cards, effectively rejecting their Congolese citizenship, based on media reports and witness accounts.
The M23 has accused suspected opponents, often without basis, of supporting the FDLR. Witnesses said that on May 12 in Sake, the M23 took away at least five young men suspected of being FDLR members. At the stadium, the M23 also sought to separate those perceived to support the Congolese army or its allies: “Those who were identified as members of FDLR or Wazalendo [pro-Congolese government coalition of armed groups] were put on a bus, and we don’t know where they went,” said a man who had been at the stadium.
Deportations from the Transit Center
People marked for deportation were transferred to the CCLK transit center, which the Congolese National Commission for Refugees (Commission Nationale pour les Réfugiés) and UNHCR use for Rwandan refugee repatriations under the 2010 tripartite agreement on voluntary returns between UNHCR, Rwanda, and Congo.
The tripartite agreement sets the conditions for the voluntary return of Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Rwandan refugees in Congo. Under UNHCR guidelines, refugees and asylum seekers do not need to state explicitly that they are being forced back for UNHCR to conclude that their repatriation is involuntary.
UNHCR noted in its response to Human Rights Watch that refugee repatriations “must be voluntary, safe, and carried out in dignity” to comply with the principle of nonrefoulement: the international legal prohibition against returning people to risks of persecution, torture, or other serious harm.
But people at the center said that even though UNHCR agents interviewed them about their origins, UNHCR did not give them a choice about being sent to Rwanda. A Congolese woman said: “[UNHCR] does what they want with us. We don’t have a choice.”
UNHCR issued a statement on May 22, 2025, saying it was monitoring and involved in “the evolving situation concerning the group of individuals” at the transit center as well as “more than 1,700 refugees” returned to Rwanda. However, Human Rights Watch interviews indicate that some people forcibly taken to the center and then deported to Rwanda were not registered Rwandan refugees.
Three Congolese citizens said that on May 27, UNHCR transported 74 people, mostly women and children, back to Sake after confirming that they were Congolese nationals. They said some Congolese at the transit center were not able to prove their identity because the M23 had burned their documents and that these people were later forcibly transferred to Rwanda. “There are people I know from Karenga who are Congolese and were sent to Rwanda,” said one man who was transferred back to Sake. “Others accepted to go because they were afraid of the M23. The M23 burned my voter card.… I can’t leave Sake now. If I get stopped, I’ll be accused of being FDLR.”
On May 17, Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister claimed that the repatriated refugees were formerly held hostage by the FDLR, apparently attempting to justify the deportations. Congo’s Interior Ministry disputed this assertion.
Rwanda’s Occupation of Eastern Congo
Rwanda’s deployment of up to 9,000 troops in eastern Congo at the height of the M23’s offensive in January and February and its apparent overall control of the M23, the de facto authorities, indicates that Rwanda is an occupying power under international humanitarian law. Witnesses to incidents, media reports, and UN and military sources have said that Rwandan military personnel have directed and led operations during offensives, including those that captured Goma and Bukavu.
Military sources said that several hundred Rwandan troops, operating modern weaponry such as armored drones and GPS-guided mortars, led the advance on Goma. Rwandan soldiers have also commanded patrols in Masisi and Rutshuru territories. Rwandan military commanders have been present during the training of recruits in at least two training centers in Congo, former recruits told Human Rights Watch. Rwandan authorities have also coordinated a press visit to occupied territory in eastern Congo. In May, more than 10 journalists went on a press trip from Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, to Goma, and to Masisi territory, organized and accompanied by staff of the Rwandan Office of the Government Spokesperson, according to four journalists and messages reviewed by Human Rights Watch.
Rwanda has also been involved in negotiating ceasefires and other actions on behalf of the M23. The M23’s capture of the town of Walikale in March forced Alphamin Resources at Bisie mine, a major tin mine that produces six percent of the global tin supply, to suspend its activities. Reuters reported that the United States directly engaged with the Rwandan and Congolese governments to secure guarantees of the M23’s withdrawal and that the Congolese forces would not attack to allow operations to resume. Alphamin Resources announced a resumption of operations after the M23 withdrew.
These actions by Rwandan forces, and the absence of Congolese authority in the area, would meet the international law standards for a belligerent occupation of parts of eastern Congo.
Occupation Under International Law
The international humanitarian law of occupation is primarily set out in the 1907 Hague Regulations, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Protocol I of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions, and customary international humanitarian law.
Article 42 of the Hague Regulations states: “Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.”
The 2016 Commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Common Article 2 to the Geneva Conventions sets out three requirements for a situation of belligerent occupation: the presence of foreign military forces without the consent of the sovereign state; the foreign military’s ability to exercise authority over the territory; and, the related inability of the sovereign state’s authorities to exert its control over the territory. These elements have been described in judicial cases, military manuals, and academic writings as the “effective control test” to determine whether a situation qualifies as an occupation for the purposes of international humanitarian law.
Under the effective control test, the occupying force largely controls the territory and can deploy troops as needed. These forces need not be present throughout the territory but must be able to exert authority as necessary. The sovereign state must be substantially incapable of exerting its authority because of the presence of foreign forces. However, the mere presence of national armed forces or armed groups opposing the foreign forces does not negate the occupation.
In addition, effective control over a territory may be exercised by surrogate armed forces or nonstate armed groups so long as the occupying forces maintain overall control. Thus, a state would be an occupying power when it exercises overall control over de facto local authorities or armed groups that effectively control all or part of a territory. This indirect effective control aims to prevent a legal vacuum arising from a state using local surrogates to evade its obligations, including to provide for food and medical care to the population, under occupation law.
DR Congo Investigations Needed More Than Ever
On Monday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk gave the chilling preliminary findings of his office’s Fact-Finding Mission into the devastating impact on civilians of the armed conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Since the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group captured Goma and Bukavu, the provincial capitals of North and South Kivu in early 2025, the Fact-Finding Mission has received information on the M23 carrying out extrajudicial executions, torture, raids on hospitals, abductions, and forced displacement and recruitment. They also received reports of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of alleged M23 supporters by Congolese military intelligence, and summary killings, arbitrary arrests, abductions, and extortion by the Wazalendo coalition of armed groups supported by the Congolese government.
Sexual violence, already occurring at an alarming rate, is being used “as a means of reprisal against communities, the relatives of perceived opponents, and people from other ethnic groups,” said Türk. “Nearly 40 percent of [sexual violence] survivors … are children.”
Many of these findings match our own. Human Rights Watch has documented the M23’s summary execution of at least 21 civilians in Goma in February. We have also reported on widespread abuses against civilians by the Wazalendo in South Kivu, including beatings, killings, and extortion, at times on an ethnic basis.
The UN Human Rights Council launched the human rights office’s Fact-Finding Mission in February, which is to be followed by an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate abuses committed by all parties to the conflict.
But Türk also announced on Monday that – due to the UN’s financial crisis – setting up the Commission of Inquiry would likely be delayed until 2026. This risks creating a protection gap, which would pose a major setback for desperately needed documentation of abuses in eastern Congo, particularly at a time when the M23 and other warring parties are increasingly repressing civil society groups and the media.
The commission’s mandate to collect and preserve evidence, to identify those responsible for grave abuses, and to support efforts to hold them accountable is a vital step towards ending impunity.
The UN’s unprecedented financial crisis is not just about abstract financial calculations: it will have a real impact on the lives of people at risk. As horrific crimes continue unabated in eastern Congo, robust investigations and accountability are needed now more than ever.
Saudi Arabia: Prisoner, 70, Dies After Medical Neglect
(Beirut) – Saudi Arabia should end the mistreatment of older prisoners and ensure their access to adequate medical care, SANAD Organization for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities denied the United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons access to older prisoners, including two she had asked to see, during her April visit even though the government had invited her to visit the country.
Qasim al-Qathrdi, a 70-year-old Saudi academic and preacher, died in prison on April 29, 2025, during the visit, said SANAD, a Saudi organization. The group said he was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in prison followed by an eight-year travel ban on vague charges related to “disrupting public order.”
“Dr. al-Qathrdi’s death, the result of apparent deliberate medical neglect and the denial of release on bail despite his deteriorating health, is not an isolated incident,” said Samer Alshumrani, SANAD operations manager. “We are sounding the alarm over the danger facing older prisoners and we call on the Saudi authorities to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and provide urgent and adequate medical care to all prisoners.”
The Saudi government invited the UN expert to visit the country from April 20 to 30, the UN said. During her visit to Saudi’s notorious al-Ha’ir prison, she requested access to clerics and the human rights defenders Safar Al-Hawali, 75, and Salman Al-Ouda, 69. Prison authorities rejected her request. Refusing access “violates the terms of reference for country visits” by UN experts, she said.
She urged the Saudi government to allow prisoners access to their families and to independent monitors. Prison authorities did not provide information on the number of older people in maximum-security wards but said that there are no older women prisoners, the UN expert said.
Separately, she expressed concern about the lack of remuneration for prisoners who work in al-Ha’ir and receive benefits like family visits in exchange for work. Prisoners have a right to family visits and the Saudi government should not use it as incentive, SANAD and Human Rights Watch said.
Rights organizations have long documented abysmal detention conditions in Saudi prisons, including ill-treatment and medical neglect. Older prisoners are particularly at risk as many cannot readily climb stairs, walk long distances to meals, or get dressed or use the bathroom without support.
Other older prominent thinkers, academics, and human rights defenders have also died in Saudi prisons, including Abdullah al-Hamid, 69, professor, political reformist, and cofounder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) who died on April 24, 2020; Musa al-Qarni, 67, political reformist who died on October 12, 2021; and Ahmed al-Amari, 69, cleric and former dean of the Quran Faculty in the Islamic University of Medina who died on January 20, 2019.
Other older clerics, human rights defenders, and academics who remain arbitrarily detained on charges based solely on peaceful activism include Safar Al-Hawali,75; Abdullah Al-Yahya, 73; Ibrahim Al-Nasser, 71; Salman Al-Ouda, 69; Zuhair Kutbi, 69; Awad Al-Qarni, 68; Mohammed Dulaim Al-Qahtani, 67; and Aida Al-Ghamdi, 67.
“Saudi Arabia should demonstrate genuine commitment to human rights ahead of hosting World Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup by immediately and unconditionally releasing all arbitrarily held human rights defenders, starting with older people whose health has deteriorated and are in need of urgent medical attention,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Africa: Insufficient Domestic Funding Hinders Education Progress
(Abuja) – Most African governments have consistently failed to meet global and regional education funding targets to ensure quality public education, Human Rights Watch said today on the African Union’s Day of the African Child.
The 2025 theme for the day is “planning and budgeting for children’s rights: progress since 2010.” However, based on national data reported to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), only one-third of African countries met globally endorsed education funding benchmarks for annual average spending over the decade 2013 to 2023. The figure declined to just one quarter of countries by 2022 and 2023. Fourteen African countries did not meet any of the benchmarks a single year over the past decade.
“African heads of state and governments and the African Union have all made bold commitments for national investment in education,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But governments are not translating those commitments into sustained funding, and many have actually reduced spending levels in recent years.”
Insufficient public spending on education undermines African governments’ legal obligations to guarantee free and compulsory quality primary education and make secondary education available, accessible, and free for every child. It also undermines their political commitments to AU and international development goals and benchmarks. Under the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in addition to providing at least one year of pre-primary education, African governments are required to ensure that all children complete free secondary education by 2030.
In 2015, UNESCO member states, including all 54 African states, agreed to increase education spending to at least 4 to 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and/or at least 15 to 20 percent of total public expenditure. These internationally agreed funding benchmarks for education have been included in at least five global or AU-led declarations or action plans, including the 2015 Incheon Declaration, endorsed by all UNESCO member states; the Heads of State (“Kenyatta”) Declaration on Education Financing, endorsed by 17 African heads of state and governments and ministers; the 2021 Paris Declaration and “Global Call for Investing in the Futures of Education”; and the 2024 Fortaleza Declaration. In December 2024, the AU and African heads of state and governments expanded the upper end of the GDP benchmark from six to seven percent through the Nouakchott Declaration.
UNESCO member states have made additional commitments to invest at least 10 percent of education expenditures to guarantee at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education by 2030. In 2024, African countries agreed to ensure that an increased share of public funding is allocated to early childhood education.
Despite these obligations and global commitments, governments have failed to remove tuition and other school fees, particularly at the pre-primary and secondary level, leading to unequal access, retention, and poor quality in schools, with disproportionate impact on children from the poorest households. Families across Africa continue to shoulder an enormous burden in funding education, absorbing 27 percent of total education spending, according to World Bank 2021 data.
Africa has the highest out-of-school rates in the world, with over 100 million children and adolescents estimated to be out of school across all sub-regions except North Africa. Out-of-school rates have increased since 2015 for reasons including population increases, persistent gender gaps, the cumulative effects of Covid-19 school closures, climate emergencies, and conflicts.
Many children also drop out due to school-related gender-based violence, as well as discriminatory and exclusionary measures against pregnant and parenting girls, refugees, and children with disabilities, among other negative practices.
Only 14 countries guarantee free access to education, from at least one year of pre-primary through secondary education, based on available UNESCO data and Human Rights Watch research. Only 21 guarantee free access to 12 years of primary and secondary education, while 6 legally guarantee access to at least one year of free pre-primary education.
Human Rights Watch found that Morocco, excluding Western Sahara territory that it occupies, Namibia, and Sierra Leone are the only three African countries that both legally guarantee universally free access to primary and secondary education and at least one year of free pre-primary, and that have met both international education funding benchmarks in the last decade.
Many African countries continue to underinvest in public education to manage climate-related emergencies and conflict-related crises, but this is also due to political decisions and economic policies. Numerous African governments are applying regressive austerity measures to service debt interests and repayments. Fifteen are spending more on debt servicing than on education, leading to drastic cuts to teachers’ incomes, shortages of learning materials, and overcrowded classrooms. Creditor governments and institutions should consider debt restructuring or relief to ensure that debtor governments can adequately protect rights, including the right to education.
In a positive development, Sierra Leone currently co-leads an initiative at the UN Human Rights Council to develop a new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with the aim of recognizing that every child has a right to early childhood care and education and guaranteeing that states make public pre-primary education and secondary education available and free to all. Botswana, Burundi, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and South Sudan have publicly expressed support for this process.
“African governments should urgently fulfill their pledges to guarantee universal access to free quality primary and secondary education,” Segun said. “Governments should focus on protecting public spending for education from regressive measures and cuts and allocate resources commensurate with their obligations to guarantee access to quality public education.”
Bonn Climate Talks Should Make Progress on Fossil Fuels
As negotiators gather in Bonn for the mid-year United Nations climate talks, a key stepping-stone toward the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, governments have an important opportunity to place the fossil fuel phaseout at the heart of global climate action.
Despite the historic commitment at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels, COP29 delivered no meaningful progress. Meanwhile, several governments are planning to increase fossil fuel production supported by ongoing subsidies. Fossil fuels remain the primary driver of the climate crisis, responsible for over 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Human Rights Watch has documented how communities living near coal, oil, and gas infrastructure bear the brunt of the health, environmental, and human rights harms caused by fossil fuel production.
The Bonn conference should lay the groundwork for the transition away from fossil fuels within a clear, time-bound framework.
This year, countries are expected to submit updated national climate plans outlining how they will reduce emissions through 2035. Yet most countries have not submitted updated plans, and many of those submitted so far fall short of aligning with limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Governments should use the Bonn talks to commit to ambitious climate plans that set out concrete milestones, such as ending new fossil fuel exploration and licensing, phasing out government subsidies and ensuring adequate monitoring and accountability.
Bonn is also a moment to fill a serious gap. The COP28 commitment to transition away from fossil fuels has not yet been incorporated in the COP30 agenda. Brazil’s recent call for countries to show how they plan to implement the COP28 commitment should be followed by efforts to ensure this issue is front and center in Belém. As the COP30 host, Brazil has a responsibility to lead.
Governments meeting in Bonn should commit to ambitious national plans and a fossil fuel phaseout. Without bold action now, COP30 risks falling short on delivering a credible response to the climate crisis.