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South Korea: Human Rights Issues for New Government
(Seoul) – South Korea’s new government should adopt measures to address human rights problems in the country and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Lee Jae-myung. It is critically important for the government to bolster democratic institutions, end entrenched discrimination, protect digital rights, and promote North Koreans’ human rights.
President Lee took office on June 4, 2025, after winning the presidential elections following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol for imposing martial law in December 2024.
“South Korea’s election cycle followed mass protests in support of accountable government,” said Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch. “President Lee Jae-myung should engage constructively on the range of human rights issues facing the country, including protecting freedoms of expression, assembly, and the media, strengthening digital rights and social protections, and addressing systemic discrimination against women and marginalized groups.”
The South Korean government should act to safeguard civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, Human Rights Watch said. These include ensuring the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and the press. The government should also pass a comprehensive anti-discrimination law protecting women and girls, older people, people with low socio-economic status, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, people with disabilities, migrants, and North Korean escapees.
Other priorities include closing the gender pay gap and combating digital sex crimes; ensuring that artificial intelligence regulations protect privacy and children’s rights; and strengthening pensions and social protections. The government should also prevent the misuse of emergency, security, and defamation laws to silence dissent. It should advance climate justice; reduce fossil fuel dependency, notably new liquified natural gas projects, and increase opportunities to generate renewable energy.
The government should also propose legislation to require companies to prevent, mitigate, and remediate actual and potential adverse human rights, labor, environmental, and climate impacts, and promote North Korean human rights through full implementation of the 2016 North Korean Human Rights Act.
“President Lee Jae-myung should recognize that taking office presents both opportunities to advance the rights of the South Korean people and possible pitfalls should existing rights concerns fail to be addressed,” Yoon said. “The new government’s actions will not only affect the rights of people in South Korea, but also those of North Koreans and many others around the world.”
Rwanda: Opposition Leader Arrested
(Nairobi) – The Rwandan authorities rearrested Victoire Ingabire, the head of an unregistered political party, on June 19, 2025, as a part of a drawn-out trial that targets political opposition figures, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should release Ingabire and other people detained on politically motivated grounds and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
Ingabire was arrested at her home in the capital, Kigali. A tweet by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau said that the Public Prosecutor's Office requested her to be arrested in connection with the ongoing trial of members of her party. It said she is being prosecuted for forming a criminal group and planning activities aimed at inciting public disorder.
“Ingabire’s arrest and this trial are only the most recent example of the dangers of political opposition in Rwanda,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch. “The prosecuting authorities’ message is clearly that if you dare to seek political office outside of the ruling party, you risk imprisonment.”
Ingabire previously spent nearly eight years in prison, from 2010 to 2018, following a politically motivated trial. In 2012, Ingabire was sentenced to 15 years for conspiracy to undermine the established government and denying the country’s 1994 genocide after she sought to contest the 2010 presidential elections. She was pardoned and released in September 2018. In March 2024, a Kigali court rejected Ingabire’s request to expunge her criminal record and allow her to run in the July 2024 presidential election. President Paul Kagame won with over 99 percent of the vote.
Ingabire, having previously been the president of the unregistered opposition party United Democratic Forces (Forces Démocratiques Unifiées or FDU-Inkingi), created another party – the Development and Liberty for All (Développement et Liberté pour tous or Dalfa-Umurinzi) – in November 2019. Rwandan authorities have refused to register the party or allow it to take part in elections and have repeatedly arrested, jailed, and harassed its members. Since 2017, five members of these parties have died or disappeared in suspicious circumstances.
In October 2021, seven members of Dalfa-Umurinzi were arrested. Sylvain Sibomana, Alexis Rucubanganya, Hamad Hagenimana, Jean-Claude Ndayishimiye, Alphonse Mutabazi, Marcel Nahimana, and Emmanuel Masengesho were all detained in the days leading up to and following the party’s declared “Ingabire day,” scheduled for October 14. On that day, Ingabire was planning to speak about political repression in Rwanda, including suspicious deaths, killings, disappearances, and abusive prosecutions.
The party members have been held in pretrial detention ever since, though their trial only began in late 2024. Sibomana had previously spent nearly eight years in custody, from 2013 to early 2021. Human Rights Watch has monitored previous trials of these and other opposition members, during which the accused told the court that interrogators had tortured them to coerce confessions.
Théoneste Nsengimana, a journalist who planned to cover Ingabire day, is also being held and tried with the party members. Two other people, Claudine Uwimana and Josiane Ingabire (no relation to Victoire) were also included in the case, with Josiane Ingabire being tried in absentia.
The prosecution bases its accusations, such as conspiracy to incite insurrection, on the group’s acquisition of a book, “Blueprint for Revolution,” written by Srdja Popovic, and participation in a training session organized by the author’s organization, the Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies, or CANVAS. The book and training focus on peaceful strategies to resist authoritarianism, such as nonviolent protest, noncooperation, boycott, and mobilization. The prosecution is using the contents of the book and training, including the use of Jitsi—an encrypted online communication platform—and the use of pseudonyms during the training, as evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The charges include “spreading false information or harmful propaganda with intent to cause a hostile international opinion against the Rwandan government” and “formation of or joining a criminal association.”
On June 17, the court summoned Ingabire to appear on June 19 because she had been cited during the trial. After she was questioned in court about the accused and their statements, the three-judge panel, allegedly unsatisfied, ordered the prosecutor to investigate Ingabire directly and ordered for her to be detained.
Social protests and mobilizations offer people the opportunity to communicate legitimate complaints and grievances to the authorities in a nonviolent way. Governments have a responsibility to create a safe and enabling environment for individuals and groups to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, of expression, and of association, Human Rights Watch said.
The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front tightly controls the country’s political space through a combination of legal restrictions, surveillance, and intimidation of opposition figures and independent voices. Critics often face harassment, imprisonment, or exile. In recent years some political detainees have died in unclear circumstances. Civil society and media operate under heavy constraints, with red lines around criticism of the government or security forces or straying from official talking points about the genocide.
Ingabire’s rearrest comes as Rwanda faces heightened international scrutiny over military support to the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo, accusations that have led to suspended Western aid and sanctions by the United States and European Union.
“It is beyond troubling that Rwandan authorities consider a training on how to peacefully resist authoritarianism as the formation of a criminal group and fomenting unrest,” Mudge said. “Instead of detaining the opposition members and putting them on trial, the government should open the country’s democratic space to much needed political discourse.”
Resurgence of Suicide Bombings in Nigeria’s Boko Haram Conflict
On the night of June 21, a woman detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in a crowd of people at a fish market in Konduga town, about 25 km southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in Nigeria. The attack, which reportedly killed at least 12 people, is the first in the region in 2025 after a series of suicide bombings in 2024.
The conflict between Nigerian security forces and Islamist insurgent groups, referred to as Boko Haram, has now entered its 16th year. It has been marked by widespread violence, including suicide bombings, often carried out by women who conceal explosives beneath their hijabs, a traditional covering widely worn by Muslim women in the northern region.
Since Nigeria’s first recorded suicide bombing in 2011, Boko Haram has carried out hundreds of such attacks, many targeting civilian gatherings. In 2017 alone, there were more than 127 suicide bombings and attempted suicide bombings, according to data from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
However, in the years leading up to 2024, incidents of suicide bombings had waned. Some analysts had attributed this decline to military successes and the fragmentation of Boko Haram into rival factions, most notably the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS). ISWAP adopted a different strategy from the original Boko Haram group, favoring targeted attacks against security agencies and military installations rather than civilians. Over time, infighting between the factions significantly weakened both groups, particularly JAS, whose leader, Abubakar Shekau, died in 2021.
President Bola Tinubu, in a statement posted on X, said the suicide bomb attack was an attempt to spread fear and directed the security forces to “rout the remnants of Boko Haram.” Over the years the Nigerian military has repeatedly claimed to have defeated Boko Haram despite ongoing attacks against civilians and military targets.
While no group has claimed responsibility, the latest suicide bombing and others since 2024 raise concerns for the safety of people in the region, particularly amid reports of a resurgence of the JAS faction, which has often carried out brutal attacks targeting civilians.
Insurgent groups should end all targeted and indiscriminate attacks against civilians. Nigerian authorities should take decisive action to hold those responsible for these abuses to account.
Human Rights Council Members Should Reject Eritrea’s Bid to End Scrutiny
The government of Eritrea has been working the corridors of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to try to end the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on Eritrea.
In an clear attempt to scuttle the annual mandate renewal resolution, the Eritrean delegation recently presented a resolution that would terminate the mandate.
In the resolution, Eritrea presents arguments that are easy to dismiss: that the mandate has no impact, that the special rapporteur cannot even access the country and is doing the bidding of the states who pushed for its creation, not the Eritrean people.
The Eritrean government itself is responsible for the lack of rights progress.
Throughout Eritrea’s time under Council scrutiny, and during its two terms as Council member, the government has proven unwilling to improve its dismal rights record, blocked the special rapporteur’s access to the country, and consistently refused to engage with him.
Eritrean authorities have systematically ignored recommendations by international and regional rights mechanisms, including the special rapporteur, notably refusing to release its countless detainees disappeared into its horrific prison system, or to guarantee freedom of opinion and expression, assembly, religious freedoms, among other grave abuses.
The government has also maintained its indefinite national service policy, punished draft evaders and their families, and failed to stop abuses against conscripts, including children.
Eritrea allows no independent media, civil society organizations, or political opposition parties to operate leaving the executive largely unchecked.
In this context, the work of the special rapporteur shines a much needed light on the situation in Eritrea, and support to Eritrean civil society.
Eritrea is one of the only countries to have never accepted a visit by a UN independent human rights expert. That signals the need for closer scrutiny, not an indicator that a mandate should end.
If Eritrea wants to end or ease UN scrutiny, it should take meaningful steps to improve the rights situation and implement the recommendations of the special rapporteur.
Until then, in the face of flagrant and persistent violations, total disregard for human rights mechanisms, and erasure of domestic civic space, Council members, particularly African states, should stand firm against Eritrea’s efforts to set a negative precedent and undermine the Council’s work and should instead support the renewal of the special rapporteur’s mandate.
Kazakhstan: Abused Woman Facing Murder Conspiracy Retrial
(Berlin, June 24, 2025) – A woman from western Kazakhstan who experienced two decades of severe domestic abuse by her former husband is to be retried for allegedly conspiring to murder him, Human Rights Watch said today. The first attempt to prosecute the woman, Elvira Erkebayeva, 41, was declared a mistrial on May 19, 2025, and exposed how police in Kazakhstan failed to protect her from domestic violence. A new jury was selected on June 23, 2025.
Police in Uralsk, western Kazakhstan detained Erkebayeva on February 26, 2024, following her apparent attempts to purchase a firearm. Erkebayeva, who is being held in detention and faces 15 years to life in prison, never actually purchased or otherwise acquired a firearm. She had, however, approached the police at least twice in early 2024 about her abusive former husband, against whom she had obtained multiple protection orders, which the police failed to enforce.
“This case demonstrates the perverse and unjust consequences that can flow from police failure to adequately respond to cases of domestic violence,” said Viktoriya Kim, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Police should have investigated and prosecuted her former husband for years of violence, but instead Erkebayeva, who should be receiving support as a survivor of violent crime, finds herself facing prosecution.”
Erkebayeva and her lawyers maintain that any wish to buy a gun stemmed from her need for protection and not an intent to kill her former husband, who has not been harmed and did not file any criminal complaint. According to her lawyer, Tamara Sarsenova, and local women’s rights activists, Erkebayeva experienced over 20 years of relentless domestic abuse, including beatings, strangulation, death threats, verbal humiliation, and absolute control over her movements.
For many years, Erkebayeva was apparently afraid to report the abuse even after her divorce in 2013, fearing retaliation by her former husband, who continued to share their home with her.
On March 1, 2024, the police reported that they had prevented a “contract killing,” stating that a wife “who did not want to share property with her husband” had ordered his murder. Erkebayeva has been held in a pretrial detention center since her arrest.
The indictment against Erkebayeva alleges that in 2023, she attempted to “find a firearm” and, with the help of an accomplice, planned to kill her former husband. The accomplice reportedly found a potential hitman, who reported them to the police, and the authorities then opened an investigation.
Erkebayeva’s former husband had threatened to kill her and prevent her from ever seeing her children, now ages 13 and 17. Sarsenova told Human Rights Watch that, on one occasion, he had stripped her naked and ejected her from the house. In a separate episode in 2022, he threw boiling water in her face.
The NeMolchiKz Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of survivors of sexual and domestic violence across Kazakhstan and is closely following the case, said that Erkebayeva sought protection from police in mid-2023, but they failed to take meaningful action to protect her.
She made at least two written requests in January and February 2024 for protection orders from the police, which they granted but failed to enforce when her former husband violated the orders. Nor did they pursue charges for his violence against Erkebayeva or refer her to services, such as shelter, for people experiencing domestic violence.
The sustained and relentless violence Erkebayeva experienced at the hands of her former husband has taken a heavy toll on her health and mental well-being. She testified during her first aborted trial that she had attempted to end her life on several occasions.
In February 2024, Erkebayeva underwent a psychological assessment arranged by her lawyers. The expert concluded that “constant emotional tension, the need to withstand for a long time unreasonable and unpredictable aggressive reactions of [Erkebayeva’s] husband and inaction of the police, who she [Erkebayeva] repeatedly addressed [for help], triggered repeated suicide attempts.”
On May 19, the judge dismissed the jury on the grounds that several members had experienced domestic violence and might not be impartial. Rather than dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning that she could not be retried due to the due process prohibition on double jeopardy, the judge ordered a new trial.
The repeated efforts to prosecute Erkebayeva indicate fundamental flaws in the case and raise fair trial concerns, as well as concerns about the criminalization and prosecution of victims of domestic violence, Human Rights Watch said.
The years of violence Erkebayeva experienced are a stark example of how hard it can be for Kazakh women to overcome barriers to reporting such crimes. The barriers include stigma, social pressure, and fear of retaliation, as well as a well-founded fear that the authorities will not provide any meaningful help, as was Erkebayeva’s experience.
If Kazakh authorities persist with Erkebayeva’s prosecution, they should ensure that it is conducted in strict compliance with international human rights norms. This includes ensuring that Erkebayeva is able to present a meaningful defense that would include the context of domestic violence. Erkebayeva’s and witnesses’ reports of the abuse she experienced and her inability to seek help should be fully admissible and given proper weight in any determination of guilt or sentencing. Given the failure of the authorities to secure a timely trial, Erkebayeva should be released pending and during the trial and enabled to get the medical and psychological support she needs.
Domestic violence is not treated as a serious crime in Kazakhstan, despite the government’s claims that it takes the problem seriously. In 2024, Kazakhstan adopted legislative amendments that strengthened legal protections for women and children, including domestic violence survivors. However, the changes to the law stopped short of criminalizing domestic violence as a standalone offense or providing enhanced support to victims in domestic violence cases. Protections for women from abuse under the existing laws are insufficient and poorly enforced.
The Kazakh government’s failure to adequately protect women against domestic violence and ensure their access to justice violates Kazakhstan’s international human rights obligations, including under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Kazakhstan’s international partners should call on the Kazakh authorities to take urgent action to prevent and end impunity for domestic violence, including through prevention efforts, legislative reform, police training and accountability, and services for victims.
“The circumstances of Erkebayeva’s prosecution, and the multiple police failures to protect her and to ensure the system works as intended, sends a chilling message to survivors of domestic violence across Kazakhstan,” Kim said. “The Kazakh government should ensure that survivors of domestic violence receive timely protection and support, not criminal prosecution.”
Prominent Critic of Guinean Junta Abducted, Tortured
In Guinea early on Saturday morning, at least a half-dozen heavily armed men broke into the home of Mohamed Traoré, a prominent lawyer and former bar association president, assaulted him and his daughter, and then forced him into a car and drove away. Traoré had been publicly critical of the country’s military junta, which took power in September 2021.
After his abduction in the capital, Conakry, Traoré was found hours later with multiple marks of torture in Bangouyah, about 170 kilometers away, by local residents. The bar association reported that he was being treated in a health facility.
The abduction and assault fit a pattern of government security force attacks on the junta’s critics, dissidents, and political opponents.
On Monday, in response to the attack, the Guinean bar association adopted a series of measures, including a two-week boycott of all court hearings and the withdrawal of all lawyers sitting on the transitional institutions established by the junta since the coup. The bar association also announced it would file a complaint.
The bar association, in a June 21 statement, said that during his captivity, Traoré was “whipped” up to 500 times, his face “forcibly covered with a garment in an apparent attempt to asphyxiate him,” and that his abductors threatened him with death.
The attack may have been a retaliation for Traoré’s resignation from the National Transitional Council (NTC), the leading transitional body of the junta, in which he served as an adviser since 2022. Traoré announced his resignation in January citing the NTC’s failure to meet the established deadline to return Guinea to civilian rule, announced for December 31, 2024.
The deadline’s passing sparked opposition protests that paralyzed Conakry in January. Following the protests, officials announced new electoral timelines. On April 1, Guinea’s military leader, Mamady Doumbouya, set September 21, 2025, as the date for a needed constitutional referendum. On May 12, Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah announced that presidential elections would take place in December 2025.
Since taking power, the junta has cracked down on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent. It suspended independent media outlets, arbitrarily arrested journalists, and forcibly disappeared and allegedly tortured prominent political activists.
Guinea’s authorities should promptly, credibly, and impartially investigate Traoré’s abduction and torture. They should also publicly denounce abuses against critics and opponents and ensure that those committing them are held to account.
Mozambique: Armed Group’s Child Abductions Surge in North
(Johannesburg) – An armed group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) has ramped up abductions of children in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, Human Rights Watch said today. Most of the abducted children are being used for transporting looted goods, forced labor, forced marriages, and taking part in the fighting.
National civil society groups and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report that such kidnappings are on the rise. While the armed group, locally known as Al-Shabab, released some of the children they abducted earlier this year, a number of children remain missing; those who have returned to their communities struggle with reintegration.
“The surge in abductions of children in Cabo Delgado adds to the horrors of Mozambique’s conflict,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Al-Shabab needs to spare children from the conflict and immediately release those who have been abducted.”
In May and June 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people in Mozambique, including residents of Cabo Delgado, journalists, civil society activists, and a UN official, all of whom expressed concern about the resurgence of kidnappings. “In recent days, 120 or more children have been abducted,” said Abudo Gafuro, executive director at Kwendeleya, a national organization that monitors attacks and provides support to victims.
On January 23, 2025, Al-Shabab attacked the village of Mumu, in Mocímboa da Praia district, and abducted four girls and three boys. During Al-Shabab’s subsequent retreat, two children were released, but five remain missing. In March, the armed group abducted six children in Chibau to carry looted goods; four were released the following day. On May 3, Al-Shabab abducted a girl in the village of Ntotwe, Mocímboa da Praia district; on May 11, they kidnapped six girls and two boys near Magaia village in Muidumbe district.
When Al-Shabab fighters “enter or attack certain areas, they tend to abduct children,” said Augusta Iaquite, coordinator at the Association of Women in Legal Careers in Cabo Delgado. “They take them to train them and later turn them into their own fighters.”
When children who have been abducted return to the community, there are few resources to help them reintegrate, Human Rights Watch said. “The country needs a clear strategy on what to do when a child, especially one that has been rescued, returns,” said Benilde Nhalivilo, executive director at the Civil Society Forum for Children’s Rights.
Civil society organizations have called on Mozambique’s government to fulfill the country’s obligations under domestic and international law to protect the nation’s children.
Mozambique’s Constitution and the 2008 Law for the Promotion and Protection of Children's Rights enshrine the state’s duty to protect children from all forms of violence, exploitation, and abuse. Additionally, Mozambique is a party to various international and regional instruments that guarantee children’s rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Both explicitly prohibit the abduction, recruitment, and exploitation of children. The UN Optional Protocol to the Child Rights Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict, ratified by Mozambique in 2004, prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting or using children under 18.
Under customary international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, children are entitled to special respect and protection, and recruiting or using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime.
Mozambican authorities should seek to prevent further abductions, investigate existing cases and fairly prosecute those responsible, and ensure proper support for victims, Human Rights Watch said. Rescued children need medical care, psychosocial assistance, and reintegration mechanisms that provide for their protection and well-being.
“Mozambique’s government needs to take concrete actions to safeguard children and prevent armed groups from using them as tools of conflict,” Budoo-Scholtz said. “There is a need to ensure that there are robust reintegration measures so that the children are not further ostracized when they come back to the community.”
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.”