Human Rights Watch

Click to expand Image Israeli tanks are deployed during an ongoing army operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, February 24, 2025. © 2025 Majdi Mohammed/AP Photo

This week, Israeli tanks rolled into the occupied West Bank for the first time in two decades as Israeli forces intensify their operations there. Focused on the northern West Bank, the campaign is already the longest and most intense there since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

The Israeli military has for weeks conducted air strikes and raids in the northern West Bank that have killed more than 50 Palestinians, many who were “unarmed and posed no imminent threat,” according to the United Nations human rights office. Israeli forces have destroyed scores of homes and critical infrastructure, including multiple kilometers of sewage networks and water pipelines in Jenin. The Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps have become “near-unhabitable,” according to the UN.

About 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced, according to the UN: a scale not seen in the West Bank since the 1967 war. Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said the operations will continue for a year and that displaced Palestinians will not be allowed to return.

We have seen this playbook before. In August, then Foreign Minister, Katz said that Israel “must deal with the threat [in the West Bank] just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents.” Bezalel Smotrich, a minister within the Defense Ministry, has also repeatedly warned that West Bank communities could meet the same fate as those in Gaza.

In Gaza, Human Rights Watch found no plausible legal justification for Israel’s massive, deliberate displacement of Palestinian civilians, including through deliberate destruction that made much of the territory unlivable. These actions amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and in at least parts of Gaza, ethnic cleansing. We also determined Israel’s destruction of water infrastructure was part of a policy calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the Palestinian population, amounting to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.

Israeli forces had already killed more than 800 people in the West Bank since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, an unprecedented rate, and held record numbers in administrative detention without trial or charge. Their actions coincide with increased settlement construction, Palestinian home demolitions, movement restrictions, settler violence, and reports of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian detainees. The escalating repression is part of Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

States should act to prevent further atrocities across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including by imposing targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing grave abuses, suspending arms transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements, and supporting the International Criminal Court.

Click to expand Image The Olympic flag is displayed at the entrance of the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 23, 2020. © 2020 Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP

(Amsterdam) – Candidates for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) failed to adequately address human rights and good governance in documents outlining their proposed programs, in advance of March elections, the Sport & Rights Alliance said today.

“The International Olympic Committee affects the lives of millions of athletes, workers, fans, journalists and communities worldwide,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “It is essential for candidates who want to oversee global sport to make clear that they will uphold the IOC’s human rights framework, commitments and responsibilities, and commit to meeting with stakeholders and operating with transparency and good governance.”

The next eight years will bring a wave of challenges for the IOC, including selecting the host for the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games and delivering the 2028 Games in the United States, where international human rights are currently under threat, it is paramount for the next president to not only uphold but champion human rights and good governance throughout their term. IOC members who will vote for the next president should consider candidates’ commitments and track records on human rights and transparency as they cast their vote.

“In times when the principles of the rule of law are under pressure globally, the standard of good governance in sports becomes a key to supporting transparency, accountability and respect for human rights,” said Tor Dølvik, special adviser at Transparency International Norway. “This is critical because the Olympic movement has an enormous impact on the world even beyond sports, especially on young people.”

The election, at the 144th IOC Session on March 19-21 in Greece, is the first since the IOC added amendments recognizing its responsibility to uphold “respect for internationally recognized human rights” to the Olympic Charter. The IOC also adopted its Strategic Framework on Human Rightsin 2022, which sets out four-year objectives and actions to ensure the IOC respects human rights as an organization, as owner of the Olympic Games, and as leader of the Olympic Movement.

“Given that this is the first time a new president will be elected under the new Olympic Charter, it is deeply troubling that so few of the candidates have even mentioned human rights in their election campaigns,” said Steve Cockburn, head of labor rights and sport at Amnesty International. “At a time when rights are under sustained attack, we deserve to know whether the next IOC President will be ready and willing to put freedom, equality, and dignity at the heart of world sport.”

The Sport & Rights Alliance analyzed the formal written proposed programs submitted by the seven candidates, as required by the IOC. The alliance also wrote to each of the candidates, though only received responses from HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, Lord Sebastian Coe, and Morinari Watanabe. As stakeholder engagement is foundational to the ability of any organization—and any leader—to uphold their human rights responsibilities, it is concerning that only these three candidates took the time to respond, the alliance said.

David Lappartient was the only candidate to address human rights in any depth throughout his program, highlighting the need to “leverage our influence to promote compliance with human and labour rights.” The programs of Johan Eliasch, Hussein, and Coe did mention human rights, but only in relation to ensuring access to play sport. In written responses to the Sprot & Rights Alliance, however:

Hussein said that he plans to strengthen the IOC’s efforts through updating the Strategic Framework as part of Olympic Agenda 2036 and proposed to meet with the Alliance whether he is elected or not.Coecited the human rights initiatives of World Athletics, saying that these were introduced under his presidency and should generate confidence toward his commitments.Watanabe responded to each of the Alliance’s questions on human rights issues, presenting ideas to mitigate human rights and governance issues ranging from hosting the Games in multiple separate countries to bringing in third-party monitoring.

“There is no doubt that the right to participate in sport is incredibly important, but it is also just the beginning of advancing human rights in and through sport,” said Ginous Alford, director of sport and human rights at World Players Association. “Human rights should not be seen as constraints on the IOC, but rather as cardinal values to help navigate the organization through the many geopolitical, social and economic challenges ahead.”

The IOC has long neglected to recognize athletes’ rights as workers to organize and collectively bargain, which would allow athletes an equal say on all matters affecting their careers, wellbeing, and livelihoods. While Coe, Hussein, Lappartient, and Eliasch mentioned athletes’ voice and participation in policymaking in their programs, none mentioned union representation or collective bargaining.

“World Players’ recent public polling shows broad support for the IOC to change its business model and governance to include athlete voices and pay them fairly for their work,” said Matthew Graham, head of UNI World Players. “If the IOC is to keep up with the demands and expectations of all stakeholders in the modern professional sport era, the next president must prioritize embedding the fundamental rights of athletes—not forgetting that this includes labor rights—and recognizing athletes’ hard work and dedication.”

Several proposals addressed the need to protect athletes’ wellbeing, but only two provided specific strategies. Watanabe focused on improving the IOC’s Integrity and Compliance Hotline, and Hussein made several proposals including integrating “safe sport” into all International Federations and National Olympic Committees and ensuring safeguarding training is available in multiple languages.

“The next IOC president must realize that true and effective safeguarding is not possible without athlete voices,” said Andrea Florence, director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. “Current ‘safe sport’ approaches continue to lack consultation, support and confidentiality with and for affected people. This needs to change.”

None of the candidates addressed lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights, though Lappartient did discuss the participation of transgender athletes in his section on inclusion and diversity, emphasizing the need to balance “respect for human rights” with “fair competition” and to make decisions “grounded on solid scientific evidence.” In contrast, the proposals by Juan Antonio Samaranch, Eliasch, and Coe call for “safeguarding” women’s categories in terms that are at odds with the recommendations of the IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-discrimination.

“At a time when the rights of LGBTI people—and especially athletes—are under attack around the world, these positions from the IOC presidential candidates are extremely concerning,” said Gurchaten Sandhu, director of programs at ILGA World. “The IOC has done incredible work over the last few years to consult with athletes, understand the research, and set clear, rights-based guidelines by adopting the IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-discrimination. Electing any president who plans to discard these important achievements would have a tremendous negative impact on the lives and safety of trans, intersex, and gender-diverse athletes at all levels, including youth.”

Regarding workers’ rights, Lappartient praised the social charter negotiated between businesses and workers at Paris 2024 and expressed the desire to replicate it at future Olympic Games, but none of the other candidates mentioned labor rights or any concerns for workers, including migrant workers, who will help deliver many future Olympic Games.

The candidates also neglected press freedom and safety for journalists though Kirsty Coventry cited a need to improve communication, access and openness to scrutiny. Watanabe proposed splitting Olympics hosts between five continents and to “obtain a commitment [to prevent labor exploitation] from the government” of cities bidding for the Games.

But none of the candidates said that the IOC should assess potential host cities’ commitment to human rights in the selection processes. This longstanding failure to do proper human rights due diligence in advance of awarding events has been a source of serious human rights violations in the past.

To read the Sport & Rights Alliance's letter to the candidates, please click here.

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The Sport & Rights Alliance’s mission is to promote the rights and well-being of those most affected by human rights risks associated with the delivery of sport. Its partners include Amnesty International, The Army of Survivors Committee to Protect Journalists, Football Supporters Europe, Human Rights Watch, ILGA World (The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), the International Trade Union Confederation, Transparency International, and World Players Association, UNI Global Union. As a global coalition of leading nongovernmental organizations and trade unions, the Sport & Rights Alliance works together to ensure sports bodies, governments, and other relevant stakeholders give rise to a world of sport that protects, respects, and fulfills international standards for human rights, labor rights, child wellbeing and safeguarding, and anti-corruption.

Click to expand Image EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting in New Delhi, April 25, 2022. © 2022 Press Information Bureau via AP Photo

On February 27 and 28, 2025, European Union commissioners will conduct an “unprecedented visit” to India, seeking to “upgrade the strategic partnership” and strengthen bilateral trade, economic, technology, and security ties. In a letter sent ahead of the visit, 12 human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, urged EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the other visiting commissioners to break the EU’s prolonged silence on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s crackdown on human rights, and to make it clear that progress on bilateral relations depends on tangible rights progress. 

The organizations urged the commissioners to press Indian authorities to release unjustly imprisoned human rights defenders and peaceful critics of the government, amend or repeal abusive legislation that severely curtails freedom of expression and association, and end discriminatory and abusive policies and practices against religious minorities. 

At a recent hearing of the European Parliament, members from across the political spectrum echoed this call for a more vocal approach.

The EU also has its grave human rights problems. The rule of law is on the decline in a number of EU countries, while racial and religious discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance are on the rise. The bloc’s foreign policy is increasingly marred by support for abusive governments to stop migration at any cost and by egregious double standards on atrocity crimes and other serious violations of international law. Indian authorities should raise these concerns with their EU counterparts and urge measures to address them.

A principled and constructive relationship between the EU and India should embrace, not reject, mutual scrutiny and criticism. 

Yet the EU has maintained its silence for fear of a backlash from an increasingly authoritarian ally. This only encourages impunity, which in turn fuels further abuses. With serious human rights challenges around the world, the EU should not only reverse its faltering commitments, but publicly call on India to ensure that its institutions adequately address the escalating rights violations at home while joining efforts to protect rights abroad.

Sidelining human rights in meetings and in the new EU-India strategic agenda would be anything but strategic and undermine the prospects for a solid, healthy, and genuine rights-based partnership.

Click to expand Image A woman has her fingerprints taken as she registers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the Liboi transit point in Kenya, near the Somali border, November 1, 2006. © 2006 Karel Prinsloo/AP Photo The High Court in Garissa, Kenya ruled on January 21 in favor of thousands of ethnic Somali Kenyan nationals whose rights were violated by the refusal to deregister them from the refugee database and issue them Kenyan ID cards even though they were Kenyans.Tens of thousands of Kenyan Somalis who were incorrectly registered as refugees were left de facto stateless, unable to open a bank account, get a driver’s license, or access government benefits.The Kenyan government, beyond implementing the court’s orders, should ensure that people are able to access all services to which they are entitled as citizens without discrimination.

(Nairobi, February 26, 2025) – The High Court in Garissa, Kenya ruled on January 21, 2025, in favor of thousands of Kenyan nationals whose nationality and citizenship rights were violated based on incorrect data that designated them as refugees instead of Kenyan citizens, Human Rights Watch and Haki na Sheria said today.

The registration of these Kenyan Somalis led to them being denied access to education, work, and passports. The ruling, which orders the Kenyan government to issue nationality documents to the applicants of the case, is an important step for justice in the mistreatment of these applicants by the government and shows the need for robust safeguards and oversight of digital identity systems.

“The court’s finding that the Kenyan government violated the rights of thousands of Kenyans by denying them citizenship for years is a positive step,” said Yussuf Bashir, executive director of Haki na Sheria (“Justice and Law” in Swahili), which defends the rights of marginalized northern communities in Kenya. “It should now be followed by concrete remedial actions for all those affected, not just the applicants in this case.”

The court ruled in favor of the applicants and ordered the government to remove from the refugee database within 60 days the names of Kenyans incorrectly registered who have been screened, vetted, cleared, and declared to be Kenyan citizens. The court also ordered the government to collaborate with relevant agencies to activate or reactivate vetting committees to start new vetting processes within six months for other Kenyans facing the same predicament.

From 1991 until mid-2014, UNHCR was conducting registration activities on behalf of the Government of Kenya and registering refugees, including roughly 278,000 Somalis, through the collection of fingerprint and basic biographical data. An estimated 40,000 Kenyan Somalis, including children who adults misrepresented as refugees in order to access shelter or aid that they needed to survive, were also registered during this time. The registration data included individuals’ sensitive personal data, which after 2007 also included biometric data like fingerprint images.

For those interviewed, the consequences of being incorrectly registered have been significant.

All Kenyan nationals are required to apply for a national ID upon turning 18. The Kenyan authorities cross-check all applicants’ biographical and fingerprint data against the national list of registered refugees, and if an individual appears in that list, the government rejects the request for a national ID. This has served as a basis to deny a range of civil and human rights, from getting a job or passport to marriage.

The High Court decision is fundamentally changing the lives of those affected. One man who is 34 and only recently obtained an identity card confirming his Kenyan nationality told Human Rights Watch: “I am now finally recognized as a Kenyan person, I am no longer seen as a guest here. Now I am able to travel within the country any time anywhere. I am entitled to work. I will go to the university and do a course. I have succeeded!”

In 2021 and 2022, Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 Kenyan Somalis—nine men and seven women—who were all denied Kenyan ID cards when they turned 18 and tried to register their Kenyan nationality. Human Rights Watch and Haki na Sheria also interviewed Kenyan officials, former or current staff members of UNHCR, lawyers working on behalf of the affected people, and other civil society organizations. Haki na Sheria identified the interviewees.

Kenya established refugee camps, including the large Dadaab complex, for Somalis between 1991 and 1992, when thousands were fleeing civil war, drought and famine. A severe drought in Kenya from 1992 and throughout the decade pushed many Kenyan Somalis to also leave their homes, and some sought refuge and aid in the new camps.

All the Kenyan Somalis interviewed said a parent, adult relative, or family friend had taken them to one of these camps in Kenya between 1992 and 2016 and registered them because their family was struggling to find food, water, and shelter, even though they were not refugees and did not qualify for refugee assistance. Two of those interviewed had been under age 3 at the time. Four said they stayed in the camp only briefly—a few days or just a few hours—to get food before returning home.

A 30-year-old man said his parents took him to Hagadera camp when he was 8 because they were struggling to feed the family. “We came to the camp after our 50 cows died because we had no food or water for them,” he said. “The only way to survive was to get help in the camps.”

According to UNHCR, upon being registered as refugees or asylum-seekers by UNHCR or jointly by the Government and UNHCR (depending on the time period), each individual was referred to Kenya’s National Registration Bureau (NRB), the body in charge of registering all Kenyans 18 and older to confirm their nationality claims, for processing of a refugee ID card or other documentation. In order to obtain such documentation, the individual was registered in parallel by the NRB, and this process included the collection of relevant personal data, including fingerprints, by the NRB, which were uploaded onto the NRB’s database, and this allowed the NRB to identify Kenyan nationals.

In 2016, the Kenyan government became the sole authority carrying out refugee registration, with UNHCR granting the government access to UNHCR’s registration system called the Population Registration and Identity Management Eco-System (PRIMES), which contains personal information about individuals, including their fingerprints. Once registered by UNHCR, an individual is permanently in the refugee database; there is no procedure for people to request their profile and all of their corresponding data to be removed. While UNHCR registered people on behalf of the Kenyan government, it did not take additional steps to inform the people involved that it was sharing their personal data with the government at the time of the handover.

Fifteen of the Kenyan Somalis interviewed said that, to the best of their recollection or knowledge, they were only registered as refugees by UNHCR staff in the camps.

Kenyan Somalis already face discrimination based on their ethnicity: for decades, they have faced targeted identity checks and police checks, additional barriers to acquiring identification documents and establishing citizenship, and police raids in Muslim-majority neighborhoods.

Tens of thousands of Kenyan Somalis who were registered as refugees in order to access lifesaving assistance, were left de facto stateless. Without a Kenyan national ID card, a person cannot open a bank account, get a driver’s license, or access government benefits. People have reported being detained when they are unable to show a valid identity document, for example at a checkpoint.

In August 2021, Haki na Sheria filed a petition in the Garissa High Court on behalf of three victims for the government’s continued failure to remove Kenyan citizens from the government refugee database and issue national IDs. In January 2022, the government granted national IDs to some of those who had faced obstacles applying for a Kenyan ID card as a result of having been registered as refugees, but an estimated 40,000 people continued to be deprived of their rights until this judgment.

Beyond implementing the court’s orders, the Kenyan government should ensure that people are able to access all services to which they are entitled as citizens without discrimination. Where the lack of ability to obtain an identity document is blocking their ability to have their rights met, the government should ensure they have alternative points of entry to access essential services.

“The registration system that left thousands of Kenyans stateless is a powerful example of how digital identity systems can cause real, tangible harm,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments, organizations, and countries who are using such systems should take all precautions to ensure these systems are used to protect, not abrogate, rights.”

For additional accounts of the problems caused for Kenyan Somalis, please see below.

Impacts of the Lack of Nationality Documents

Everyone interviewed said they were without ID for years and feared arrest for not carrying identity documents. Many said they stayed home at night for fear of checkpoints.

A 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman said they tried to share a taxi to Nairobi in May 2021 to discuss the difficulties of not having documentation with a group of parliament members. Police at a checkpoint on the main road to the city stopped and detained them. They said they explained why they had no IDs, but the police held them at the checkpoint overnight and then at a police station for much of the next day.

The police released them only after lawyers got the chiefs from their local areas to confirm that they were Kenyan but had not been issued ID cards. Upon her release, the woman set out for her chief’s office in Fafi to get a hard copy of the confirmation letter but was detained a second time for a few more hours because she had no ID. She showed a copy of the chief’s letter to Human Rights Watch.

The lack of a national ID interfered with education for some of those interviewed. A 25-year-old woman said she was not allowed to take final exams in her last year of secondary school because she was 18 and students that age or older need to show an ID. Under Kenyan law, secondary education is compulsory.

A 22-year-old man, who said that he was in the top of his class throughout school, could not go to college:

When I graduated in 2016, the education department contacted me to encourage me to study civil engineering. The government said it would pay 70 percent of my university fees. I failed to raise the other 30 percent because I couldn’t get work and would have had to get a loan, but for that I would have needed an ID and bank account. I was also offered a full scholarship to study engineering at a university in Turkey but would have needed a passport to accept that.

A 26-year-old man gained admission into the Kenya Polytechnic University College in Nairobi using his birth certificate and school documents and was issued a school ID. He studied information and communications technology but was not allowed to graduate:

I got a university ID, so that allowed me to live in Nairobi with less fear of being arrested. But come graduation, I had to show my national ID to rent the graduation gown. So, I finished my studies six years ago, but still have not formally graduated. 

Everyone interviewed said the lack of a national ID made it impossible to open a bank account or purchase a SIM card, which is essential to use ubiquitous mobile money platforms like M-Pesa. A 29-year-old woman said she was the sole breadwinner in her family because her husband was sick. “But I give him all our money because he has a bank account,” she said. “If he passes away, I won’t have access to any of the money, because our marriage isn’t registered.”

Under Kenyan law, only those with legal residency or citizen status can legally hold jobs. Everyone interviewed said they were not legally allowed to work without an ID and that even getting informal work was difficult. “Unless people trust you because they know your parents, you won’t be able to get a job even as a shopkeeper without an ID,” one man said.

Another man said he had been able to enroll in college and complete a teaching degree in 2018, but because of his lack of ID, since then he had been doing low-paid private tutoring for primary school students. Many of his former classmates are now head teachers.

A 21-year-old man with a physical disability said that while Kenyan law prioritizes applicants with disabilities for private and public sector jobs, he was unable to benefit from this without an ID.

A man who was issued an ID finally in 2022 expressed his frustration in 2021 at his inability to get a national ID. “I am someone who has finished studying and is ready to apply for a job but is being told there is no job for you,” he said. “And I can’t just go to a camp to get food, I am not a refugee. I can’t leave Garissa because the police monitor people’s movements. You become a hopeless person when you don’t have the identity card of your country.”

Kenyans who cannot obtain ID cards face difficulties getting married both for social and administrative reasons. Registering a marriage or birth requires presenting a valid identity document. Six people interviewed said they had not been able to register their marriage and/or appear on their children’s birth certificates. A 28-year-old man said he and his wife could only marry through a religious ceremony, but they had no marriage certificate, and his brother had to register both of their children as his to get them birth certificates.

One man said he believed not having an ID was an obstacle to getting married: “No one will let me marry their daughter given my situation,” he said. “I can’t work because I don’t have an ID.” Eight of the people interviewed, ages 18 to 30, were not married.

Those interviewed said they were unable to enter any government institutions, including courts, government offices, and administrative centers, because people need to present an ID to enter. This limits their ability to access public services, financial support, and welfare payments from the Kenyan National Safety Net Program, as well as educational resources. The man with a physical disability said that without an ID, he was unable to receive government financial benefits and healthcare services he was entitled to.

On February 27, the People’s Court of Hanoi will hear the case of prominent independent journalist Truong Huy San (known by his pen name Huy Duc). The authorities arrested Truong in June and charged him with “infringing upon the interests of the state” under article 331 of the penal code. This provision has increasingly been used to silence critics of the government. If convicted, Truong faces up to seven years in prison.

Click to expand Image Huy Duc in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 27, 2012. © 2012 Eastgarden/Wikimedia Commons

State media reported that between 2015 and 2024, Truong published 13 posts on his personal Facebook page that allegedly “infringed upon the interests of the State.” The authorities did not specify the contents of these posts deemed unlawful.

A journalist for Bao Tuoi Tre (“Youth Newspaper”) in the late 1980s and the 1990s, Truong earned a reputation as a dogged reporter covering the country’s politics. In 2005 Truong received a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship to study at the University of Maryland in the United States. Returning to Vietnam in 2006, he started a popular blog in which he continued to publish editorial commentary on pressing social and political issues. The authorities shut it down in 2010. In 2012, Truong spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship, during which he wrote his most influential work, Ben Thang Cuoc (“The Winning Side”), widely considered the most important nonfiction book about postwar Vietnamese history and politics. It has never been sold publicly inside Vietnam.

Truong has continued to write about Vietnam’s social and political problems, including deforestation and other environmental issues. With more than 350,000 Facebook followers, he remains one of the platform’s most influential Vietnamese political commentators. Prior to his arrest, he posted about the dangers posed by concentrating power in Vietnam’s highly repressive Ministry of Public Security, which To Lam, current general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, formerly led.

In a 2013 interview, Truong said, “no free man would ever choose prison. But, in some cases, to defend a right to freedom, prison cannot be avoided. If everybody avoids prison, we will never achieve freedom.”

The Vietnamese government should immediately drop all charges against Truong, release him from custody, and free all those who have been prosecuted for the peaceful expression of their political views.

Click to expand Image PT Kristus Raja Maumere, a company owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maumere, using excavators to demolish buildings and evict residents on Flores island, Indonesia, January 22, 2025. © 2025 Floresa

In Indonesia, Islamist groups have long misused the country’s blasphemy law as a political weapon to target perceived critics of Islam, discriminate against religious minorities, and carry out personal vendettas.

Now some members of the Catholic community on Flores Island are using the law against opponents of a church-linked palm plantation. Many affected villagers from the Soge Natarmage and Goban Runut-Tana Ai Indigenous groups opposed the plans proposed by PT Kristus Raja Maumere, a company owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maumere.

On January 22, the company used excavators protected by armed men to destroy over 100 houses and evict residents, a number of whom were injured. Several women tried to stop the work by jumping on bulldozers. Agrarian Reform Consortium, representing numerous Indigenous organizations, described the actions as “brutal, barbaric and inhumane.”

The demolitions took place while eight villagers, including Indigenous elders, were standing trial at the Maumere district court for allegedly destroying or stealing billboards belonging to the company. Maria Magdalena Leny, one of the accused, admitted taking down a company billboard, saying workers had destroyed some banana and cashew nut trees. 

Cece Geliting, a salon owner in Maumere, criticized the demolitions by posting a cartoon on Facebook depicting a Catholic priest with an excavator and other posts critical of the church. This prompted the United Catholic Youth Forum, a local group, to report Geliting to the police for committing blasphemy against Catholicism, claiming that her posts had caused “widespread unrest” and “insults the symbol of the Catholic religion.” If convicted, Geliting faces up to six years in prison.

During Dutch colonial rule in 1926, the disputed land was turned over to the church. In 2005, PT Kristus Raja Maumere announced it had a permit to develop the land, but this permit lapsed in 2013. In 2023, the company received an extension. The Indigenous community has challenged the ruling, and many are refusing to leave, living among the ruins of their destroyed homes.

PT Kristus Raja Maumere has not responded to a letter from Human Rights Watch about the evictions nor the police report filed against Geliting.

This is apparently the first time that a Catholic group has sought to use the blasphemy law in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. It’s another warning that Indonesia should repeal the toxic legislation to prevent such abuses.

Click to expand Image Picture of graves dug by residents of Tayba where the victims of the Sudan Shield Forces were buried after the attack on January 10. The picture was taken/shared by a resident of Tayba and geolocated by Human Rights Watch in Tayba. © 2025 Private The Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group that fights alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces, intentionally targeted civilians and their property in an attack on January 10.Armed groups fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces have carried out violent abuses against civilians in their latest offensive in Gezira state.The Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate all reported abuses and hold to account those responsible, including the commanders of the Sudan Shield Forces.

(Brussels, February 25, 2025) – The Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group that fights alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), intentionally targeted civilians in an attack on January 10, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attack on the village of Tayba in Gezira state in central Sudan killed at least 26 people, including a child, and injured more. The group also systematically looted civilian property, including food supplies, and set fire to houses. These acts constitute war crimes and some, such as the deliberate killings of civilians, may also constitute potential crimes against humanity. 

“Armed groups fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces have carried out violent abuses against civilians in their latest offensive in Gezira state,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate all reported abuses and hold to account those responsible, including the commanders of the Sudan Shield Forces.”

Click to expand Image © 2025 Human Rights Watch

The January 10 attack was part of a deadly surge in attacks by SAF-aligned groups and militias against communities in Gezira and other areas the army recaptured from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since January 2025. Armed attackers, including the Sudan Shield Forces, the Islamist al-Baraa Ibn Malik battalion, and local militias, targeted communities they apparently perceived to be supporters of the RSF, an autonomous military force in conflict with the SAF since April 2023. The SAF recaptured the capital of Gezira state, Wad Madani, on January 11.

Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed eight survivors of the attack on Tayba who also witnessed key events surrounding that attack. Researchers also analyzed satellite imagery and photographs and videos shared by survivors that showed the bodies of some of those who had been killed, fire damage caused by the assailants, and graves of victims, and a list of 13 of those killed. A committee of Tayba residents established to count the dead confirmed that 26 were killed.

Click to expand Image Names and pictures reviewed by Human Rights Watch researchers of 13 civilians killed out of 26 in the attack perpetrated by Sudan Shield fighters on January 10. The images have been blurred and desaturated to black and white due to their graphic nature. © 2025 Human Rights Watch

Tayba, 30 kilometers east of Wad Madani in the Um al-Qura district, is home to people primarily from the Tama, Bergo, and Mararit ethnic groups, originally from western Sudan. Such communities of farm workers from mostly non-Arab ethnic groups in western and southern Sudan who settled in the area decades ago are known as “Kanabi.” Other Kanabi communities have come under attack in recent weeks.

On the morning of January 10, dozens of Sudan Shield fighters, whom residents described as Arab, entered Tayba riding Toyota Land Cruisers mounted with heavy machine guns. Witnesses said they shot indiscriminately at men and boys and set buildings on fire. They attacked the village again in the afternoon as residents were burying the victims, going from house to house looking for men and boys, and again killing, looting, and burning, witnesses said.

A 60-year-old man said gunmen wearing green camouflage and riding in Toyota Land Cruisers attacked him at close range. “They said, ‘Stop!’ and then shot me near my kidney with a Kalashnikov [rifle],” he said. A man who witnessed the scene said he heard the assailants shout racial slurs such as “You slave!” as they were shooting. 

One woman said that “They… came in the house where we were and asked where all our husbands were. And they started to threaten everyone, that they were going to harm us and our husbands. ‘Do you not know who Keikel’s troops are? Do you not know who we are?’” she recalled the men saying, referring to Abu Aqla Keikel, the leader of the Sudan Shield Forces. 

Keikel formed the Sudan Shield Forces in 2022, recruiting mainly from Arab communities of Gezira state. The group fought on the side of the SAF from April 2023 to August 2023, but then defected to the RSF. In October 2024, Keikel and the Sudan Shield went back to fighting for the SAF. In response, the RSF carried out a wave of attacks against communities it presumed were loyal to Keikel, committing atrocities including widespread sexual violence against women and girls. With Sudan’s military recapturing Gezira and other areas of Sudan since January, civilians are bearing the brunt of retaliatory violence, this time by SAF-aligned forces who accuse them of collaborating with the RSF when it held the areas.

Witnesses said the military vehicles bore the words “Sudan Shield” and described an emblem consistent with that of the Sudan Shield Forces. They described widespread looting of money, food, and livestock, including 2,000 cattle. All witnesses said the people in the village had no guns and could not and did not resist the January 10 attack.

Click to expand Image A truck with Sudan Shield Forces members and branded with the Sudan Shield Forces emblem at an unknown location. Sudanshield0 Telegram channel on November 28, 2024.

Videos received and verified by Human Rights Watch corroborate the attack on Tayba and contain evidence of crimes in other locations in Gezira state around the same time. Video clips geolocated to Wad Madani that appeared on social media show SAF-aligned fighters carrying out torture and extrajudicial killings against unarmed people. Reports of killings of South Sudanese by SAF-aligned forces in Wad Madani sparked retaliatory violence against Sudanese civilians in South Sudan, which prompted a diplomatic crisis between Sudan and South Sudan.

Killing and maiming civilians, looting, and the deliberate targeting and destruction of civilian property are war crimes. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, military commanders may be responsible for war crimes committed by subordinate members of the armed forces or other fighters subject to their control. 

The SAF has condemned the abuses in eastern Gezira but described them as “individual transgressions” and said it would hold those responsible accountable. In the aftermath of the attack on Tayba, residents said government investigators visited the site and interviewed key witnesses. Alongside this, witnesses said that vehicles from the Joint Force of the Armed Movements, a SAF-aligned coalition of largely Darfuri armed groups, were deployed to Tayba to protect the population. Yet, SAF generals including General Yasir al-Atta, who sits on the ruling Sovereignty Council, have publicly appeared with Keikel since then and praised his contribution to the war effort.

The SAF should investigate the attack on Tayba and other abuses carried out by affiliated armed groups and militias, publish the outcomes of its investigations, and take steps to hold all those responsible, including commanders, to account, Human Rights watch said. The SAF should suspend Keikel and other key Sudan Shield commanders pending the outcome of the investigation. 

“There is clear evidence that SAF-aligned forces are responsible for gruesome killings and atrocities against civilians,” Gallopin said. “International actors, including the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, should actively support robust initiatives to protect civilians in Sudan and swiftly impose targeted sanctions on those responsible, including Abu Aqla Keikel.”

For more information on the abuses in Tayba and the Sudan Shield Forces, please see below. 

The Attack on Tayba

Tayba first came under attack on January 9. Sudan Shield forces had entered the nearby village of Al-Mugharba and one witness said that on that day there was fighting near Tayba. Tayba was attacked in the afternoon using explosive weapons, causing some people to flee and spend the night out in the fields. There were no casualties. Two witnesses said they saw drones flying over Tayba in the late afternoon.

Residents returned the next morning. At around 9 or 10 a.m., motorcycles and Toyota Land Cruisers equipped with DShK 12.7mm heavy machine guns entered the village. “People were coming and going from the market,” said a young woman who survived the attack. “Children were playing outside.…  All of a sudden … [fighters on] vehicles attacked the village and people started to scream and run … The children were so scared.” 

Witnesses said the men in the vehicles shot wantonly at people and set fire to houses as men from the village fled to the fields. The assailants stayed in the village for about an hour and then retreated, witnesses said. No one in the village carried a gun or resisted.

People came out of their hiding places and were preparing to bury the bodies of victims when, around 2 p.m., forces in military uniform riding Land Cruisers and motorcycles attacked the village again. “Everyone started to run away,” a survivor said. The forces were “shooting at homes,” one survivor said. “There was a lot of killing.” Once again, no one resisted.

One witness said he counted 11 military vehicles entering the village from the east and that more vehicles entered from other directions. In total, he said, there were 25 military vehicles, supported by a handful of civilian cars and trucks. From his hiding place, he saw forces shoot and kill a man on the street near a general store. 

Another witness said he saw men in military uniform shoot at people about 200 meters away from them who were fleeing to the fields. “All these military vehicles were moving around … in the village, shooting … men randomly,” he said.

A young woman said she saw the body of a man, a herder in his 30s or 40s named Adam, nicknamed “Gelenki.” She said, “[The assailants] didn’t kill women but stopped and searched them and asked them to hand over whatever they had. But if they met a man or a young man … they got killed immediately.” 

The forces entered homes, looking for men and boys. One woman said her adult son locked himself inside his house, but that forces shot at the door using a DShK machine gun, injuring him in the buttocks.

Two witnesses said they saw the forces set houses and property on fire using lighters. A young woman said: “I saw three men going inside a house with lighters in their hands. They go inside, and they come out. If they don’t find anything to steal, they go outside and before they leave, they use a lighter to set fire to the house … [In] houses made of straw, it’s very easy for the fire to spread.” One man said his cousin’s son, a boy of about 15 named Musa S., was killed, and that Musa’s younger brother, age 8 or 9, was badly injured when forces set fire to the house where the boys had found refuge. Buildings were still burning when the assailants left on the evening of January 10, a third resident said.

High-resolution satellite imagery from January 22 analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows a dozen burned buildings in the western part of the village. Low-resolution satellite imagery confirms they were burned on January 10 or 11.

Click to expand Image One of the photographs a Tayba resident shared showing a house he told Human Rights Watch the Sudan Shield Forces burned when they attacked Tayba.  © 2025 Private

During the attack, the Sudan Shield Forces and gunmen wearing civilian clothes looted the village systematically. One woman said she saw people in civilian clothes, whom she described as Arabs, steal livestock using a large truck from her neighborhood in the southern part of the village. One man who hid in a house that morning said he saw gunmen wearing traditional robes, who he believed were Arabs from a neighboring settlement, loot cattle while the attack was going on. Two witnesses said they saw gunmen moving livestock out of the village and that the gunmen fired at them.

Sudan Shield forces also detained residents that day, two witnesses said. After fleeing the village in his vehicle, one of the witnesses came across a man he recognized, whom he described as “one of Keikel’s men,” riding a vehicle alongside three other men. All four were armed. The witness said the men accused him of working with the RSF and detained him, binding his hands and blindfolding him. He said a local herder who was nearby told the men, “Why do you even bother to arrest him, why don’t you just kill him?” The assailants then took him to a Sudan Shield Forces camp, where there were vehicles bearing the group’s emblem, but released him the next morning.

Identifying the Attackers

Residents said they saw the Sudan Shield Forces’ name and emblem on the vehicles.

Click to expand Image The emblem of the Sudan Shield Forces, showing two M16-type rifles crossed. Sudan Shield Forces Facebook page on December 6, 2022.

Witnesses described the uniforms of the assailants as the same or similar to army uniforms, namely, green camouflage. Two witnesses also identified local Arab residents who had joined the Sudan Shield Forces as among the attackers.

Content the Sudan Shield Forces posted on social media on the day of the attack shows the group was in the area. Human Rights Watch verified two videos posted to the Sudan Shield Forces Facebook group on January 10, showing Commander Keikel inside Umm al-Qura, seven kilometers southwest of Tayba.

Click to expand Image Screengrab of a geolocated video uploaded to a pro-Sudan Shield Force Telegram channel showing Commander Abu Aqla Keikel surrounded by Sudan Shield Forces in Umm al Qura district where Tayba village is located. Sudanshield0 Telegram Channel on January 10, 2025. AftermathDeath Toll

On the evening of January 10, bodies of men and boys lay strewn about the village. A man said he found 12 bodies of people he knew. The first one was a man in his late 70s known as Komar, who had a mental health condition, with a bullet wound to the heart. Then in one place he found a group of five bodies, and in another the bodies of a Quranic teacher known as Sheikh Malik and one of his students, their throats slit.

He then found two other young men, one with a bullet to the heart, the other to the head, and a man in his 40s named Mohammed nicknamed Abu Zair, shot in the chest and the arm. Finally, the man found the charred remains of Musa, the boy who had burned to death in a house.

On the evening of January 10, Tayba residents established a committee to count the dead. Those who counted and collected bodies and took photos of the bodies together verified a death toll of 26. Most of the victims were farmers.

Click to expand Image صورة قائمة بأسماء 13 شخصا من القتلى في الهجوم على كمبو طيبة. © 2025 خاص

Residents buried the victims on the evening of January 10 and on January 11 in at least three graves. Human Rights Watch geolocated the photos and video of two graves in the cemetery in the center of the village. They were not visible on satellite imagery from December 28, 2024, but are visible on imagery from January 22. Another witness said he took part in the burial of three people on the edges of the village. 

On January 11, gunmen in civilian clothes arrived and plundered the area extensively. One resident said that about 2,000 head of cattle were looted, as well as money and the village supplies of bread and fava beans.

SAF Response

On the evening of January 12, a delegation of the SAF and the Joint Forces of the Armed Groups – a coalition of SAF-aligned armed groups, primarily from Darfur – arrived in Tayba after residents called for help. They brought meat to feed the village, a resident said. They repeatedly chased some looters. One officer reportedly promised to punish the “criminals … legally.” 

The Joint Forces then provided an armed escort to a civilian vehicle carrying the injured and sick to the hospital in the town of Al-Fao, 52 kilometers southeast in neighboring Gedaref state. A 13-year-old girl, who was ill, died on the way. An additional 23 injured people reportedly remained in Tayba as there was no more space in the civilian vehicle.

On January 21, government investigators came to the village to interview residents, two witnesses said. At least two suspects were later arrested, one resident said. However, authorities have not announced any follow up and high-ranking generals have continued to appear with Keikel.

Residents said the Joint Forces, still deployed in Tayba, told residents they would protect them. “They’re saying they’ll stay for three months, and we hope they do, because if they leave, things can get ugly,” one resident said.

The attack, extensive looting, and destruction have deepened the already dire humanitarian situation in the village, residents said.  

The Village of Tayba

Tayba was founded in 1973 to host workers who came to farm on the newly established Rahad Agricultural Project. Today approximately 1,000 families live there, said one resident. It is one of many communities known as “Kanabi,” of agricultural workers, often from non-Arab communities, who came from other regions for such agricultural projects. 

Until the January attack, Tayba was near the front line between the RSF and the military. The closest RSF position was in the town of Umm al Qura, while the SAF controlled Village 39, roughly eight kilometers southeast. Data from ACLED, an organization collecting data on conflicts around the world, shows the area surrounding Umm al Qura has been the site of episodic fighting since the war broke out in 2023 and that the town has changed hands on several occasions. 

Fighting increased from November 2024, with the SAF capturing it on January 10. ACLED data also shows that in October 2024, following Keikel’s defection to the SAF, the RSF targeted many villages in the area perceived as supportive of the Sudan Shield Forces.

Tayba residents faced increasing harassment from neighboring Arab communities in the months before the January attack. Residents said the “mobilized ones,” resistance groups trained and armed by the SAF, harassed the villagers, blocked them from reaching the town of Al Fao, disrupted their livelihoods, and stole livestock. 

In one case in late December, a car carrying sick people to Al Fao hospital had to delay its departure, a witness said, and one sick child had died upon arrival at the hospital. The threats also contributed to a severe shortage of food in the village, one witness said.

Two residents said that two weeks before the January 10 attack, they were threatened by a man they described as a local “leader” of the Sudan Shield in Village 39. “You have to go back and stay in Tayba!” a witness quoted him as saying. “He threatened … to burn Tayba and attack Tayba.” “He said, ‘I joined [Sudan] Shield specifically for the purpose of getting rid of Tayba altogether,’” the other witness said. 

Two residents said Sudan Shield Forces came through Tayba in December during their first offensive on Umm al-Qura, and that they beat and abducted some residents, reportedly accusing them of collaborating with the RSF. Some of them remain missing. One of the witnesses said the forces had been led by Keikel’s brother, Azzam. 

The Sudan Shield Forces

In 2022, Abu Aqla Keikel, then a former military officer, created the Sudan Shield Forces. Kekel aligned his forces with the SAF in April 2023, then defected to the RSF in August. In December, the RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, appointed Keikel the RSF’s top commander in Gezira state.

Since then, Keikel has maintained a strong presence in eastern Gezira state, facilitated by recruitment from local communities. Three Tayba residents said that Sudan Shield forces in the area have recruited from local Arab communities who they say claim a historical right to the land. 

Keikel rejoined the SAF in October 2024, donning the SAF uniform and retaining his rank of Major General. He appeared in public alongside General Abdelfattah al-Burhan, the SAF leader, during Burhan’s visit to the front line on December 15. In January 2025, Radio Dabanga reported that the Sudan Shield Forces had played a “major role” in the fighting in Gezira state and in the city of East Nile, in the Khartoum area.

Click to expand Image Sudanese Armed Forces General Yasir al-Atta addresses a public meeting with Keikel (second from the right) on January 19, nine days after the Sudan Shield Forces attack on Tayba, saying “[b]ecause now, the Sudanese army, the Sudanese police, the Sudanese intelligence and security, the Joint Forces, the Sudan Shield, and the Sudanese Popular Resistance are all the Sudanese people; they are the Sudanese army”. Posted to the Sudan Shield Forces Facebook page on January 19, 2025.

The Sudan Shield Forces on January 14 denied accusations it had been involved in abuses against Kanabi communities and expressed support for the SAF-led investigations. 

Since the attack on Tayba, top SAF generals, including al-Atta and Major General Awad Al-Karim, the commander of the first division, have appeared alongside Keikel on several occasions.

Click to expand Image Commander Abu Aqla Keikel (right), bearing the insignia of liwa’ (Major General) on his shoulder, sits next to SAF General Abdelfattah al-Burhan (left), both in SAF uniform. Sudan Shield Forces Facebook page December 23, 2024. Recommendations:The SAF should investigate the attack on Tayba and other abuses by the armed groups and militias aligned with it, publish the outcomes, and hold those responsible to account. The SAF should suspend Abu Aqla Keikel and other key Sudan Shield Forces commanders pending the outcome of the investigation.The SAF should publicly clarify its ties to, and chain of command over, the Sudan Shield Forces and other aligned armed groups and militia.The United Nations, the African Union, and other regional organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, should urgently support the deployment a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.All UN member states should fully support and cooperate with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, including ensuring it has the necessary resources to carry out its mandate, facilitating full and unfettered access for investigations, and carrying out its recommendations.The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other countries should actively support robust initiatives to protect the physical security of civilians in Sudan and impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on commanders, officials, and militia leaders responsible for serious crimes in Sudan.

Click to expand Image A Médecins Sans Frontières team performs a rescue in the Mediterranean Sea, September 19, 2024. © 2024 Mohamad Cheblak/Médecins Sans Frontières

(Milan) –The European Union, its member states, and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex should make saving lives at sea the priority, Human Rights Watch said in a multimedia feature essay published today.

More than 400 people have died or been reported missing in the Mediterranean Sea in the past three months alone. In the same period, more than 3,800 people were forcibly returned to Libya by EU-supported Libyan forces.

“The EU’s policy of deterrence by drowning is abhorrent,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now more than ever, the EU should get back to its core values and our shared humanity by ensuring search and rescue at sea and disembarkation in safe places.”  

October 24, 2024 Frontex: Act to Save Lives at Sea

Campaign Calls on EU Border and Coast Guard Agency to Act #WithHumanity

The feature essay Ship of Humanity is a first-hand account of one of the last missions of the Geo Barents, the rescue ship operated by the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in September 2024. In two operations, the MSF team rescued 206 people, mainly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Syria, despite the interference of a Libyan patrol boat that at one point threatened to open fire. The Italian authorities ordered the Geo Barents detained at port for 60 days for not complying with orders from Libyan authorities, among other reasons.

In December, MSF announced it would no longer use the Geo Barents, citing Italian laws and policies, including orders to disembark those rescued in distant ports, that make it “impossible to continue with the current operational model.” The organization said it would return to search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean as soon as possible.

In-depth interviews with 11 survivors on board the Geo Barents confirmed the brutal treatment of migrants and asylum seekers in Libya and the devastating consequences of Italian and EU support for Libyan coast guard forces. Everyone interviewed described some form of abuse in Libya, ranging from extortion to forced labor, torture, and rape, in official Libyan detention centers nominally under the state, or in smuggler captivity. Many of the people interviewed had been detained more than once following interception at sea by Libyan and Tunisian forces.

Ship of Humanity Witness to Rescue in the Mediterranean

The EU has largely abdicated its responsibility to ensure search and rescue in the Mediterranean. Despite overwhelming evidence of horrific detention and abuse of migrants in Libya, the EU supports the Libyan forces’ efforts to detect boats and pull people back, notably through aerial surveillance by Frontex over the central Mediterranean. It is now replicating its abusive model of cooperation with Libya with other countries like Tunisia and Lebanon, where people face abuse, including the risk of expulsion despite the risk of further harm.

Over the last decade, over 31,300 people have died or been reported missing in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration, with at least 2,300 dead or missing in 2024. December was the deadliest month last year, with at least 309 people recorded dead or missing. Nearly 100 people, including 8 children, have disappeared at sea since the beginning of 2025.

In October 2024, Human Rights Watch opened the #WithHumanity campaign calling on Frontex to take concrete steps to use its technology and expertise to save lives. The agency should ensure that the location of boats in distress sighted by Frontex aircraft is transmitted systematically to rescue ships in the area operated by nongovernmental groups and issue more frequent emergency alerts based on a broad definition of distress, Human Rights Watch said. Frontex aircraft should also monitor distress cases and provide assistance when needed.

“The people on these dangerous journeys are fleeing hardship and abuse, but they are also moving towards a future they want to build,” Sunderland said. “Given a fair chance, most of those who arrive and stay will help themselves, their families, and their new communities.”

Click to expand Image Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), speaks during a news conference at the headquarters of the CDU party in Berlin, Germany, February 24, 2025. © 2025 Martin Meissner/AP Photo

Sunday’s federal elections in Germany were held at a time when Germany’s support for human rights both at home and on the international stage is crucial.

Having won the largest share of the votes with 28% and secured Germany's likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) now need to find at least one coalition partner to form a government.

The members of the former governing coalition, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democrats (FDP), suffered major losses as one in every five Germans voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose campaign centered around racist, anti-migrant discourse, which was echoed by mainstream parties.

In the run-up to the election, German authorities registered unprecedented numbers of crimes motivated by extremist right-wing ideology, yet most parties opted to demonize migrants during their campaigns. This is despite a recent new study again showing no correlation between increased migration and a rise in crime.

The campaigning parties unfortunately paid little attention to other crucial issues such as climate protection, corporate accountability, or rising poverty.

Claiming they want to ease bureaucratic burdens on companies, the CDU has vowed to abolish German’s supply chains law, which obliges companies to identify and address human rights risks in their global supply chains, and suspend the European Union supply chains law for two years.

Many voters in Germany and governments around the world are looking to Germany to protect and uphold rights on the international front as well.

Merz has pledged to maintain support for Ukraine, and it is vital his government supports justice for serious crimes committed in the war with Russia. As a member of the International Criminal Court, Germany is legally obligated to execute the court’s arrest warrants, including those against Russian President Vladmir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite this, Merz has indicated his government intends to invite Netanyahu to visit without arresting him.

Germany’s new government should not engage in any double standard that would undermine Germany’s and the EU’s credibility as principled foreign policy actors.

Germany’s future government will face enormous challenges at home and on the international stage. No matter how complicated the coalition negotiations become, the new government should commit to upholding its human rights obligations in its political agenda.

Click to expand Image A Kenyan police officer, part of a UN-backed multinational force, patrols a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, December 5, 2024. © 2024 Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo

The United Nations leadership should support the Haitian authorities’ long-standing request to transform the troubled Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti into a UN operation. This would be a step in the right direction to help restore stability, end the worsening humanitarian crisis, and protect human rights.

Haiti’s crisis has reached catastrophic levels as a result of criminal groups intensifying their large-scale, coordinated attacks on the population and key infrastructure, which has overwhelmed the Haitian police and the understaffed and under-resourced MSS.

In November, the UN Security Council requested that Secretary-General António Guterres provide the council with “a full range of options” for how the UN can help stabilize Haiti. His response is expected this week.

But Guterres suggested at a Caribbean Community summit last week that he might only offer a single option: sticking with the MSS but providing additional resources.

He said his proposal would be similar to the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, where the AU military mission can access UN assessed contributions. In theory, such a model could help alleviate the MSS’ chronic shortage of funds.

But a problem with sticking with the MSS is that even if it reaches it full deployment of 2,500 – it’s currently around 1,000 – it’s insufficient. On February 6, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the MSS "as is currently constructed will not be enough.” Having initially frozen most US foreign aid, the Trump administration reportedly passed a waiver to unlock some additional funds for the mission. The US has been the MSS’ main financial supporter.

It’s crucial that the secretary-general include the option of transforming the MSS into a UN operation as the Haitian authorities have requested. Restoring stability to Haiti is something past UN missions have succeeded in doing, though neither successive Haitian governments nor the UN were able to sustain that stability. The UN has the skills and know-how to do it again while avoiding the mistakes of past UN operations in Haiti – provided it has the resources.

Transforming the MSS into a full-fledged UN mission that has adequate resources and is guided by human rights would be a constructive step. While Russia and China have indicated they oppose the proposal, Human Rights Watch’s discussions with diplomats indicate that it is supported by most Security Council members.

Guterres should demonstrate leadership by encouraging the Security Council to transform the MSS into a UN mission. The council should urgently authorize it.

Click to expand Image A woman at a demonstration shows a photo of her son who was detained during the state of emergency on May 31, 2024, in San Salvador, El Salvador. © 2024 Carlos Barrera

(Washington, DC) – El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly has approved measures that will transfer children to the country’s adult prison system, exposing them to a heightened risk of abuse and violating international juvenile justice standards, Human Rights Watch said today.

On February 13, 2025, President Nayib Bukele signed into law a bill advanced by his supporters in the Legislative Assembly which orders the transfer of children detained for “organized crime offenses” to separate pavilions in adult prisons run by the General Directorate of Penal Centers (Dirección General de Centros Penales).

“The legislative changes place children under the authority of El Salvador’s adult prison administration, which has been responsible for torture and other grave abuses,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Transferring children into detention facilities designed and operated for adults, even if they are placed in nominally separate areas, is a massive regression for children’s rights in El Salvador.”

In the July 2024 report, “‘Your Child Does Not Exist Here’: Human Rights Abuses Against Children Under El Salvador’s ‘State of Emergency,’” Human Rights Watch documented grave human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, and serious due process violations against boys and girls as young as 12.

Over 3,000 children have been detained since March 2022, many with no apparent connection to criminal organizations. Many arrests appear to be based solely on anonymous complaints or assumptions based on a child’s appearance. Some police officers told Human Rights Watch that they were pressured to detain a certain number of people daily to meet arrest quotas. Several detained children and their families had previously faced gang violence, including forced recruitment attempts and death threats. 

As of February 2024, 1,065 children had been convicted of crimes, in many cases for the overbroad crime of “unlawful association.” Human Rights Watch found that in many cases prosecutors used unreliable or uncorroborated evidence and coerced children to plead guilty of crimes they say they did not commit. 

“While children in juvenile detention sites have faced horrible abuses, conditions and abuses in adult prisons are even worse and children should never be transferred there,” Goebertus said. 

Human Rights Watch has found that detainees in adult prisons are cut off from the outside world and denied any meaningful legal recourse. Many face extreme overcrowding, torture, and violence, and have severely limited access to basic services like food, water, and medical care. 

Local human rights groups report that 368 people have died in El Salvador’s prisons since President Bukele declared a state of emergency in March 2022. Photos and testimony Human Rights Watch identified and analysis by forensic experts point to a government role in several deaths. 

These latest juvenile justice amendments follow March 2022 changes to the Juvenile Criminal Law that established prison sentences of up to 10 years for children ages 12 to 15 for “gang association” and up to 20 years for those ages 16 to 18. Those changes are incompatible with guidance by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which recommends that countries should not reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility “under any circumstances” and urges raising it to at least 14.

The Juvenile Criminal Law had previously guaranteed important due process protections and alternatives to traditional prosecution, including conciliation and diversion programs. It prioritized noncustodial educational and restorative measures, with detention only as a measure of last resort. The law required holding any children detained only in specialized juvenile “confinement centers,” different from adult facilities, with further separation by age, sex, and legal status. It even established special “intermediate centers” for young people ages 18 to 21, recognizing the unique needs of this age group.

International standards on juvenile justice call for children in conflict with the law to be detained only as a last resort. When children are detained, they should never be held in adult prisons because of the “abundant evidence” that doing so “compromises their health and basic safety and their future ability to remain free of crime and to reintegrate.” The CRC, to which El Salvador is a party, and other human rights treaties obligate states to promote the rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders. 

On February 13, the CRC, UN Children's Fund, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UN Population Fund said that the changes in El Salvador’s law “represent a significant setback to El Salvador’s commitments to maintain a juvenile justice system with a differentiated, individualized, and specialized approach applicable to all adolescents accused of crimes.”

“Placing children in adult prisons will only worsen their exposure to abuse and undermine their chances of rehabilitation,” Goebertus said.

Click to expand Image Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, speaking in Brussels, Belgium, December 16, 2024. © 2024 European Union

(Brussels) – European Union High Representative Kaja Kallas and EU foreign ministers should unequivocally condemn Israel’s atrocity crimes and other serious violations of international law during the EU-Israel Association Council meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on February 24, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. 

Kallas and EU foreign ministers should signal an end to the bloc’s reluctance to acknowledge and address Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity—including apartheid—and acts of genocide. They should make clear to Sa’ar that there will be consequences for past and ongoing abuses, including sanctions on officials responsible for ongoing abuses and suspending weapons sales. They should also announce a review of Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, following Spain and Ireland’s February 2024 request to suspend it over Israel’s grave abuses.

“There can be no business as usual with a government responsible for crimes against humanity, including apartheid, and acts of genocide, and whose sitting prime minister is wanted for atrocity crimes by the International Criminal Court,” said Claudio Francavilla, associate EU director at Human Rights Watch. “The only purpose of this Association Council meeting should be to call out those crimes and to announce long overdue measures in response.”

The Association Council is the EU’s highest-level bilateral meeting between Israel and the EU as a block, chaired by the EU high representative and Israel’s foreign minister, in the presence of EU member states’ foreign ministers or other dignitaries, and held under the framework of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The last such meeting took place in October 2022, when it was resumed following a 10-year pause due to the Israeli government’s discontent with the EU’s position condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which are a violation of international humanitarian law.

In a letter addressed to EU and member states’ leaders, 125 civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, urged the EU to focus its discussions with Sa’ar on the possible suspension of the agreement. Article 2 of the agreement sets human rights and democratic principles as “essential elements” of the treaty, the violation of which can lead to its suspension. The EU has never answered Spain and Ireland’s request.

Human Rights Watch has documented grave abuses by Israeli authorities and forces during the hostilities in Gaza and in the region, including war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, including extermination, and acts of genocide.  

Gaza’s healthcare system has nearly collapsed amid repeated Israeli strikes on hospitals and medical facilities and personnel, as well as the unlawful cutting of water, fuel, and electricity.

Israeli forces have also arbitrarily detained and tortured doctors and healthcare professionals from Gaza. Israeli attacks, decimation of the health care system, starvation, water deprivation, and repeated forced displacement have had a devastating impact on all of Gaza’s population, and have been particularly acute for children with disabilities, older people, and pregnant women. 

Israeli authorities also flouted three binding orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take steps to prevent genocide in a case brought by South Africa for Israel’s alleged violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention.

As atrocities unfolded, the EU has been incapable of adopting any concrete measure to press Israeli authorities to halt them. EU statements, which need unanimous approval by the 27 EU governments, consistently fell short of even acknowledging and attributing any violations of international humanitarian law to Israeli authorities and forces.

Several EU foreign ministers also criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for atrocity crimes. Even though all EU states are parties to the ICC, some said they wouldn’t enforce the warrants and even invited Netanyahu for a visit, in breach of their obligations under the ICC’s Rome Statute. The EU has yet to explicitly denounce United States President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the court and to activate its “blocking statute” to mitigate the impact of US sanctions against the court.

The 27 EU governments, sharply divided on all matters pertaining to Israel and Palestine, have reached unanimity to approve two rounds of sanctions against Israeli settlers responsible for attacks and violence in the West Bank. But they fell short of sanctioning Israeli officials supporting and enabling the settlement enterprise, settler violence, and other grave abuses against Palestinians, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. 

The European Commission has also refrained from proposing any concrete measures to put pressure on Israeli authorities. In a recent letter, 163 nongovernmental organizations and trade unions, including Human Rights Watch, urged the commission to ban trade and business with Israel’s illegal settlements, as necessary to comply with the obligations laid out in the July 2024 ICJ ruling and to avoid complicity in abuses that are inextricably linked to the settlements.

EU states have continued to export arms to Israel despite a serious risk of complicity in war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. And, amid a longstanding smear campaign by Israeli authorities, the EU and its member states have repeatedly paused and in some cases fully stopped support for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides water, food, shelter, and other vital services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the region, and which the Israeli government has taken steps to dismantle. 

“Europe’s reluctance to condemn and address Israel’s atrocity crimes has fueled them and given rise to well-grounded accusations of EU double standards,” Francavilla said. “Unless the EU drastically changes course, it will provide a blank check for further abuses and continue to undermine the EU’s stated commitment to human rights and the rules-based international order.”

Click to expand Image Flowers and the names of the victims of the Tempi train accident are displayed during a sit-in protest organized by the Association of Relatives of the Tempi Victims in Athens, Greece, January 26, 2025. © 2025 Giorgos Arapekos/NurPhoto via AP Photo

It has been nearly two years since a deadly train crash in Tempi, Greece on February 28, 2023, killed 57 people, most of them young, and injured dozens more. Recent mass protests across the country, with tens of thousands demanding justice and accountability, highlight the public’s outrage over the authorities’ failure to respond adequately to the devastating crash.

Since the tragedy, grief has turned into a demand for answers: What caused the crash? Why did safety systems fail? What sparked the explosion? Who is responsible, and why, nearly two years later, has there been no trial? 

The final words of 23-year-old victim Frantzeska Beza, “I have no oxygen,” have become a rallying cry in the fight for justice. The massive explosion following the crash, which caused many of the deaths, has raised concerns about the cargo train potentially carrying illegal flammable substances. While the investigation is complex, the public’s perception is that the authorities have not been transparent about what happened.

Outrage has been fueled by allegations of government interference with the investigation. Debris, including victims’ remains, was quickly removed from the scene following the crash, leading to the destruction of evidence. There have also been accusations that the government was more interested in managing political fallout than uncovering the truth. 

The persistent pursuit for justice by victims’ families reminds us that the rule of law is essential to protect people’s rights from state failures. The Greek authorities’ handling of the tragedy has undermined the public’s faith in the institutions responsible for upholding these fundamental principles.

This widespread distrust is reflected in an overall lack of confidence in government and the judiciary. A recent poll showed over 80 percent of Greeks doubt the government has done everything possible to shed light on the tragedy.

Public distrust is not baseless. The country faces serious challenges with respect to the rule of law. In February 2024, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing “grave concerns about very serious threats to democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights” in Greece, raising concerns specifically about the Tempi crash and subsequent investigations. 

As the second anniversary of the Tempi tragedy approaches, and with more protests planned, the fight for justice continues. Will the authorities finally listen to the Greek people’s demands and deliver accountability and transparency?

(Beirut) – Saudi authorities should not extradite an Egyptian citizen to Egypt, where he is at serious risk of arbitrary detention and torture, Human Rights Watch said today.

Saudi authorities arbitrarily detained Ahmed Kamel at a police station in Jeddah on November 13, 2024, in relation to an alleged extradition request reportedly issued by Egypt. On December 10, 2021, an Egyptian criminal court had sentenced Kamel to life in prison in absentia based on charges related to his peaceful participation in anti-government protests in 2014. On December 12, 2024, his family said Saudi police told Kamel that he had been issued an exit visa. 

“Saudi Arabia should immediately release Ahmed Kamel and refuse to extradite him to Egypt, given the rampant violations in the Egyptian criminal justice system,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

On January 22, 2025, Kamel was transferred to the al-Shumaisi detention center, an immigration detention center apparently under the management of the Saudi immigration police, placing him at imminent risk of deportation.

On November 12, 2024, Saudi authorities had phoned Kamel and summoned him to a Jeddah police station. The next day, he went to the police station voluntarily and was detained by Saudi police. The police informed Kamel that Egypt had requested his extradition via Interpol, a family member told Human Rights Watch. Saudi authorities did not disclose charges against him, nor did they provide reasons for his detention. 

However, Interpol confirmed in a letter to Kamel’s family on December 30, “there are currently no data registered in the INTERPOL Information System from Egypt” concerning Kamel.

Saudi authorities have not provided his case file to his lawyer, despite repeated requests, nor have they shared details of Kamel’s charges or reasons for detention, his family said. “All communication coming from any authority has only been verbal,” one family member said.

In 2011 and 2013, Kamel participated in anti-government demonstrations in Egypt, where he was shot on two separate occasions leaving him with long-term health conditions, his family said. Kamel was previously arrested in 2014, apparently in relation to his participation in protests, detained in squalid conditions, and allegedly tortured. He was released and then joined the Egyptian military for one year of mandatory service, according to a document reviewed by Human Rights Watch. Kamel moved to Saudi Arabia for work in 2015.

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced Kamel in absentia in December 2021 to life in prison based on a 2014 case, said a court document obtained by Human Rights Watch. The charges against Kamel include “incitement to demonstrate,” “organizing a demonstration,” and “participation in a demonstration.”

In October 2022, Saudi authorities detained Kamel at a Jeddah police station for three days, where he was told that there was an Egyptian extradition request issued by Interpol. The prosecutor informed him that he being held in relation to kidnapping charges in Egypt. Kamel denied the charges and was released.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly criticized rampant abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, including subjecting detainees to unfair trials, physical and psychological abuse, prolonged solitary confinement, and lack of adequate health care, as well as for convicting defendants amid allegations of forced confessions and torture.

Human Rights Watch has also long documented Egypt’s relentless assault on freedom of expression, violations of due process rights, especially in trials of human rights defenders and peaceful critics, and abusive detention conditions. If forcibly returned to Egypt, Kamel will be in danger of arbitrary detention, torture, and an unfair trial.

In recent years, Saudi authorities have arbitrarily detained and prosecuted several Egyptians perceived to be critical of the Egyptian government. Among them is a psychiatrist, Sabri Shalabi, 68, detained since 2020, who has been serving a 10-year prison term after an unjust trial. His family said that they have submitted several requests to release him on medical grounds given his age and deteriorating health.

Extraditing Kamel may violate Saudi Arabia’s international obligations, including article 3 of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which states that “no State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”

“If returned to Egypt, Kamel could face grave due process violations and even torture,” Shea said. “The Saudi government should show the world that it is serious about creating a more rights-respecting environment by immediately releasing Kamel and halting his extradition.”

Click to expand Image Rwanda minister of state and former military commander, Gen. James Kabarebe, in Kigali, September 12, 2012. © 2012 Sylvain Liechti/Monusco

Until now, the international response to the rapidly escalating crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has committed a litany of grave abuses, has been all talk and no action.

But on Thursday, the United States government imposed financial and property sanctions on Rwanda’s minister of state and former military commander, Gen. James Kabarebe, and on Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a Congolese national and spokesman for the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a politico-military coalition that includes the M23.

The reemergence of the M23 in late 2021 has exposed civilians to indiscriminate shelling and killings, widespread sexual violence, forced displacement, and other laws-of-war violations by all parties to the conflict. It is evident that Rwandan troops are actively operating alongside the M23 and were crucial in the M23’s advances since January. The region’s humanitarian situation has become increasingly dire.

Kabarebe has played a leading role in Rwanda’s abusive military actions in eastern Congo since 1996. In 2012 he had command control over the M23 when it captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, according to the United Nations. His role in coordinating Rwandan support of the M23 continues today. Kanyuka has been key in M23/AFC’s public relations.

But the muted international response to Rwanda and the M23 has only emboldened them. Last week their forces took Bukavu, the South Kivu provincial capital. This week they advanced on Uvira, a strategically located city further south. We continue to receive serious and credible reports of targeted killings in new zones under the M23’s control.

The US sanctions send a strong message that it is taking the situation in Africa’s Great Lakes region seriously. Other concerned countries, notably the United Kingdom and the European Union, which on Friday summoned Rwanda’s ambassador demanding action, should follow suit. A first step would be to sanction high-level commanders involved in violations in eastern Congo and Rwandan officials behind the M23.

They should also extend sanctions to top Congolese officials involved in abuse, as Congo’s military and its allies have also committed serious violations against civilians as it battles the M23.

The international response may be slow in coming, but it is not too late to pressure all warring parties to give a needed reprieve to civilians already affected by the conflict.

Until now, the international response to the rapidly escalating crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has committed a litany of grave abuses, has been all talk and no action.

But on Thursday, the United States government imposed financial and property sanctions on Rwanda’s minister of state and former military commander, Gen. James Kabarebe, and on Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a Congolese national and spokesman for the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a politico-military coalition that includes the M23.

The reemergence of the M23 in late 2021 has exposed civilians to indiscriminate shelling and killings, widespread sexual violence, forced displacement, and other laws-of-war violations by all parties to the conflict. It is evident that Rwandan troops are actively operating alongside the M23 and were crucial in the M23’s advances since January. The region’s humanitarian situation has become increasingly dire.

Kabarebe has played a leading role in Rwanda’s abusive military actions in eastern Congo since 1996. In 2012 he had command control over the M23 when it captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, according to the United Nations. His role in coordinating Rwandan support of the M23 continues today. Kanyuka has been key in M23/AFC’s public relations.

But the muted international response to Rwanda and the M23 has only emboldened them. Last week their forces took Bukavu, the South Kivu provincial capital. This week they advanced on Uvira, a strategically located city further south. We continue to receive serious and credible reports of targeted killings in new zones under the M23’s control.

The US sanctions send a strong message that it is taking the situation in Africa’s Great Lakes region seriously. Other concerned countries, notably the United Kingdom and the European Union, which on Friday summoned Rwanda’s ambassador demanding action, should follow suit. A first step would be to sanction high-level commanders involved in violations in eastern Congo and Rwandan officials behind the M23.

They should also extend sanctions to top Congolese officials involved in abuse, as Congo’s military and its allies have also committed serious violations against civilians as it battles the M23.

The international response may be slow in coming, but it is not too late to pressure all warring parties to give a needed reprieve to civilians already affected by the conflict.

Click to expand Image The head of Niger's military junta, Brig. Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani, attends the opening of the commission responsible for conducting the national conference in Niamey, February 15, 2025. © 2025 AFP via Getty Images

Power has its perks in Niger and the rules are being rewritten by those in charge.

On Thursday, a national commission, representing participants to talks on the country’s transition to democratic rule, recommended a minimum five-year transition period that can be extended if needed. The presidential guard ousted Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, in July 2023, putting the country under the control of a military junta that originally proposed a three-year limit to transition to civilian rule. The country’s political opposition and civil society groups have largely boycotted the talks.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had rejected that original plan for a three-year transition. This strain with ECOWAS, among others, resulted in Niger leaving the bloc, along with Mali and Burkina Faso, two other countries in the Sahel that have also undergone military coups in recent years.

The national commission also recommended dissolving Niger’s political parties, which, unsurprisingly, were absent from the commission’s members.

The commission recommended that junta leader Brig. Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani be promoted to the rank of army general, further solidifying his power. It additionally recommended a general amnesty for all participants in the coup and to allow them to participate in elections.

The announcement comes amidst a worsening security situation in the Sahel since the juntas in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso took power. Civilians have been caught in the fighting between Islamist armed groups and government forces, targeted in atrocities by both sides, and over 3 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

A general amnesty for those involved in the coup would deny victims the right to seek justice and reinforce impunity. Former President Bazoum and his wife remain arbitrarily detained by the junta for politically motivated reasons.

This proposed solidification of power calls into question the expectation of Nigeriens for a transition to civilian rule and credible, free, and fair elections in the foreseeable future.

Democracy in Niger took a hit in 2023. With the commission’s new recommendations, the future of the country’s fragile democracy is looking even bleaker.

Click to expand Image Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy. © Private

(Bishkek, February 21, 2025) – Kyrgyzstani authorities should urgently take all necessary measures to ensure the ongoing safety and security of an imprisoned human rights defender and journalist who has received death threats from a fellow prisoner, eight human rights organizations said today.

Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy, director of the Temirov Live media outlet, was sentenced to jail on unsubstantiated criminal charges of incitement to mass unrest following her arrest in January 2024. She has allegedly been subject to harassment, intimidation, and repeated death threats from a fellow prisoner. On February 18, 2025, Tazhibek Kyzy’s husband, Bolot Temirov, published an urgent plea from his imprisoned wife on his website. Temirov, who is living in exile, is the founder of the media outlet TemirovLive.

In the handwritten note, Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy detailed how a fellow prisoner whom she identifies has threatened to poison and kill her. The note also described how the same prisoner subjected the woman human rights defender to harassment and discredited her among other prisoners. For example, the prisoner interfered and did not allow her to bathe and threatened abuse with ethnic slurs. Tazhibek Kyzy warned in the note that if anything happened to her it would be at the hands of the fellow prisoner.

According to information published by TemirovLive, the prisoner in question is serving a 25-year sentence for “murder by a group of persons.” Bolot Temirov told the Norwegian Helsinki Committee that he genuinely fears for his wife’s life and that she would not have written such a letter if she did not believe her life to be in danger. In April of 2024, she was physically assaulted in pre-trial detention. However, prosecutors accused her of fabricating the injuries and dismissed her claims.

This time, the State Penitentiary Service has also dismissed Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy’s allegations, stating that she faces no threats to her safety and asserting that the prisoner responsible for the threats is being held under strict conditions, separate from other inmates.

On February 19, representatives of the National Center for the Prevention of Torture visited Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy in prison. In a public statement, the center reported that the threats against her had been resolved following the appointment of new management and that she had no further complaints against fellow prisoners or the prison administration. Following a visit to Tazhibek Kyzy in prison on February 20, representatives of the National Ombudsperson’s Office issued a similar statement, noting that they had also discussed the threats against her with prison management. However, concerns about Tazhibek Kyzy’s safety and well-being persist due to her vulnerable position in prison.

Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy and a group of other journalists associated with Temirov Live were detained in January 2024 amid a renewed crackdown on independent media, civil society, and human rights in Kyrgyzstan. On October 10, 2024, a local court sentenced her and her colleague Azamat Ishembekov to six and five years in prison respectively, after finding them guilty on charges of calling for mass disorder.

The human rights organizations said that the charges and sentences are politically motivated and trumped up in retaliation for the journalists’ investigative reporting. The Kyrgyzstani authorities should acquit the journalists convicted and sentenced in this politicized and retaliatory criminal case, and free those who are behind bars.

Prison conditions in Kyrgzystan are harsh and sometimes life threatening, and torture remains a widespread problem, with frequent deaths in custody. In 2020, a political prisoner and human rights defender, Azimjan Askarov, died in prison following years of worsening medical problems for which he did not receive adequate medical treatment in prison.

In 2024, a former politician, Arstanbek Alay was found dead in prison, having seemingly hanged himself. In 2022, a political analyst, Marat Kazakpayev, detained on high treason charges, died in custody, following lack of medical treatment, Kyrgyzstan’s authorities  should  take prompt and effective measures to  ensure Tazhibek Kyzy’s safety and protect her against  Kyrgyzstan’s dangerous prison conditions,  the international human rights organizations said.

The European Union delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic and other missions representing Kyrgyzstan’s democratic partners should raise the case with Kyrgyzstan’s authorities and strongly urge authorities to make certain that Tazhibek Kyzy’s concerns are adequately addressed

 

The groups are:

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee

Human Rights Watch

Civil Rights Defenders

International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)

Front Line Defenders

Araminta

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Click to expand Image A woman collects wood for heating from a destroyed school where Russian forces were based in Izium, Ukraine, September 19, 2022. © 2022 Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo

Russia’s war against Ukraine will soon enter its fourth year. Since February 2022, violations of the laws of war have led to needless civilian death, suffering, and devastation with more than 12,456 Ukrainian civilians killed and 28,382 injured, at least 6.8 million having left the country, and millions more internally displaced. Thousands of homes, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed. 

As this dreadful anniversary nears, the Trump administration is rapidly moving towards negotiations with the Kremlin. Civilian protection and justice need to be central to any negotiations.

One immediate issue is the need to release Ukrainian civilians from Russian custody. These include thousands unlawfully detained and held by Russia in occupied areas of Ukraine and those forcibly transferred to detention facilities in Russia. A United Nations body recently concluded that Russian authorities torture Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) “as a crime against humanity.”

While the Geneva Conventions require the prompt release and repatriation of POWs at the end of active hostilities, negotiations offer an opportunity to highlight the urgency of achieving this.

Russia continues to be an occupier in parts of Ukraine where millions live and is bound by the law on occupation. Investigations should continue into Russia’s violations of its obligations as the occupying force for example, by coercing residents to serve in the Russian military, imposing Russian citizenship, forcibly transferring civilians to other areas, imposing the Russian state curriculum in schools and other educational institutions, and politically indoctrinating school children in order to deny them the right to know and express their Ukrainian identity.

Justice cannot be negotiated away. The perpetrators of war crimes, including widespread, indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure, torture and ill-treatment in occupied areas and Russian prisons, and the torture and executions of POWs, must be held accountable. Investigations and prosecutions need to be supported and well-resourced. The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and five other high-ranking officials must be honored and ICC member countries should oppose the Trump administration’s sanctions on the court and forcefully support the court’s crucial role. 

Trump’s recent, incendiary and factually untrue statements and controversies around potential negotiations should not distract from urgent concerns for the rights of people in Ukraine’s occupied areas. The release of civilian detainees and repatriation of POWs should be a priority and victims of atrocities should receive justice and reparations for the harm they have suffered.

Click to expand Image Former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat speaks at a press conference alongside former MFP members of parliament, after Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolved the party over its call for lese-majeste reform, in Bangkok, August 7, 2024.  © 2024 Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission summoned 44 politicians from the former Move Forward Party who were criminally indicted for sponsoring a bill in parliament to reform the abusive lèse-majesté (insulting the monarchy) law.

If found guilty of “breaching ethical standards,” the opposition politicians could be banned from politics for life.

The indictment follows Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruling in January 2024 that the Move Forward Party’s campaign to amend the lèse-majesté law, section 112 of the Criminal Code, amounted to high treason by attempting to abolish Thailand’s constitutional democracy with the king as head of state. Thailand’s constitution prohibits people from exercising their rights or liberties to overthrow the monarchy. In August 2024, the Constitutional Court dissolved the Move Forward Party, which had won the largest number of seats in the May 2023 general elections. The court also imposed a 10-year ban from politics on the party’s executives.

This barrage of legal actions against the Move Forward Party politicians sends a clear message that Thailand’s lèse-majesté law is as sacrosanct as the monarchy that the law is meant to protect. It is also a warning to members of parliament to keep silent about the government’s use of royal insult charges as a tool to suppress free expression.

These rulings have heightened the climate of fear among opposition politicians, pro-democracy activists, and critics of the monarchy.

Thai authorities have in recent years prosecuted at least 272 people on charges of insulting the monarchy. Those arrested, including many for writing or reposting on social media, have often been held in pretrial detention for months without access to bail. In May 2024, the anti-monarchy activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom, 28, died after she suffered cardiac arrest during pretrial detention on lèse-majesté charges.

Lèse-majesté prosecutions are a serious blot on Thailand’s human rights record. These draconian measures against opposition politicians have made it impossible to discuss reform of the law—even in parliament.