Secondary menu
Feed aggregator
Philippe Bolopion to Lead Human Rights Watch
(New York) – Philippe Bolopion, a 13-year veteran of Human Rights Watch and a former journalist who has extensively advocated on atrocities in conflict zones, has been named the executive director of Human Rights Watch, the organization announced today. Bolopion rose up through the ranks for more than a decade at Human Rights Watch to hold several senior leadership roles.
“Philippe is a superb choice. He has the strategic vision, the strength of leadership, the ability to represent Human Rights Watch well in all settings, and the values and character around which to build the organization,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director at Human Rights Watch.
Bolopion began his career as a reporter deployed to Kosovo. He covered brutal ethnic violence in the province, the United Nations interim administration mission, and the fall of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who faced war crimes charges. Between 2000 and 2010, he was chief UN correspondent for several French media, including Radio France Internationale (RFI), the French newspaper of record, Le Monde, and the news channel France 24.
“Human Rights Watch has a pivotal role to play in holding perpetrators of crimes to account and promoting peace and justice, and I have no doubt that Philippe will be a vocal and determined advocate on behalf of victims of human rights abuses around the world,” said Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and member of the Elders. “Philippe was a well-known voice on African issues for RFI and has effectively advocated on many of the crises that have affected the African continent.”
As a journalist, Bolopion covered the most consequential crises of the day, including the run-up to the war in Iraq and was deployed to Darfur, Gaza, Lebanon, Haiti, Sri Lanka, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is the author of the book “Guantanamo: le bagne du bout du monde,” a vivid account of his visit to the US military detention site, where few journalists had traveled, and where he concluded early on that the treatment of many of the prisoners had amounted to torture.
“Philippe’s work in journalism has been defined by meticulous, unflinching reporting. He is deeply dedicated to exposing injustice and holding power to account,” said Natalie Nougayrède, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. “He is a fearless defender of fundamental principles, and he’s got plenty of wit and agility. At the helm of Human Rights Watch, he will bring all that talent and energy to the fight for human rights, an ever more urgent task today.”
After a decade of chronicling the UN’s efforts to address mass atrocities and conflicts, in 2010 Bolopion brought his commitment to defending rights to the global stage by joining Human Rights Watch, first as UN director and rising to deputy director for global advocacy in 2016. In these roles, he championed the rights of people caught in major crises in Myanmar, Burundi, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Mali, often contributing to on-the-ground advocacy and research.
He advocated for the deployment of an international peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, called out Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the context of war crimes in Yemen, helped build a coalition together with local and international partners to expose the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli government, and led a successful campaign to deny Russia a seat at the UN Human Rights Council. During that time, Bolopion was a powerful voice in the media on behalf of victims of human rights violations around the world.
Most recently, Bolopion joined the French asset management firm TOBAM to help launch an investment strategy which exposes the high costs authoritarian regimes exact on investors.
“Philippe’s impactful approach to leadership, which I have witnessed on several critical Africa issues, including on the Central African Republic where his advocacy contributed to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s efforts to bring Central African Republic militia leaders to justice, is precisely what Human Rights Watch needs at this moment,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “I am excited about what the organization can accomplish at this moment when the enjoyment of human rights is a distant mirage for many around the world.”
Bolopion takes over the direction of Human Rights Watch at a challenging time. Democracy has been in retreat across much of the world for two decades, hard-won human rights norms risk being eroded, and mass atrocities are taking place in Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Some of his priorities will be to marshal new resources and double down on the organization’s unique role and path to impact: innovative and rigorous investigations; reporting and communications that affirm facts against propaganda; and pragmatic advocacy campaigns, designed to increase the cost of abuse for powerful actors.
“The human rights movement is facing a perfect storm, with China and Russia growing bolder in their global quest to undermine rights, while the Trump administration is assaulting the pillars of US democracy, with devastating effects for the entire human rights ecosystem,” Bolopion said. “Human Rights Watch is uniquely positioned to meet this challenge and cut through the noise by asserting the facts, naming the crimes, alerting the public, and pressuring those in power to hold abusers to account.”
The Legacy of the White Paper Protests
Three years ago, a series of protests in China has sparked a political awakening among Chinese youth, with many questioning Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s authoritarian policies and practices and notably confronting the government’s abuses against Tibetans and Uyghurs.
In response to a deadly apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, blamed on harsh Covid-19 restrictions, thousands in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities took to the streets in November 2022. They defied Xi’s draconian “Zero-Covid” policy, chanting “We want human rights” and “Down with the Communist Party.” As an act of wordless resistance and opposition to censorship, demonstrators held up blank sheets of paper, thus becoming known as the White Paper protests, China’s largest nationwide demonstrations since Tiananmen in 1989.
Although the government was already easing its zero-Covid policy, the protests accelerated its end.
The authorities arrested a number of protesters. Most were soon released, but a young Uyghur student, Kamile Wayit, was sentenced to three years in prison for “promoting extremism” after sharing a video of the protests online. A filmmaker, Chen Pinlin (陈品霖), was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for his documentary, “Urumqi Middle Road.”
The political awakening has also been visible among young Chinese diaspora: in New York City, for example, last year’s White Paper anniversary featured “East Turkestan” flags, which represent a Uyghur independence movement, along with Palestinian flags, reflecting a desire to be part of a broader movement.
These current demonstrations contrast sharply with the nationalism of past protests in China, which defended the government’s abuses against Tibetans during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and supported brands linked to Uyghur forced labor in 2021.
Some diaspora youths have become organized. Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet aims to promote Tibetan culture within Chinese-speaking communities and address ethnic conflicts and prejudice, including “majority ethnic Han chauvinism.” The authorities have noticed. In July, they arrested Tara Zhang Yadi, a France-based student activist and White Paper participant who had returned to China, for her advocacy of Tibetan rights.
The White Paper protests ignited a generation imagining freedom, respect for basic rights, and solidarity across borders that the arrest and detention of young activists are unlikely to extinguish.
EU-AU: Make Rights a Priority at Europe-Africa Summit
(Nairobi, November 21, 2025) – The African Union (AU) and European Union should put respect for human rights and international humanitarian law at the center of their partnership, Human Rights Watch said today ahead of the blocs’ seventh summit on November 24-25, 2025, in Luanda, Angola. Both regional blocs should redouble efforts to tackle conflict-related atrocities and strengthen institutions and norms protecting rights.
“Increasing polarization globally highlights the need for both the European Union and the African Union to live up to their core responsibilities,” said Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The blocs should spare no effort to hold those responsible for atrocities to account and support strategies on both continents and elsewhere to respond to longstanding and emerging human rights challenges.”
Abusive armed conflicts have displaced millions of civilians as warring parties have carried out deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on them, resulting in deaths, injuries, and other severe violations.
Since April 2023, in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), fighting to control the country, and their allies have committed unlawful killings, torture and enforced disappearances, subjected women and girls to sexual violence, and blocked humanitarian access. Recent atrocities by the RSF in North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, are reminiscent of the group’s past crimes, including an ethnic cleansing campaign in West Darfur. The EU and the AU should urgently work together to advance and support robust initiatives to protect civilians in Sudan and close the accountability gap.
Throughout the Sahel, notably in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, Islamist armed groups have targeted civilians and caused extensive displacement. Government forces, at times with foreign fighters or pro-government militias, have led counterinsurgency operations that resulted in severe violations. The authorities have also cracked down on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent. The EU, which is debating a new approach to the Sahel, and the AU, which appointed a special envoy for the region, are in a strong position to jointly denounce atrocity crimes, call for robust protection of civilians, and press for investigations, accountability, and remedies for victims.
In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Congolese forces and Rwandan forces with the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group have been committing serious violations of international humanitarian law, including mass killings, sexual violence, forced recruitment, forced labor and population transfers, and increasingly repressing civil society and media. Ongoing mediation efforts led by the United States and Qatar have not ended these abuses.
Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights each documented the killing of over 140 civilians, largely ethnic Hutu, by the M23 in Rutshuru territory in July 2025. The Wazalendo coalition of militias, supported by the Congolese government, also abused civilians in areas under their control. The EU and the AU should condemn crimes by all parties and call for an end to Rwanda’s and Congo’s support to these abusive armed groups. They should also press for the M23 and Rwanda to allow access for international investigators to areas that they occupy.
The EU and AU should act in multilateral forums to address serious abuses in armed conflicts around the globe, including Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank and to ensure accountability for Russia’s grave abuses in Ukraine.
At the international level, the AU and the EU should ensure that global institutions have the resources and political support needed to carry out their missions, Human Rights Watch said, including adequate resourcing for the UN human rights pillar, which is chronically underfunded. The International Criminal Court is under extreme pressure from the US, which has imposed sanctions on several court officials, including African and European nationals, a UN expert, and civil society groups, and from the Russian Federation, which issued arrest warrants for court officials.
The EU and the AU should reaffirm support for the court and its global mandate and commit to protecting it from coercive measures. They should also press their own members, notably Hungary, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, to remain parties to the Rome Statute and encourage cooperation with the court.
The blocs should protect civilians from atrocities by supporting the adoption of an international treaty that would prevent and punish crimes against humanity. They should work to enable the broadest possible participation in the negotiations, including by legal experts, civil society groups, and victims associations that do not already have UN accreditation. The UN General Assembly laid out a multi-year roadmap for negotiations for a treaty, with the resolution adopted in December 2024.
The EU and the AU should also support the negotiations at the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a historic process initiated in 2022 that could contribute to more equitable global tax rules to address pressing human rights challenges in both EU and AU countries and support human rights economies. The EU and the AU should also affirm support for and implement the landmark International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change.
Finally, African leaders committed in July to dedicate the next decade to reparatory justice for Africans and People of African descent. To help realize the widely accepted right to reparation for lasting impacts of colonial atrocities, European governments should engage in human rights-based reparation processes. The AU should ensure that it collaborates with civil society in its efforts to establish frameworks for reparations that center on and empower communities.
“The Luanda Summit is an opportunity to translate both blocs’ commitments to human rights and international law into concrete actions,” said Philippe Dam, EU director at Human Rights Watch. “As civilians bear the brunt of brutal conflicts and multilateral institutions face attacks by states hostile to rights and international law, principled leadership from the AU and the EU is needed more than ever.”
Alarm Bells Go Off on Ethiopia
The fragile truce largely insulating civilians in northern Ethiopia from war crimes and other abuses may be unraveling. With many countries focused elsewhere, it is increasingly important that influential governments mobilize swiftly to prevent a resurgence of atrocities in the northern Tigray region that could spread further.
In recent weeks, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the Tigray region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of using its budget for military activities. The Ethiopian army chief called the party a “criminal clique” that needs to be eliminated. Tensions have risen since Ethiopian authorities and the TPLF repeatedly appealed—without success—for international mediation.
There have also been mounting tensions between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea, which Ethiopia’s foreign minister alleged was colluding with the TPLF to wage war. For months, diplomats and analysts have been warning that provocations between the two countries could lead to renewed conflict in areas that have not had a chance to recover from previous fighting.
The 2020-2022 conflict in northern Ethiopia, which spread from Tigray to the Afar and Amhara regions, was marked by serious atrocities, claimed the lives of several hundred thousand people, displaced millions, and destroyed critical infrastructure. The Ethiopian government imposed a crippling siege on Tigray, while local officials and Amhara militias in Western Tigray carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Tigrayan population that amounted to crimes against humanity.
In November 2022, Ethiopian authorities and the TPLF signed an African Union-brokered truce. But as its monitoring mechanism largely failed to pay attention to human rights abuses, warring parties, including the agreement’s non-signatories, continued to abuse civilians in Tigray in violation of the agreement’s pledges to protect civilians.
Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea have credibly prosecuted those responsible for the atrocities. The United Nations, capitulating to pressure from the Ethiopian authorities, failed to renew an international inquiry on Ethiopia in 2023, in favor of a domestic process that has all but stalled.
Now is the moment for diplomacy and de-escalation. The key guarantors of the truce—the African Union, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States—and Ethiopia’s partners should immediately mobilize to prevent further human rights abuses, and the AU needs to publicly report on violations of the truce, including against civilians.
The risk of renewed cycles of atrocities is all too real.
COP30 Should Accelerate Anti-Deforestation Efforts
This year’s United Nations climate summit (COP30) is taking place in Belém, gateway to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began the summit by announcing a global investment fund to pay tropical forest countries to keep trees standing. Indigenous peoples have made their presence felt throughout, demanding recognition for their contributions as environmental defenders.
These events placed forests at the heart of the summit and raised expectations that it would advance efforts to protect climate-critical forests and the communities sustained by them.
At the national level, there’s been momentum. This week, Brazil finalized the process of formal legal recognition of four Indigenous territories.
In one of them, in Mato Grosso state, illegal ranchers threaten to encroach and convert the forest to pasture. The news has given renewed hope to the Manoki, the Indigenous group whose territory it is. “We will take our place in our territory with our heads held high, without fear, as our elders taught us,” Giovani Tapura, a leader of the Manoki Indigenous people, told Human Rights Watch.
Brazil also announced that it had advanced the process of formal recognition of the boundaries of another 23 territories. The evidence is clear, particularly in the Amazon region, that demarcated Indigenous and Afro-descendent territories register less deforestation than comparable areas.
But so far, the actual negotiations within the climate conference have not addressed commitments to stop deforestation and uphold the rights of forest peoples.
The latest draft of the COP30 outcome document doesn’t include a roadmap for forests even though countries previously agreed to end and reverse forest loss by 2030.
The COP30 outcome document should include a commitment for governments to begin work immediately on a time-bound roadmap to end forest loss as well as combat forest degradation.
Any forest preservation roadmap should also reflect an explicit commitment to advance Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights. In practice, this would translate into the legal recognition of customary land rights, combatting illegal invasions of traditional territories, strengthening governance of communally managed land, and investing in sustainable livelihoods for traditional communities. The roadmap should explicitly call for funding community-led conservation.
COP30 should mark a turning point for protecting climate-critical forests. Governments should develop a roadmap to end deforestation and advances rights.
Dominican Republic: Court Ends Security Forces Gay Sex Ban
(New York) – The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court has struck down provisions in the Codes of Justice of the National Police and the Armed Forces that criminalized consensual same-sex conduct by officers, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling, made public on November 18, 2025, is a landmark victory for equality, ending a regime of state-sanctioned discrimination that violated the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) officers.
In Judgment TC/1225/25, the court held that article 210 of the Code of Justice of the National Police and article 260 of the Code of Justice of the Armed Forces violate constitutional guarantees to nondiscrimination, privacy, free development of personality, and the right to work. Both articles punished same-sex “sodomy” by officers with up to two years and one year in prison, respectively. No equivalent penalties existed for heterosexual sexual acts.
“For decades, these provisions forced LGBT officers to live in fear of punishment simply for who they are,” said Cristian González Cabrera, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This ruling is a resounding affirmation that a more inclusive future is both possible and required under Dominican law.”
In an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court in August 2024, Human Rights Watch argued that the criminalization of same-sex conduct violates international standards, including the rights to be protected against arbitrary and unlawful interference with one’s private and family life and to one’s reputation or dignity, as emphasized by the United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In its ruling, the court emphasized that the criminalization of same-sex conduct in the security forces lacked “a legitimate constitutional interest or aims to strengthen and improve institutional efficiency.” Notably, the court found that “no regulation issued by state authorities or private individuals may diminish or restrict in any way a person’s rights based on their sexual orientation, an essential aspect of personal privacy and the free development of personality.”
The ruling aligns with a regional trend. In recent years, countries in the region, including Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and the United States, have eliminated similar discriminatory laws and policies that criminalized same-sex conduct by officers.
Anderson Javiel Dirocie De León, one of the lawyers who brought the challenge, said: “This positive outcome represents the first case of general applicability advancing equality and dignity for LGBTI people in the Dominican Republic. There is still a long way to go, but it sets a historic precedent in the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
His co-counsel, Patricia M. Santana Nina, said: “This decision marks a decisive step toward ensuring that these institutions, as well as any public or private body, adapt their rules and practices to guarantee that no person is discriminated against or sanctioned for their sexual orientation.”
The Dominican Republic lags behind on LGBT and intersex rights compared with its Latin American neighbors, Human Rights Watch said. It lacks comprehensive civil antidiscrimination legislation, same-sex marriage or civil union rights, and gender identity recognition for transgender people, among other key protections.
In the Caribbean region, five Anglophone countries—Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago—still have laws on the books that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, a relic of British colonialism. Consensual same-sex conduct remains criminalized in 65 countries, including Iran, Myanmar, and Sudan.
“President Luis Abinader and Congress should use the momentum of this landmark ruling to advance long-overdue protections for LGBT people,” González said. “By moving forward with laws addressing discrimination and violence, the Dominican Republic can align itself with progress in Latin America and demonstrate a genuine commitment to equality and dignity for all.”
West Bank: Israel Emptying Refugee Camps a Crime Against Humanity
(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government’s forced displacement of the populations of three West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 32,000 people reportedly removed have not been permitted to return to their homes, many of which Israel forces have deliberately demolished.
November 20, 2025 “All My Dreams Have Been Erased”The 105-page report, “‘All My Dreams Have Been Erased’: Israel’s Forced Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank,” details “Operation Iron Wall,” an Israeli military operation across Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps that began on January 21, 2025, days after a temporary ceasefire was announced in Gaza. Israeli forces issued abrupt orders to civilians to leave their homes, including with loudspeakers mounted on drones. Witnesses said soldiers moved methodically through the camps, storming homes, ransacking properties, interrogating residents, and eventually forcing all families out.
“Israeli authorities in early 2025 forcibly removed 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in West Bank refugee camps without regard to international legal protections and have not permitted them to return,” said Nadia Hardman, senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “With global attention focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 31 displaced Palestinian refugees from the three camps and analyzed satellite imagery and Israeli military demolition orders confirming the widespread destruction. Researchers also analyzed and verified videos and photographs of the Israeli military operations.
On January 21, Israeli forces stormed Jenin refugee camp, deploying Apache helicopters, drones, bulldozers, and armored vehicles to support hundreds of ground troops who forced people from their homes. Residents told Human Rights Watch they saw bulldozers demolishing buildings as they were being expelled. Similar operations took place in Tulkarem refugee camp on January 27 and in nearby Nur Shams camp on February 9.
The Israeli military provided no shelter or humanitarian assistance to displaced residents. Many sought shelter in the crowded homes of relatives or friends, or turned to mosques, schools, and charities.
A 54-year-old woman said that Israeli soldiers “were yelling and throwing things everywhere…. It was like a movie scene – some had masks and they were carrying all kinds of weapons. One of the soldiers said, ‘You don’t have a house here anymore. You need to leave.’”
Since the raids, Israeli authorities have denied residents the right to return to the camps, even with no active military operations in the vicinity. Israeli soldiers have fired upon people trying to reach their homes, and only a few have been allowed to collect their belongings. The military has bulldozed, razed, and cleared spaces for apparently wider access routes inside the camps, and have blocked all entrances.
Human Rights Watch analysis of satellite imagery found that six months later, more than 850 homes and other buildings had been destroyed or heavily damaged across the three camps. The assessment focused only on areas of mass destruction that included buildings destroyed and severely damaged, often due to the widening of alleys and roads in the densely built camps.
October 14, 2024: © 2025 Planet Labs PBC. July 24, 2025: © 2025 Planet Labs PBC.
Satellite imagery recorded before and after the Israeli military raided Nur Shams refugee camp in February 2025 shows destruction within the refugee camp after six months of Israeli military operations. Before image: October 14, 2024 © 2025 Planet Labs PBC. After image: July 24, 2025 © 2025 Planet Labs PBC. Camp boundaries (2017): Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), accessed on September 5, 2025.
A preliminary satellite imagery assessment by the United Nations Satellite Center from October 2025, found that 1,460 buildings sustained damage in the three camps, including 652 that showed signs of moderate damage.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) established the three camps in the early 1950s to house Palestinians who were expelled from their homes or forced to flee following Israel’s creation in 1948. Those refugees—those displaced and their descendants—had resided there ever since.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, applicable in occupied territory, prohibits displacement of civilians except temporarily for imperative military reasons or for the population’s security. Displaced civilians are entitled to protection and proper accommodation. The occupying power must ensure the return of displaced people as soon as hostilities in the area have ceased.
Israeli officials said in a letter to Human Rights Watch that Operation Iron Wall was initiated “in light of the security threats posed by these camps and the growing presence of terrorist elements within them.” However, Israeli authorities have made no evident attempt to establish that their only feasible option was the complete expulsion of the civilian population to achieve their military objective or why they have prohibited residents from returning, Human Rights Watch found.
Israeli officials have not responded to Human Rights Watch queries about when if ever Israel will allow the Palestinians to return. Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich said in February that if camp residents “continue their acts of ‘terrorism,’” the camps “will be uninhabitable ruins,” and that “[t]heir residents will be forced to migrate and seek a new life in other countries.”
The authorities’ forced removal of Palestinians from the camps also amounted to ethnic cleansing, a non-legal term to describe the unlawful removal one ethnic or religious group from an area by another ethnic or religious group.
The raids were carried out while the spotlight has been on Gaza, where Israeli authorities have committed war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity—including forced displacement and extermination—and acts of genocide.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel, Israeli forces have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli authorities have increased their use of administrative detention without charge or trial, demolitions of Palestinian homes and building of illegal settlements, while state-backed settler violence and torture of Palestinian detainees are also on the rise. Forced displacement and other repression of Palestinians in the West Bank is part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.
Senior Israeli officials should be investigated for the refugee camp operations and, where found responsible, appropriately prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including as a matter of command responsibility. Those who should be investigated include Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, the Central Command commander who was in charge of West Bank military operations, and oversaw camp raids and demolition orders; Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who each served as Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli military; Minister in the Defense Ministry, Bezalel Smotrich, who sits on the security cabinet and also serves as Finance Minister; Defense Minister Israel Katz; and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Click to expand ImageThe International Criminal Court (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor and domestic judicial authorities under the principle of universal jurisdiction should investigate Israeli officials credibly implicated, including as a matter of command responsibility, in atrocity crimes in the West Bank.
Governments should impose targeted sanctions against Bluth, Zamir, Smotrich, Katz, Netanyahu, and other Israeli officials implicated in ongoing grave abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. They should also press Israeli authorities to end their repressive policies and to impose an arms embargo, suspend preferential trade agreements with Israel, ban trade with illegal settlements, and enforce ICC arrest warrants.
“Israel’s escalating abuses in the West Bank underscore why governments, despite the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, should urgently act to prevent Israeli authorities from escalating their repression of Palestinians,” Hardman said. “They should impose targeted sanctions on Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Katz, and other senior officials responsible for grave crimes against Palestinians and enforce all International Criminal Court warrants.”
Egypt: African Commission Should Act to Protect Rights
(Beirut) – The African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights should act decisively to address the dire, protracted human rights crisis in Egypt following its review of the situation in the country, 22 organizations said today. The commission has found Egypt in breach of numerous articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights but has not adopted a resolution on Egypt since 2015, despite the severe deterioration of Egypt’s human rights situation and the near-complete destruction of civic space.
The African Commission reviewed Egypt’s situation during its 85th session in October 2025, with the Egyptian government presenting a report covering 2019 to 2024. The report included false depictions of the human rights situation in Egypt and a blanket denial of abuses. The commission’s country rapporteur for Egypt also presented a report, which omitted widespread abuses and largely adopted government narratives.
“The Egyptian government painted a rosy picture of the dire human rights crisis in Egypt, while the African Commission’s country rapporteur adopted some of its narratives without scrutiny, dangerously amplifying them,” said Mohamed Lotfy, executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. “These misrepresentations make it all the more important for the commission to robustly address Egypt’s human rights crisis, the worst in decades.”
Flagrant and systematic human rights abuses in Egypt have been well-documented in numerous reports by independent Egyptian and international human rights organizations, United Nations and African human rights mechanisms, and even the government-appointed National Council on Human Rights, the organizations said.
The Egyptian government claimed in its report that it has no detained journalists or prisoners of conscience and that restrictions imposed on independent organizations, such as prohibiting them from conducting and publishing studies without permission, are to ensure “transparency and objectivity.”
In public sessions, the African Commission’s country rapporteur for Egypt rarely raised the acute human rights crisis and allegations of widespread abuses. She asserted that the 2023 presidential elections were held in a “peaceful” and “competitive” environment, contradicting well-documented evidence of repression, prosecutions targeting potential candidates and their family members, and Egypt’s effective criminalization of assembly, expression, and association.
The country rapporteur has asked the government to host an African Commission session in Egypt, without raising any concerns over the pervasive surveillance, security forces abuses, and crackdown on protesters. The repression has long been on display, including during the African Commission’s 2019 session in Sharm El-Sheikh and before and during the UN COP27 climate conference in Egypt in 2022.
In December 2024, the country rapporteur made an unannounced official visit to Egypt, which she described as an “information [familiarization] and advocacy visit.” However, she apparently did not meet with any independent human rights organizations before, during, or after the visit. In May 2025, the rapporteur published a report from the visit, which is no longer available on the commission’s website, repeating government narratives unchallenged, such as that “any person accused in a criminal case is entitled to all the rights stipulated in international conventions, especially the right to defense.” Many international and Egyptian human rights groups have raised concerns regarding the rapporteur’s visit and report publicly and in letters to the African Commission.
In the period covered by the commission’s review, the Egyptian government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent, virtually eliminated public space, and effectively criminalized the rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and association. Tens of thousands of activists, journalists, human rights defenders, women’s rights activists, peaceful protesters, labor unionists, and academics have been detained or prosecuted merely for exercising their rights. The government has harassed, detained, and prosecuted family members of critics, including critics living abroad.
Dangerously abusive constitutional amendments introduced in 2019 have severely undermined the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law, and have further inserted the military into public and political life in unprecedented ways. New laws have further undermined basic rights, such as the 2019 law on associations and the 2024 asylum law. The government has failed to meaningfully amend existing abusive laws, such as the 2013 law restricting peaceful assembly, the 2018 cybercrimes law, the 2018 media regulation law, and the 2015 counterterrorism law.
The government has also failed to fulfill socioeconomic rights. Spending on education has effectively been reduced to the lowest level in many years. The government’s budget allocation for health care is well below the constitutional minimum and international benchmarks. Cash assistance programs cover fewer than one-third of those living in or near poverty, even according to official numbers.
The dire human rights crisis in Egypt has warranted four African Commission resolutions since 2013, in which it denounced violations such as the “severe restrictions imposed on journalists and media practitioners and their arbitrary arrest, detention and killing for carrying out their work,” as well as “disregard to regional and international fair trial standards [and] the unlawful imposition of mass death sentences.” The Egyptian government has failed to implement the vast majority of recommendations in these resolutions. International and Egyptian organizations met with several members of the African Commission during its 85th session to raise these human rights concerns. Several commissioners reflected a number of concerns in their public interventions.
Egypt has further failed to implement several final decisions in which the commission found it to be in breach of its obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, including three decisions adopted during the period under review since 2019.
The African Commission should take robust, decisive measures to highlight the ongoing human rights crisis in Egypt and protect the rights of Egyptians, the organizations said. It should ensure that the current review and concluding observations include an evidence-based assessment of Egypt’s human rights crisis and issue public statements, urgent appeals, and letters to the government raising systematic abuses and the need to repeal and amend abusive laws.
In light of the government’s failure to implement the commission’s previous resolutions on Egypt, it should issue a new resolution calling for investigations of abuses, accountability, and reparations for victims. The African Commission should also establish a follow-up mechanism under its Rule 112 to monitor Egypt’s implementation of recommendations and to engage with victims, civil society, and the state on concrete remedial actions. The commission, through its Working Group on Communications, must urgently address Egypt’s failure to implement remedies ordered in final decisions on individual cases and refer the matter to the African Union Executive Council.
It should use its early-warning mandate under Article 58 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to draw the African Union Peace and Security Council’s attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in Egypt, particularly the risk of mass violations linked to impunity in detention and counterterrorism operations.
The African Commission should publicly commit to monitoring and speaking out about any such threats or restrictions. It should ensure that any country visit includes sufficient consultation with victims of abuses and Egyptian and international human rights organizations as well as credible government guarantees of confidentiality and safety for all those involved.
In case there is a bid to hold a session in Egypt, the African Commission should require the government to offer concrete guarantees that it would uphold and protect the safety and freedoms of all participants and the media. Participants must be able to freely enter the country, and the government must not create adverse consequences or retaliate for any involvement with the session. Critical Egyptian organizations must be allowed access without intimidation or reprisals.
“The African Commission has plenty of tools it can use to highlight and address the dire human rights situation in Egypt and ongoing flagrant abuses,” said Amr Magdi, senior Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “At the very least, the commission should ensure that the government narrative is properly scrutinized.”
Signatories:
Cairo Institute for Human Rights StudiesCommittee for JusticeDemocracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)Egyptian Commission for Rights and FreedomsEgyptian Front for Human RightsEgyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)EgyptWide for Human RightsEl Nadim CenterEuromed Rights NetworkHraak for Change and Youth EmpowermentHuman Rights WatchHuMENA for Human Rights and Civic EngagementInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights DefendersInternational-Lawyers.OrgLaw and Democracy Support Foundation e.V. (LDSF)Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’hommeREDRESSRefugees Platform in Egypt - RPESinai Foundation for Human RightsTheir Right – To Defend Prisoners of ConscienceWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights DefendersNepal: Unlawful Use of Force During ‘Gen Z’ Protest
(New York) – Security forces in Nepal used disproportionate force against youth-led protests on September 8, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The interim government led by former chief justice Sushila Karki, which took charge after the prime minister was forced to resign due to the protests, should investigate the excessive use of force as well as arson and mob attacks on individuals and buildings the following day, September 9, including those who may have ordered any unlawful acts.
Human Rights Watch found that police indiscriminately fired on protesters multiple times over three hours, killing seventeen people in Kathmandu who had been demonstrating against corruption in politics and a sweeping social media ban imposed four days earlier at a “Gen Z” protest in the capital, Kathmandu, on September 8. This sparked a second day of violence on September 9, but security forces appeared to fail to act when groups of people, some apparently not linked to the Gen Z protest, set fire to prominent government buildings; assaulted politicians, journalists, and others; and attacked schools, businesses, and media companies.
“The recent violence in Nepal included serious human rights violations, and those responsible should be held accountable, whether they are security forces or political actors,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should ensure that the investigations are independent, time-bound, and transparent, and that no one found responsible for breaking the law is unfairly protected from proper prosecution.”
The Karki government has created a judicial commission of inquiry tasked with investigating the deaths of at least 76 people killed nationwide in the 2 days of violence, around 47 of them in Kathmandu, including 3 policemen. The Karki government should recognize and address corruption and the failure to ensure rights, such as an adequate standard of living, which spurred the youth protests, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights interviewed 52 witnesses, victims, journalists, medical professionals, politicians, and sources close to the security forces; verified photographs and videos posted to social media or shared with researchers; and visited hospitals and the scenes of protests and arson attacks. The research focused on Kathmandu.
On September 8, between around 12:30 and 4 p.m., police used lethal force to disperse young people after they gathered around the parliament, shooting people in the head, chest, and abdomen. Witness accounts and analyzed footage do not show the grave and imminent danger to life that would justify the intentional use of lethal force.
Participants, informed of the protest on social media including the communication platform Discord, began gathering around 9 a.m., and by 11 a.m. the crowd had grown significantly. As protesters advanced toward parliament, some overran the single barricade on a street leading to the parliament. Police used tear gas, water cannons, and batons to disperse them. Protesters gathered in large numbers around parliament’s main gate. Some threw stones at the police. At around 12:30 p.m., the government ordered curfew in the area, but protesters and journalists interviewed by Human Rights Watch were not aware of any announcement.
Close to 1 p.m., “things became really bad,” said a journalist who heard gunfire and sheltered with a colleague near the parliament compound’s front wall. “A bullet whizzed between me and another journalist.” None of the witnesses interviewed heard any warnings before police used lethal force.
Police gunfire continued intermittently for hours. At around 1:40 p.m., police shot a 20-year-old university student through the shoulder. “When I was shot, there was no violence,” the student said. “It was very peaceful. Out of nowhere, they started firing.” Her surgeon confirmed her injuries.
On the afternoon and evening of September 8, a protester said a police unit he identified as the Special Task Force detained him along with 33 other people on parliament’s grounds. He said they were beaten and threatened. They were only released the following afternoon.
On September 9, protesters across the city attacked police stations, looted weapons, and forced police to flee. Three policemen were killed in mob attacks, police officials and pathologists who conducted postmortems said. In many places, members of the public participated spontaneously in arson and other attacks.
Mobs severely beat politicians and set their homes on fire. Some, including the then-prime minister, had to be rescued by military helicopter. Key government buildings, including the parliament, the presidential palace, federal offices, and the Supreme Court, were set ablaze. Schools, hotels, and private properties were also set on fire. Thousands of prisoners were freed after attacks on jails.
Several witnesses alleged that some mob attacks were selective and questioned why security forces did not do more to stop them. “The attacks were very targeted,” a businessman said, noting that neighboring businesses were typically left unscathed. Numerous witnesses said that security forces were largely absent as arson spread across the city on September 9, failing to protect individuals and properties under attack.
Witnesses and analysts interviewed by Human Rights Watch or quoted in the media said they suspected that the violence may have been influenced by “infiltrators” affiliated with various political movements. The criminal justice authorities should investigate any credible allegations of criminal acts contributing to the violence, Human Rights Watch said.
Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on the afternoon of September 9. That evening, President Ram Chandra Poudel issued a statement urging calm. The arson continued until around 10 p.m., when the army was deployed. The army chief, Ashok Raj Sigdel, summoned prominent members of the Gen Z movement, as well as some politicians, for discussions. On September 12, “Gen Z” representatives, after a consultation with supporters on the Discord platform, reached an agreement with the president to dissolve parliament and appoint Karki as head of an interim government that would conduct fresh elections.
Pathologists at a Kathmandu morgue, which received 47 bodies over the two days, told Human Rights Watch that they determined 35 cases of death had been due to “high velocity gunshot wounds” to the head, neck, chest, or abdomen. Staff in various hospitals said they received hundreds of injured patients.
Police entered the grounds of a hospital on September 8 and charged staff and patients with batons, injuring a staff member, a hospital official said. Protestors attacked ambulances on both days. Journalists were injured by kinetic impact projectiles fired by police on September 8 and protesters attacked media premises on September 9.
A retired senior police official said police had failed to follow procedures for dispersing protests and the use of lethal force. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms prohibits the use of firearms except in cases of imminent threat of death or serious injury. Intentional lethal use of firearms is permitted only when it is strictly unavoidable to protect life. Under Nepali law, security forces, even when authorized to use lethal force to restore order, must issue warnings and prevent fatalities.
The commission created to investigate the events of September 8 and 9 should examine the role of security forces, credible allegations of infiltration, and criminal acts contributing to violence, Human Rights Watch said. As of November 10, police had arrested 423 people allegedly responsible for violence on September 9, but were not known to have taken action against officers who unlawfully opened fire on protesters on September 8.
“The authorities should recognize that widespread impunity for human rights violations in the past helped enable the violence that occurred this time in Nepal,” Ganguly said. “It is crucial to reverse the decades-long tendency by successive governments in Nepal to bury investigations and stall prosecutions, and to bring about accountability and security sector reform.”
September 2025 Violence in Nepal
Human Rights Watch has long documented the failure to ensure accountability for human rights violations in Nepal, including during previous protests.
Increasing discontent, particularly among young Nepalis, followed a social media campaign exposing the luxurious lifestyle of the political elite. It expanded into widespread anger over socioeconomic inequality, corruption, lack of governance due to disagreements among the political parties, and the failure to bring accountability for rights abuses.
The September 8 protest in Kathmandu began peacefully but became disorderly when protesters overran a police barricade near the parliament building. Protests also occurred in other parts of the country. Security forces used lethal force and killed 17 protesters in Kathmandu, as well as 2 outside the capital, and injured hundreds.
On September 9, many people came out to protest the killings. Among them were individuals and groups who almost immediately engaged in physical attacks and arson that targeted the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, as well as other institutions, schools, businesses, and media offices. Dozens were killed and injured, including six people burned to death in a supermarket attacked by arsonists, as security forces failed to ensure protection.
Researchers analyzed and verified 50 videos uploaded to social media platforms. Human Rights Watch has not included links to the online videos due to their graphic nature, but has preserved the visual evidence.
September 8
On September 4, the government of K.P. Sharma Oli announced a sweeping ban on 26 social media platforms and messaging apps that had failed to register with authorities following an August 25 cabinet directive. The government claimed the ban was necessary for tax and regulatory purposes, but many Nepalis said they believed that it was an attempt to silence criticism.
One of the organizers of the September 8 protest said the ban “triggered us a lot.” She described the protest movement as purposefully “leaderless,” coalescing rapidly between September 5-7, especially on the communication platform Discord. Discord servers—online communities on specific topics—formed to oppose the ban quickly swelled to include tens of thousands of members. Although Discord was among the banned platforms, it and others remained accessible using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
A person close to the movement, who joined a key Discord server early on, said that membership “really started picking up after the protest was announced” for September 8. Although peaceful protest was the dominant theme, this person said, some on the platform advocated violence: “The idea that there would be infiltrators was already there.” Several interviewees, including informed analysts and witnesses, said they believed that supporters of various political groups deliberately instigated disorder.
On September 8, thousands of young protesters began to gather between 9 and 11 a.m. at Maitighar Mandala, the typical assembly point for protests in the city, two kilometers west of parliament. Organizers had obtained permission for the protest and planned to march toward parliament as far as a police barricade 400 meters west of the building.
Click to expand ImageThe protesters demanded that the government lift the social media ban and address endemic corruption. Witnesses described a “joyful” atmosphere at the outset. Organizers, some of whom planned to give flowers to the police, believed that many had never attended a protest before. The crowds built up, and according to a journalist: “The mass was getting bigger and bigger. It was suffocating, so many people were there.” At around 11 a.m. they began to march toward parliament.
An organizer said that when the protesters reached the barricade, “we saw that they did not have enough police to control the crowd.” A police officer with knowledge of the operation said that police had underestimated the size of the gathering, and this failure of intelligence and preparation may have contributed to subsequent events. A retired senior police officer noted that it should have been possible to manage the protest without using lethal force. “For me, it was a fiasco,” he said.
Click to expand Image Demonstrators gathered outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu on September 8, 2025, condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. © 2025 Prabin Ranabhat /Getty ImagesNepal’s parliament occupies one corner of a four-way junction called Naya Baneshwor Chowk. While the police had attempted to close the protest’s main route toward parliament, the other roads leading to the junction remained open.
Click to expand ImageAt around 11:30 a.m., based on drone footage verified by Human Rights Watch, the crowd toppled the police barricade. The footage shows the main crowd of protesters approaching the barricade from the west, while others approached from the direction of parliament and helped to pull it down, allowing those coming from the west to continue toward parliament. Others appear to have walked around the barricade.
Hundreds of protesters ran toward parliament as police retreated beyond a water cannon vehicle to form a line in front of the parliament gate. Drone footage shows the water cannon vehicle reversing while spraying water at protesters, many of whom fall to the ground. Witnesses said the police also fired tear gas and kinetic impact projectiles.
Click to expand Image Protesters topple a police barricade blocking the route to parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 8, 2025. © 2025 Sunil Pradhan/Anadolu via Getty ImagesA police officer who was on the scene said that officers opened fire with lethal force five minutes after the District Administration Office declared an emergency curfew in the area at around 12:30 p.m. Human Rights Watch analyzed a video showing the Nepal Police and paramilitary Armed Police Force (APF) firing at protesters just in front of the main parliament gate. Another video shows officers inside parliament grounds, 40 meters from the wall, firing military rifles in the direction of protesters.
A protester who was among those who pushed through the barricade, and was later shot in the leg, said: “When we were in front of parliament, they shot metal bullets. Maybe some of our friends threw stones. But our friends threw stones, they shot [bullets].” He estimated that seven meters separated police and protesters when the first shots were fired.
A 20-year-old woman said that after hearing that two people had been shot dead, she and others went to plead with the police to use restraint. “We were not there for any violence,” she said. Soon after, at around 1:40 p.m., she decided to go home. She said she was on the opposite side of the road from parliament, roughly 45 meters away, with her back turned, when she was shot through her shoulder.
Another protester said that he arrived at the Naya Baneshwor junction around 1:30 p.m. and stayed for two hours. He saw protesters transporting injured people to hospitals. He saw police officers firing guns from positions on the street in front of the main gate, and others firing tear gas from beside the wall of parliament between the gate and the junction. “During the two hours I was at the intersection, people were getting shot in their hands, legs,” he said.
One video captures the moment a protester who posed no apparent threat was shot on the street near the southwestern corner of the parliament. A boy in school uniform—later identified online as 17-year-old Shreeyam Chaulagain—is walking away from the parliament, clapping his hands above his head. A gunshot rings out. The boy’s head snaps forward, and he collapses. The shadows in the video indicate he was shot around 2 p.m. Another video filmed shortly after shows other protesters trying to carry him away and stem the blood flowing from the back of his head. He did not survive.
A senior official at the Civil Service Hospital said it treated 221 patients injured in the protest on September 8. Three died at the hospital. Staff at the National Trauma Center said they received 8 patients who were dead or later died and 73 who were injured. The Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital received over 30 casualties that day, mostly gunshot wounds and injuries from kinetic impact projectiles. Other hospitals also treated casualties.
Between 3 and 3:30 p.m., a witness said he and another man led a large group forward to push police on the road back toward parliament. When they reached parliament, the police went inside the gate. “We were all there with our hands up, and we were trying to talk to the police,” the witness said. “We were saying: ‘Don’t shoot us, let’s do it peacefully.’ And then maybe three minutes later, somebody started throwing stones from the back, and then these other guys climbed on top of the army truck [parked beside the gate] and they started shaking the gates. I guess the police got spooked.”
He was two to three meters from the police, with the gate in between, when the police opened fire. He identified the police by their uniforms as members of the APF and the Nepal Police’s Special Task Force (STF). “They literally aimed at us and started shooting,” the witness said.
The witness said he attempted to shelter behind the barricade with another man, who had been shot in the lower leg. He heard the metal barrier ring twice when gunshots struck it. Researchers verified a video, uploaded to Facebook, that captures the moment the police opened fire as protesters were hiding behind a barricade and an ambulance a dozen meters from the main parliament entrance. Two gunshots are heard. One protester falls to the ground and a second, later identified as Dipendra Basnet, hangs motionless on the rail of the barricade, blood streaming from his head. Basnet survived.
Security forces detained at least 34 protesters, held them inside the parliament compound, then transferred them to a police station at around 10 p.m. The protester who sheltered behind the barricade said that moments later, STF officers in riot gear came out of the gate, took him into custody, and brought him inside the parliament complex. He said that police personnel beat him with batons, bruising his back and shoulders. He said that one officer threatened to shoot the detained protesters, while others smashed their phones and destroyed their identity documents. The protesters were released the following day.
On the evening of September 8, the home minister resigned, expressing regret, and the social media ban was lifted.
September 9
In the morning, many Gen Z protesters returned to parliament. Although the police used tear gas and lethal force, protesters were able to enter and occupy the parliament building. A member of the Gen Z movement said she entered the building at around 1:30 p.m., but left after hearing that the prime minister had resigned.
The parliament building was later set on fire by unidentified people.
The arson attacks on September 9 documented by Human Rights Watch include some that may have been spontaneous expressions of public anger and others that indicate a planned and targeted use of violence. Witnesses and analysts interviewed agreed that while the crowd on September 8 was overwhelmingly composed of young protesters, on September 9 others also appeared to be involved in violence and arson.
An automated SMS message received by many mobile phone users at 12:20 a.m. on September 9, reportedly sent from an account operated by a local government in Myagdi district which claimed to have been “hacked,” and seen by Human Rights Watch, reads: “Only the blood of politicians who spilled the blood of innocent children will bring peace to Nepal.” Witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch and news reports described some social media and Discord posts encouraging or directing people to attack specific properties.
In the course of the day, people overran all but a few police stations in the city and looted weapons. Three police officers in Kathmandu were beaten to death by mobs, pathologists told Human Rights Watch. A police source said that the first station attacked was in Harisiddhi, a southeastern suburb of the capital. Researchers geolocated a photograph of the police station surrounded by smoke that was posted on Facebook at 11:34 a.m.
Witnesses said that some targets were clearly selected in advance. In Harisiddhi, a large group of people who do not live in the area forced their way into a housing complex, disabling CCTV cameras, and attacked the rented home of a junior government minister, said a witness who lives in the complex. “We have no idea how they knew that this person lives there because we did not know that he lives there,” she said.
At around 11 a.m., a group attacked Ullens School in Khumaltar in the southern part of the city, a private school that many Nepalis said they believed is associated with then-Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba. A geolocated video posted on Facebook at 11:06 a.m. shows large plumes of smoke coming from the school. A staff member said the attack left the facilities “all burned, destroyed.” A second school operated by Ullens, in Bansbari in the northern part of the city, was attacked at around 12:30 p.m., the timestamp on geolocated videos posted to Facebook and TikTok showed. Videos posted in the hours that followed show burned out school buses and other destruction.
Between 1:30 and 2 p.m., 10 to 15 men armed with sticks, knives and gasoline vandalized the headquarters of Kantipur Television, a major private news channel, said the channel’s staff. Protesters assaulted four staff members. The attackers set fire to vehicles parked outside the studios and pushed a burning scooter inside, causing damage that took the channel off the air for 70 hours. The offices of Kantipur Group’s two daily newspapers, at a separate location, were evacuated at around 12:30 p.m. Staff believe that a mob set fire to that building between 3:30 and 4 p.m. The offices of another newspaper, the Annapurna Post, were also burned.
In the early afternoon, groups attacked government buildings including the Supreme Court and Singha Durbar, which houses the office of the prime minister and other departments. A witness said that the groups, some “very aggressive,” began arriving in the area between 12:30 and 1 p.m.
Click to expand ImageAround 2 p.m., several witnesses said, groups gathered outside the Supreme Court. A lawyer who was inside the court, as well as a journalist and bystander who were outside, saw men entering the building between 2 and 2:30 p.m., removing large volumes of files from cupboards and burning them in the parking area. Shortly afterward, the Supreme Court building was set ablaze. The attorney general’s office next door was attacked and records reportedly destroyed.
A photojournalist recorded 10 to 15 men carrying guns outside the gate of Singha Durbar, who then entered the complex. A man who ordered him not to take photographs assaulted him.
At Singha Durbar, several witnesses described a “biker gang” among the arsonists, armed with weapons such as khukuris (large knives) and iron rods. A witness saw these men make firebombs using fuel from their motorcycles, with which they set fire to the principal building.
Numerous businesses and homes of businesspeople were attacked, while neighboring properties including similar businesses were left unscathed.
By 4:25 p.m., the presidential palace, Shital Niwas, was on fire. A person who participated in the attack and was accidentally injured in the burning building said that a small number of soldiers deployed at the gate had been unable to prevent them from entering. The same man had earlier been present when the prime minister’s official residence at Baluwatar was burned. He said the police posted at Baluwatar said: “‘We won’t shoot at you,’ and 10 to 15 minutes later they opened the gate,” allowing them to enter.
Staff at the Teaching Hospital said they received most casualties on the second day in the afternoon, including nonfatal gunshot injuries at around 5 p.m. at the location in Maharajganj where policemen were beaten to death. Later, patients arrived with smoke inhalation injuries. According to a doctor, the Civil Hospital received 220 patients on September 9, including 3 shot dead outside parliament before it was overrun by protesters.
Taliban’s Mandatory Burqa in Herat Assaults Women’s Autonomy
The Taliban in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat have recently banned women doctors, patients, and healthcare workers from entering hospitals without wearing a burqa. On November 10, 2025, authorities prevented Shabnam Fazli, a female surgeon, from entering a major hospital in the provincial capital and detained her for several hours, allegedly for not wearing a burqa.
The requirement of a burqa, a full-face and body covering, immediately affected access to health care: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) observed a 28 percent drop in urgent admissions during the first few days. The restriction has reportedly been expanded to all government institutions and women teaching in primary schools in the province.
These restrictions assault women’s autonomy and violate their rights to freedom of movement, employment, and health services, among others.
In response, activist groups in Herat, Kabul, and in exile have staged symbolic protests, setting their burqas on fire. Some danced and recorded messages demanding freedom, such as: “We burn this not out of hatred, but for freedom. There is no power stronger than a woman’s will for free life”; “A woman’s body is not a site for [playing] politics”; “Your silence helps the Taliban”; and “I’m a woman, not a shadow, don’t cover my voice…. Behind this garment is a woman who continues to dream!”
Forced hijab is part of the Taliban’s policy of controlling women’s bodies to make women invisible. Afghan women and United Nations human rights experts have called this “gender apartheid.”
The crackdown in Herat reflects a broader pattern. In May 2022, the Taliban ordered women throughout the country to wear burqas or black hijabs that cover their faces. Mahram, women’s male guardians, were made liable for enforcing these rules, and women outside their homes were required to be accompanied by a mahram.
In August 2024, the Taliban issued the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a formal morality codethat prohibits women’s voices from being heard outdoors. The Taliban’s morality police have increasingly arrested and detained women for dress code violations.
Every new Taliban restriction pushes women further into isolation and exclusion. Women in Herat and across the country are resisting in every way they can. Governments should answer their call and urgently act to hold the Taliban accountable until Afghan women’s freedom is restored.
US Preterm Birth Worsening, Including in Petrochemical Polluted Louisiana
March of Dimes issued their annual report on US rates of preterm birth on November 17. The findings are a gut punch.
Rates worsened between 2023 and 2024 in 21 states. Preterm birth rates among babies born to Black women climbed to 14.7 percent, 1.55 times higher than the rate for white moms. For the fourth year running, fewer pregnant people began prenatal care in the first trimester in 2024 than the year prior.
In Louisiana, the hike in preterm rates is especially grim because the state has long had some of the worst in the country. In 2024, 14 percent of Louisiana’s babies were born too soon: an increase from 13.4 percent in 2023 and higher than ten years ago. Racial disparities are striking: 17.4 percent of Black women’s births in Louisiana are preterm, compared to 11.6 percent of white women. Nationwide, 10.4 percent of births are preterm.
Louisiana is in a reproductive rights crisis. More than a quarter of all parishes are maternity deserts, areas without access to birthing facilities or maternity care providers. Abortion bans have also driven down access to prenatal care in the first trimester in part because healthcare providers fear getting into trouble if a patient’s miscarriage is misinterpreted as an abortion.
But as a 2024 Human Rights Watch’ report showed, high rates of preterm births and low birth weight births, in addition to other outcomes, were found to be connected to petrochemical pollution in Cancer Alley and other heavily-industrialized parts of the state, including in predominately Black communities. That report featured a study that found a 25 percent higher risk of preterm birth in census tracts with the highest levels of air pollution compared to unpolluted tracts.
Advocacy by environmental justice organizations made significant progress in fighting state and federal failures to adequately regulate industry and provide health information about petrochemical harms, but the Trump administration is rolling back crucial regulations including those that apply to pregnancy-harming pollutants like benzene, which is present in Cancer Alley.
Everyone in the US should be concerned that these statistics might worsen further still.
Thailand: Rights Priorities for New Government
(Bangkok) – The new Thai government should reverse the trend of past administrations and take concrete action to uphold human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on November 12, 2025. Anutin took office on September 7 following a parliamentary election and royal endorsement.
“The Anutin government should make human rights a priority and demonstrate a commitment through swift and effective action,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should revoke abusive laws, end the repression of fundamental rights, and exonerate all those prosecuted for peacefully expressing their views.”
Since the 2014 military coup, Thai authorities have imposed tight restrictions on viewpoints critical of the government and dissident opinions. They have prosecuted nearly 2,000 people for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful public assembly. At least 284 people have been prosecuted on draconian lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) charges. The authorities have often held critics of the monarchy in pretrial detention for months without access to bail.
The Thai government should reform the lese majeste law, adopt a moratorium on prosecution and pretrial detention under the current law, and ensure that any amnesty bill adopted by parliament includes amnesty for critics of the monarchy, Human Rights Watch said.
The government should also immediately dismiss all pending Covid-19 restriction-related charges. The nationwide enforcement of emergency measures to control the spread of Covid-19 was lifted in October 2022, but at least 1,469 people are still being prosecuted under the charges related to those measures.
The killing and enforced disappearance of human rights defenders and other civil society activists remains a serious blot on Thailand’s human rights record. Cover-ups have effectively blocked efforts to pursue justice, even in high-profile cases, such as the ethnic Lahu activist Chaiyaphum Pa-sae, the ethnic Karen activist Porlajee Rakchongchareon, and the Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit.
The authorities have failed to protect rights defenders from reprisals by government agencies and private companies using strategic lawsuits against public participation (known as SLAPPs). The Thai government should immediately curb the abuse of the judicial system to harass and punish critics and whistleblowers.
In November, United Nations human rights experts expressed concerns about reports of death threats and online attacks against Senator Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former national human rights commissioner, and Human Rights Watch adviser Sunai Phasuk as a result of their comments regarding possible international humanitarian law violations in the recent Thailand-Cambodia border conflict.
Prime Minister Anutin should enforce measures to end torture and enforced disappearance in line with the law on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance. Numerous allegations of police and military torture and other ill-treatment have gone unpunished.
None of the outstanding cases of enforced disappearance have been resolved, including cases of nine exiled Thai dissidents who were abducted in neighboring countries during the previous government of Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has raised concerns about enforced disappearances in the context of transfers of dissidents between Thailand and neighboring countries.
Thai authorities in recent years have violated the international prohibition against refoulement, that is returning refugees and asylum seekers to countries where they are likely to face persecution, torture or other serious ill-treatment, or a threat to life. Thai authorities have forcibly returned asylum seekers and refugees from Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Turkey, Vietnam, and other countries. This inhumane practice undermines Thailand’s reputation as a safe haven for people fleeing war and persecution.
In February, the government of then-Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent 40 Uyghur men to China, where they could face torture, arbitrary detention, and long-term imprisonment. After the murder of a former Cambodian opposition parliament member, Lim Kinya, in Bangkok in January, many critics of the Cambodian government living in Thailand have expressed concern for their safety.
The Thai government should be commended for a new policy that went into effect on October 1 allowing Myanmar refugees in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border to work legally. The Thai government should introduce a protection framework for more recent arrivals from Myanmar, whether they are in border areas or elsewhere in Thailand.
“Prime Minister Anutin has a chance to chart a new path for Thailand by ending ongoing human rights abuses,” Pearson said. “The new Thai government should quickly adopt a clear plan to address human rights issues and implement it.”
Brazil: Don’t Strip Protection of Environment, Defenders
(Belém) – Brazil’s Congress should reject proposals to dismantle environmental licensing requirements and to revoke a plan to protect human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. Instead, it should contribute to global efforts to curb climate change by approving the Escazú agreement.
“As the world comes together to tackle the climate crisis at COP30 in Brazil, its Congress is considering proposals that would exacerbate it,” said César Muñoz, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “Brazil’s elected leaders should protect basic rights, which are under threat from environmental degradation and global warming.”
Thousands of government officials, experts, journalists, environmental defenders, and representatives from nongovernmental organizations and business are gathered at the 30th annual United Nations climate summit (COP30), which runs through November 21, 2025, in the Brazilian city of Belém.
Meanwhile, in Brasilia, some lawmakers are promoting measures that would undermine the conference’s objectives, Human Rights Watch said.
The Senate announced a joint session of both chambers of the National Congress for November 27 to review the General Environmental Licensing Law. In July, lawmakers had approved the law, called the “devastation bill” by its opponents for eliminating environmental requirements and protections. In August, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed the law, though he vetoed some problematic provisions.
Congress can override Lula’s vetoes by securing majorities in each house; 257 votes in the Chamber of Deputies and 41 in the Senate. Lawmakers could reinstate a vetoed provision that would allow those proposing small or medium sized projects with alleged small or medium environmental impact potential to obtain licenses simply by filling out an environmental adherence form, without any need for environmental impact assessments.
A study by the Climate Observatory, a coalition of Brazilian environmental organizations, found that among the projects that would be included in that category would be dams like the one that collapsed in Brumadinho on January 25, 2019, causing 270 deaths and very extensive environmental damage.
Congress could also reintroduce provisions that would reduce the protection of Indigenous and rural Afro-Brazilian communities whose territories have not been formally recognized by the authorities.
Congress is also considering at least seven proposals to suspend the National Plan to Protect Human Rights Defenders. Established by federal decree in November, the plan seeks to strengthen coordination of policies and programs to protect individual human rights defenders and communities under threat, and guarantees civil society participation in monitoring its implementation. Brazilian human rights organizations had been pressing successive governments to develop such a plan for 20 years.
In 2007, the government issued a decree that required the creation of the plan within 90 days, but it never happened. Ten years later, federal prosecutor Enrico Rodrigues de Freitas sued the federal government to force it to comply with the decree, and in 2021, in response, a federal court ordered the government to design the plan. In 2022, in the Sales Pimenta case, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Brazil to create a working group to develop actions to address the causes of violence against defenders.
The Brazilian government established the Sales Pimenta working group, whose members were authorities and civil society representatives in equal numbers, which drafted the plan. At a COP30 event on November 16, Rodrigues de Freitas said that suspension of the plan by Congress “would violate domestic and international judicial decisions.”
Congress should not just refrain from suspending the decree that established the plan, but the protection of rights defenders by turning the plan into a law Human Rights Watch said. The Sales Pimenta working group developed a draft bill with that goal, Rodrigues de Freitas said.
The human rights and citizenship minister, Macaé Evaristo, said at a COP30 event that 1,458 people are enrolled in the federal program to protect human rights defenders, many of whom defend land rights or the environment.
The Pastoral Land Commission, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Catholic Church, reported that 13 people were killed in conflicts over the use of land and resources in 2024, while it had documented 272 death threats. The urgency of the plan was highlighted on November 16, when gunmen killed an Indigenous man and injured four others during an attack within an Indigenous territory that is in the process of being demarcated.
Ratification of the Escazú agreement, a landmark treaty for Latin American and Caribbean nations that advances the right to a healthy environment, would strengthen protection of environmental defenders, Human Rights Watch said. In addition, the treaty ensures access to information, public participation in decision-making, and pathways to prevent and redress environmental harm. The Chamber of Deputies approved it on November 5, and it is pending before the Senate.
“Brazil’s Congress should open its eyes to the enormous impact of environmental destruction on the lives of millions of Brazilians and of violence against defenders,” Muñoz said. “Members of Congress should send a signal to Brazilians and to the world by approving the Escazú agreement.”
What Escalating Conflict Means for Women and Girls
Conflicts and crises cause harm based on gender. Because women and girls across the globe experience legal, economic, and cultural discrimination, they also experience the impacts of conflict in distinct and often more profound ways than others.
With data underscoring escalating conflict globally, reaching a level not seen since the post-World War II era, creating better ways for countries to respond to the impact of conflict on women’s rights is urgently important. Sexual violence in Sudan, destruction of maternal health care in Gaza, and human trafficking in Colombia are just a few examples of impacts these conflicts are having on women and girls.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is developing a new tool on protecting the rights of women and girls during conflict, building on and expanding its 2013 General Recommendation.
The committee highlights the need to “move beyond framing sexual violence as the sole experience of conflict for women” which Human Rights Watch echoed in a submission.
Conflicts and crises harm women and girls in ways far beyond sexual violence. Women and girls struggle to access sexual and reproductive health care, including contraception, abortion, maternal, and post-rape care, and menstrual supplies. Girls are pushed out of school and forced into marriage. Women and girls lose livelihoods and access to land, and gain new caregiving responsibilities, often while struggling to get food and water. Displaced women and girls face barriers ranging from unsafe trips to camp latrines to unfair asylum procedures that fail to recognize gender-based persecution.
The experiences of women and girls in all these areas are shaped by gender, and other intersecting identities, including race/ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, nationality, and economic status.
Focusing solely on sexual violence, the committee says, also obscures “women’s agency in peacebuilding, accountability and justice mechanisms, and political and public leadership.” The most important step countries can take to protect women’s rights during conflict—and even reduce conflict—is to uphold a right enshrined 25 years ago in UN Security Council resolution 1325. That is the right for diverse women to be full, safe, equal, and meaningful participants in all discussions about the future of their country and their community. Upholding women’s rights requires having women at the table; every table, all the time.
Bahrain: Immediately Release Prominent Activist
(Beirut,) – Bahraini authorities have detained Ebrahim Sharif, a prominent political activist, for peaceful comments he made in Beirut, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) said today.
Yusuf al-Jamri, a blogger, said that the authorities detained Sharif, former secretary general of Bahrain’s National Democratic Action Society, due to comments he made in Beirut to LuaLuaTV calling for Arabs and Arab governments to support Palestinians. The Bahrain authorities should immediately release him and end their long-standing practice of detaining people for their peaceful free speech.
“Governments should be ensuring they are taking action to prevent genocide and other crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, not detaining their citizens who make peaceful comments to support them,” said Niku Jafarnia, Bahrain and Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Sharif was arrested at Bahrain International Airport on November 12, 2025, upon his arrival from Beirut, where he had attended the Arab National Conference. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry published a statement later that day stating that he had been arrested for “spreading false news on social media and uttering phrases offensive to sisterly Arab states and their leadership.” The next day, Bahrain’s Public Prosecution stated on Instagram that the public prosecution had ordered his detention while the charges against him are investigated.
This is the eighth time that Bahraini authorities have arrested, interrogated, or prosecuted Sharif since 2011, all on the basis of exercising his right to peaceful assembly and speech.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in following his participation in the peaceful 2011 uprising in Bahrain. The authorities held him incommunicado for months, and at times in solitary detention, with no access to family members prior to his first appearance before the special military court. According to BIRD, He was tortured during his detention, including sleep deprivation, sexual abuse, and beatings.
After being released on June 19, 2015, he was rearrested on July 11—three weeks later—for his peaceful criticism of the government in a speech he gave the day before. Authorities accused him of encouraging the overthrow of the government and “inciting hatred.” He was released one year later and placed under a travel ban.
The authorities rearrested Sharif on November 13, 2016, after he told the Associated Press that Prince Charles’s visit to Bahrain threatened to “whitewash” the Bahraini authorities’ crackdown on dissent. Authorities charged him with “inciting hatred” against the government.
They dropped the charges two weeks later, but then rearrested him in March, 2017, on the same charges relating to a series of tweets he published.
Between his arrest in 2017 and November 12, 2025, Sharif was arrested or prosecuted three more times, in 2019, 2023 and 2024, all for expressing peaceful views in social media posts.
Sharif’s case is not unique in Bahrain. Human Rights Watch has for decadesdocumented Bahraini authorities’ consistent arbitrary detentions of people for exercising their rights to free speech.
According to research by BIRD, an estimated 320 people are currently arbitrarily detained for political reasons in Bahrain, some of whom have been imprisoned since the 2011 pro-democracy uprising. Among them are some of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders and opposition figures, including Hassan Mushaima, Abduljalil Al-Singace, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and Abdulwahab Husain.
Twelve of these prisoners are on death row, including Mohamed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa, whose imprisonment was declared arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which also called for their immediate and unconditional release.
The UK and the EU have continued to sign trade deals with Bahrain without publicly calling on Bahrain to release the many political activists in detention, including Al-Khawaja and Sheikh Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad who both are EU citizens. Just a few months ago, the UK signed a partnership agreement with Bahrain worth 2 billion GBP (US$2.6 billion).
“Governments allied with Bahrain should end their whitewashing of Bahrain’s abuses and place real pressure on Bahrain to end their violations against peaceful activists and the political opposition,” said Sayed Ahmed al-Wadaei, advocacy director at BIRD.
UN Security Council Should Resist South Sudan Attempt to Undermine Peacekeepers
The South Sudanese government has demanded that the United Nations drastically scale back its peacekeeping mission in the country (UNMISS), including withdrawing 70 percent of its international peacekeeping forces (though not regional forces), grounding its helicopters, and closing its operating bases and civilian protection sites. The call should ring alarm bells as civilians in South Sudan face grave abuses.
The UN’s peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, warned the UN Security Council that gutting the peacekeeping force’s presence in the country would jeopardize the mission and its mandate to protect civilians. The UN has already begun to roll out plans to close some offices, reduce staff, and cut back on the number of deployed peacekeepers in the country due to a funding crisis.
The South Sudanese government has long resisted international scrutiny and obstructed UNMISS’ work. And scrutiny in South Sudan is more important than ever, as civilians need greater protection. In September, UNMISS reported a twofold increase in the number of civilian casualties by warring parties compared with 2024.
In March, Human Rights Watch reported how government forces carried out aerial attacks using improvised incendiary weapons in Nasir, Longechuk, and Ulang counties, all in Upper Nile state, killing at least 58 people and severely burning many others. The government’s airstrikes have hit civilian infrastructure, including a Doctors Without Borders-run hospital in Old Fangak, Jonglei state, in what the humanitarian organization called a “deliberate bombing.”
Clashes between government and opposition forces in parts of Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, and Upper Nile states have also led to killings, forced displacement, sexual violence, and grave violations against children by all sides, among others abuses.
South Sudan’s humanitarian crisis also remains dire. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported that 1.3 million people in South Sudan need urgent food aid, while residents of Nasir and Fangak are at risk of famine. The government has restricted aid access to conflict-affected areas controlled by opposition forces.
The UN Security Council should press South Sudan to end ongoing access restrictions and ensure UNMISS can safely operate. The council should also reject revisions to operational capacity and staffing that would dilute the mission’s independence and weaken early warning, protection, and human rights monitoring functions. The stakes for civilians who have borne the brunt of abuse by warring parties couldn't be higher.
A Family Erased in Mali
A quiet desert night in northern Mali turned deadly when an apparent military drone launched its explosive munition on a tent, leaving an entire family dead. The strike was a recent example of Malian military operations killing civilians and may amount to a war crime.
The November 13 strike at about 9:30 p.m. on the village of Tangatta, in Mali’s northern Timbuktu region, killed seven civilians, including five children ages 7 to 15, from the same ethnic Tuareg family, according to media reports and a witness interviewed by Human Rights Watch. The attack displaced all surviving residents of the village.
A 45-year-old teacher who survived the attack told me by phone about seeing the drone in the sky with a light and then hearing a loud explosion. He said he found the bodies of the parents and their five children. “Six of the bodies were charred,” he said. “The body of the father was not charred but had visible injuries in his face and left leg. We buried them in two graves, the mother with the children in one, and the father in another.”
The teacher said the Malian military flies drones over Tangatta “every day,” as the Azawad Liberation Front (Front de libération de l’Azawad), a coalition of Tuareg armed groups, and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM), operate in the area. No armed men were present at the time of the strike, he said.
Hostilities in northern Mali have intensified since January 2023, when Mali’s military authorities ended a 2015 peace deal with Tuareg armed groups. Meanwhile, JNIM has tightened their control across the country, laying siege to the capital, Bamako, and cutting off fuel supplies.
This recent strike is not an isolated incident. Malian forces have previously conducted drone attacks that caused high civilian casualties. The day after the incident in Tangatta, another drone strike in the nearby village of Albouhera reportedly killed two women and two toddlers.
Under the laws of war, civilians must never be targeted. All parties to an armed conflict need to take all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians and civilian objects. Serious violations, such as attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, are war crimes if committed deliberately or recklessly.
Malian authorities should urgently conduct an impartial investigation into the Tangatta strike and hold those responsible to account. They should promptly provide adequate compensation to the relatives of the victims. And they should stop carrying out unlawful drone strikes.
France: Overseas Territory’s Education Barriers
(Paris) – The French overseas department of Mayotte, an island territory in the Indian Ocean and a former French colony, is failing to provide education to all children, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A devastating cyclone in December 2024 worsened longstanding deficiencies in Mayotte’s education system that reconstruction efforts have not effectively addressed one year later.
November 18, 2025 France: Overseas Territory’s Education BarriersAddress Longstanding Inequalities in Mayotte
The 73-page report, “Exceptional Failure: France’s Persistent Education Shortcomings in Mayotte,” finds that Mayotte’s municipalities often impose significant and arbitrary barriers to school enrollment, including by demanding documentation not required by law. Children who are enrolled often attend overcrowded schools ill-equipped to meet their basic needs, such as access to drinking water, sanitation, nutritious food, and a safe learning environment. Children living in informal settlements known as bangas, are particularly affected, as are children from migrant families.
“It is shocking that thousands of children in Mayotte are denied access to school, while those who do attend face substandard learning conditions,” said Elvire Fondacci, France advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “All children in Mayotte should be able to experience their right to education on an equal footing with children elsewhere in France.”
Mayotte is 1 of 13 overseas territories of France, all former French colonies. It is France’s poorest department and one of the most disadvantaged parts of the European Union. More than 75 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The authorities have struggled to humanely manage arrivals of migrants from the nearby island nation of Comoros and asylum seekers from Central and East African countries.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 40 children, as well as parents, government officials, teachers, academic researchers, and members of associations that support children.
Children and their families face burdensome and unlawful enrollment requirements in many municipalities that delay or prevent children from going to school. Some municipalities only accept birth certificates issued within the previous three months. Others have required current proof of social security or other social benefit documents, parents’ and sometimes landlords’ recent tax bills, or even required landlords to come in person to municipal offices. These barriers are in part an effort to manage enrollment rates, local officials told Human Rights Watch.
The French government’s neglect of Mayotte is an ongoing legacy of colonialism that has left the island persistently underdeveloped. Mayotte’s education system has for years had a shortage of classrooms and teachers. Mayotte has the worst educational outcomes in France. And teaching is often inadequate for most children for whom French is a second language.
To cope with the lack of classrooms, many schools operate on an alternating schedule, meaning that children attend class for only part of the day, sometimes receiving fewer hours of instruction than required under national standards. Some municipalities have also reportedly resisted building new schools, fearing they would primarily benefit the children of migrants.
Children also face danger on their way to and from school. Groups of local youths throwing stones target school buses, often motivated by rivalries between neighborhoods. The attacks discourage some students who have no other means of transport from attending school.
Unlike in mainland France, where hot lunches are the norm, most schools in Mayotte offer only a snack, which for many students is their only meal of the day. Children whose families cannot afford to pay for the snack go without food.
“If you haven’t paid for the school lunch, you don’t eat,” a boy who was interviewed said. “It’s really hard to go to school when you’re hungry.”
A devastating cyclone in December 2024 inflicted widespread damage to homes, schools, and other infrastructure, compounding the pressures on Mayotte’s education system. The islands have also faced a prolonged drought, leading to water shortages that have sometimes caused schools to close.
Under French law, education is free, compulsory between the ages of 3 and 16, and should be available to all children on French soil. Yet, a 2023 University of Paris Nanterre study found that as many as 9 percent of Mayotte’s school-age children, about 9,000, were not in school.
Mayotte also has the highest population growth rate in France, estimated at nearly 4 percent a year, contributing to severe strain on housing, education, and public services. Thousands of children in Mayotte live in makeshift dwellings lacking access to running water, electricity, or sanitation. Mayotte’s underdevelopment and resulting socioeconomic disparities are symptoms of France’s failure to address the impacts of its colonial legacy.
National and local authorities have not effectively addressed the insecure housing, inadequate food, health, and social protection, and unemployment faced by many of the islands’ inhabitants.
Laws that apply only in Mayotte, including restrictive citizenship provisions, further marginalize children and families, many of whom have lived there all their lives.
France has an obligation to ensure the basic needs of everyone in its territory and guarantee the right to education for all children without discrimination.
Municipalities in Mayotte should strictly adhere to the provisions of the national law on school enrollment by requiring only the documents the law specifies. And the prefecture—the representative of the national government in Mayotte—should strictly enforce compliance, Human Rights Watch said.
French authorities and legislators should repeal laws that apply only to the territory and that have harmful repercussions on fundamental rights, including for children, such as those for residence permits as well as social and labor protections. Restrictions on access to citizenship should be revised to remove arbitrary barriers for children accessing their fundamental rights.
“The French government should urgently ensure that every child in Mayotte can attend school full time and in dignified conditions, with access to food, water, and safety,” Fondacci said.
Mali: Army, Militias Massacre Villagers in Central Region
(Nairobi) – Mali’s military and allied militias killed at least 31 civilians and burned homes on October 2 and 13, 2025, in 2 villages in the country’s embattled Segou region, Human Rights Watch said today.
On October 2, Malian army forces and the Dozo, a predominantly ethnic Bambara militia that has been taking part in counterinsurgency operations for a decade, killed at least 21 men and burned at least 10 homes in Kamona village. On October 13, these forces killed 9 men and one woman in Balle village, about 55 kilometers away. The two villages are in a central Mali region controlled by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, or JNIM). Witnesses said soldiers and Dozo militias summarily executed the villagers after accusing them of collaborating with JNIM.
“The October massacres in Segou region are just the latest atrocities attributed to the Malian army and allied militias,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Malian authorities should credibly and impartially investigate these killings and hold those responsible to account in fair trials.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 people with knowledge of the incidents by phone in October, including 5 witnesses and 5 community leaders, civil society activists, and journalists. On November 8, Human Rights Watch wrote to Mali’s justice and defense ministers with its findings and questions but has received no replies by the time of publication.
Witnesses said they identified the soldiers by their camouflage uniforms and the Dozo by their traditional attire and amulets around their necks.
On October 2, at about 10 a.m., soldiers, on at least seven pickup trucks and three armored vehicles and Dozo militiamen on motorbikes entered Kamona and began searching for male villagers. Witnesses said JNIM fighters had alerted residents that the military was coming, leading many residents to flee.
“Those who could not flee were rounded up and executed,” a survivor told Human Rights Watch.
Witnesses said that JNIM fighters fled the village before the military arrived and that there was no confrontation between the two sides.
Witnesses believe the killings, which media reports corroborated, were linked to recent JNIM attacks in Segou region, including one that destroyed the sugar production plant in Siribala on August 8.
Villagers later found 17 bodies under a tree in the village and 4 more on the northern side of Kamona. They said the soldiers burned at least 10 huts and 3 sheds belonging to ethnic Fulani residents.
A 40-year-old herder who hid in an abandoned home with his 9-year-old daughter said that when the assailants left, at about 4 p.m., he found the 17 bodies. “The people had been sprayed with bullets,” he said. “One had his head completely smashed. I also saw several bullet casings next to the bodies.”
Another man, 39, said he helped bury the bodies. “We dug a mass grave under the tree and put the 17 men inside,” he said. “Further north, we found 4 more bodies. All had been shot in the stomach and head, so we dug another grave, put them inside, and covered them with sand.”
Villagers provided a list of the 21 victims, all men, ages 20 to 65. They believe soldiers killed more people during the attack. “We heard that at least 15 other men were killed in the bush that day,” said one villager. “But we didn’t go there to verify as we were afraid the military would return.”
On October 13, at about 1 p.m., Malian soldiers on 5 pickup trucks and Dozo militiamen on at least 30 motorbikes entered Balle village, causing some residents to flee. “I didn’t flee immediately, but when I saw soldiers going door to door and slapping and kicking men, I ran away,” a 24-year-old man said. “From my hiding place, I heard gunshots.”
Witnesses said that the soldiers and Dozo militiamen killed 10 civilians, including a 55-year-old woman, and 9 men, ages 22 to 67, and stole at least 100 cows.
A 33-year-old man said that after the attack, he found the 10 bodies in the middle of the village. “They were one by the other, riddled with bullets,” he said. “Some had their legs and arms broken.”
The 21-year-old daughter of the woman who was killed said her mother shouted at soldiers, accusing them of abusing villagers. “She walked toward the soldiers,” she said. “So they took her where the men had been rounded up and shot her.”
In an October 14 statement, the Malian army’s chief of staff said that on October 13, soldiers conducted an “offensive recognition” operation around Balle resulting in the “neutralization of about 20 terrorists,” and the seizing of military equipment.
Witnesses and residents said that Balle has for several years been under JNIM control. “We pay the zakat [Islamic tax] every year,” said a man. “If there are disputes, the jihadists settle them. There are no soldiers, no gendarmes, no police here. As a result, the army assumes we’re JNIM fighters. The army doesn’t differentiate between us and them.”
Since 2012, successive Malian governments have fought armed conflicts with various Islamist armed groups. The hostilities have resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and have forcibly displaced over 402,000 more. Human Rights Watch has documented grave abuses by the Malian armed forces and allied militias and mercenary groups during counterinsurgency operations, as well as atrocities by JNIM and other armed groups.
The military assaults on civilians in the Segou region took place after JNIM began a siege of Mali’s capital, Bamako, in early September. The siege has cut off fuel supplies to Bamako and prompted the military junta to temporarily shut down all schools and universities across the country.
All parties to Mali’s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, notably Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary laws of war. The laws of war prohibit attacks directed at civilians, as well as murder, cruel treatment, and torture of anyone in custody. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent or are responsible as a matter of command responsibility may be prosecuted for war crimes.
Although Mali withdrew from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in September, the country is still party to the court’s Rome Statute until September 2026. In January 2013, the court opened an investigation into alleged war crimes in Mali since 2012.
The African Union (AU) has largely failed to respond effectively to the worsening conflict in Mali, despite its mandate to promote peace and security, Human Rights Watch said. While the security situation has deteriorated in recent months, the AU Peace and Security Council has offered little more than statements of concern.
“The AU Peace and Security Council should make the conflict in Mali a priority,” Allegrozzi said. “It should hold regular briefings, strengthen diplomacy, and coordinate regional and international action to strengthen accountability for abuses by all sides.”
Bangladesh: Hasina Found Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity
The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh on November 17, 2025, found Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister, and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the former home minister, guilty of crimes against humanity during the violent suppression of student-led protests in 2024, Human Rights Watch said today.
Both were prosecuted in absentia, not represented by counsel of their choosing, and sentenced to death, raising serious human rights concerns. The third accused in the case, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, a former police chief who is in custody and served as a prosecution witness, was given a reduced sentence of five years in prison.
“There is enduring anger and anguish in Bangladesh over Hasina’s repressive rule, but all criminal proceedings need to meet international fair trial standards,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for horrific abuses under the Hasina administration should be held to account after impartial investigations and credible trials.”
The Bangladeshi authorities committed serious human rights violations during the three weeks of protests in July and August 2024 that toppled the Hasina government. The protests and crackdown resulted in about 1,400 deaths, mostly protesters shot dead by security forces, according to a United Nations report.
While those responsible for abuses should be appropriately held to account, the prosecution failed to meet international fair trial standards, including for a full opportunity to present a defense and question the witnesses against them, and the right to be represented by counsel of one’s choosing. Concerns over the fairness of the trial are exacerbated by the death sentences.
The three defendants were accused of inciting widespread and systemic attacks on protesters by security forces and supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party, and ordering the use of drones, helicopters, and lethal weapons to target unarmed demonstrators. They were also accused of failing to prevent atrocities or take punitive action in three specific cases of illegal killings by the security forces.
The prosecution produced 54 witnesses. About half of them provided expert testimony, while the rest were victims or family members.
The evidence against Hasina included audio recordings of conversations with officials in which she appeared to order the use of lethal weapons. While a government-appointed defense lawyer for Hasina and Khan, who received no instructions from the defendants, could cross-examine witness, he did not produce any witnesses to counter the allegations.
Trials in absentia fundamentally undermine the right to a fair trial as set out in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is crucial to a legitimate legal process. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the ICCPR, has stated that to guarantee defendants’ rights, “all criminal proceedings must provide the accused with the right to an oral hearing, at which he or she may appear in person or be represented by counsel and may bring evidence and examine witnesses.”
In their 453-page ruling, the judges said that article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which defines crimes against humanity, had formed the basis of the tribunal’s proceeding, and that the testimony of the victims had informed its finding of crimes against humanity. The judges also said that while Hasina in recent interviews blamed “breakdowns in discipline among security forces on the ground,” she also accepted her “leadership responsibility.”
The need for justice and accountability for serious rights violations by the Hasina government, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture, is critical, Human Rights Watch said. However, Bangladesh authorities have a long history, including under the Hasina government, of bringing politically motivated cases, including before the International Crimes Tribunal, to arbitrarily arrest and detain, unfairly prosecute, and in some cases carry out death sentences against political opponents.
Such practices have continued under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, who took charge in August 2024 after Hasina fled to neighboring India.
The International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic court that Hasina created in 2010, originally to prosecute crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence movement. Tribunal proceedings during Hasina’s rule repeatedly failed to meet international fair trial standards and imposed the death penalty. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty.
While the Yunus government has not abolished the death penalty, it amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act in November 2024 to bring provisions on command responsibility and crimes against humanity closer to the ICC’s Rome Statute. The amendments specifically list enforced disappearances as a crime.
However, further amendments in 2025 gave the tribunal broad authority to prosecute and dismantle political organizations, which could be used to violate international standards of due process and freedom of association. In the Hasina trial verdict, the tribunal did not rule on dismantling the Awami League but said the government should confiscate Hasina and Khan’s properties to compensate victims. Hasina is also a defendant in three more cases before the tribunal, two relating to enforced disappearances during her rule and one relating to mass killings in 2013.
The Yunus government should adopt measures to ensure that the fundamental rights of the accused are protected, Human Rights Watch said. Articles 47(3) and 47A of Bangladesh’s constitution specifically strip those accused of international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, of fundamental rights that are otherwise guaranteed to defendants. These include the right to protection of the law (article 31), fair trial guarantees (article 35), and the right to seek remedies from the Supreme Court for the violation of fundamental rights (article 44). The Bangladeshi government should ensure equal access to constitutional remedies for all defendants, and to impose a moratorium on the death penalty with a plan to abolish it altogether.
The government should respond to any demonstrations in accordance with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Human Rights Watch said. Awami League leaders should discourage violence by party supporters opposing the tribunal verdict.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Bangladeshi government signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding in July 2025 to open a mission in the country “to support the promotion and protection of human rights.” The interim government, which has pledged to hold elections in February 2026, should also seek international assistance for fair trials. Such assistance will require a moratorium on capital punishment.
Following the guilty verdicts, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry called on the Indian government to turn over Hasina and Khan, citing an extradition agreement between the two countries. While Indian authorities should support accountability efforts in Bangladesh, any extradition request should allow for the individuals sought to contest the extradition in legal proceedings in India that meet due process standards. No one should be extradited if they would face a trial abroad that does not meet international fair trial standards and could result in the death penalty.
“Victims of grave rights violations committed under the Hasina government need justice and reparations through proceedings that are genuinely independent and fair,” Ganguly said. “Ensuring justice also means protecting the rights of the accused, including by abolishing the death penalty, which is inherently cruel and irreversible.”