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Click to expand Image Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo, in Brussels, Belgium, January 22, 2026.  © 2026 Michael Kappeler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s scheduled January 25-28 visit to China, accompanied by over 20 Finnish business leaders, is the latest in a wave of trips by democratic governments seeking closer trade relations with Beijing. Recent visits by leaders from Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, and Canada follow a familiar script: trade and investment dominate the agenda while human rights concerns receive little more than symbolic mention.

This renewed push for engagement reflects a wider challenge among democracies hoping to diversify economic relationships and reduce dependence on the United States. But if democratic backsliding and coercive politics from the Trump administration are causing unease, aligning more closely with an openly authoritarian China should provoke even stronger alarm across Europe.

Finland’s Joint Action Plan with China (2025–2029) exemplifies this imbalance. It outlines ambitious cooperation on innovation, green technology, and trade, with only vague references to human rights. This approach ignores the growing ways in which China’s repression affects Finland directly.

The Chinese government remains one of the world’s most abusive, both at home and abroad. Its ongoing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang involves arbitrary detention, pervasive surveillance, and forced labor of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. This poses problems for Finnish industries. Finland’s clean energy and tech sectors risk exposure to tainted supply chains, even with the European Union regulation prohibiting forced labor imports scheduled to take effect in late 2027.

China’s labor rights abuses extend well beyond Xinjiang. Its low-rights development model has helped drive a global race to the bottom in labor rights, contributing to localized job losses that fuel resentment and populism in Europe and the United States.

In Hong Kong, where people previously enjoyed liberties comparable to those in Helsinki, they now fear long prison sentences for criticizing the government. In Tibet, religious and cultural rights remain under attack. China’s muzzling of dissent increasingly targets activists abroad, including in Europe. This undermines open debate and policymaking, especially crucial these days considering China’s role in supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Orpo’s visit is more than a diplomatic engagement; it is a test of whether Finland can navigate between two major powers while defending its own core interests, which should include a defense of democratic values and human rights.

Click to expand Image Vehicles lined up along the flood-damaged road that connects Maputo province to the rest of the country, Mozambique, January 17, 2026. © 2026 AP Photo

Prolonged heavy rains have caused deadly flooding across Southern Africa. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, most of them in Mozambique, where more than half a million have already been displaced. Gender inequality already leads to women being disproportionately affected by climate disasters. 

This week, I visited some of the school buildings that are being used as accommodation centers for flood-affected people in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, and the situation is alarming. Women with babies and young children make up most of the displaced communities. Official statistics show that over half of those affected are children, and at least 11,000 are pregnant women. 

The centers I visited are overcrowded and face shortages of essential household items, lack of food and clean water, limited supply of hygiene products and private washing facilities, and inadequate or no access to health services and protection support. For women and girls, this exacerbates the risk of gender-based violence, exploitation, and abuse.  

As more accommodation centers are opened across the country, Mozambican authorities should step up their efforts and provide displaced people with access to basic services. Even where capacity is strained, authorities remain responsible for prioritizing the safety, health, and dignity of women and girls and for coordinating available national and international support. Monitoring and accountability mechanisms should also be in place so that women and girls can safely report wrongdoing. 

The floods have also damaged critical infrastructure, including roads and bridges, worsening access conditions, hampering rescue efforts, and limiting access to clinics and hospitals. Mozambican media has already reported cases of women who gave birth in precarious conditions while they desperately waited for rescue teams to save them from the flooded areas.  

Disaster management authorities and international partners should focus on the specific needs of pregnant women and girls and access to sexual and reproductive health services during flood recovery efforts across the region. Disaster risk reduction efforts should respect the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women in Africa and ensure that women participate in the management and mitigation process.  

The authorities should recognize the special needs of women and girls affected by the flooding and act decisively to meet those needs.

Click to expand Image Demonstrators march in Tblisi, Georgia, on January 10,2026. © 2024 Sebastien Canaud/NurPhoto via AP Photo

(Berlin) – Georgian authorities are using newly adopted restrictions on public assemblies to arbitrarily detain and harass peaceful demonstrators, effectively making the right to protest in Georgia increasingly difficult and dangerous, Human Rights Watch said today.

Amendments adopted on December 12, 2025, to the Law on Assemblies and Manifestations grant police sweeping discretion to restrict protests on roadways and pedestrian areas, including sidewalks, and impose harsh penalties for noncompliance. Since the law entered into force, police have pursued dozens of cases against demonstrators, including for merely standing on a sidewalk near parliament, raising serious concerns about abuse of power and violations of Georgia’s international human rights obligations.

“These amendments give police dangerously broad powers to decide when, where, and whether people can protest,” said Giorgi Gogia, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “In practice, the law appears to be enforced arbitrarily to punish peaceful expression and push critical voices out of public spaces.”

Under the new law, organizers of assemblies or demonstrations on roadways or pedestrian areas must notify the Internal Affairs Ministry at least five days in advance. Within three days, police may issue binding instructions requiring a protest to be moved to a different time or location if they determine it could obstruct traffic or pedestrian movement. Police are also empowered to issue mandatory instructions on the spot during an assembly.

Failure to notify authorities or to comply with police instructions is an administrative offense (misdemeanor) punishable by up to 15 days of detention or, for organizers, up to 20 days. A repeat offense may trigger criminal liability and may carry a prison sentence of up to one year.

On January 23, 2026, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Sandro Megrelishvili, a 35-year-old international relations specialist, to four days detention for allegedly obstructing pedestrian movement while standing on a sidewalk in front of parliament on December 17, 2025, and not complying with police instructions to leave the area. Megrelishvili told Human Rights Watch that police informed him about the violation without specifying whom he allegedly obstructed or how.

During the court hearing, police cited surveillance footage purportedly showing several individuals stepping into the roadway nearby, but neither the footage nor the officers’ testimony established that Megrelishvili himself obstructed anyone or that those individuals were not part of the protest. Evidence submitted by the Interior Ministry showed other pedestrians moving freely in front of Megrelishvili without difficulty. Megrelishvili also said he arrived after police had issued a general verbal warning to vacate the area.

Human Rights Watch is aware of four other court decisions issued the same day, sentencing individual protesters to four and five days detention for identical alleged violations. Dozens of others are expected to face trials in the coming days, including 30-year-old Giorgi Bulia, who is accused of committing the same violation on December 17. His hearing is scheduled for January 26, 2026. According to his lawyer, Merab Kartvelishvili, the case file contains no evidence that Bulia obstructed pedestrian movement. The police evidence, Kartvelishvili said, simply shows Bulia standing near parliament while citizens move freely in front of him.

Three lawyers representing multiple protesters said that the police submitted video recordings at trials showing officers making general announcements instructing people peacefully standing near parliament to leave the pedestrian area, without specifying to whom the instructions applied, which precise area had to be vacated, or where people were expected to relocate.

Human Rights Watch is further concerned that in several cases judges have terminated administrative proceedings and referred the files to investigative authorities, citing the individuals’ prior alleged violations of protest-related rules and potentially exposing them to criminal liability.

The police issued a public statement denying reports of people being detained merely for standing on a sidewalk, claiming instead that the individuals were punished for deliberately obstructing pedestrian movement during a protest in front of parliament.

Georgia’s international human rights obligations, including as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, require the authorities to protect the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly, and any restrictions must not only be for a lawful purpose and have a proper legal basis, but must also comply with the requirements of necessity and proportionality. These safeguards are intended to ensure, amongst other things, that people can participate in public life without fear of abusive policing, arbitrary arrest, or disproportionate sanctions.

International human rights law also requires Georgia to apply criminal due process safeguards to any offense that in substance attracts criminal liability, even if the authorities label it as administrative under domestic law. This means examining the nature of the offense, including if it is directed at the public in general, and the severity of the potential penalty. This standard ensures that the authorities cannot evade their obligations to uphold due process by mischaracterizing offenses and helps identify when governments are effectively criminalizing behavior that does not substantially rise to that level and may instead be seeking to suppress legitimate activity.

In a recent ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found that Georgia violated a protester’s rights to a fair trial and peaceful assembly after convicting him during the March 2023 protests based solely on uncorroborated police testimony and without meaningful judicial scrutiny of the lawfulness of police orders.

The ruling confirms structural deficiencies in Georgia’s administrative offenses system that undermine fair trial guarantees and enable abusive protest policing, Human Rights Watch said.

Georgia’s parliament should repeal or amend legislative provisions that unjustifiably restrict peaceful assembly and bring the law in line with the international standards. Law enforcement agencies and courts should immediately end arbitrary enforcement, ensure that any restrictions on assemblies are lawful, necessary, and proportionate, and guarantee fair trial rights in all proceedings.

“Requiring advance notification for people peacefully standing on a sidewalk, then jailing them based on vague police instructions and thin evidence, is plainly disproportionate,” Gogia said. “These measures do not protect public order. They suppress dissent.”

Click to expand Image Posters advertising the magazine Jeune Afrique in Kigali, Rwanda, August 2, 2018. © 2018 Jacques Nkinzingabo/AFP via Getty Images

Last week, Mali’s military junta moved to limit the ability of everyday people to get information from one of the most influential news outlets covering African affairs.

On January 16, the Ministry of Territorial Administration issued a decree banning the circulation and distribution of Jeune Afrique “in all its forms,” citing “the need to preserve public order.” The ministry accused the outlet of “terrorism apology” and “defamation,” as well as for making “baseless accusations” of human rights abuses by security forces of the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel, AES), which includes Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The ministry also alleged that Jeune Afrique made “spurious accusations” against Mali over fuel supply disruptions.

Founded in 1960 in Tunis and published in Paris, Jeune Afrique is a widely read weekly news magazine, available in print and online.

The ban follows reporting by Jeune Afrique on Mali’s worsening fuel crisis, including a January 15 article examining why Malian President Assimi Goïta has been unable to resolve fuel shortages amid insecurity and governance failures. Since September 2025, the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) has laid siege to Mali’s capital, Bamako, and cut off fuel supplies.

Jeune Afrique has extensively reported on military abuses in Mali and Burkina Faso, particularly against ethnic Fulani communities. Human Rights Watch has also documented grave violations against Fulani civilians by Malian armed forces and allied foreign fighters and ethnic militias, including enforced disappearances and summary executions. Jeune Afriqueand Human Rights Watch have also reported massacres of civilians and other abuses by JNIM in Mali.

Mali’s military rulers’ ban on Jeune Afrique is part of a broader campaign to stifle dissent. Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, the junta has suspended media outlets, dissolved civil society organizations, abolished multiparty politics, and pursued criminal cases against critics, eroding freedom of expression and shrinking civic space.

Mali’s authorities should immediately reverse course and restore access to Jeune Afrique. It should cease censorship of independent media and uphold obligations under international human rights law to respect freedom of expression. Denying people the news will not resolve Mali’s multiple crises. As the United Nations Human Rights Committee stated: “Freedom of opinion and freedom of expression are indispensable conditions for the full development of the person. They are essential for any society.”

Click to expand Image Cambodian lawmakers attend a National Assembly session to consider a draft amendment to the nationality law, Phnom Penh, August 25, 2025. © 2025 Cambodia National Assembly via AP Photo

The Cambodian government has issued formal instructions that will allow it to arbitrarily strip Cambodians of citizenship without any judicial review or appeal. The government’s longtime crackdown on peaceful dissent and the political opposition heightens concerns that these new powers will be abused.

The instructions, the “Sub-Decree on Implementing the Law on Nationality,” were posted on Prime Minister Hun Manet’s Facebook page on January 22. Several months earlier the National Assembly approved amendments to the Cambodian Constitution and the Law on Nationality that allowed Cambodian authorities to deprive a citizen of their nationality. Previously the constitution specifically prohibited deprivation of citizenship.

The sub-decree outlines four criteria the government can use to revoke a Cambodian national’s citizenship: committing treason, colluding with foreign countries, undermining national sovereignty or national security, or being convicted by the courts of various crimes, including treason or insulting the king.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party frequently uses the judicial system to file politically motivated charges, such as treason, against opponents. Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy, the two leaders of the now-dissolved opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, have both been convicted of treason, as have the award-winning Mother Nature Cambodia environmental activists.

Under the new sub-decree, a criminal conviction isn’t necessary to strip someone of their citizenship. Instead, a newly established committee, made up of various government officials and led by the interior minister, will investigate, collect evidence, and recommend whether citizenship should be revoked. Revocation would then occur at the request of the prime minister through a royal decree. The process lacks even basic procedural standards called for under international law, such as administrative or judicial review, or the right to appeal a decision.

Although the sub-decree instructs the committee to consider whether the person “may acquire another nationality or receive protection from a foreign state,” the ill-defined process raises serious concerns about Cambodians being made stateless, which runs counter to international standards on citizenship rights.

Governments should raise their concerns with the Cambodian authorities and stress that that stripping individuals of their citizenship should never be used as a weapon against political opponents.

Click to expand Image A vote in progress in the House of Representatives at Parliament House on January 20, 2026, in Canberra, Australia. © 2026 Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images

This week, Australia passed new laws that expand government authority to ban hate groups and impose tougher penalties for hate crimes. The legislation is part of the government’s response to Sydney’s Bondi Beach mass shooting in December when two gunmen killed 15 people at celebrations for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

States are obligated under international human rights law to protect people from racial discrimination and violence, and hate crime laws can further that goal. However, such laws need to be appropriately enforced to protect the rights of all groups and minimize the risks posed to other fundamental rights, including freedom of association and speech. 

The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill allows the home affairs minister to designate and ban “hate groups” and introduces criminal sentences of up to 7 years in prison for members and 15 years for their directors, recruiters, or financial funders. 

The minister may designate a group if they believe it has threatened people due to their race, nationality, or ethnicity, or has publicly supported such action. Groups could be banned without the opportunity to respond to allegations or challenge evidence against them, because the laws state procedural fairness is not required.

The legislation also broadly empowers the home affairs minister to deny or revoke visas based upon hate speech or association with extremist groups, as well as hate crimes. The law opens the door to banning groups without clear evidence of incitement to violence and could have a chilling effect on free speech. Australia should not join the ranks of governments that have increasingly targeted peaceful civic groups as “undesirable” or “terrorist entities.” 

The scope of protection is also limited. The laws target hate crimes based on race, nationality, or ethnic origin but do not extend protections to victims for reason of religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, or disability. 

While the new legislation will be reviewed in two years, the authorities should strictly monitor the laws’ human rights impacts starting day one.

The laws’ risks highlight Australia’s need for a human rights act. A national charter of rights would protect individuals’ rights by requiring public officials to assess the human rights impacts of bills before they’re introduced. 

Click to expand Image A supporter lights candles in commemoration of HIV/AIDS victims in the Philippines at a ceremony in Quezon City, Metro Manila, May 14, 2016. © 2016 Reuters

(New York) – Major donor nations dealt a devastating blow to the right to health for millions of people worldwide when they cut support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Human Rights Watch said today. Only US$11.85 billion has so far been pledged for 2026-2028 of an urgently needed US$18 billion. All but one of the 10 leading donors reduced their pledges.

“People will die because of donor nations’ decisions to cut pledges to the Global Fund,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Donor nations should immediately step up and close this funding gap.”

The Global Fund provides nearly two thirds of all international financing for tuberculosis programs, more than half for malaria programs, and more than a quarter for HIV programs. Since it began in 2002, the Global Fund estimated it has saved 70 million lives. In 2024 alone, the Global Fund said it treated 25.6 million people with HIV and another 7.4 million with tuberculosis.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 47 nongovernmental organization workers, health care outreach workers, and aid recipients affected by recent cuts to global health financing in Indonesia, Laos, and Nepal, focusing specifically on HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Human Rights Watch found that global health funding cuts in 2025 have already had a dire impact, especially for marginalized groups that face systemic discrimination and barriers to health care, including men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, and people who use drugs.

Those populations that are at greatest risk of HIV/AIDS transmission and illness are also often those systematically discriminated against by their governments and for whom community-based programs supported by the Global Fund and other international global health mechanisms are a sole lifeline to accessing HIV/AIDS testing, prevention, and care. HIV education, counseling, testing, support, and medication distribution by community-based organizations is a proven evidence-based approach to protecting the health of these groups.

By following the US in divestments from global health, donors are creating a cascading collapse in global health infrastructure that threatens millions of lives dependent on both bilateral assistance and multilateral funding, especially for communities facing barriers to health created by their own governments, Human Rights Watch said.

At the Fund’s Replenishment Summit on November 21, 2025, in Johannesburg, France and the European Commission made no concrete financial commitments, though they had been major donors. As of writing, France and the EU have yet to make any public commitments. Human Rights Watch wrote to the European Commission, French President Emmanual Macron, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson raising concerns, but has received no reply from France or the EU.

Sweden committed after the summit but significantly cut funding by $200 million from its previous funding cycle. The Government replied to Human Rights Watch that it is still committed to the Global Fund and confirmed a smaller commitment of $74.2million (683 million SEK) for 2026. The United States reduced its pledge to $4.6 billion from $6 billion. Japan decreased their pledge by more than half, Germany by more than a quarter and the Netherlands by almost a fifth. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy also cut back their pledges. Of the most recent top 10 donors, only Norway increased its pledge from $193.18 million to $195.7 million.

Donors’ retreat from the Global Fund is particularly alarming in light of the United States’ massive and abrupt cuts to bilateral health aid in 2025. The human impact of these cuts are profound, with estimates of more than 740,000 people having died because of the US aid cuts to date.

Major donors to global health should increase support for multilateral efforts to promote the right to health, rather than follow the United States’ retreat, Human Rights Watch said. Notably, India increased its pledge by 20 percent, Côte d'Ivoire by 30 percent, and South Africa by more than 100 percent.

International aid to support community-based non-governmental programming is critical to carrying out a rights-based approach to health care that addresses stigma and discrimination faced by many marginalized populations. “Just leaving the house as a trans person is scary,” Aika, an HIV positive transgender outreach worker in Indonesia. “Without an outreach worker, the person will be alone, and they won’t get care.”

Nongovernmental organization and health care outreach workers who serve these populations said that the reductions in Global Fund resources would mean that these communities will simply lose access to life-saving care with no alternative source of support. “If the Global Fund stops, new cases will skyrocket,” the director of a group in Indonesia said. Interviewees also said that a reduction in resources will affect monitoring, thus hiding the impact of the funding reductions.

“We are witnessing a coordinated abandonment of the world’s most vulnerable populations that will reverse decades of progress against HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria,” Bleckner said. “Donors should invest in the Global Fund before millions of people die preventable deaths.”

Click to expand Image A 16-year-old boy collects water from a spring near Lega Dembi gold mine in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.  © 2020 Tom Gardner

People living near Lega Dembi gold mine in Ethiopia’s Oromia region have for years complained about serious health impacts, including children born with long-term health conditions, miscarriages, and stillbirths. Several studies have found high concentrations of toxic chemicals, including cadmium, mercury, lead, and arsenic, in the country’s largest gold mine. 

Next week, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet to assess the situation of children’s rights in Ethiopia, including the health rights of children living near Lega Dembi mine. 

From 2018 to 2021, the Ethiopian government suspended Lega Dembi following protests over the mine’s pollution and promised to reopen it only after mine officials addressed environmental concerns. 

But instead, Human Rights Watch found that the Ethiopian government obfuscated the problem. It quashed publication of a government health study, reopened the mine without public announcement, and kept a memorandum of understanding between the government and Midroc Investment Group, the company operating the mine, confidential. Midroc told Human Rights Watch in 2023 and 2025 that the environmental concerns had been addressed through compensation to victims and improved toxic cyanide management, and that all contaminant levels of mine waste were below thresholds set by the World Health Organization. 

The Ethiopian government has a duty to protect children’s rights under international law. Businesses also have a responsibility to ensure they are not contributing to harmful human rights impacts. 

Human Rights Watch and Kontomaa Darimu Alliance, in partnership with a human rights center at Northwestern University in the United States, have submitted concerns and recommendations to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.  

When the committee meets, it should urge the Ethiopian government to suspend mine operations in the interest of protecting child health, allow an independent environmental health assessment to recommend steps before the mine resumes, and ensure victims of abuse are provided effective remedy, including compensation, medical care, and access to justice.  

The Committee should seize this opportunity to bring real change to the lives of children and their families living near Lega Dembi.

Click to expand Image The grandchildren of Patrice Emery Lumumba during a session of the Brussels council chamber, in the case concerning the 1961 murder of Lumumba the first elected Prime Minister of the DRC Congo, January 20, 2026. © 2026 by Benoit Doppagne/Belga/Sipa USA via AP Photo

On January 20, a Belgian court held a closed-door hearing to determine whether to pursue a criminal case against the last living former Belgian official for his alleged involvement in the 1961 assassination of the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Émery Lumumba, following the country’s independence from Belgian colonial rule.

The historic case was brought by Lumumba’s family, whose perseverance could now lead to the first instance of a European court pursuing individual criminal responsibility for a crime linked to European colonial rule. Former European colonial powers considered Lumumba a threat to their political and economic interests, as he symbolized African self-determination and decolonization.

During a press conference following this week’s hearing, Lumumba’s family described the case as a step toward “justice and truth.” A decision is expected on March 17.

The importance of the case cannot be overstated as former European colonial powers remain unwilling to take legal responsibility for their colonial crimes and abuses. Instead democratic leaders should be genuinely reckoning with historical injustices and taking action consistent with international human rights law and norms on justice, dignity, and accountability. 

Governments should build on the momentum for reparations seen in 2025 at the United Nations, African Union (AU), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and at national levels to address enduring global systemic racial and economic injustices rooted in legacies of colonialism, enslavement, and the slave trade. 

Last year, governments at the UN committed to a Second International Decade for People of African Descent. Meanwhile, the AU dedicated the year to reparatory justice, later extending it to a decade. The AU also joined reparatory efforts with CARICOM.

International human rights law and standards create obligations for states to provide effective remedies and reparations for gross rights violations, many of which occurred during colonization. But political unwillingness continues to denyaffected communities justice.

Without addressing historical injustices, cycles of inequality, exclusion, and violence will persist. Reparations are therefore not symbolic but a legal obligation and a necessary foundation for a just and equitable future.

Click to expand Image US President Donald Trump speaks at the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly, at the UN headquarters in New York City, on September 23, 2025. © 2025 Laura Brett/Sipa USA via AP Photo

Last weekend the United Nations celebrated the 80th anniversary of the General Assembly’s first meeting. The commemoration comes as the world organization established to prevent a repeat of the crimes against humanity and genocide that took place during World War II is under unprecedented attack.

The United States played a leading role in establishing the UN. Now, US President Donald Trump is undermining and defunding large parts of it.

For the past year, the US government has taken a sledgehammer to UN programs and agencies because the Trump administration believes the institution is “anti-American” and has a “hostile agenda.” In UN negotiations, US officials have tried to purge words like “gender,” “climate,” and “diversity” from resolutions and statements. Diplomats have described to Human Rights Watch how US officials aggressively oppose human rights language they see as “woke” or politically correct.

In an apparent attempt to sideline the UN Security Council, Trump has proposed a so-called Board of Peace that he personally would preside over. Trump has reportedly offered seats on his board to leaders of abusive governments, including Belarus, China, Hungary, Israel, Russia, and Vietnam.

Originally the Board of Peace was meant to oversee the administration of Gaza following over two years of onslaught and destruction by Israeli forces, with which the United States was complicit. But the board’s charter doesn’t even mention Gaza, suggesting that Trump’s ambitions for this body have expanded enormously since first conceived.

The board’s proposed charter doesn’t mention human rights. And it makes clear that Trump, as board chairman, would have supreme authority “to adopt resolutions or other directives” as he sees fit.

A seat on the Board of Peace doesn’t come cheap: there’s a US$1 billion membership fee. Some, like French President Emmanuel Macron, already turned down an offer to join. Trump responded with a threat to significantly increase tariffs on French wine and champagne.

The UN system has its problems, but it’s better than a global Politburo. Rather than paying billions to join Trump’s board, governments should focus on strengthening the UN’s ability to uphold human rights.

Click to expand Image Malian tanker trucks drive at the entrance of Boundiali, northern Côte d'Ivoire, on the way to Yamoussoukro and Abidjan to load oil, October 30, 2025. © 2025 Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images

Truck drivers in Niger now face a stark choice: risk your life or lose your livelihood.

On January 6, Niger’s transport minister issued a decree punishing at least 34 fuel transport operators and long-haul truck drivers who refused to deliver fuel to neighboring Mali. Since September 2025, an Al Qaeda-linked armed group, known as Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), has laid siege to Mali’s capital, Bamako, and cut off fuel supplies. Sanctions include revoking both the fuel transport rights of several operators as well as the drivers’ licenses. The minister cited “serious violation of legal and regulatory obligations” as reasons behind the decree.

The dangers facing drivers on the Niger-Mali corridor and in central Sahel are well documented. JNIM has repeatedly carried out targeted attacks on commercial transport, kidnapping and killing drivers. Between September and December 2025, JNIM has attacked several convoys carrying fuel supplies to Mali from neighboring Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.

Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are members of the Alliance of Sahel States, a mutual defense pact formed by the three military juntas in 2023 in response to escalating violence by Islamist armed groups. It’s within this framework that in November 2025, Niger delivered 82 fuel tankers under military escort to Mali, helping to stabilize fuel availability in the country. The Nigerien authorities are now using the security pact to justify the punitive conditions on transport operators.

The measures raise concerns about violations of international human rights law, including the rights to work and protection from coercion. Nigerien authorities have chosen license revocations over risk mitigation or protective measures, effectively pressuring people to undertake highly dangerous work in violation of their right to freely choose one’s employment.

Protection from being coerced into work is also well established in the 1930 Forced Labour Convention.

Given the armed conflict in Mali, putting pressure on civilians to transport goods used for military purposes into a combat zone could violate Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibits compelling participation in hostilities.

Sanctions imposed without sound risk assessments, due process, or effective remedies raise concerns of arbitrariness. When transport operators are left with the choice between losing their livelihoods or risking their lives, the state is failing to meet its obligation to protect them.

Niger’s authorities should lift the sanctions and ensure that any fuel deliveries rely on voluntary participation and are supported by adequate protections.

Click to expand Image M23 forces patrol the streets of Uvira, Democratic Republic of Congo, on December 13, 2025. © 2025 Jospin Mwisha / AFP via Getty Images

(Kinshasa) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group’s sudden withdrawal from the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on January 17, 2026, has put civilians at grave risk from abusive Wazalendo militias, Human Rights Watch said today.

After the M23 and Rwandan forces captured Uvira on December 10, M23 forces threatened, harassed, and assaulted people in the city. Fears that the Banyamulenge, Congolese Tutsi from South Kivu province, would be targeted after the M23’s withdrawal led many families to leave the city together with the armed group, though an unknown number remain. Late on January 18, the Congolese army deployed in the city, the second largest in South Kivu. The Wazalendo, loosely organized militias that receive Congolese army support, have a history of committing abuses against people in areas under their control.

“The mere presence of Congolese forces won’t be enough to protect civilians from the Wazalendo if they continue to assist or tolerate the abusive militias,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Congolese authorities should act quickly to restore security and ensure the protection of all civilians, including the Banyamulenge.”

Human Rights Watch documented widespread looting, following the M23’s withdrawal, of homes, shops, churches, and public buildings, including those belonging to the Banyamulenge, through witness accounts and verified photographs and videos. Human Rights Watch geolocated videos showing unidentified people in civilian clothes looting the city courthouse, a Methodist church used by the Banyamulenge community, a restaurant, a government office building, and the city’s port of Kalundu. Sources in Uvira reported scores of people injured, and Human Rights Watch is investigating reports of killings of civilians since the M23 withdrew from the city. “We are worried about our security,” said an Uvira resident, who had earlier been threatened by the M23. “Now, there are cases of soldiers or Wazalendo going around asking for people’s phones and shooting at them.”

Human Rights Watch reviewed credible information that Wazalendo militias prevented people from fleeing towards the Hauts Plateaux—highlands covering parts of Fizi, Mwenga, and Uvira territories in South Kivu—raising concerns about safe passage for civilians after the M23’s withdrawal. These concerns were heightened by the continued closure of the border with Burundi.

During the M23’s control of Uvira since December, its fighters have threatened and harassed people deemed to oppose them. Local civil society sources and residents reported multiple cases of killings, enforced disappearances, and forced recruitment by the M23 in the month they controlled the city. Throughout 2025, Congolese soldiers and Wazalendo fighters summarily executed and committed sexual violence against civilians in South Kivu. Wazalendo fighters also harassed, threatened, abducted, and restricted access to basic services for the Banyamulenge when they controlled Uvira in 2025.

The M23 and Rwandan officials have repeatedly invoked the safety of the Banyamulenge to justify their actions in South Kivu. They have also threatened members of the Banyamulenge community who do not align with them, two community leaders said.

On January 17, Banyamulenge community leaders in Uvira held a meeting and said that they had received instructions from the M23 that Banyamulenge people should leave with them or face reprisal attacks by Wazalendo groups, two community leaders and a community member said. Two Banyamulenge among those who left with M23 said a group remained in Kamanyola, a town under M23 control, and it is unclear where they would go next. Congolese Defense Minister Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita, in a meeting with Human Rights Watch on January 20, said that “the Banyamulenge should not be forcibly displaced or deported, and should feel free to return to Uvira if they wish to do so.”

On January 19, the Congolese government announced a “progressive restoration of state authority” in Uvira, including “security, justice and humanitarian measures.” President Félix Tshisekedi and other Congolese authorities should publicly call for the protection of the Banyamulenge and other civilians in Uvira and urge Wazalendo leaders to leave the city and prevent further abuses by Wazalendo militias. Congolese authorities and donors should ensure that adequate financial assistance promptly reaches those affected by the looting and destruction of property.

While the Congolese government has repeatedly stated that Wazalendo groups assist national efforts to resist Rwandan forces and the M23, their actions in Uvira and elsewhere in North and South Kivu highlight the grave dangers posed by militias operating without effective command, discipline, or accountability. The government should ensure adequately vetted and trained security forces are deployed to restore security and protect the population. Civilian and military justice officials should undertake prompt, impartial investigations and fair prosecutions of those responsible for criminal offenses.

In a January 15 statement, the M23 and its political-military coalition, the Alliance Fleuve Congo, stated that they were ready to hand over Uvira to “the International Community” and asked the United Nations secretary-general to deploy a “neutral force.” The UN peacekeeping force in Congo, MONUSCO, completely disengaged from the province on June 30, 2024, but a December 2025 UN Security Council resolution allows for it to resume some level of “ceasefire monitoring and verification” in South Kivu upon determination by the mission and formal notification of the council.

MONUSCO should rapidly deploy human rights and civilian protection experts to Uvira and work with authorities to carry out a risk assessment and vetting of Congolese army units present on the ground, Human Rights Watch said.

The European Union, African Union, and United States should increase humanitarian assistance and press the governments of Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda to prioritize protecting civilians, ensure access by humanitarian agencies, and provide safe passage for civilians seeking to flee the conflict. The US, United Kingdom, the EU, and the UN Security Council should urgently adopt new targeted sanctions against Congolese and Rwandan officials responsible for, or complicit in, violations of international law.

“The M23’s attempt to portray their control of Uvira as the only way to ensure the safety of the Banyamulenge community appears to have exposed civilians to further violence and abuse,” de Montjoye said. “Congolese authorities should deploy well-trained, vetted security forces, disarm and remove abusive militia, and apprehend those found responsible for crimes against civilians.”

On January 19, a court in Makhachkala, the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan region, sentenced women’s rights defender and journalist Svetlana Anokhina to five years in prison for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces.

Click to expand Image Svetlana Anokhina, personal archive, Dagestan, Russia, 2016. © 2016 Private

The sentence was handed down in absentia: Anokhina left Russia in 2021 after a shelter her organization Marem ran for abused women and girls in Makhachkala was ransacked by Chechen and Dagestani police. The charges against Anokhina stemmed from two posts about Russian war crimes that she published on Instagram in 2022, just weeks into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For many years, Anokhina was one of my key contacts in Dagestan, a turbulent region in southern Russia infamous for blatant and systematic human abuses by law enforcement and security agencies. A slight woman with her nonconformist clothes and clunky jewelry, she has no patience for religious or traditional biases. She devoted her life to supporting abused women and girls and stood up for their freedom to make their own choices: about what to wear, whom to love, and how to live their lives. 

When Anokhina left Russia, she viewed her departure as a temporary breather after the abusive raid on Marem. However, about six months later, Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and she—an outspoken critic of the war—could no longer return to her home country. The criminal proceedings against her, which resulted in this draconian prison sentence, were launched in 2023, leaving her with no option but long-term exile.

Even from abroad, nevertheless, Anokhina continued her work: providing essential support to and organizing “rescues” of girls and women from acute danger, helping them access safe houses and build new lives from scratch. In 2024, the BBC included her in its 100 Women list, which features some of the most inspiring and influential women worldwide, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad.

When I called Anokhina to commiserate about the politically motivated court ruling, she said it made her “feel sick and disgusted,” but that it would not break her resolve to carry on her work. I hope that one day Anokhina, and many other exiled activists and journalists, will be able to return to a Russia where human rights and fundamental freedoms are valued. 

Click to expand Image President Yowerei Museveni speaks during a news conference in Entebbe, Uganda, July 26, 2022.  © 2022 Hajarah Nalwadda/AP Photo

Uganda’s electoral commission has declared President Yoweri Museveni as the winner of the January 15 elections, securing his seventh term in office with 71 percent of the vote. 

The weeks leading up to the elections were marred by rights abuses. Security officers reportedly beat and arrested hundreds of people during opposition rallies, indiscriminately fired teargas, and kicked and slapped journalists trying to cover the events. 

On November 28, 2025, security officers allegedly shot and killed Mesach Okello, an opposition supporter, in Iganga in Eastern Uganda. The police claimed they were responding to “stone throwing” and “hooliganism.” On December 8, Presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, claims soldiers beat him and his supporters with sticks during a rally in the northern city of Gulu.

In the weeks immediately leading up to the elections, the government ramped up the repression again.

On December 30, Sarah Bireete, a prominent human rights activist was arrested, and on January 12, the government ordered at least 10 nongovernmental organizations to cease their operations indefinitely on vague and unsubstantiated grounds. The exact number of groups that were suspended is unclear. 

The government also ordered a blanket internet shutdown two days before the election, severely restricting access to critical information about the elections for Ugandans. Five days later, although internet access was partially restored by the government, access to messaging and social media applications, such as WhatsApp and X, was still being restricted.

Following the election result, Kyagulanyi posted on X that security officials had surrounded his home on the outskirts of Kampala, switched off electricity and CCTV cameras, and were blocking access to and from the premises. Despite the restrictions, Kyagulanyi was able to escape and is currently hiding in an undisclosed location. His colleagues were not so lucky. His party, the National Unity Platform, reported that two of its senior members were abducted by security forces and remain missing.

Uganda is obligated to promote and protect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and access to information for all, regardless of their political affiliation. The international community should press Museveni’s government to ensure that the human rights violations end, that abuses associated with the elections are promptly investigated, and that those responsible are held to account.

(Johannesburg) – Mozambique authorities need to urgently and impartially investigate the killing of three dozen artisanal gold and gemstone miners during clashes with the police on December 29, 2025, in Nampula province, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities need to hold all those responsible to account and ensure justice for victims and their families.

Local civil society organizations said that the police killed at least 38 people during clashes in the Marraca mining area in Iuluti, Mogovolas district. Iuluti Community Radio reported that the victims’ relatives notified them of at least 13 deaths. Police authorities have officially acknowledged 7 deaths, including one police officer.

“The available evidence indicates that Mozambique police used unnecessary and excessive lethal force, resulting in deaths and injuries to an as-yet unconfirmed number of people,” said Sheila Nhancale, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is essential for the authorities to fully and impartially investigate these deaths and prosecute those responsible to restore community trust.”

Tensions in the Marraca mining area are part of a broader pattern of recurring disputes over mineral extraction in Mogovolas district, Human Rights Watch said. Local communities and artisanal or small-scale miners have operated for years in areas for which the government had given private companies concessions, without the establishment of effective mediation mechanisms, economic alternatives, or transparent resettlement processes.

The police reported that the clashes began when members of the Naparamas, a local militia group, and supporters of the opposition party National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Aliança Nacional para um Moçambique Livre e Autónomo, ANAMOLA), led by Venâncio Mondlane, attacked a camp of the Police for the Protection of Natural Resources and the Environment. Police said the attackers wore masks and red headbands and carried bladed weapons. They said they arrested five suspects during operations to restore public order.

Civil society organizations and witnesses dispute this account, saying that most of those killed were artisanal miners and others with no political affiliation. Gamito Carlos, director of the Nampula-based organization Kóxukhoro, told Human Rights Watch that none of the victims had party membership cards. The artisanal miners have not disputed that they were carrying bladed weapons, which are used for extraction at the mining site.

Three local journalists said that informal arrangements existed between some police officers and artisanal miners, who paid between 50 and 100 meticais (US$0.80 to US$1.60) to mine at the site. Witnesses said that when a group of police officers, allegedly unaware of these arrangements, attempted to forcibly disperse the miners, the situation escalated rapidly, and clashes broke out.

A local journalist said that miners told him that police officers fired indiscriminately at people during the clashes.

A local resident said her 18-year-old brother, an artisanal miner, was killed during the clashes that day. “My brother left early to work at the mine and said he needed money for the end-of-year holidays,” she said. “He never came back. The next day we learned he had been killed. Many of his friends also didn’t survive.” Fighting back tears, she said: “He was the family’s provider. Now we don’t know how we will go on.”

Another resident said her husband, 41, was injured during the clashes and disappeared after seeking medical treatment in the city of Nampula. “We don’t know where he is,” she said. “When we call his phone, no one answers. We hear rumors that he may be detained or even dead.” The family reported searching for him at several police stations without receiving any information from the authorities.

A 35-year-old local resident said that he saw at least three bodies of artisanal miners killed by gunfire, several people with serious injuries, and reported the disappearance of a relative who went to the mining site and did not return. “There were adults, children, and women there,” he said. “Everyone went through moments of terror that still traumatize the community today. We ask the government to find solutions to regulate mining without violence.”

Previous incidents in Mogovolas reflect ongoing tensions between the authorities and artisanal miners. In May 2025, about 300 artisanal miners entered a mining area in Iuluti, triggering violence, arrests, and reports of deaths following the prohibition of artisanal mining in areas for which private companies had concessions.

The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials require law enforcement officials to apply nonviolent means before resorting to the use of force, to use force only in proportion to the seriousness of the offense, and to use lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life. The principles also provide that governments need to ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense under domestic law.

“Mozambique’s partners need to press the government to ensure a credible and transparent investigation of this dire incident, provide accountability and reparations for the abuses,” Nhancale said. “The government also needs to take measures so that such atrocities never happen again.”

 

Click to expand Image A police anti-riot unit in Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 30, 2024. © 2024 Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via AP Photo

(Bangkok) – The Sri Lanka government’s proposed counterterrorism legislation includes numerous provisions similar to the current abusive law and risks facilitating the same kind of repression, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill does not meet benchmarks set out by the United Nations counterterrorism expert or comply with human rights obligations and commitments that Sri Lanka made to the European Union to benefit from trade arrangements under the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP+.

The Protection of the State from Terrorism Act (PSTA), published by the Ministry of Justice in December 2025, would replace the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which has facilitated extensive violations including arbitrary detention and torture since it was introduced in 1979. In 2017, Sri Lanka committed to replace the PTA with human rights-respecting legislation as a condition for the EU to reinstate GSP+, but successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to comply. In his party’s 2024 election manifesto, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake campaigned for the “[a]bolition of all oppressive acts including the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and ensuring civil rights of people in all parts of the country.” The proposed law falls short of meeting that pledge.

“Ridding Sri Lanka of its abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act is long overdue, but this proposed law includes numerous provisions that would allow the authorities to commit the same abuses,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should impose an immediate moratorium on the existing law, and prepare rights-respecting legislation through inclusive public consultations.”

Besides provisions similar to the PTA, the draft law includes measures that previous governments proposed in 2018 and 2023 that were dropped following criticism of their rights implications. The Dissanayake government called for public input from experts and civil society, but did not incorporate their previous recommendations.

Sri Lanka has a long history of using counterterrorism legislation to commit rights violations especially against Tamils, Muslims, and perceived government opponents, including human rights defenders. Those abuses have continued under the current government. In separate 2025 cases, the authorities detained for months two young Muslim men who had criticized Israel, under the PTA before releasing them without charge. The government informed the UN that 49 arrests were made under the PTA in the first five months of 2025, compared with 38 in all of 2024. In many instances, the law was used to combat organized crime, not terrorism.

The Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner found that the police Terrorism Investigation Division repeatedly summoned human rights defenders and questioned them about alleged participation in events and demonstrations. In August 2025, police investigated a journalist for terrorism after he reported on the excavation of a mass grave containing remains of people allegedly executed by security forces during the 1983-2009 war with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Particularly in the north and east, police conduct baseless “terrorism” investigations into members of civil society in an apparent attempt to intimidate them, and obstruct funding to civil society organizations.

UN human rights experts have found that Sri Lanka’s counterterrorism law contravenes international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In 2021, the UN independent expert on human rights and counterterrorism and others set out five “necessary prerequisites” to ensure that Sri Lanka’s counterterrorism law complies with international rights standards. They include providing an appropriate definition of terrorism, ensuring precision and legal certainty, including provisions to prevent arbitrary detention, measures that adhere to the absolute prohibition on torture, and providing due process and fair trial guarantees including judicial oversight. However, the latest proposed counterterrorism law does not fully meet any of these standards, Human Rights Watch said.

The bill includes a broad and vague definition of terrorism, which includes crimes that do not constitute terrorism, and could be construed as prohibiting political activism. These include “intimidating the public or any section of the public” or “compelling the Government of Sri Lanka … to do or to abstain from doing any act.” The consequences of an act of terrorism are defined as including death, “hurt,” or hostage taking, but also “serious damage” to property, “robbery, extortion or theft.”

These broad definitions extend to curtailments on speech that are incompatible with international human rights law. The bill criminalizes anyone who publishes or distributes written or visual material “with the intention of directly or indirectly encouraging or inducing the public or any section of the public, to commit, attempt, abet, conspire to commit or prepare to commit, the offence of terrorism.” Due to the vagueness of the law’s definitions, it would be difficult or impossible for Sri Lankans to know what may be deemed a “terrorist publication.”

Like the PTA, the proposed law includes extraordinary powers of arrest and arbitrary detention. A suspect could be remanded (held) without charge by a magistrate for up to one year. In addition, the police could obtain a detention order from the secretary of defence, under which the accused can be held for up to a year and a magistrate would have no power to release them, even if they believe their detention is unjustified. The total period of remand and detention without charge can therefore be up to two years.

The bill empowers members of the armed forces to stop, search, and arrest suspects, and to enter premises and seize documents or other objects without a warrant if they have “reasonable suspicion” of a terrorist offense. The Sri Lankan military has a long record of torture and other ill-treatment and is not trained in law enforcement.

Several sections of the bill purport to offer safeguards against torture, including through checks on a suspect’s welfare by a magistrate and medical officer, and visits to detention sites. However, similar existing provisions are not consistently implemented, including due to a lack of capacity. Security forces have ignored the current requirement to notify the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka of all PTA detentions.

Provisions empowering the attorney general to defer or suspend prosecution if the suspect fulfills conditions that can include accepting guilt and submitting to “rehabilitation” are of particular concern. This could enable to authorities to coerce confessions, while custodial “rehabilitation” programs may amount to punishment without trial. In the past, so-called rehabilitation programs for alleged terrorists and drug users in Sri Lanka have been associated with torture.

The bill grants the president sweeping powers to proscribe organizations and declare curfews, while the secretary of defence can designate anywhere a “prohibited place” where taking a photograph or video is punishable by three years in prison. The police may apply to a magistrate for an order restricting an individual’s movement and activities. These powers have fewer safeguards than in legislation that was proposed in 2023.

“The proposed law shows that Sri Lankan authorities still cling to the idea that counterterrorism legislation can be used to create sweeping and repressive powers that have little to do with combatting terrorism,” Ganguly said. “The EU and other international partners should urge President Dissanayake to stick to his commitments to abolish the PTA instead of repackaging its disastrous provisions in a new law.”

Click to expand Image Top row: Lok Bahadur Ghaley; Rinzin Wangdi; Chandra Raj Rai; Kumar Gautam. Bottom row: San Man Gurung; Birkha Bdr Chhetri; Omnath Adhikari; Chaturman Tamang.   © Private

The recent death of Sha Bahadur Gurung, one of Bhutan’s longest serving political prisoners, is a tragic reminder of the injustice and needless suffering endured by alleged government critics in Bhutan’s grim prisons. 

Gurung, 65, was arrested in 1990 while he was a member of the Royal Bhutan Army and accused of attending protests demanding rights for his minority Nepali-speaking community. He was allegedly tortured, denied proper legal counsel, and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. He spent the last 35 years of his life in the notoriously harsh Rabuna military prison.

Gurung died on December 15, reportedly while undergoing treatment for an eye condition. The Bhutanese government should fully account for the circumstances of his death, his treatment in prison, and the justification for his prolonged incarceration. That’s unlikely to happen. Despite promoting itself as the inventor of “Gross National Happiness,” Bhutan’s secretive government refuses to even discuss its political prisoners.

There are currently 30 known political prisoners in the country. Seven of them, like Gurung, were soldiers from the Nepali-speaking community and were arrested around 1990 for allegedly supporting protests. They have been locked up in Rabuna ever since. Another 21 are being in held in Chemgang prison near the capital, Thimphu, in a special wing reserved for “anti-nationals.” Most of these prisoners are serving life sentences and some have been detained for decades.. 

The prisoners are being kept in dire conditions, with scant rations and insufficient clothes or bedding for Bhutan’s cold winters. Human Rights Watch was told that all of the prisoners are in poor health and several are severely ill. Simple medicines, such as paracetamol, are only provided to those who can pay for it.

Under Bhutanese law, only King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck can commute life sentences and free these men. His office has told political prisoners’ families not to bother applying for clemency. He should reconsider, show compassion, and end this unjust suffering.

Click to expand Image Internally displaced people fetch water inside a camp in the outskirts of Juba, South Sudan, February 13, 2025. © 2025 Brian Inganga/AP Photo

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council should use its January 19 ambassadorial-level meeting to address the urgent protection needs and escalating abuses in South Sudan. 

The meeting follows a visit by the AU High-Level Ad Hoc Committee on South Sudan, during which they assessed the 2018 peace agreement’s implementation, which has been undermined by, amongst others, President Salva Kiir’s party’s unilateral amendments. 

Over the past year, the AU has increased diplomatic engagement—including deploying the Panel of the Wise and conducting field visits—but without concrete actions, the human rights and humanitarian situation in South Sudan has continued to deteriorate. 

Violations of international humanitarian law that have taken place during fighting in Upper Nile, Jonglei, Central Equatoria, and Western Equatoria states since early 2025 between government-allied forces and armed opposition groups and allied militias include killings of civilians, forced recruitment, sexual violence, and attacks on civilian infrastructure. Government aerial attacks have continued to target areas densely populated by civilians. On December 3, after the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) and White Army attacked government positions in Jonglei, government forces bombarded a secondary school in Nyirol as students sat for exams, injuring one person. On December 29, airstrikes in Lankien struck near a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF) health facility, a market, and an airstrip, injuring at least 12 civilians, one of whom died.  

Government authorities have also conducted forced recruitment of children and adults and other abuses under the guise of a crackdown against crime in Juba. Repression has increased with arbitrary arrests of political opponents, journalists, and activists. Entrenched impunity and the political accommodation of perpetrators have fueled recurring cycles of abuses. 

The AU Peace and Security Council should press all parties to end attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure immediately, halt the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access to populations in need.

It should sanction commanders and officials responsible for serious abuses and for obstructing humanitarian operations, reconsider its previous position on lifting the UN arms embargo and sanctions, and publicly commit to a clear timeline for establishing a hybrid court without further delay.

By using its leverage and tools at its disposal, the Peace and Security Council can help prevent further abuses against civilians in South Sudan and demonstrate that it does not turn a blind eye to grave violations.

Click to expand Image Fires are lit as protesters demonstrate in Tehran, Iran, on January 8, 2026. © 2026 Anonymous via Getty Images Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026.The mass killings by Iranian security forces are a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account.UN member states should urgently convene a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.

(Beirut, January 16, 2026) – Iran’s security forces have carried out mass killings of protesters after nationwide protests escalated on January 8, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Thousands of protesters and bystanders are believed to have been killed, while the government’s severe restrictions on communications have concealed the true scale of atrocities. 

Security forces scaled up their deadly crackdown in a coordinated manner after January 8, resulting in large-scale killings and injuries of protesters and bystanders across the country. Human Rights Watch reviewed evidence that many protesters were killed or injured by gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. Iranian officials cited in media outlets have admitted that the number of deaths has reached the thousands. 

“The mass killings by Iranian security forces since January 8 are unprecedented in the country and a stark reminder that rulers who massacre their own people will keep committing atrocities until they are held to account,” said Lama Fakih, program director at Human Rights Watch. “United Nations member states should urgently convene a special UN Human Rights Council session to put human rights and accountability in Iran front and center of the international response.” 

From January 12 to 14, Human Rights Watch spoke with 21 people, including witnesses, relatives of victims, journalists, human rights defenders, medical professionals, and other informed sources. Some shared screenshots of witness accounts, audio messages, and images. Human Rights Watch also analyzed 51 verified photographs and videos posted on social media or sent directly to researchers and consulted the Independent Forensic Expert Group of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, which reviewed images of injuries. 

Despite severe communication restrictions, Human Rights Watch has been able to obtain and analyze evidence of the killing of protesters in some provinces, including Tehran, Alborz, Kermanshah, Razavi Khorasan, Gilan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Markazi, and Mazandaran. 

“Anyone you speak to these days has a relative, a friend, or an acquaintance who has been killed or injured,” said one person interviewed. Others shared similar experiences.

In the capital, Tehran, videos show a heavily militarized response to the protests as they grew. Human Rights Watch verified videos that began to circulate on January 11 of body bags and bodies piled up in and around the Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Center in Kahrizak, south of the capital. The bodies were placed there for families to identify their loved ones. Human Rights Watch counted at least 400 bodies visible in several videos from that site alone. This number is an undercount, as bodies were piled on top of each other, making counting difficult.  

Click to expand Image Source: Data by Human Rights Watch and GeoConfirmed. Map data: © OCHA

In Kermanshah, a large city in western Iran, security forces fired at protesters. A witness sent audio recordings to Human Rights Watch on January 8 with an accompanying text message reading: “They [the security forces] are shooting here, there is a lot of tear gas. I am stuck on the street on my way back from work, there are protests all over and every street that I tried is blocked and they are shooting.” 

The protests erupted on December 28, 2025, sparked by the deteriorating economic situation and living conditions, and quickly spread across the country. Protesters demanded human rights, dignity, and freedom, and called for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. State officials have demonized protesters by labeling them “rioters” and “terrorists.” 

State-affiliated media reported that at least 121 security force members have been killed, and verified footage shows some protesters engaging in acts of violence. Human Rights Watch could not independently assess the credibility of these figures. However, Human Rights Watch has reviewed information that in some cases—consistent with longstanding practice—the authorities have pressured families of victims to falsely assert that their loved ones were members of the Basij, a force under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps whose members generally dress in plain clothes, as a condition to release their bodies. 

Human Rights Watch also interviewed witnesses who described security forces using lethal force against unarmed protesters in various provinces. The wide-scale, unjustified use of lethal force resulting in mass killings of protesters and bystanders indicate that the authorities have deliberately and unlawfully used firearms as state policy.

Under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, law enforcement officers may only use force when strictly necessary and to the extent required to achieve a legitimate policing objective. The UN Human Rights Committee, in its general comment on the right to peaceful assembly, has stated: “Firearms are not an appropriate tool for the policing of assemblies. They must never be used simply to disperse an assembly. In order to comply with international law, any use of firearms by law enforcement officials in the context of assemblies must be limited to targeted individuals in circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury.”

The authorities have also interfered with the media, severely restricted access to telecommunications, and shut down the internet in violation of the right to freedom of expression. Access should be immediately restored, Human Rights Watch said. 

UN member states should immediately convene a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch said. States at the special session should make clear that those responsible for grave human rights violations will be held to account. They should ask the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to conduct a special inquiry into these latest atrocities and to offer concrete recommendations to advance accountability. 

The UN leadership and member states should ensure that the Fact-Finding Mission has the resources to carry out its important mandate, which includes preserving evidence of violations, including for future judicial proceedings to bring those responsible to justice.  

“The horrific images of families sifting through hundreds of body bags in an open-air morgue should shock the conscience of the world to take action to hold those responsible, including at the highest levels, accountable,” Fakih said. 

Large-Scale Killings Across Iran 

Human Rights Watch verified photographs and videos showing anti-government protests in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces. Many were geolocated by GeoConfirmed, a volunteer-driven visual verification platform. While this limited information does not show the full extent of the protests, it indicates how widespread they have been.

Tehran Province 

Witness accounts and verified footage, including from morgues and cemeteries, show evidence of mass killings by the security forces across Tehran province. 

Kahrizak Morgue 

At the Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Center in Kahrizak—commonly referred to as the Kahrizak morgue—which is 18 kilometers south of central Tehran, photographs and videos posted online and verified and geolocated by Human Rights Watch show hundreds of body bags as people search among them, crying and screaming. Large commercial trucks and mortuary vehicles transported bodies there for several days. Reports suggest there is an area specifically for women’s bodies. 

Human Rights Watch counted at least 400 body bags or bodies in three videos shared on social media between January 11 and 13. This is an undercount, as bodies were piled on top of each other, making counting difficult.  

All visible bodies appeared to be in civilian attire. Some were covered in blood; others had gunshot wounds; some bodies had wounds consistent with the spray pattern of metal pellets fired from shotguns; and other corpses had open wounds. Many had EKG sticky pads on their chests, and one man still had an intubation tube in his mouth. 

Click to expand Image Researchers counted at least 400 body bags and bodies visible in three videos posted online between January 11 and 13. The bodies were scattered on the ground, on stretchers, and next to trucks and vehicles around and inside the forensic center. At least 50 body bags were found at the entrance to the buildings alone. Many of the bodies, all of whom were dressed in civilian clothes, were bloodied or had visible wounds. © 2025 Airbus / Google Earth Other Accounts from Tehran

Witnesses also said that many bodies were at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery Complex, 600 meters from the Kahrizak morgue. One person who went to identify the body of a loved one on January 10 said: “When we got close to the [large] halls, we saw bodies piled on top of bodies. They were in body bags, and some had tags with identification details. From the size of the halls, I could estimate that between 1,500 to 2,000 bodies were held there.” The witness said that more bodies were arriving by refrigerated trucks in the late afternoon when they were leaving the cemetery. 

A human rights defender said that a relative who had gone to the cemetery on January 9 to identify the body of a loved one reported that relatives identified 300 bodies, shown on video screens, on that day alone. 

A relative of a young protester in Tehran said that the family searched for their loved one “among a pile of hundreds of bodies” in a Tehran hospital on the evening of January 8. 

Relatives of victims, other informed sources, and verified videos describe the state’s heavily militarized response to the protests in Tehran on January 8, 9, and 10. One person said that on the evening of January 8, her sister was protesting in central Tehran when a friend of hers who was also protesting was shot in the head from behind. 

A person interviewed who knew Robina Aminian, a 23-year-old student, said that she was also shot in the head from behind while protesting in Tehran on January 8. Aminian’s family later identified her body among a large number of bodies in a Tehran hospital. Human Rights Watch also obtained information that a woman was shot in the throat on the evening of January 8 in Tehran as she was marching in front of her husband during the protests. 

A witness said that security forces “began a massacre” as crowds dispersed at protests they attended, and that they pointed their weapons at protesters as they left, including at their torsos, on at least two occasions, ordering them to “return home.” 

Human Rights Watch also reviewed two accounts sent to medical professionals outside Iran by staff in two hospitals in eastern Tehran. In one account, the source refers to a large number of people brought to the hospital with no vital signs. The other reported that nearly 40 bodies had been brought to their hospital on January 8. An activist outside Iran said that medical staff in two hospitals in Tehran had reported that about 500 dead bodies had been brought in by the evening of January 8.  

One geolocated video recorded at night from a building overlooking Police Station 126 in the Tehranpars neighborhood of the capital shows a security force member on a police station roof firing an automatic weapon, as well as other security force members shooting other firearms at protesters and, apparently, toward the person filming the scene. Throughout the 6-minute video, hundreds of shots were fired. 

Alborz Province 

Human Rights Watch received a 21-second video reportedly taken in Fardis, Alborz province. The Guardian reported on the same video it received from activists in Iran after crackdowns were reported in Fardis on January 8. The video shows two people lying on the ground; one has an injury just above his right eye and is bleeding profusely from his mouth. Someone helping him says: “He’s not breathing. Please hold on, for God’s sake, please hold on.” 

Kermanshah Province 

Human Rights Watch reviewed 12 short accounts by witnesses in Kermanshah sent to a journalist on the evening of January 8, who shared them with the organization, shortly before the internet shutdown, who shared them with the organization. The accounts draw a harrowing picture of security forces’ use of lethal force in several areas, including in Shahrak-e Moallem, Maskan, and Darrah Derejh neighborhoods, as well as in Gilan-e Gharb and Eslamabad-e Gharb cities. 

In one account, a witness said: “Kermanshah is a war zone with nonstop gunfire.” Two others described sounds of gunfire continuing for hours. One described a member of the security forces leaving a vehicle and “riddling protesters, mostly women and girls chanting at a crossroad, with bullets.” Another said that “security forces are massacring everyone.” 

Human Rights Watch also spoke with three people who had spoken with witnesses in Kermanshah. One said that, based on credible accounts from one hospital in Kermanshah city, nearly 300 people had been admitted on January 8 with no vital signs, most with signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and 41 people still alive with gunshot wounds. 

A video filmed in the morning and posted to X on January 8 and geolocated by GeoConfirmed shows large numbers of armed security forces rushing toward protesters in Maskan town, a neighborhood in Kermanshah city. One man holding a shotgun fires repeatedly toward cars in traffic as a vehicle swerves to avoid him. 

Razavi Khorasan Province

Witness accounts and verified videos indicate similar unlawful use of lethal force by security forces in the Razavi Khorasan province, including in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, resulting in large-scale killings.  

Human Rights Watch reviewed three short accounts by witnesses in Razavi Khorasan, sent to a medical professional on the evening of January 8, shortly before the internet shutdown. In one account, a medical professional in Mashhad reported direct knowledge of at least 15 deaths, including a woman as well as 5 men whose killings by gunfire he witnessed on one street alone on January 8. Another account reported that dozens of bodies had been taken to two hospitals in Mashhad in the afternoon of January 8. 

A third account revealed the scale of killings in the city of Mashhad: “They have killed so many, as if lambs have been slaughtered on the streets, the ground is drenched in blood. … [T]here were no more [shotgun] pellets after Thursday [January 8]; security forces only fired rifles.”

An account by a medical professional, obtained by a human rights organization and shared with Human Rights Watch, said that between about 7 p.m. on January 9 and 2 a.m. on January 10, about 150 bodies of killed protesters and bystanders were taken to one hospital alone in Mashhad. 

Human Rights Watch reviewed a video said to be taken in Mashhad that showed two men in black uniforms on a second-floor balcony. Researchers were not able to independently identify where it was filmed. One of the men in the video fires three times in the direction of protesters gathered outside the building, as seen by three flashes and loud bangs. 

Human Rights Watch consulted media forensic experts from Deepfakes Rapid Response Force, an initiative of the nongovernmental organization WITNESS, who found no significant indicators of artificial intelligence manipulation. But due to the slowdown effect that had already been added to the video, the results were inconclusive as to whether the video was otherwise modified. 

Other Provinces 

Human Rights Watch obtained information pointing to similar large-scale killings in Gilan, Mazandaran, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Markazi provinces. 

Two people from Gilan province said that their relatives reported that dozens had been killed during protests in small towns there, including around the town of Fuman. One person who had spoken to his family in Gilan province said: “My father knew between 15 to 20 people who were killed only in a small town in Gilan.” An account received by a medical professional and shared with Human Rights Watch stated that “security forces shot many dead in Rasht,” Gilan’s provincial capital.  

A witness described a heavy presence of security forces in Amol, Mazandaran province, on January 8 and hearing continuous gunfire in the evening. Two other accounts described a lethal response to protests in Amol as well as Sari and Babol, other towns in Mazandaran, with one reporting: “They have killed many [in Amol] but the news is not getting out.” 

A person Human Rights Watch interviewed who spoke with a witness in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province said that the security forces were using heavy machine guns, shotguns, and rifles against protesters. The witness said they saw 25 bodies at the governor’s compound in the provincial capital, Yasuj, on January 10, and many people with eye injuries from metal pellets. 

A witness said that the security forces cracked down on protesters in Mahallat, Markazi province on January 8 with tear gas and shotguns. She saw three people bleeding, including a boy under 18, who had been shot with pellets in their faces. The witness reported that two people killed that night included a 15 or 16-year-old boy who was shot three times while trying to climb the wall of the intelligence office. The other man was shot in the head.

Authorities’ Harassment of Victims’ Families 

The Iranian authorities have withheld bodies of victims, denied families the right to bury and mourn their loved ones in a dignified manner, and in some cases buried the bodies without the families’ knowledge or consent at locations demanded by officials. 

In one case, the relative of a young protester killed in Tehran on January 8 said that security forces coerced the family to bury their loved one in a cemetery far from her hometown to prevent a crowd from gathering at her funeral. 

Authorities have also coerced families to either make statements that their loved ones were members of the Basij forces and killed by protesters or to pay significant fees to receive the remains. 

Click to expand Image Hoang Thi Hong Thai outside the police interrogation room in Hanoi, April 2025. © Private

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese government has escalated arrests of perceived dissidents in the weeks before Vietnam’s 14th Communist Party Congress, which is scheduled to begin on January 19, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should end its intensifying campaign against its critics and release everyone imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their political views.

Most recently, Hanoi police arrested the blogger Hoang Thi Hong Thai on January 7 for comments she made on social media critical of the government, which garnered thousands of views. In late December 2025, courts convicted several other dissidents and imposed severe sentences.

“‘It’s that time again’ for escalating arrests and jailing prominent critics ahead of Vietnam’s Communist Party Congress,” said Patricia Gossman, senior associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Not only does the government block citizens from choosing their own leaders, but the authorities gag those they think might complain about the process.”

Vietnam’s party congress, held every five years since 1986, determines the country’s next national leaders. The process is undemocratic and lacks transparency. Citizens who are not party members are prohibited from publicly discussing candidates for the top positions.

Ahead of past party congresses, the police have often intensified arbitrary arrests and home detentions to silence influential critical voices, Human Rights Watch said.

Since the mid-2010s, Hoang Thi Hong Thai, a 45-year-old blogger and businesswoman, has published hundreds of comments on social media focusing on sociopolitical issues and expressing sympathy for rights activists who have suffered repression. As of January 2026, her Meta account had 120,000 followers.

In late April 2025, the police prohibited her from leaving Vietnam, summoned her and interrogated her about her writing, and threatened to arrest her. A few days later, she posted a message on social media apologizing for having no choice but to stop writing as she was being pressured by the police to choose between expressing her views or taking care of her autistic child. “Be a mother, or go to prison.” A few days later, she resumed writing on Meta.

In June, she published an online post criticizing articles 117 and 331 of Vietnam’s penal code for violating the right to freedom of speech enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution, and urged the National Assembly to amend or abolish these laws. Article 117 broadly prohibits “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Article 331 criminalizes acts deemed to “infringe upon the interests of the state” with up to seven years in prison.

The day before her arrest, Hoang Thi Hong Thai had written about the suffering that she and her children experienced during the 11 years since she began posting on social media: “The price we paid was not insignificant: My family was forced to move eight times. My children had to change schools four times. ‘Masked forces’ came to my house and wielded machetes to intimidate me. I was pepper-sprayed in the street. [Thugs] poured glue into my motorbike's lock three times. [Unknown men] caused an accident against me and I still have a scar on my back. Police approached my child (who is autistic) at school and told him that his mother was a ‘reactionary.’ My company's contracts with partners were abruptly terminated. My business was attacked. My family was subjected to economic siege and suffered emotional distress. Yet, during all these years, I never once deviated from [the principles of] justice and human rights in my writing.”

The Vietnamese authorities have also used article 117 to punish at least six other people in recent weeks.

On December 31, a court in Hanoi convicted and sentenced in absentia the prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, 56, to 17 years in prison for criticizing Vietnam’s Communist Party leaders on social media. A former political prisoner who suffered government retaliation for more than two decades, including two prison terms, he was allowed to leave Vietnam for Germany in June 2018 while serving a 15-year prison sentence. He has been living in exile ever since.

Also on December 31, another court in Hanoi convicted and sentenced in absentia the Berlin-based journalist Le Trung Khoa, 54, to 17 years in prison. Le Trung Khoa is the founder and editor-in-chief of Thoibao.de, an online Vietnamese language news outlet that publishes political news and commentary about Vietnam’s leaders. Three of Le Trung Khoa’s alleged “accomplices” include Do Van Nga, a political blogger, Huynh Bao Duc, and Pham Quang Thien, the former director of the Center for Technology and Multimedia Communications of the Government Portal. They were arrested in November and December.

The Vietnamese authorities accused Le Trung Khoa of posting videos and articles “that distorted and slandered the people’s government…and caused confusion.” The police alleged that Do Van Nga wrote nine of the articles and Pham Quang Thien one of them. They accused Huynh Bao Duc of helping edit and insert images into four videos. For these so-called “crimes,” the court sentenced Do Van Nga to seven, Huynh Bao Duc to six-and-a-half, and Pham Quang Thien to five-and-a-half years in prison.

On December 27, an appeal court in Da Nang upheld the 11-year prison sentence of Trinh Ba Phuong for allegedly possessing a sign critical of the Communist Party in his prison cell. His family and defense lawyer said that Trinh Ba Phuong had not been granted access to his original judgment by the time of the appeal trial, as required by law.

“As Vietnam seeks closer economic and security ties with other countries, outside governments should be clear in condemning Vietnam’s intensifying arrests of dissidents,” Gossman said. “The Vietnam government’s unrelenting suppression of dissent needs to be confronted, not ignored.”