Secondary menu
Feed aggregator
Civilians Starving in South Sudan’s Conflict Areas
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report on South Sudan offers a damning indictment of the immense suffering to civilians caused by the country’s warring parties. The report, issued on April 28, warns that the situation is worse than anticipated, with 7.8 million people in desperate need of food aid.
It notes that 73,000 people are facing starvation and death in Upper Nile and Jonglei states, where fighting between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition has escalated since 2025. Parts of both states are also at risk of famine.
Malnutrition rates in children paint a brutal picture. Around 2.2 million children under five, including in Abiemnhom, are projected to be acutely malnourished; without urgent nutrition treatment, these children are at risk of lifelong physical and cognitive harm or death from starvation. Journalists hoping to shed light on the stories behind these numbers recently shared with Human Rights Watch photos of malnourished children from Akobo, Jonglei state.
The humanitarian crisis is driven by the warring parties’ actions.
Both sides have reportedly committed unlawful killings, sexual assault including rapes of civilians, as well as looted and burned civilian property. Government bombardments have hit crucial infrastructure, notably hospitals.
Since late 2025, the military have issued multiple evacuation orders across Upper Nile and Jonglei states, several of which are unlawful in their sweeping scope, while the opposition has issued at least three. On March 6, the military ordered civilians, UN personnel, and aid organizations to evacuate Akobo County, including Akobo town, forcing aid groups and many of the 270,000 people in the area to flee.
These orders have been accompanied by deliberate steps by the government to block access to aid in opposition-controlled areas, along with coercive administrative measures.
South Sudan’s partners have increasingly condemned the government’s actions, but those condemnations need to be accompanied by sanctions against those deliberately obstructing aid as well as increased financial support for aid. UN Security Council members should warn both South Sudan’s government and opposition that if they don’t allow civilians immediate and safe access to aid, they would consider sanctions or other accountability measures in response.
South Sudan’s leaders and opposition should remember that obstructing aid, enabling a famine, and targeting civilians with violence could be prosecuted as international crimes, and that they can and will be held to account.
US Seeks to Lift Sanctions on Eritrea
Reports emerged in April that the US government was considering resetting diplomatic ties with Eritrea. Doing so could include lifting sanctions the United States imposed on the country’s ruling party and military in 2021 for committing serious abuses during the armed conflict in neighboring Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Easing sanctions now—in the absence of accountability for grave violations both in Eritrea and in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, and clear human rights benchmarks—would signal tolerance for unchecked abuses in the future.
Eritrea, which sits along the Red Sea corridor, has taken on increased importance amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East and threats from the Houthi armed group in Yemen to shut down maritime traffic along the Red Sea. The United States is not alone in their move. The European Union and Canada have cautiously explored engagement, often tied to development or migration-related concerns. Yet, transactional diplomacy that ignores human rights abuses risks further entrenching impunity for decades of widespread violations.
Since 1993, Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki has maintained one of the most repressive governments in the world. Its policy of indefinite national service, continues to trap generations of Eritreans in abusive conditions amounting to forced labor, while punishing draft evaders and their families. The government has dismantled independent media and has detained many Eritreans—notably perceived critics, religious leaders, and journalists—incommunicado without due process, often for years or decades. This year marks 25 years since Eritrea locked up 11 government officials and 10 journalists who publicly called for basic reforms.
In Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Eritrean forces committed massacres, widespread sexual violence, abductions, and pillage during the conflict from 2020 to 2022. Still today, Eritrean forces commit abuses in parts of Tigray they occupy.
The United States should not consider lifting sanctions until Eritrea has taken major steps toward accountability for violations and demonstrated a clear break from abusive past and present practices. All countries should support renewing the United Nations Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on Eritrea in July, which is one of the few tools available to document the abuses by Eritrean officials and forces, and to one day offer hope to the victims and their families for accountability.
US: Courts Consider Access to Mifepristone via Telehealth
The US Supreme Court paused on Monday an order by the country’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that had inflicted a serious blow to abortion access nationwide. While the immediate danger was temporarily halted, the episode underscores a looming threat to abortion access posed by ongoing litigation in the United States.
On May 1, the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that abortion providers could not remotely prescribe mifepristone and mail it to patients until a lawsuit brought by the state of Louisiana is resolved. Mifepristone is a safe and effective medication widely used for abortion and miscarriage care which has been available via telehealth and mail in the United States since 2023. Providers briefly halted the shipment of medication until the Supreme Court intervened on Monday. The high court reinstated telehealth access to the medication until May 11, with plans to provide further guidance by that date.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion in 2023, requests for abortion care via telehealth have doubled. A 2026 report by the Guttmacher Institute found people in states with abortion bans increasingly access abortions via telehealth, often from providers based in other states with shield laws protecting those who assist with abortion services.
Women in the United States already face real health consequences, including preventable deaths, due to abortion care being denied or delayed. Ending telehealth provision would greatly worsen this crisis, especially for women and girls with limited financial resources, or with disabilities, and those living in states with abortion bans or in rural areas.
Louisiana, 1 of 13 US states with a complete abortion ban, brought the case against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arguing that allowing mifepristone to be mailed undermined the state’s ban. A district court had paused the case in April pending an FDA review.
Meanwhile, five additional states are pursuing two separate federal lawsuits challenging the use of mifepristone, despite more than two decades of safe use in the United States and nearly 100 other countries.
The lower court ruling was a serious setback for reproductive rights in the United States; another blow in an ongoing series of attacks on autonomy and access to essential healthcare. The question of how much further reproductive rights will be rolled back in the Unites States is now before the courts.
Uzbekistan Convicts Karakalpak Lawyer – Again
When an Uzbekistan court on May 1 found the Karakalpak lawyer and blogger Dauletmurat Tazhimuratov guilty of committing “actions disrupting the work of a penal institution,” sentencing him to five years in prison, he reportedly had a wry grin on his face.
However unjust, Tazhimuratov surely expected such an outcome.
Tazhimuratov was already in prison, serving a 16-year sentence on politically motivated charges related to his alleged role in July 2022 protests that took place in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan’s autonomous republic. The court combined his sentences to total his prison time at 18 and a half years.
At his latest trial, Uzbek authorities appear to have violated Tazhimuratov’s rights as a defendant. He was not represented by a lawyer of his own choosing. His brother, Renat Tazhimuratov, told Human Rights Wach that his family had not been informed of the proceedings in advance and several hearings had already taken place before they learned of the ongoing trial. Renat also said that he tried to attend a hearing on April 10, but was not allowed into the courtroom.
This is not the first time Uzbek authorities have violated Tazhimuratov’s human rights. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in November 2024, found that Tazhimuratov’s detention in connection with the Karakalpakstan protests is arbitrary, concluding that the appropriate response is to “release Mr. Tazhimuratov immediately” and provide him reparations. The government continues to blatantly ignore this decision.
Authorities have also failed to adequately respond to Tazhimuratov’s allegations that he has been ill-treated and tortured while in prison.
Why the authorities decided to criminally prosecute Tazhimuratov for his behavior in prison yet turned a blind eye to his multiple allegations of mistreatment in prison is clear. After his latest conviction, Uzbekistan’s criminal justice system now considers Tazhimuratov an “especially dangerous repeat offender,” which means he will be subject to more restrictive prison conditions than before.
To quell the July 2022 protests in Karakalpakstan, security forces used excessive force, including unjustified lethal force. Although 21 people were killed, there has been almost no accountability for the deaths and grave injuries that occurred.
There’s been no accountability for Tazhimuratov’s prolonged, arbitrary detention, either. Releasing Tazhimuratov from his unjust imprisonment is the place to start. Ensuring that no one is unjustly locked up for exercising their right to freedom of expression is the ideal.
Georgia’s New Database Raises Serious Rights Concerns
Georgia’s new centralized health database law took effect on May 1, creating serious risks of privacy violations and discrimination, and potentially deterring people from seeking health care and mental health services.
Parliament adopted the legislative package on December 9, 2025, mandating the establishment of a unified database covering people with mental health conditions and those diagnosed with alcohol or drug dependence.
Framed as a tool to streamline licensing procedures and support law-enforcement, the law grants the Internal Affairs Ministry direct access to the database. Authorities can use the data to deny or revoke firearm licenses and, in certain domestic violence cases, to inform decisions on restraining orders or detention.
The law places particular emphasis on people enrolled in opioid substitution therapy. It provides that enrollment in substitution treatment, or an increase in dosage, automatically suspends a person’s driving privileges for two weeks.
Crucially, key safeguards have been left to secondary legislation that has yet to be made public. The law does not clearly define what data will be collected, how long it will be retained, who will have access, or how individuals can correct or delete their information.
The new framework significantly weakens patient confidentiality protections and threatens the right to health. Previously, individuals seeking voluntary, self-funded treatment for drug use could remain anonymous, with disclosure of their identity permitted only by court order. Under the new system, law enforcement may access such information without judicial oversight. The law also fails to clarify whether the database will include only substitution therapy or extend to all forms of substance use treatment and support.
These changes risk creating serious barriers to accessing care. Expanding law enforcement access to sensitive medical data, particularly without clear safeguards, can deter people from seeking services, especially for mental health or other stigmatized conditions.
Georgia’s public defender says that the amendments may conflict with constitutional protections, including the rights to privacy, equality, property, and freedom to work. They are also unlikely to be compatible with Georgia’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and other international standards.
By enabling broad processing of highly sensitive personal data and expanding police access to medical histories, the database risks facilitating stigma, discrimination, and violations of multiple rights. Georgian authorities should suspend implementation of the database until robust, rights-respecting safeguards are adopted.
No acompañados y sin representación
Wilfredo, un niño venezolano de 10 años, compareció solo ante un tribunal de inmigración hace dos semanas, obligado a defenderse frente a su posible deportación a Ecuador mientras su madre permanecía detenida en un centro de ICE. Como miles de niños y niñas en procedimientos de deportación, Wilfredo no cuenta con representación legal.
“Tenía miedo porque era la primera vez que iba a un tribunal”, declaró a Univisión.
La administración Trump provocó una nueva ola de caos para los niños y niñas en procesos migratorios en febrero de 2025 al ordenar a organizaciones sin fines de lucro que prestan servicios legales que suspendieran su labor, previamente financiada mediante contratos federales. Esta medida supuso la paralización del Programa para Niños No Acompañados, que proporcionaba representación legal a más de 26.000 menores en procedimientos de inmigración en Estados Unidos.
En enero, tres expertos independientes de las Naciones Unidas expresaron su preocupación por esta medida y afirmaron: “Negar a los niños y niñas su derecho a la representación legal y obligarlos a enfrentarse a complejos procedimientos migratorios sin asistencia jurídica constituye una grave violación de sus derechos”.
El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos (DHS) inició un procedimiento de deportación contra Wilfredo, originario de Venezuela, el 25 de marzo de 2026. Tanto él como su madre tenían una solicitud de asilo pendiente y tenían autorización para permanecer en Estados Unidos mientras se resolvía su caso.
Sin representación legal, los menores deben enfrentarse solos a procedimientos migratorios complejos y de alto riesgo, y tienen muchas más probabilidades de ser deportados. Las consecuencias pueden ser devastadoras. Este riesgo se agrava especialmente cuando el DHS intenta expulsar a menores a terceros países sin sus padres y donde no tienen familiares ni personas responsables de su cuidado.
Estados Unidos debería revocar la orden emitida en febrero de 2025 para garantizar el debido proceso de niños y niñas migrantes no acompañados en procedimientos de deportación.
Missed Opportunity on Tanzania Election Violence
The commission established to investigate violence during and after Tanzania’s October 2025 general elections submitted its findings to President Samia Suluhu Hassan on April 23, but it missed an opportunity to establish the full truth and lay the foundation for accountability.
The commission chair, Mohamed Chande Othman, said the commission documented 518 deaths across 11 regions, noting that the figure may not be conclusive, and could not confirm media reports of mass graves. The full report has not been made public.
The commission reported allegations by victims and witnesses that security officers shot, injured, or killed people in their homes and shops. These findings are consistent with Human Rights Watch reporting that some people killed or injured by police officers were not involved in protests at all. But Othman did not meaningfully assess the lawfulness of the security forces’ conduct or patterns of alleged unlawful use of force. He said this issue warrants further “investigation” but did not specify what such an inquiry would entail.
The commission made some positive recommendations, including ensuring access to free medical services for injured people left with disabilities and allocating resources for psychosocial or mental health support. It also recommended promoting mechanisms for the government to better address citizens’ concerns and strengthen the playing field for all political actors.
In response, President Hassan said the government would establish a body to investigate the alleged planning, coordinating, and financing of the protests. But she did not address the security forces’ conduct, despite the seriousness of allegations and expressions of concern by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Tanzania’s international partners should make it clear that the Tanzanian authorities have not yet delivered a much-needed, thorough investigation into the role of the security forces in the election-related violence and should maintain pressure on the authorities to deliver justice and accountability.
Any forthcoming investigations should explicitly investigate the role of security forces and reports of mass graves, operate independently and transparently, and include international or regional expertise to strengthen public trust. More immediately, the government should make the commission’s full report public.
Unaccompanied and Unrepresented
Wilfredo, a 10-year-old child from Venezuela, appeared in immigration court on his own two weeks ago, forced to fight his deportation to Ecuador while his mother remained imprisoned in an ICE facility. Like thousands of children in removal proceedings, Wilfredo does not have an attorney.
“I was afraid because it was my first time ever going to a court,” he told Univision.
The Trump administration manufactured a new wave of chaos for children in immigration proceedings in February 2025 by ordering nonprofit legal service providers to halt work that was previously funded under federal contracts. This move had the effect of suspending the Unaccompanied Children Program, a program that provided legal representation to over 26,000 children in US immigration proceedings.
In January, three independent United Nations experts expressed alarm at the administration’s move and asserted: “Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children.”
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated deportation proceedings against Wilfredo, who is from Venezuela, on March 25, 2026. Wilfredo and his mother had a pending asylum application and had permission to live in the United States pending a decision on their asylum applications.
Without legal representation, children are left to face complex, high-stakes immigration proceedings alone and are substantially more likely to be ordered deported. The consequences of deportation for a child can be devastating. This risk is particularly salient when DHS attempts to expel children to third countries without their parents and where they have no family or guardians.
The United States should reverse its February 2025 order to help ensure due process for unaccompanied migrant children in removal proceedings.
Sweden: Parties Should State Position on Israel, Palestine
(Stockholm) – Sweden’s political parties should clarify their positions in advance of the September 2026 general election on how they intend to implement international court rulings on Israel and Palestine, seven civil society organizations said in a questionnaire sent to political groups. The organizations expressed concern over Israel’s breaches of human rights and the laws of war, which continue to cause immense suffering and destruction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon, and the broader region.
The questionnaire is a joint initiative by Act Swedish Church, Amnesty Sweden, Diakonia, Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation, The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam Sweden.
“There is broad political consensus in Sweden that international law should be respected, but little has been done to ensure that Israeli authorities comply with it”, said Måns Molander, Nordic director at Human Rights Watch. “We are now asking parties to clarify how they intend to translate that principle into concrete action, so that people can make informed choices when they go to the polls.”
The questionnaire is grounded in three landmark international legal developments:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion of July 2024, which found Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory to be illegal under international law and marred by serious abuses, including apartheid, laying out obligations for all states to ensure Israel’s compliance;The ICJ’s advisory opinion of October 2025, which affirmed Israel’s “‘unconditional” obligation to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and dismissed allegations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main UN relief agency providing basic services to Palestinians, as baseless;The November 2024 arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.The ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion found Israel’s occupation to be illegal, and said that Israel should cease all new settlement activity and dismantle existing settlements. The Israeli government has done the opposite. Earlier in April, the Israeli cabinet approved 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank: the highest number ever approved at one time. The current government has approved 103 settlements since it took office in 2022, nearly doubling the number of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The court also made clear that all countries are obligated to bar aid or assistance to Israel’s occupation, including by banning trade with illegal settlements. Spain has already introduced a national ban while Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Belgium have committed to follow suit. However, the EU and Sweden have failed to act, allowing businesses to continue profiting from or contributing to ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
In April, the Swedish government presented a proposal for the EU to increase tariffs on imports from settlements, but that wouldn’t satisfy the obligation to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the [OPT],” as laid out by the court. A complete ban is needed.
Sweden was one of the largest and most long-term core donors to UNRWA, but ended its funding in December 2024 and has not reinstated it, unlike the other regular donors, which reinstated support during 2024. Sweden has cited concerns regarding the organization’s operational ability in light of Israel’s decision to ban it from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and allegations against the organization that were dismissed as unfounded by the court’s advisory opinion in October 2025.
Since February 2025, seeking to shield US and Israeli officials from facing ICC charges, the US government has used an executive order to impose sanctions on the ICC prosecutor, the two deputy prosecutors, eight ICC judges, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, and three leading Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
“Support for the rules-based international order should also require ICC members, including Sweden, to show they are steadfast in their own obligations under the Rome Statute,” Molander said. “This should include affirming Sweden’s commitment to enforce all ICC arrest warrants, including those issued against Netanyahu and Gallant.
Malaysia: New Refugee Registration System Raises Concerns
(Bangkok) – The Malaysian government began a refugee registration system in January 2026 that has raised protection, rights, and privacy concerns for the hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The new initiative, Dokumen Pendaftaran Pelarian (Refugee Registration Document, DPP), aims to replace the current registration system managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The new system comes amid Malaysia’s intensified enforcement of its immigration laws, including frequent raids and indefinite detention, as well as longstanding public hostility toward migrants and UNHCR. Refugees and migrants described living in precarious circumstances, under fear of surveillance, arrest, deportation, and exploitation.
“Malaysia’s new registration system lacks adequate safeguards for privacy and refugee rights, allowing increased surveillance and control of people who have been forced to flee their homelands,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Malaysian authorities should work with the UN refugee agency to improve procedures for asylum seekers.”
In July 2025, Malaysia’s Home Ministry announced an initiative to improve data about refugees as mandated by the National Security Council. Officials have stated that prioritizing national security and working to curb fake documentation became paramount in the face of recent cuts to third-country resettlement, particularly by the US.
More than 210,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR, about 190,000 of them from Myanmar, including 125,000 ethnic Rohingya. The remainder are from 50 other countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Palestine.
For decades, UNHCR has processed asylum requests in Malaysia and provided successful applicants with cards recognizing them as refugees, but the cards do not grant legal status.
Myanmar refugees living in Malaysia said the growing raids and arrests have come to define their daily lives. “I live in fear,” said a Myanmar activist in Kuala Lumpur. “They’ll arrest anyone. They detain people with UNHCR cards. They say, ‘The card is just a card, we can break it any time we want.’”
Malaysia lacks a legal framework for determining refugee status and providing recognition and protection to asylum seekers, and has not ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. Malaysian law makes all irregular entry and stay in the country a criminal offense.
The new registration system, developed by MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia’s national applied research and development center, will collect biometrics and other information for a comprehensive refugee database. In January, in response to a question in parliament, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that the Refugee Registration Document will be the sole mechanism for managing refugees and their only recognized documentation, while UNHCR’s role will be limited to resettlement.
Malaysian authorities have not indicated whether the DPP system will comply with basic standards for refugee status determination, such as nondiscrimination, criteria grounded in international law, procedural integrity, strict confidentiality, data protection, and access to appeal, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch wrote the Home Affairs Ministry about the DPP system on April 21 but did not receive a reply.
The registration program is being launched as part of Malaysia’s National Security Council (MKN) Directive No. 23, an unpublished policy that allows refugees registered with UNHCR to stay in Malaysia on humanitarian grounds. The government revised the policy in 2023 ostensibly to grant refugees the right to work. Its confidentiality, however, has reinforced uncertainty around its content and implementation. SUHAKAM, Malaysia’s human rights commission, called the “inexplicably” private directive “a too late and too little approach,” rather than a sustainable and rights-based solution for refugees.
The authorities should make Directive No. 23 public and suspend the DPP program until a legal framework for refugee protection is in place, with transparency and international safeguards, Human Rights Watch said.
In January, the authorities began rolling out the registration program for Rohingya refugees in immigration detention centers. The first group was moved to a processing center in Bidor, Perak, for interviews. Two refugee registration committees will review interview findings to determine their refugee status. “Only individuals confirmed as refugees by the refugee registration committee will be issued an identity document known as the Refugee Registration Document,” the home minister said.
About 21,000 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are held in immigration detention centers, with no legal limit on the length of immigration detention. The government has denied UNHCR access to immigration detention centers since 2019, leaving the agency unable to review asylum claims or protect detainees registered as refugees.
DPP cards will allow refugees to stay in Malaysia “while awaiting resettlement,” according to the immigration director-general. But only 1,970 refugees were resettled from Malaysia in 2025, down from 8,627 in 2024 following the US government’s refugee ban.
The Malaysian government previously attempted to introduce a registration system for refugees in 2022, the Tracking Refugees Information System (TRIS), which granted MyRC ID cards. Refugees told Human Rights Watch they were pushed to register with the promise of being able to work and live legally, but that MyRC cardholders continued to be arrested and deported.
Anti-migrant policies and practices as well as xenophobic rhetoric have been on the rise in Malaysia since the Covid-19 pandemic, with surging raids, arrests, and summary deportation. Malaysian authorities arrested about 92,000 irregular migrants in 2025 compared with 12,000 in 2021.
Officials called 2025 the “year of enforcement,” carrying out frequent large-scale raids on migrant workplaces and residences alongside a “migrant repatriation program,” and stated that operations on “hot spots” would intensify in 2026. Police, immigration, and customs officers possess broad powers to search, arrest, and interrogate people.
The recent crackdown is in part a response to growing numbers of Myanmar nationals who have fled to Malaysia since the February 2021 military coup, among the millions who have escaped to neighboring countries.
Many undocumented migrants limit their movement and outside contacts. One activist cut back her work supporting other Myanmar nationals facing arrest or medical crises after receiving suspicious requests for help that she believed to be setups for arrest or harassment.
Reports of extortion and threats against refugees are also growing. The authorities demand bribes from refugees to avoid arrest during raids or to get released before being deported or sent to an immigration detention center. Refugee community leaders told Human Rights Watch that amounts range from 100 to 7,000 ringgit (US$25 to $1,750). Refugees’ lack of legal status leaves them vulnerable to scams, forced and unpaid labor, exploitation, and sexual assault.
Several refugees said they were either unaware or uncertain about the DPP system. “It doesn’t seem safe,” said one who had read about it online. “It doesn’t seem legitimate.”
The principles of data protection require informing people about what personal data is collected, by whom, why, for how long it will be held, and what measures have been taken to keep it safe. Malaysia should make clear how its collection of biometric data will comply with these data protection safeguards.
Malaysia should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, pass refugee legislation consistent with the convention, and establish safe and fair asylum procedures and access to basic rights, Human Rights Watch said. It should amend the Immigration Act and relevant legislation to remove criminal penalties for irregular entry and stay and other abusive practices toward refugees and migrants.
Canada, Australia, and other countries should increase resettlement opportunities for refugees in Malaysia, as well as creating pathways for alternative visas to work or study.
“As long as it’s not safe for refugees to return home, Malaysia should ensure they can work, go to school, and move freely,” Bauchner said. “Until the government does this, no state-run registration system will be able to provide genuine protection.”
China: ‘Harmonization Plan’ Erasing Tibetan Language
(New York) – The Chinese government is imposing Chinese-medium education and ideological indoctrination on kindergarten children in its efforts to force Tibetans to assimilate, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 72-page report, “Start with the Youngest Children: China Uses Preschools to ‘Integrate’ Tibetans,” documents that a 2021 Ministry of Education directive—the Children’s Speech Harmonization plan—mandates the use of standard Mandarin Chinese for all preschool instruction in ethnic minority areas. While the kindergartens in theory can still offer supplementary sessions for minority children in their own language, minorities no longer have the legal authority to do so. By severely limiting Tibetan-language education in early childhood, a stage critical for language acquisition and identity formation, the Chinese government is speeding up its erasure of Tibetan language and culture.
May 4, 2026 “Start with the Youngest Children”“The Chinese government, by targeting kindergarteners, is accelerating its campaign to deprive Tibetan children of their mother tongue and their culture and identity,” said Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This policy is not about education quality, but about forcibly assimilating Tibetans at an early age into a Han-centric national identity.”
The report is based on an analysis of Chinese laws and policy documents, and academic and media sources. Human Rights Watch also interviewed seven Tibetans and scholars with recent, direct knowledge of conditions in Tibetan areas, where access is extremely restricted.
Human Rights Watch found that many Tibetan children emerge from preschool unable or unwilling to speak Tibetan, even with family members. Parents reported that within weeks or months of starting kindergarten, children switch almost entirely to Chinese.
The 2021 Harmonization Plan is the culmination of decades-long policy shifts reducing mother-tongue education for minorities. Since the 1984 Regional National Autonomy Law, China has moved in five stages to mandatory Chinese-instruction at progressively younger ages. While this process had been completed in primary and secondary schools, kindergartens were long the last setting where Tibetan could still be used as a main language of instruction.
In 2021, the Education Ministry ordered all kindergartens in minority areas to use the “national common language,” or standard Chinese, for all teaching and care activities. Official references to “bilingual education” disappeared from policy documents. A series of legal rulings, education laws, and government policies eliminated remaining legal and policy space for minority language education while embedding political and cultural indoctrination throughout the school system, including at the preschool level. This culminated in the 2026 Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, which imposes legal penalties for anyone deemed to “obstruct” the learning and use of Chinese.
Although preschool is not compulsory in China, Human Rights Watch found that in Tibetan areas it has become obligatory in practice. Primary schools in urban areas increasingly require proof of kindergarten attendance for enrollment, leaving parents little choice but to send their children to Chinese-language preschools.
The authorities also require kindergartens to encourage or pressure parents and children to speak Chinese in their homes and to submit videos of them doing so. Government-appointed examiners have tested preschoolers’ Mandarin skills through interviews and observation, despite regulations that prohibit examinations and other academic pressure in kindergartens.
The language policy is paired with intensified political and cultural indoctrination. Preschool curriculums in Tibetan areas increasingly emphasize “patriotic education,” loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, and identification as members of the “Chinese nation.” Children are taught to celebrate Han Chinese festivals, recite Chinese classics, sing patriotic songs, and participate in activities glorifying the military and revolutionary history. Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan cultural practices—core elements of cultural and ethnic identities—are absent from the curriculum.
The accelerating language loss among ever younger Tibetans has profound cultural consequences, Human Rights Watch said. These include weakening communication between children and elders, altering family dynamics, reduced transmission of religious and cultural knowledge, and the growing perception among children that Tibetan language and identity are inferior.
China’s policies contravene its obligations under international human rights law, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees children belonging to minorities the right to use their own language and obligates states to ensure education respects children’s cultural identity.
The Chinese government should reverse policies that mandate Chinese-medium education in preschools, restore genuine bilingual education options, and end political indoctrination in early childhood settings, Human Rights Watch said. Foreign governments and the UN should also press the Chinese government to comply with its international obligations and to allow independent access to Tibetan areas and schools.
“Language loss on the scale taking place in Tibet is not accidental – it is Chinese government policy,” Wang said. “Unless China’s practices change, an entire generation of Tibetan children will grow up cut off from their own language, culture, and heritage.”
Selected Quotes:
“Education must penetrate the blood and reach into the soul; it must be grasped from an early age, starting in kindergarten. We must do a good job with patriotic education, planting the seeds of love for China deep in every child’s heart, and ensuring that the core socialist values take root and grow in the minds of the next generation. All ethnic groups must teach children to develop a sense of belonging to the Chinese nation, so they do not only identify with their own ethnicity, but first and foremost recognize themselves as part of the Chinese nation.”
– Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, in a speech at the Central Nationalities Work Conference on September 28, 2014.
“This is not only about not teaching the Tibetan language. … It is carefully done to manage the way children think and believe.… The problem is that the kindergarten platform is designed in favor of the Han Chinese nationality - the way you talk, the topic, how to recognize objects, any knowledge that is introduced. Not even a whiff of the Tibetan way of thinking is there. The result is that when the children come out of kindergarten at age 6, even if both parents are Tibetan, the children think that they are Chinese.… In a decade or two, maybe the culture will die, and be only in a museum.”
– Tibetan official involved in cultural policy implementation, interviewed by Human Rights Watch in mid-2025.
“Even though she is still able to understand it [Tibetan], she only answers in Chinese. After some time, she managed to give me some simple (single word) answers in Tibetan, but it was obvious she was making a great effort to do so…. There are two preschools in the town, and the mother chose the one where Tibetan language is not completely banned: the children are only spoken to in Chinese, but they are allowed to speak Tibetan in the playground.”
– Scholar who specializes in linguistics, interviewed in writing by Human Rights Watch on March 5 and 6, 2025.
“All kids below 10 speak Chinese to each other. They do not speak Tibetan to each other. If you force them to, they speak Tibetan, but how well depends on the parents. It’s a lost cause – and it’s happened in one generation.”
– Tibetan Studies scholar, interviewed by Human Rights Watch via text message on October 10, 2025.
Pages
- « first
- ‹ previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4