News Release
December 8, 2025

Bulgaria: Delayed Coal Phaseout Fuels Health Harm

Bulgaria’s delayed decommissioning of coal-fired power plants contributes to dangerous air pollution, risks breaching new air quality standards, and is slowing down the country’s transition away from fossil fuels.

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December 4, 2025 | News Release

Georgia: Repressive Laws Effectively Criminalize Peaceful Protests

(Berlin, December 4, 2025) – Georgian authorities have adopted a series of laws that unjustifiably interfere with the right to peaceful assembly and are being used to suppress dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. Combined with abusive policing and steep fines, these measures violate Georgians’ right to peaceful protest, making dissent increasingly risky and leaving critics vulnerable to punitive measures.

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Children and women run among a cloud of dust at the village of El Gel, in Ethiopia’s Somali region, on January 12, 2023. The last five rainy seasons since the end of 2020 have failed, triggering the worst drought in four decades in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

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