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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on January 12 that it will no longer ascribe an economic value to saving lives and improving public health when considering whether to curb harmful air pollutants.

After a seven-year legal ordeal, humanitarian workers wept with relief today when a court on the Greek island of Lesbos acquitted all 24 defendants who had been baselessly charged with felonies for saving lives at sea.

Ugandan authorities should immediately restore internet access and refrain from imposing blanket shutdowns that undermine fundamental rights and threaten election integrity.

(London, January 15, 2026) – Kazakh authorities should drop charges against 18 Kazakh activists who peacefully protested against Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists, from the Nagyz Atajurt Volunteers group, face up to 10 years in prison for exercising their freedom of expression. Thirteen are in pretrial detention, while the rest are under house arrest. The trial is expected to begin on January 21 in the city of Taldykorgan.

Syrian government forces and local Bedouin and Druze armed groups are responsible for grave abuses during clashes in Syria’s southern Sweida governorate in July 2025.

A new United Nations report about sexual violence related to Sri Lanka’s civil war is another step forward in the struggle for accountability for crimes under international law that were committed in Sri Lanka.

On February 12, Bangladesh is scheduled to hold its first general elections since the country’s August 2024 Monsoon revolution. But attacks on women, girls, and religious minorities are on the rise.

Last month, Azerbaijani police raided a venue in the capital Baku, known as a safe space for LGBT people, and detained over 100 people.

On January 12, 2026, days before Uganda’s national elections on January 15, the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations ordered at least 10 nongovernmental organizations to immediately cease their operations indefinitely. The suspended organizations include human rights, media, and election monitoring organizations.