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Human Rights Watch Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau

May 19, 2022 The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada Langevin Block, 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A3 Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Human Rights Watch writes to you today to highlight the urgent need for action…
Fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces deploy around al-Sina’a prison in the Ghweran district of al-Hasakah, northeast Syria, on January 25, 2022, midway through the 10-day battle to recapture it from the Islamic State (ISIS). © 2022 AFP Photo via Getty Images
News

Human Rights Council Special Session on Ukraine

Human Rights Watch Oral Statement

34th Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council 12 May 2022 Human Rights Watch has documented grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian military forces in occupied areas of Ukraine, including summary…
News

Central African Republic: Abuses by Russia-Linked Forces

Killings, Torture of Civilians

(Nairobi) – Forces in the Central African Republic, whom witnesses identified as Russian, appear to have summarily executed, tortured, and beaten civilians since 2019, Human Rights Watch said today. National authorities, the country’s Special Criminal…
A UN peacekeeper alongside a member of Russian security forces and a member of Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s presidential guard in Bangui, December 27, 2020.
News

Ukraine: Russian Forces Fired On Civilian Vehicles

Civilians Killed Trying to Flee, Approaching Checkpoints

(Kyiv) – Russian forces have fired on civilian vehicles in three separate incidents in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, killing six civilians and wounding three, Human Rights Watch said today. In one case, they pulled a man from a van and…
Maksym Maksymenko’s shot-up car in Hostomel, Ukraine. Russian forces opened fire on the vehicle on February 28, 2022 while Maksym was trying to evacuate with his mother, mother-in-law, wife, and their toddler son. Maksym and his wife were wounded, his mother died.
News

Ukraine: Russian Forces’ Trail of Death in Bucha

Preserving Evidence Critical for War Crimes Prosecutions

Russian forces committed a litany of apparent war crimes during their occupation of Bucha, a town about 30 kilometers northwest of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, from March 4 to 31, 2022, Human Rights Watch said in a detailed report released today. Human…
Women watch and embrace each other as bodies are exhumed from a mass grave by the authorities
News

Ukraine: Apparent POW Abuse Would Be War Crime

Video Appears to Show Fighters Shooting Russian POWs

(New York) – Ukraine should ensure an effective investigation into alleged abuse by Ukrainian fighters of Russian prisoners of war (POWs), Human Rights Watch said today. If confirmed, the beating and shooting of captured combatants in their legs would…
News

Canada Should Mark Ramadan by Helping Bring Home Unlawfully Detained Muslims

Four Dozen Canadians Languish in Squalid Camps

April marks the beginning of Ramadan for Muslims worldwide, a month of fasting, patience, and compassion that many here in Canada will mark surrounded by friends and family. But for some Canadian-Muslims, there is little to celebrate given the…
A girl stands in front of a chainlink fence
News

Ukraine: Civilians in Besieged Chernihiv Need Access to Essentials

Facilitate Humanitarian Aid, Safe Evacuations, and Access to Water, Electricity

Civilians in Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv have had limited access to running water, electricity, or heat since early March 2022, when Russian forces escalated their assault on the city, Human Rights Watch said today. Since at least March 24…
A residential building in Chernihiv, Ukraine damaged by Russian aerial attack on March 3, 2022.
News

Ukraine: Russia Uses Banned Antipersonnel Landmines

Landmines Threaten Civilian Lives, Prolong Recovery

(Berlin, March 29, 2022) – Russian forces fighting in Ukraine have used banned antipersonnel mines in the eastern Kharkiv region, Human Rights Watch said today.  The antipersonnel mines were located by Ukrainian explosive ordnance disposal…
POM-3 antipersonnel mines that failed to deploy and remnants of its delivery canister found by deminers in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on or around March 28.
News

Ukraine: Ensure Safe Passage, Aid for Mariupol Civilians

Residents Describe Harsh Conditions During Russian Attack

Thirty-two civilians who managed to escape southeastern Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol last week told Human Rights Watch how they struggled to survive in below-freezing temperatures as Russian forces relentlessly attacked the city. They described…
A woman and her family try to get a signal over medium wave radio
News

Ukraine: Cluster Munitions Repeatedly Used on Mykolaiv

Civilians Killed, Injured in Multiple Attacks That May Amount to War Crimes

(Berlin) – Russian forces repeatedly fired cluster munition rockets into the densely populated city of Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, during separate attacks on March 7, 11, and 13, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. An attack on March 13…
News

Ukraine: Mariupol Theater Hit by Russian Attack Sheltered Hundreds

Serious Concerns for Civilians Remaining in the City

Update: Local officials in Mariupol reported on March 25, 2022, that about 300 people died during the March 16 attack on the theater. Human Rights Watch has not been able to verify the casualty figures. A mother and son who sheltered in the theater…
Satellite image recorded on March 14
News

Ukraine: Respect the Rights of Prisoners of War

Published Footage of Captured Soldiers Violates Geneva Conventions

(Berlin) – Ukrainian authorities should stop posting on social media and messaging apps videos of captured Russian soldiers that expose them to public curiosity, in particular those that show them being humiliated or intimidated, Human Rights Watch said…
News

Ukraine: Russian Air-Dropped Bombs Hit Residential Area

Dozens Killed and Wounded in Apparent War Crime in Chernihiv

Russian aircraft dropped multiple unguided bombs simultaneously on March 3, 2022, that hit an intersection in a residential neighborhood of Chernihiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack, at about 12:15 p.m.…
A residential building in Chernihiv, Ukraine damaged by Russian aerial attack on March 3, 2022.
News

Ukraine: Russian Assault Kills Fleeing Civilians

Continuous Shelling of Evacuation Route Suggests Laws of War Violations

For several hours on March 6, 2022, Russian forces bombarded an intersection on a road that hundreds of civilians were using to flee the Russian army’s advance in northern Ukraine to Kyiv, Human Rights Watch said today. The repeated nature of the…
Ukrainian soldiers help a woman in the town of Irpin, Ukraine on March 6.
News

Ukraine: Mariupol Residents Trapped by Russian Assault

Facilitate Civilians’ Access to Safety; Urgently Restore Water, Electricity

Civilians in Ukraine’s southeastern coastal city of Mariupol have not had access to running water, electricity, or heat since March 2, 2022 when Russian forces surrounded the city, as part of a larger offensive, Human Rights Watch said today. Acute…
Smoke rises after shelling by Russian forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 4, 2022.
News

Ukraine: Cluster Munitions Launched Into Kharkiv Neighborhoods

Russian Forces’ Indiscriminate Attacks May Amount to War Crimes

Russian forces fired cluster munitions into at least three residential areas in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on February 28, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. These attacks killed at least three civilians. Interviews with 2 witnesses…
Cluster munitions attacks in Kharkiv on February 28, 2022.
News

Russia: Arbitrary Detentions of Anti-War Protesters

Mass Arrests of Demonstrators, Activists; Police Brutality

Update: Between February 24 and February 28, according to figures collected by OVD-Info, an independent human rights project working to protect freedom of assembly in Russia, authorities arbitrarily detained at least 5982 anti-war protestors across…
People attend an anti-war protest, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
News

Ukraine: Russian Cluster Munition Hits Hospital

4 Civilians Killed, 10 Wounded

(Berlin) – A Russian ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition struck just outside a hospital in Vuhledar, a town in the Ukrainian government-controlled Donetska region, on February 24, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack killed four…
Damage from a cluster munition attack outside the Central City Hospital in Vuhledar.
Report

No One is Spared

Summary The older woman told Human Rights Watch that the first time government soldiers and militias came to her village in South Sudan in 2015, all civilians were subject to attack. “The old men and women who couldn’t run were killed,” she said. “…

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