Luis Arce, from the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS, in Spanish), the party of former President Evo Morales, won the October 18 presidential election by wide margin. Arce received the presidential sash from Jeanine Áñez, who became interim…

President Jair Bolsonaro tried to sabotage public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19, but the Supreme Court, Congress, and governors upheld policies to protect Brazilians from the disease. Bolsonaro’s administration has…

The peace accord in 2016 between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government ended a 52-year armed conflict and brought an initial decline in violence. But conflict-related violence has since taken new forms, and serious abuses…

Human rights violations—including torture, enforced disappearances, abuses against migrants, extrajudicial killings, and attacks on independent journalists and human rights defenders—have continued under President Andrés Manuel L…

Venezuela is facing a severe humanitarian emergency, with millions unable to access basic healthcare and adequate nutrition. Limited access to safe water in homes and healthcare centers has contributed to the spread of Covid-19. In September, a fact-…

In 2020, Lebanon endured multiple crises, including a massive explosion in Beirut’s port, an economic collapse, rising political instability, and the Covid-19 global pandemic, all of which endangered residents’ basic rights. The Lebanese…

Kuwaiti authorities continue to use provisions in the constitution, the national security law, and the country’s cybercrime law to restrict free speech and prosecute dissidents, particularly focusing on comments made on social media. Once a…

In March 2020, Jordan declared a state of emergency in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, granting the prime minister sweeping powers to rule by decree and curtail basic rights. Prime Minister Omar Razzaz pledged to carry it out to the “…

Israeli authorities in 2020 systematically repressed and discriminated against Palestinians in ways that far exceeded the security justifications they often provided. For a 13th consecutive year, the government enforced a generalized travel ban on…

Arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings of demonstrators by Iraqi security forces in late 2019 and into 2020 led to government resignations and the nomination of a new prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, in May 2020. Despite…

Iranian authorities continued to repress their own people. The country’s security and intelligence apparatus, in partnership with Iran’s judiciary, harshly cracked down on dissent, including through excessive and lethal force against…

Egyptians in 2020 continued to live under the harsh authoritarian grip of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government. Tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists and human rights defenders, remain imprisoned on politically…

The human rights situation in Bahrain did not improve in 2020. There are 27 individuals currently on death row, of whom 25 are at imminent risk of execution. The government has put six people to death since it ended a moratorium on executions in 2017.…

Zimbabwe’s human rights situation continued to decline in 2020 under Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency. Unidentified assailants, suspected to be state security agents, abducted and tortured more than 70 critics of the …

Algerian authorities continued repressing the “Hirak,” a pro-reform protest movement that pushed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign in April 2019. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, opposed by the Hirak, won a presidential election held in December…

The Covid-19 pandemic and later renewed hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh dominated events in Armenia. A Russia-brokered truce ended six weeks of fighting on November 10, with Armenia ceding control over several territories to Azerbaijan and without…

Hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh renewed at the end of September, dominating events in Azerbaijan for the rest of 2020. All parties to the conflict committed violations of international humanitarian law. The Azerbaijani military carried out attacks using…

The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) continued to target those perceived as a threat to the government during 2020. Several high-profile government critics were arrested or threatened. Authorities failed to conduct credible investigations into the…

A 2019 peace deal between the government and 14 armed groups collapsed as a rebel coalition, created in December 2020, launched attacks against major towns outside of the capital, Bangui. The coalition, called the Coalition of Patriots for Change (…

Former President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose tenure was marked by widespread abuses, died in June, days after Évariste Ndayishimiye took power in Burundi following the May 2020 presidential elections. However, the serious human rights situation in the…