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Sahel: Top UN Rights Official Visits Burkina Faso, Niger

Governments Should Protect Civilians, Investigate Abuses

(Bamako) – Governments in the Sahel should adopt measures to better protect civilians, ensure that counterterrorism operations respect rights, and fully investigate abuses by all sides, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations High…
Map of the Sahel region
Report

Dismantling Detention

Summary As the harmful effects of immigration detention become more widely known and the appropriateness of detaining migrants is increasingly questioned, governments are looking at alternatives to detention as more humane and rights-respecting…
News

Guantanamo Military Jury Condemns US Treatment of Detainee

Majid Khan Publicly Describes Torture at Sentencing Hearing

For the first time, a United States military commission jury urged clemency for a Guantanamo Bay detainee, Majid Khan, at a sentencing hearing. The jury’s recommendation, noting the severe abuse Khan endured while in detention, highlights the profound…
Photo of a man with black hair and a bear
News

Civilians in Mali’s Ségou Region at Risk

Alleged Killings by Military, Armed Islamist Groups Go Unpunished

On October 25, one day after the United Nations Security Council concluded a visit to Mali, eight people including a young boy and a man in his 80s were found dead in the village of N’Dola, in the country’s central Ségou region. A villager who helped…
People stand over three bodies wrapped in fabric
News

Mali: Alleged ‘Disappearances,’ Executions by Security Forces

UN Security Council Should Urge Investigations of Abuses by All Sides

(Bamako) – Malian authorities should investigate a spate of alleged summary executions, enforced disappearances, and incommunicado detentions by government security forces, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations Security Council, visiting…
Col. Assimi Goïta is sworn in as Mali’s interim president on June 7, 2021. On May 24, Goïta overthrew the previous coup government, led by Bah Ndaw.
News

A Step Toward Justice for Guantanamo Detainee

Despite US Federal Court Ruling, Continued Detention Likely

In a small step toward justice, a United States federal judge ruled this week that because Haroon Gul, an Afghan held at Guantanamo Bay, was not a member of Al-Qaeda or an associated force, the US had no legal basis for detaining him. The US…
Afghan refugee Roman Khan at a refugee camp near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar in September 2020, displays a photograph of his brother Asadullah Haroon, who is detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
News

When Targeted Killings Become ‘Tragic Mistakes’

Since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere have carried out targeted killings that frequently kill and injure civilians.

On September 17, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, gave an extraordinary news conference in which he admitted that the United States had killed an aid worker in Kabul and his family; McKenzie apologized, adding that…
The Pentagon, Washington, DC, United States.
News

End the 'War on Terror'

President Joe Biden was determined to end U.S. involvement in the Afghan "forever war" by the twentieth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He should also use the anniversary to announce a definitive end to the forever "global war on terror."…
Detainees apprehended after September 11, 2001 in a holding area under surveillance of the US military at Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba on January 11, 2002. 
News

Twenty Years On: The Legacy of 9/11

On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda hijackers turned four commercial airliners into instruments of terror, killing nearly 3,000 people and devastating the lives of thousands more. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States…
Bellevue Hospital memorial to victims of the World Trade Center attacks in New York, September 19, 2001. 
News

9/11 Unleashed a Global Storm of Human Rights Abuses

Victims of Attacks Still Await Justice

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were foremost a tragedy for the nearly 3,000 victims and their families. Lives were snuffed out, destinies forever changed, in acts of violence that elicited shock and outraged the world over. Many…
A man stands in the rubble after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower in New York City on September 11, 2001.
News

Niger: Surging Atrocities by Armed Islamist Groups

Over 420 Civilians Killed During Attacks, Massacres in 2021

(Bamako) – Islamist armed groups have killed over 420 civilians and driven tens of thousands from their homes during attacks in western Niger since January 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. The armed Islamist groups should cease all abuses against…
Villagers at a mass grave containing the remains of civilians killed during the March 21, 2021 attack by armed Islamist groups on villages in Tahoua region, Niger. More than 170 Tuareg villagers were killed in the attack, Niger’s worst atrocity in recent history.
News

Sri Lanka: Free Rights Activist

Release Hejaaz Hizbullah and Others Denied Due Process under Abusive Law

Joint Statement  July 28, 2021 (New York) – Human Rights Watch joined 10 other organizations on July 28, 2021 in issuing the following statement seeking the release of the lawyer and activist Hejaaz Hizbullah and others held under Sri Lanka’s…
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Video

The Investigation of Israeli Strikes on Gaza

(Jerusalem, July 27, 2021) – Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups carried out attacks during the May 2021 fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel that violated the laws of war and apparently amount to war crimes, Human Rights…
News

Revised UN Counterterrorism Strategy Has Stronger Rights Focus

Human Rights Monitoring Mechanism Still Urgently Needed

Human rights has long been the weakest of the four pillars of the 2006 United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, an international roadmap for addressing terrorist threats. Many UN member countries have quashed peaceful dissent, dangerously…
A wide view of the Security Council meeting on peace and security in Africa, with a focus on countering terrorism and extremism in Africa on March 3, 2020 
News

Senegal: New Counterterror Laws Threaten Rights

Pass Amendments to Protect Peaceful Dissent

(Nairobi) – Senegal’s new counterterrorism laws could punish political speech and peaceful protest as “terrorist acts,” target union leaders, and dangerously expand police surveillance powers, Human Rights Watch said today. The government and…
People flee teargas thrown by riot police during a protest against the proposed counterterrorism law and penal code reform at the Cheikh Anta Diop University campus in Dakar, Senegal, June 25, 2021.
News

Myanmar: Security Forces Arrest Defense Lawyers

Wrongful Prosecutions Violate Rights to Counsel, Fair Trial of Accused

(Bangkok) – Myanmar’s security forces have recently arbitrarily arrested at least six lawyers defending political prisoners, violating both the lawyers’ rights and those of their clients, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrests deprive defendants…
Police car is seen on a street during the military coup demonstration.
News

UN Should Ensure Independent Oversight of UN Counter-Terrorism Architecture

Critical need for UN Member States and Secretary-General to use new UN Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy to develop an independent oversight mechanism to assess and mitigate harm from counterterrorism measures

UN Member States and the Secretary-General should ensure that the 7th review of UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS), adopted today by the UN General Assembly, leads to robust, independent and impartial oversight of the impact of UN counter-…
A view of the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters, October 1, 2018.
News

Sri Lanka: Pardons a Meager Response to Abusive Law

Repeal Prevention of Terrorism Act to Meet International Commitments

(New York) – The Sri Lankan government’s pardon of 16 prisoners convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), however welcome, does not address the urgent need to repeal the draconian law, Human Rights Watch said today. The European…
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's addresses parliament in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 20, 2020.
News

UAE: Arbitrary Targeting of Pakistani Shia Residents

Enforced Disappearances, Incommunicado Detention, Groundless Deportation

(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates authorities have forcibly disappeared at least four Pakistani men since October 2020 and deported at least six others without explanation, apparently based solely on their religious background, Human Rights Watch said…
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