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Click to expand Image People attend the Budapest Pride March in Budapest, Hungary, June 27, 2026. © 2026 Marton Monus/Reuters Hungary’s new government has taken an important step toward dismantling a key discriminatory legacy of the Orbán era—the legal targeting of LGBT people. The job is not finished, however. The gov
Click to expand Image Olga Sibireva. © Private Those reporting on Russia are rarely surprised these days to learn that another critic of the Russian government is being prosecuted over alleged involvement with a “foreign undesirable organization.” But even in Russia, the case against Olga Sibireva rises to new heights
Click to expand Image Opposition politician Edwin Sifuna speaks during a rally in Nyandiwo, Homa Bay county, Kenya, on August 16, 2026. © 2026 Linda Mwananchi Media (Nairobi) – Criminal gangs in Kenya have carried out a spate of violent attacks targeting civil society and opposition gatherings ahead of the 2027 electio
Click to expand Image An Air China Boeing 777-300 at Beijing Capital International Airport, April 10, 2025. © 2025 Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images (New York) – A new Chinese government decree expands the discretion of administrative authorities to arbitrarily bar people from leaving China, violating the internationally
Click to expand Image The navigation bridge of a sunken vessel in the Port of Mokha, Yemen, the day after an attack by the Houthis on the city, August 10, 2026. © 2026 Khaled Ziad/AFP via Getty Images (Beirut) – The Houthis’ latest attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden most likely amount to
Click to expand Image The Minsk District Court, Belarus, August 4, 2021. © 2021 Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Minsk City Court sentenced human rights lawyer Dmitri Laevski on September 9 to three years in prison for “aiding an extremist organization” and “discrediting” Belarus. Laevski has represented high-profil
Click to expand Image The Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, June 20, 2022. © 2022 Anjum Naveed/AP Photo (New York) – The Punjab provincial assembly in Pakistan on August 31, 2026, passed a bill that would threaten the right to a fair trial in counterterrorism proceedings, Human Rights Watch said today.
Click to expand Image Anar Mammadli, human rights defender and election monitor, Baku, Azerbaijan, February 6, 2024. © 2024 Hannah Wagner/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo A court in Azerbaijan on September 7 sentenced the prominent human rights defender and election monitor Anar Mammadli to 13 years in prison following a
Click to expand Image A person's mouth covered with tape bearing a message “no to executions” in Iran, in Paris in France, January 31, 2026. © 2026 Daniel Perron/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Within a span of only five months, between March 18 and the end of August 2026, Iran’s authorities announced the executions of
Click to expand Image King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. © 2014 Razaawais141/Wikimedia Without warning, Pakistan has directed all medical and dental institutions to expel Afghan students and arrange to send them back to Afghanistan. It is the latest move by Pakistani authorities to summarily deport Afgha
Click to expand Image Naoero, formerly Nauru, island, March 2023. © 2023 mtcurado/Getty Images (Sydney) – The Australian government has caused thousands of people seeking asylum to suffer grave abuses under its offshore detention system, which began in September 2001, Human Rights Watch said today. Over the past 25 yea
Click to expand Image Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator at KontraS, attending a protest in Bandar Lampung, Sumatra on February 5, 2026. © 2026 Project Multatuli/Adrian Mulya A military court in Jakarta reduced the prison sentences and overturned the dishonorable discharge of two of the four military personnel convicted
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