Black History Month

External Resources

Saudi Arabia: Football Fans Imprisoned for Chant

A Saudi court sentenced 12 football fans to from six months up to a year in prison on March 27, 2024, for peacefully chanting during a January football match.

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Eswatini Authorities Target Activist’s Widow

On March 27, immigration officials at the Ngwenya Border post between South Africa and Eswatini stopped Tanele Maseko, widow of murdered human rights lawyer and opposition activist Thulani Maseko, along with her two young children and her helper while they were trying to enter Eswatini.

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Indonesian Army Apologizes After Torture Video Goes Viral

The Indonesian military apologized to “all Papuan people” and detained 13 soldiers from an elite battalion in West Java who had tortured a Papuan man in Gome, Central Papua.

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Repression is Being Exported

Governments should not be allowed to abuse human rights in other countries

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Mali: Army, Wagner Group Atrocities Against Civilians

Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023.

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Interview: How Michigan Law Blocks Youth’s Abortion Access

The US state of Michigan may protect abortion rights in its constitution, but a key group remains in the lurch – people younger than 18. Parental consent to obtain an abortion is mandatory for Michigan’s minors, and those who cannot or don’t want to involve a parent are forced to defend their decision before a judge, an onerous process called a “judicial bypass.” Amy Braunschweiger speaks with Kylee Sunderlin, a Michigan judicial bypass lawyer with reproductive justice organization If/When/How.

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Michigan: Parental Consent Law for Abortion Harms Young People

A Michigan law that requires a young person to obtain parental consent to have an abortion threatens the health and safety of youth in the state and violates their human rights, according to a new report released today.

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Haiti: Six Urgent Steps to Overcome Crisis

United Nations Security Council members should address the deteriorating situation in Haiti by keeping their promise to the Haitian people and urgently acting to restore basic security. Human Rights Watch has recommended six key measures to allow for democratic governance, human rights protections, and access to essential goods and services.

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Syrians Face Dire Conditions in Turkish-Occupied ‘Safe Zone’

Turkish authorities are deporting or otherwise pressuring thousands of Syrians to leave the country to Tel Abyad, a remote Turkish-occupied district of northern Syria where humanitarian conditions are dire.

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Thailand: Promptly Pass Same-Sex Marriage Bill

The Thai parliament’s upper house should promptly pass a same-sex marriage bill that the lower house approved by an overwhelming majority on March 27, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Thailand would become the first country in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia, to recognize same-sex relationships.

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Türkiye: Stonewalling on Charges for Officials in Earthquake Deaths

he absence of criminal proceedings against municipal officials in deaths stemming from the February 6, 2023 earthquakes, is deeply troubling. There has been little action despite evidence that officials authorized and approved defective buildings that collapsed, killing over 53,000 people.

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Yemen: Houthis Sentence Men to Death, Flogging

A Houthi court sentenced 32 men, 9 of them to death, on January 23, 2024 in an unfair mass trial based on dubious charges of “sodomy."

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Hong Kongers Are Purging the Evidence of Their Lost Freedom

Last week, the city enacted a draconian security law — its second serious legislative assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms since 2020. Known as Article 23, the new law criminalizes such vague behavior as the possession of information that is “directly or indirectly useful to an external force.”

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Interview: Tanzania Has New President, Same Old Problems

Repression flourished under Tanzania’s late president, John Magufuli, as Tito Magoti, a lawyer and activist who was arrested in 2019 and detained without trial for over a year, well knows. Now free and living under a new president, Magoti, continues his human rights work. HRW's Oryem Nyeko, spoke to Magoti about his views on President Suluhu Hassan’s reforms and what has – and hasn’t – changed in Tanzania since she became president.

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Brazil: Join Regional Treaty on Environment, Defenders

The administration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should rally legislators to approve the Escazú Agreement, more than X Brazilian and international organizations said today in a letter to Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha. The regional agreement protects the rights to access to information and public participation in decision-making processes on environmental matters and contains specific provisions for protecting environmental human rights defenders.

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