Search Results for: Mauritania

The UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Gehad Madi, concluding a ten-day visit to Mauritania, commended the government’s legislative progress on Friday. However, he also warned that persistent human rights violations against migrants continue to place the country at odds with its international legal obligations. “I commend the Mauritanian Government for addressing [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday reported that Mauritanian security forces committed serious human rights violations between 2020 and early 2025 against west and central African migrants and asylum seekers. The 142-page report, titled “They Accused Me of Trying to Go to Europe: Migration Control Abuses and EU Externalization in Mauritania,” documents torture, rape, arbitrary [...]

Part two of this series can be found here: Return of the Torture Monsters Part II: Remembering Abu Ghraib. Part three of this series can be found here: Return of the Torture Monsters Part III: Force Drift Across Administrations. Pete Hegseth, confirmed by the Senate on January 24 as US President Donald Trump’s Secretary of [...]

The Cluster Munitions Coalition released its annual report on Monday detailing the use and transfer of these munitions alongside the policies and practices of countries regarding their use, and their implications on the international treaty banning cluster munitions. The 2024 report’s primary focus is on developments and challenges concerning the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the [...]

The official press agency of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic released a statement Saturday condemning France’s intention to invest in the Western Sahara region through the French Development Agency (AFD). According to Western Sahara authorities, France’s plans to invest in Moroccan development projects in the disputed Sahrawi regions are considered a provocative move. The statement [...]

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) revealed in a report on Tuesday that 8,542 people died or disappeared during migration in 2023. This represents a 20 percent increase in migrant deaths compared to 2022. More than one-third of migrants come from countries in conflict or with large refugee populations. The report stated that at [...]

Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga warned young people in the country on Thursday that the government will block all higher education scholarships from LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations. In his statement, Chimwenga denounced LGBTQ+ organizations’ scholarships as “unlawful” and a move by “foreign interests” to recruit less privileged students into “lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual activities.” He went [...]

Ugandan LGBTQIA+ activists filed a lawsuit Monday in the country’s Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of the Anti-Homosecuality Act, signed by the country’s president earlier this year, that restricts the rights of LGBTIA+ individuals and imposes harsh penalties, including execution, for certain same-sex acts.  A panel of five judges, led by Judge Richard Buteera, has [...]

President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni signed the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 into law Monday. The law authorizes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,”  which includes same-sex relations with a vulnerable person, a person under 18, or when the actor is HIV positive. The bill also sets a term of life in prison for anyone convicted [...]

The EU Monday endorsed Spain’s decision to change its stance on Western Sahara. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sent a letter to King Mohammed of Morocco on Friday expressing his support for Morocco’s plan to allow Western Sahara to be an autonomous region while being a part of the sovereign state of Morocco. Western Sahara [...]