An alarming rise in abductions, sexual violence, and attacks on civilians in South Sudan prompted renewed condemnation from the United Nations on Friday. Officials warned that the scale and persistence of these violations may amount to grave breaches of human rights. According to the quarterly brief released by the United Nations Mission to South Sudan [...]
The Africa deputy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday expressed concern over the arrest of well-known government critic Sarah Bireete in Uganda ahead of the country’s upcoming elections. Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz stated: “Sarah Bireete’s arrest is a demonstration of the Uganda government’s continuing intolerance of dissent. The Ugandan authorities should release Bireete, drop all [...]
UN human rights experts on Friday called on Serbia to end attacks and intimidation against journalists, and urgently address what is described as a deteriorating environment for media freedom in the country. The experts warned that the pattern of harassment, smear campaigns, physical assaults, doxxing, and online threats has become “systemic,” placing Serbian journalists at [...]
The parliament of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of Denmark, narrowly voted on Wednesday to reform its decades-old abortion law, approving access to abortion “on request” up to the end of the twelfth week of pregnancy. The legislative change, passed by a razor-thin margin of 17 votes to 16, marks a historic shift for [...]
Human Rights Watch on Friday issued a warning that growing irregularities, political interference and security pressures threaten to compromise the credibility and inclusiveness of the upcoming general elections in the Central African Republic (CAR), scheduled for December 28. The warning comes against a backdrop of political manoeuvring in the CAR. In a 2023 constitutional referendum, [...]
The Tokyo High Court on Friday issued the final pending appellate decision in Japan’s nationwide same-sex marriage litigation, holding that the country’s statutory framework limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples does not violate the Constitution of Japan. The court dismissed the plaintiff’s claims of breach of constitutional guarantees to equality and individual dignity. It rejected their [...]
