Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report Tuesday identifying Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Attacks are executed using modified commercial drones. The report compiles information from survivors, witnesses, and videos from Russian Telegram channels Belkis Wille, associate director for crisis, conflict and arms at Human Rights Watch, [...]

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report Wednesday declaring Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians in Kherson oblast to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. The commission claimed that roughly 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past year as a result of the systematic Russian drone attacks: Starting [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement highlighting concerning conditions of migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the UK government proposed that the country serve as a “return hub.” Return hubs are locations where asylum seekers whose claims had been rejected in other countries would be held while waiting to be returned to their countries [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, called on Thursday for the release of Grigory Melkonyants, a lawyer and one of the most famous experts on election legislation and process in Russia. The statement comes in response to the sentencing of Melkonyants to five years in [...]

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow fined Apple 10.5 million rubles (approximately $130,000) on Monday in three administrative charges of LGBTQA+ “propaganda,” and one charge of refusing to remove prohibited material. Under Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, LGBTQA+ “propaganda” is defined as a promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor expressed concern Wednesday over the conviction of journalist Rukhshona Khakimova, calling on the government of Tajikistan to release her and grant a fair retrial. Lawlor said: “Rukhshona Khakimova’s trial appears to have fallen short of international fair trial standards.” The special rapporteur argued [...]

Amnesty International (AI) published a statement Monday condemning TikTok’s failure to address the previously identified risks to youth’s mental health. AI reported TikTok’s responses to previous inquiries into implemented changes since a 2023 report. The responses denied the creation of user profiles from collected data and listed steps that were taken to protect youth on [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) alerted the public on Tuesday of a second case of spyware attack on a journalist and urged Italian authorities to investigate. CPJ’s Europe representative, Attila Mong, criticized the targeting of journalists and categorized it as “a pattern of surveillance aimed at intimidating and silencing investigative reporting.” Mong recognized these [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern on Monday over the suspension of the Iraqi political talk show Al-Haq Yuqal (The Truth Be Told), hosted by journalist Adnan Al-Taie, and urged the Iraqi authorities to restore the program. Iraqi authorities, citing “violations of public decency,” suspended the program for seven days and ordered past [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday criticized Polish legislation suspending the right to asylum applications for migrants crossing the border from Belarus. According to AI, the law effectively codifies the unlawful forced return of migrants by authorizing border guards to disregard asylum applications without properly considering a person’s individual’s circumstances. AI alleges that the legislation, enacted [...]