Syrian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad, a judge announced on Saturday. In a statement to the state-run news agency SANA (affiliated with Syria’s Ministry of Information), the investigating judge said that the charges concern 2011 repression in Daraa, and include “premeditated murder, torture leading to death, and deprivation [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday announced that the trial of 13 law enforcement officers accused of torture and involvement in death in custody is an opportunity for justice over rights abuses in Türkiye. An indictment was issued on February 20, charging “13 members of the gendarmerie of various ranks” with “torture resulting in Ahmet [...]

Amnesty International on Monday released a report finding that X (formerly Twitter) allowed for the spread of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV) against LGBTQ+ people in Poland. The report charges that Elon Musk relaxed X’s Community Guidelines regarding the content allowed on the platform after taking ownership. Consequently, X has become “awash with content constituting TfGBV,” [...]

UN human rights experts expressed deep concern on Thursday over continuing violence against the Druze population in the Sweida region of Syria. Since the outbreak of fighting in mid-July, the UN experts said they have received reports of “killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, looting, destruction of property, and sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls.” [...]

Amnesty International on Monday issued a statement condemning proposed changes to the Civil Society Organization (CSO) law in Ethiopia, urging that the draft amendment should not enter into force. Amnesty International stated that the approval of the draft amendments would “move the country towards a total closure of civic space.” The Organizations of Civil Societies [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor on Monday called on the Chinese authorities to uphold the rights of human rights defenders who have been imprisoned. Lawlor said she was “disturbed” by the allegations that seven imprisoned human rights defenders in China were subject to torture, refused medical aid, and denied access to [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called for the release of two imprisoned activists, Can Thi Theu and Le Dinh Luong, who are suffering from serious medical issues. According to HRW, Can Thi Theu and Le Dinh Luong have not received sufficient medical assistance in prison. Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW, declared that [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday stated that the Taliban have increased their human rights violations four years after their takeover of Afghanistan. The rights group also warned that the forced returns of Afghans to the country is intensifying the humanitarian crisis. Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at HRW, said that the four-year mark of Taliban [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday urged accountability for the death of Syrian photojournalist Sari Majid Al-Shoufi while reporting on armed combat near the Syrian city of Sweida. Al-Shoufi was a photojournalist for Suwayda 24, a Druze-focused website. Rayan Marouf, the editor-in-chief of the website, said Al-Shoufi was reporting from a site in Taara, [...]

Amnesty International on Monday called on Syria to investigate the abductions of Alawite women and girls, and bring perpetrators to justice. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said that the Syrian authorities must “act swiftly and transparently in locating missing women and girls, bringing perpetrators to justice, and providing affected families with timely, gender-sensitive and [...]