Human Rights Watch, along with 17 rights organizations, on Monday published an open letter to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), urging it to renew and strengthen respective mandates for the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus and the Group of Independent Experts on the Situation of Human Rights in Belarus.  [...]

In a statement Friday, at the conclusion of her visit to Ireland, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, Astrid Peuntes Riaño, said Ireland should consider human rights in all decisions to protect the environment. She stated that “advances in environmental protections are evident, though these may be lost [...]

Amnesty International stated that the India AI Impact Summit 2026 did not secure concrete commitments to halt “destructive practices” by governments and technology companies, warning that the gathering failed to address the human rights risks posed by artificial intelligence meaningfully.  The organization pointed to the continued problematic deployment of AI tools in contexts such as [...]

Belarusian prisoner of conscience and opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich was released from imprisonment on Friday after suffering a stroke in January. Following his release, Amnesty International reiterated the need for justice for victims of human rights violations in Belarus. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe director, stated: “Releasing a prisoner of conscience after he has [...]

Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is set to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a crucial pre-trial hearing next week, a milestone in the long-running international case alleging crimes against humanity linked to Duterte’s administration’s controversial “war on drugs.” The hearing, which will take place from February 23 to 27, has been called [...]

North Korea opened the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea on February 20, signaling a tightening of control over youth and access to information. A key focus of the Party Congress was the current state of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “five-point strategy for building the party in the new era,” as [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday ordered the National Park Service (NPS) to stop renovations to a contested educational exhibit about slavery in Philadelphia. The NPS was ordered to maintain the status quo and preserve the displays that have not yet been returned, pending the outcome of an expected appeal by the [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday released a report warning that the rapid expansion of cyber-fraud compounds in Southeast Asia has resulted in widespread human rights abuses. The OHCHR described the phenomenon as a “wicked problem” requiring coordinated, human rights-based responses rather than enforcement-only crackdowns. According to the [...]

Child trafficking by gangs in Haiti has intensified amid escalating violence, and institutional collapse and has placed the country’s long-term stability in jeopardy, according to a report released on Friday by the UN’s human rights office. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) found that gangs are systematically recruiting, coercing, and [...]

The Taliban government in Afghanistan has quietly enacted a new penal code that allows husbands to physically punish their wives and children as long as it doesn’t cause broken bones or open wounds. The UK-based Afghan-run human rights organization Rawadari exposed the document, known as the “Criminal Procedure Code for Courts” (Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama), last [...]