The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Thursday expressed concern about the rise in violence and racist hate crimes targeting migrants in South Africa, urging authorities to implement urgent measures to address this issue. CERD reported a range of attacks perpetrated against migrants, including killings, displacement, abductions, looting, destruction of property, [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday condemned the deadly gang attack that occurred in Haiti’s Kenscoff commune earlier this week, leaving at least 47 dead, 22 injured, and dozens more apparently abducted. According to the human rights organization, many of those attacked were people seeking refuge in a church following violence. “Sadly, we are once again witnessing [...]

Two UN peacekeepers on Monday were killed in an ambush in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei state, in an attack that the organization has stated may constitute a war crime under international law. The attack was the latest in a region shaken by renewed military conflict. The attack comes amid a re-inflammation of civil conflict in [...]

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday sanctioned three organizations and two individuals, accusing UK-based Palestine Action, the Italy-based Autistici Inventati, and the Masar Badil network of ties to “violent far-left extremism.” The designations were made under Executive Order 13224, the post-9/11 authority allowing the US to block the property of [...]

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Türkiye’s detention of Mehmet Osman Kavala since 2017 is unlawful in nature, finding that the country’s government has deprived him of his rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, fair trial, and liberty. A majority judges criticized the Turkish domestic courts for not “even attempting to [...]

The growing use of autonomous and artificial intelligence (AI)-guided weapons on the battlefield prompted the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday to call for a legally binding international agreement governing their manufacture and deployment. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric warned of the increasingly rapid development and [...]

Amnesty International reported on Monday that international failure to ensure children’s online safety from Big Tech harms is connected to a lack of youth perspectives in policy-making spaces. Classifying existing solutions as performative, the organization pointed out that increasing surveillance, data tracking, and censorship is a major threat to their safety. Children face “risks such [...]

The New Zealand government announced on Monday that it has introduced a bill to ban social media for youth under 16. The law would require social media platforms and AI companions to verify users’ ages before providing services. The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill would require an age restriction on [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that armed groups in Colombia have increased their recruitment of children, citing what it described as an ineffective government response to the growing problem. In a report titled “‘I Thought I’d Never See My Mom Again’: Recruitment and Use of Children by Colombian Armed Groups,” HRW examined the factors [...]

Amnesty International on Thursday called on Ecuadorian authorities to drop all legal and financial penalties against activists behind the 2023 Yasuní Referendum, warning that the looming fines are part of a broader crackdown on civic space and dissent in the country. The Yasuní Referendum was a national ballot initiative to bar oil drilling within Yasuní [...]