Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned the public caning of two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province after they were convicted of same-sex relations under Islamic criminal law. Aceh, located on the northern tip of Sumatra island, is Indonesia’s only province with special autonomy to enforce qanun jinayat, a set of bylaws introduced in 2015 that criminalize [...]

The Israeli military’s extensive destruction of civilian property and agricultural land across southern Lebanon must be investigated as war crimes, Amnesty International said in a new research briefing released on Tuesday. The report, entitled “Nowhere to Return: Israel’s Extensive Destruction of Southern Lebanon,” documents the demolition of more than 10,000 civilian structures between October 2024 [...]

UN human rights experts on Monday condemned what they described as escalating repression against the Khmer Krom people in Vietnam, urging authorities to cease targeting minority communities through security laws, and to release those detained for peaceful activity. The experts reported that Khmer Krom rights defenders, including Theravada Buddhist monks, face systemic harassment and criminalization [...]

The Guinean military government on Saturday issued a decree resulting in the temporary suspension of the country’s three main opposition parties, alleging non-compliance with the requirements mandated by the Guinean Charter of Political Parties. The decree stipulates that the parties Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), Rally of the Guinean People (RPG), and the [...]

Amnesty International has condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of Jalal Labbad, who was accused of crimes allegedly committed when he was a minor. Bissan Fakih, Amnesty International’s Middle East campaigner, said: “Saudi Arabia’s execution of Jalal Labbad is deplorable and underscores the devastating toll of the authorities’ ruthless use of the death penalty in complete disregard [...]

A coalition of Texas voters backed by the National Redistricting Foundation filed a sweeping federal challenge late Saturday to House Bill 4, the mid-decade congressional map the Legislature approved just after midnight on August 23. The Second Supplemental Complaint, lodged before a three-judge panel, accuses state officials of intentionally dismantling performing majority-minority districts in Houston, [...]

The National Assembly of the autonomous Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) on Friday voted to call for a referendum on a federal court’s decision to ban the entity’s former president from holding office. In a late-night session, the assembly rejected the decision of BiH’s Central Election Commission to terminate Milorad Dodik’s mandate, declaring [...]

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.” [...]

India’s Supreme Court on Friday directed that canines picked up in the country’s National Capital Region (NCR) be sterilized, vaccinated, dewormed, and then released back to the localities from which they were taken, in line with the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023. A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NV Anjaria [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed concern on Wednesday over the abduction and detention of several journalists in Ethiopia. In its statement, the CPJ said it is “deeply alarmed” by the abduction of Ethiopian newspaper editor Yonas Amare as well as the detentions of journalist Khadar Mohamed Ismael and radio host Abdulsemed Mohammed. Several [...]