UN officials warned on Tuesday that the US suspension of foreign aid programs could lead to millions of women and girls facing life-threatening risks. Pio Smith, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, said the UNFPA will suspend services funded by US aid in South Asia. As a result, in Afghanistan, [...]

The city of Baltimore and three civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to overturn two executive orders issued in recent weeks by the administration of US President Donald Trump aimed at ending federal diversity programs. The lawsuit argues the orders violate constitutional protections and undermine efforts to promote equal opportunities. The lawsuit [...]

Human Rights Watch warned Monday that transgender youths may face difficulty in accessing gender-affirming care on Monday. Of particular concern to them was an executive order signed by President Trump on January 28 that would prohibit children from being “mutilated” and withdraw federal funding and support for other essential gender-affirming care. Human Rights Watch has [...]

US research and information center Media Matters for America charged Tuesday that President Donald Trump is trying to “throttle the free press,” arguing that large companies and news sources are going along with it. These new sources include Paramount Global, Meta, and ABC News. President Trump has already settled claims with both Meta and ABC [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned in a statement on Monday the four-month prison sentence against Yemeni freelance journalist Aziz Al-Ahmadi for criticizing a government’s decisions on social media. The organization viewed this prison sentence as a threat to free reporting in Yemen and a violation of the right to freedom of speech. CPJ [...]

A group of immigration advocacy groups initiated a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration over its executive order barring migrants the right to make asylum claims at the US-Mexico border. First, the plaintiffs maintained that the order violates administrative procedure laws because the administration failed to provide adequate reasoning for the implementation. Section 706 of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday that the official withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) raises concerns over access to justice for victims of serious human rights abuses. After serving notice a year ago, the three countries officially left ECOWAS on January 29. On 28 [...]

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and demanding a review of US involvement in the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). As of the time of writing, the Trump administration had yet [...]

China is infringing on Uyghurs’ right to freedom of movement by enforcing strict travel restrictions for those who travel, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Monday. While Beijing has relaxed a ban on Uyghurs travelling outside of China, allowing some to obtain passports, HRW China researcher Yalkun Uluyol states that “the Chinese [...]

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against the University of Michigan (UM) on Monday claiming that the university’s trespass ban on students’ peaceful pro-Palestine protests on campus violated their right to free speech. UM issued trespass warnings against several students involved in the lawsuit for [...]