Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan is experiencing severe human rights abuses, notably against women and ethnic minorities, amid socio-political and humanitarian crises. In this piece, the authors analyze the severe human rights challenges in Afghanistan, particularly focusing on the plight of women under the Taliban and historical patterns of gender inequality. They propose federalism as a [...]

Vietnamese Activist and YouTuber Nguyen Chi Tuyen was sentenced to five years in prison by a court in Hanoi on Thursday for “anti-state propaganda,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Tuyen—also known as Anh Chi—was prosecuted under Article 117 of the Penal Code, which prohibits the “making, storing, spreading information, materials, or items [...]

Russian-American dual citizen Ksenia Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony and fined three hundred thousand rubles ($3,400) in a closed session of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court.  Karelina was arrested on January 27 2024, and detained in a Yekaterinburg jail under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code which covers treason. Specifically, [...]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the storming of the UN Human Rights office in Yemen in a press release on Tuesday. The office in Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen, was stormed on August 3rd, after an earlier storming in June, resulting in the detainment of 11 UN personnel, [...]

Amnesty International urged Ivory Coast authorities to immediately provide the required support measures to the thousands of Ivorian citizens who have been evicted from their homes since January 2024, according to a report published on Wednesday. The NGO also called for the respect of human rights principles and the suspension of the mass evictions of [...]

The Federal Administrative Court of Germany ruled on Wednesday to suspend the ban imposed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) on COMPACT-Magazin GmbH, which is classified as a right-wing extremist company. This allows the company to continue its operations as a press and media outlet while the legal proceedings are ongoing. [...]

British Columbia’s Office of the Human Rights Commissioner reported on Wednesday that inequalities are baked into the western Canadian province’s justice, health and child welfare systems after taking a focused look at 10 key systems impacting human rights in the province. The report, titled “Rights in Focus: Lived Realities in B.C.” is the first in [...]

Amnesty International urged Bangladeshi authorities on Wednesday to immediately protect the country’s Hindu and other minority communities amid violence against minority communities. Amnesty International called for Bangladeshi authorities to conduct impartial and thorough investigations into the mob violence and crimes committed against minority communities, such as the Hindu and Ahmadi communities. The organization stated that [...]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made Islamophobic remarks in the majority of his speeches during the 2024 nationwide elections, according to a Wednesday report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).  Upon analysis of the 173 speeches he made over the course of the campaigning period, HRW found that 110 of them had derogatory comments aimed [...]

This week Hong Kong’s highest court delivered a landmark decision with profound implications for its judicial landscape, the preservation of fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law. But the ruling also demonstrates wider issues of CCP influence across the world. In this piece, I reflect on the unfolding news of UK judges sitting in Hong [...]