Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday that the European Union Migration and Asylum Pact, set to come into force on Friday, creates harmful changes to the EU’s asylum system. Originally adopted in 2024, the pact introduces stricter regulations aimed at broadening applicant screening, increasing health and security checks, expediting examination procedures, and providing free counseling [...]

The Canadian federal government introduced a bill on Wednesday to regulate social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The bill seeks to require tech companies to act responsibly, regulating online harmful content. It also calls for establishment of a digital safety commission to oversee the measure’s implementation. Tabled at the House of Commons on Monday, [...]

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported on Thursday that, for the first time in a decade, global forced displacement decreased in 2025. However, the figures remain significantly high, as millions of people continue to endure prolonged exile and face dire humanitarian conditions without prospects for rebuilding their lives. According to a report ordered by High [...]

Azerbaijan is convicting exiled critics in absentia based on online activity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday, with sentences reaching up to 16 years in prison. HRW reviewed eight verdicts issued against Azerbaijani nationals living in Europe and the United States by the Baku Courts for Serious Crimes between July 2025 and March 2026. Prosecutors [...]

A UN expert on Wednesday called on the Colombian government to urgently address the ostracization faced by individuals suffering from leprosy, a neglected public health challenge that continues to affect thousands of people across the country, exacerbating poverty and social exclusion despite the availability of effective treatment. In remarking on the sheer gravity of the [...]

A new federal investigation has found that severe mismanagement at Camp East Montana immigration detention facility in El Paso, Texas, created unsafe living conditions that contributed to detainee suffering and deaths, while millions in taxpayer dollars were spent inefficiently. According to the report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), an arm of Congress, officials [...]

A UN report published on Tuesday found that Palestinian civilians are systematically subjected to human rights violations by both Israeli settlers and security forces and by Hamas. The report, conducted by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, found that both Israeli settlers and Hamas-affiliated forces are creating hostile and [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused Iran Tuesday of interfering with a short-wave radio frequency used to broadcast independent Farsi-language news into the country. RSF said interference recently appeared on the 15,500 kHz frequency used by a station it launched with Radio For Peace International to provide independent news coverage to Iranian audiences. The broadcasts were [...]

In an official press release, six governments announced Tuesday that they will impose sanctions on several persons enabling settler violence in the West Bank and occupied Palestinian lands. The sanctions are coming from Canada, France, New Zealand, the UK, Australia and Norway as a joint effort against a total of six individuals or groups who [...]

Pope Leo has issued what observers are calling the most direct papal acknowledgment yet of the Catholic Church’s historic role in legitimizing slavery, buried within a sweeping new encyclical on artificial intelligence and human dignity. In Magnifica Humanitas, a wide-ranging encyclical primarily addressing artificial intelligence and Catholic social doctrine, Pope Leo acknowledged both the Church’s [...]