Human rights abuses in Egypt were at the center of a conversation with executive director Ken Roth as the international Human Rights Watch NGO delivered its annual report on developments around the world. Roth stressed that it’s time for the global community to stop viewing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and…
Two reports on Tanzania, released separately by the Amnesty and Human Rights Watch NGOs, charge President John Magufuli’s government with stifling the free press, opposition politicians and NGOs. The reports follow several years of progressively harsher laws and penalties since Magufuli was elected in 2015. The country has seen routine…
News that Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hired a Washington DC firm to lobby the United States government on its behalf – and will spend $500,000 a year to do so – has raised a furor in the economically stricken southern African nation. The agreement, first reported by Politico…
In Zimbabwe, it has been more than three years since human rights activist Itai Dzamara was abducted at gunpoint. The next year it was his brother, Patson, who went missing. The difference between the two is that Patson came back but Itai never has. Their stories are achingly familiar to…
Ethiopia’s progress under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has moved at an impressive speed, but a more transparent, democratic and peaceful nation isn’t the reality in Ethiopia’s ethnic Somali region. That needs to change in the country’s eastern region, the Human Rights Watch NGO said Monday. “To break with the past,…
Mauritanian blogger Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir is now free, after an appeals court reviewed and overturned a death sentence imposed for publishing a 2014 article that challenged the use of religion to support social injustice. Mkhaitir was arrested almost four years ago after sharing his critical views on the way Islam…
In Mauritania, an appeals court is set to review on Wednesday the case of a young blogger sentenced to death after posting a 2014 article challenging the use of religion to support social injustice. Mohammed Ould Mkhaitir was arrested almost four years ago after sharing his critical views on the…
The Human Rights Watch organization strongly refutes Rwanda’s claim that it falsified an HRW report on government repression, and says the countering allegations in Rwanda’s own report are “largely fabricated” and misrepresented the NGO’s work. “The allegations by the National Commission for Human Rights show that Rwandan authorities are unwilling…
Zambia’s commitment to economic development through agribusiness has a dark side, and it’s bringing hardship to rural communities and smallholders who are forced from land where they have lived and farmed for decades. That’s according to a new Human Rights Watch report based on interviews with more than 130 affected…
Domitien Ndayizeye, the former president of Burundi, says he is taking seriously threats made against him by speakers for the Imbonerakure militia during a massive weekend rally in Bujumbura. Ndayizeye, who was succeeded by current President Pierre Nkurunziza in 2005, told Burundi’s independent Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) that the threats made…
Rwandan security forces have executed at least 37 suspected criminals without trial, including people found illegally crossing the border, despite the fact that they were all guilty of minor offenses. That’s according to a 40-page report released Thursday by an international human rights NGO. The “‘All Thieves Must Be Killed’:…
The European Union’s dicey migration deal with Turkey is causing untold misery among migrants and refugees trapped on Greek islands, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Wednesday. The HRW organization conducted research in May and June on the island of Lesbos that “documented the deteriorating mental health…
The decision to uphold the 2016 life-sentence conviction of Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad, for crimes against humanity committed during the 1980s was welcomed by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization on Thursday. The ruling by the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal “vindicates the persistence of the victims’ struggle…