The Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria called on the new authorities in Damascus to protect mass grave sites and relevant documentation, in a statement issued on Friday. The statement released Friday comes after the CoI visited former prisons and detention centers in the country, including the notorious Sednaya prison and Military Intelligence [...]

The Taliban has shut down at least 12 media outlets across Afghanistan in 2024 alone, according to a Friday report by Reporters Without Borders. The closures include both public and private channels, with the latest being the Kabul-based Arezo TV, whose closure on December 4 has intensified concerns over mounting restrictions on media operations in [...]

In a significant move, the Swiss parliament has officially recognized the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against Iraq’s Yazidi community as constituting an act of genocide. The motion, passed on Tuesday, condemns the systematic expulsion, rape and murder of Yazidis, and the destruction of their cultural sites. The majority of the Swiss National [...]

A joint report released Wednesday by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed a pattern of arbitrary detention in South Sudan as well as human rights abuses committed by both government security forces and organized armed groups. The report, which covers the [...]

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its annual reports on human rights violations by the United States and the United Kingdom on Tuesday. Iran’s Parliament authorized the creation of the annual reports in 2012. The report on the US said the country has “continued to violate human rights on an international level,” using human rights [...]

The UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found in a landmark ruling Tuesday that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and London’s Metropolitan Police Service broke the law and breached the human rights of two Northern Ireland journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. The ruling pertained to a covert surveillance operation authorized by a Northern [...]

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Sunday addressed the urgent need for immediate humanitarian assistance and support for the Syrian people in the wake of the Assad regime’s fall upon his arrival in Damascus. In a statement underscoring the profound changes and the challenges ahead, Pedersen stressed that the international community must [...]

In a move that has sparked widespread outcry, Niger’s military authorities have arrested Moussa Tchangari, a well-known civil society leader and critic of the government, Amnesty International reported Monday. Tchangari, secretary general of Citizens’ Alternative Spaces (Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, AEC), was taken from his home in Niamey on December 3 by three men in plain [...]

UN experts issued a strong rebuke on Monday against a new Taliban policy banning female students from medical training in Afghanistan, which has been denounced for further eroding the rights of women and girls in the country. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett emphasized, “Barring female students from education at medical institutions will [...]

In a landmark 300-page report released on Thursday, Amnesty International has accused Israeli authorities of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The report outlines three specific acts that allegedly violate the Genocide Convention, including the killing of Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions intended to bring about their physical destruction. [...]