An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Saturday sentenced in absentia 47 leaders and supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to 10 years imprisonment on terrorism charges. Judge Amjad Ali Shah of the Anti-Terrorism Court-1 in Rawalpindi sentenced the 47 on charges under 21-L of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. [...]

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged authorities in Iran to lift restrictions on internet and communication services, citing concerns that civilians are being left unable to access potentially lifesaving information in the midst of the armed conflict with the US and Israel. Tomiwa Ilori, senior technology researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated: “Shutting down the internet [...]

The UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI) announced on Friday that it has completed an in-country mission to Damascus as it prepares to brief the Council in Geneva on March 13. The Commission said it pressed Syria’s transitional authorities on accountability, institutional reform, and protections for civil society amid renewed regional [...]

A UN expert on Friday warned of the “gradual erosion of rights” of activists and human rights defenders in Sweden, with ongoing restrictions on their ability to exercise their freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.  Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner [...]

A United Nations expert warned Friday that air pollution is contributing to widespread human rights violations worldwide, calling on governments to take urgent action to reduce pollution and protect the right to a healthy environment. In a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy, and [...]

Amnesty International on Thursday called on Ethiopian authorities to investigate allegations of sexual violence and torture committed by fighters of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in the country’s Oromia region. According to Amnesty International, women and girls in the region have reportedly been subjected to serious abuses such as rape and other forms of sexual [...]

A group of UN experts warned Friday that the genocide in Gaza is spilling into the West Bank as a wider war engulfs the region. The experts argued that Israeli policy is designed to coerce Palestinians to leave both territories. The report also covered occupied East Jerusalem, where between 2021 and 2025 there have been [...]

Amnesty International on Friday condemned the recently adopted “Criminal Procedure Regulation for the Courts” (De Mahakumu Jazaai Osulnama) in Afghanistan, saying that the legislation violates the rights of women, girls and minority groups in the country. Commenting on the severity of human rights violations  effectively sanctioned by law under this new regulation, Amnesty International’s South Asia [...]

Hong Kong media tycoon and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai will not appeal his national security conviction or the accompanying 20-year prison sentence, according to one of his lawyers and a Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) report on Friday. Lai was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment last month for two counts of conspiring to collude [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called on Kyrgyz authorities to deliver “tangible safety measures” and meaningful access to justice for women and girls with disabilities, citing new survey data showing pervasive psychological, physical, sexual and economic abuse as well as continued barriers to reporting and protection. HRW frames these accounts as consistent with its [...]