Tunisian human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine was released from prison after a ruling from the country’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday, AFP and Jeune Afrique reported. Despite the UN’s demand for her immediate and unconditional release on February 5, she is still under investigation for other charges.  The 75-year-old activist began a hunger strike in [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the Egyptian government to release arbitrarily detained human rights activists currently awaiting “unlawful” prosecution. The charges brought against them include terrorism, disseminating false news, and involvement in anti-government protests. According to Amnesty International, Egyptian security forces “disappeared” around 59 people since December 2024 for posting and sharing social media [...]

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened Monday to take Google to court if its map feature continues to show US-based users the label “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.” President Donald Trump’s first day in office concluded with an executive order renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America.” Trump decreed on [...]

Sudan paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday ambushed and attacked White Nile state villages including Al-Kadaris and Al-Khalwat, leaving hundreds of civilian dead. The news was announced in a statement by Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese group of legal practitioners dedicated to providing urgent legal support and addressing human rights violations in Sudan. Emergency [...]

Cambodian lawmakers unanimously passed a revised law on Tuesday that toughens penalties for anyone who denies atrocities, including genocide, by the former Khmer Rouge regime. According to the government, the legislation aims to prevent history from repeating itself, to promote remembrance of Cambodia’s past, and to provide justice to victims. The draft legislation, first approved [...]

Brazilian Attorney General Paulo Gonet Branco formally charged former President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday with attempting a coup following his loss in the country’s 2022 presidential elections. The Federal Public Ministry of Brazil forwarded complaints to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) against Bolsonaro and 33 others. Gonet Branco charged the accused with “acts against the [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday urged the world’s governments to lift sanctions against Syria. The group maintained that the sanctions, imposed by the US, the EU and the UK on the former Assad regime, hinder reconstruction efforts, the restoration of critical services, and protection of human rights. Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at HRW, [...]

Tarek Rabie Safi, a Palestinian medical and ambulance worker who had been detained in an Israeli jail, said in a video released by Reuters on Monday that he was abused and subjected to poor living conditions while in prison. In his statements, Saifi alleged that the prisoners were subject to physical torture and did not [...]

Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized a proposed French bill that seeks to ban “ostensibly religious” clothing and symbols in all sports competitions, arguing it would violate human rights and disproportionately target Muslim women and girls. The French Senate is set to debate and vote on the bill, which would extend existing restrictions to all sports [...]

The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, expressed serious concerns on Tuesday about the “sharply deteriorating” human rights situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following the takeover of much of the region by M23 fighters. The spokesperson stressed that the capture of Bukavu, the second-largest city [...]