Human Rights Watch

People close to Illuminée Iragena believe she was unlawfully detained and tortured, and there are unconfirmed reports that she may have died. Human Rights Watch has been unable to verify this information, but is concerned about her fate and well-being, and about the lack of information on her whereabouts.

A Thai court’s conviction of the British researcher Andy Hall for his work on labour abuses will have a serious chilling effect on workers’ rights monitoring in Thailand.

In September 2001, Eritrean security forces arrested 11 government officials, 10 journalists, and numerous other dissidents, all of whom had one thing in common – they had criticized President Isaias Afeworki’s leadership. None of them have been seen since.

Police in Uganda detained 25 women who had peacefully gathered in the capital Kampala to pray and present a petition to the speaker of parliament on Tuesday.

Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov has passed on. But his legacy of repression, torture, massacres and slavery will impact millions of people for decades.

Several videos publicized by news media and posted on social media point to the apparent excessive use force by police, including officers who appeared to purposely hit a protester with a patrol car, beat a lawyer and a reporter, shoot rubber bullets and use pepper spray on protesters at short range.

Afghan authorities should urgently investigate allegations that security forces physically assaulted and detained journalists after violence broke out during a protest in central Bamiyan province.

After a Facebook poem lands an Algerian journalist in jail for two years, is anyone’s free speech safe in Algeria?