Human Rights Watch

“Trying to give indigenous people a voice about their most precious resources – their land and their food – is not terrorism, it’s a critical part of any sustainable development strategy”, said Nyikaw Ochalla, ASO executive director.

Uzbekistan police have detained two human rights activists in recent days as they documented forced labor in the country’s cotton fields. For years, the Uzbek government has relied on the forced labour of over a million people each year to pick cotton.

Since April 2015, security forces have detained five prominent members of Iran’s Teachers’ Association, as well as the secretary general of the Teachers Organization of Iran.

Human Rights Watch’s report is based on in-depth interviews with over 35 victims and witnesses of human rights violations, including journalists, human rights defenders, student leaders, political opposition members, religious leaders, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities.

President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine signed a decree on September 16, 2015, expanding a wide-ranging blacklist of people banned from entering Ukraine, including dozens of journalists,.

Human Rights Watch and three anonymous individuals filed a complaint over surveillance by the United Kingdom. The complaint by Human Rights Watch charges its rights had been violated by the GCHQ in intercepting, using, and retaining its communications and in particular, sharing them with the NSA.

Prominent opposition party member Muhammad Qahtan, 57, a leader of the Islah party, was arrested on 4 April 2015. His whereabouts have been unknown since.

On the second anniversary of Chinese activist Cao Shunli’s arbitrary detention in Beijing, United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) member states should press China to account for its conduct in that event and her subsequent death, Human Rights Watch said.