This month marks 60 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), one of the first foundational international human rights treaties.  The way the story is often told is that Western countries gifted human rights to the world and are the sole guardians of it. It may come as a surprise for some, then,...

Preparations for this weekend’s first round of junta-imposed elections in Myanmar have resulted in unlawful attacks that may amount to war crimes as well as a drastic increase in arbitrary detentions and further crackdowns on freedom of expression, Amnesty International said today. The military’s passage in July of the Law on the Protection of Multiparty...

Ellinor Guttorm Utsi, 60, is a Sami reindeer herder from Norway. The Sami people are an Indigenous People with distinct culture, languages, and traditions who inhabit the northernmost regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Now, this land and way of life are under threat. The Norwegian Government is planning to build several hundred wind turbines,...

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), across a vast swathe of mountainous terrain, a conflict is raging that the world has forgotten. The Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-linked armed group commonly called the ADF, are abducting and killing civilians with alarming frequency, and abusing women and girls as sexual slaves in North...

Cyrille Traoré Ndembi, 61, is the President of the Vindoulou Residents’ Collective, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo. This retired community development specialist has been fighting to defend the residents’ right to a healthy environment since he moved there in 2019. His house is located just ten metres from...

Content warning: The following text contains descriptions and images depicting violence, death, police brutality, and police killings. Reader discretion is advised. Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal force, to suppress election protests between 29 October and 3 November 2025, showing a shocking disregard for the right to life and for freedom...