Lam Wing-kee, the Hong Kong bookseller who fled to Taiwan after being detained by China, was honoured at a memorial service in Taipei after his death from cancer. Lam, 70, died in Taipei on July 2. Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai told mourners at a Presbyteria…
British singer Boy George has pulled out of a West End production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" after backlash over his pro-Israel song "We Will Dance Again". His manager, Paul Kemsley, said the 65-year-old musician, whose real name is George Alan O'Dowd, "will…
Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and a survivor of Islamic State sexual enslavement, said Thursday that justice for Yazidis remains far too slow 12 years after the group's atrocities in Iraq. Murad spoke at a press conference organised by France…
UN rights chief Volker Turk said on July 30 that Uganda's authorities were increasingly targeting dissent and that a climate of fear was spreading across the country. Turk said the crackdown was accompanied by erosion of the rule of law, increased military in…
Jared Leto has denied sexual assault and harassment allegations made by ten women in a BBC documentary. The women said they were victimised by Leto between 2002 and 2016. Two accused him of sexual assault when they were 17. Another said the actor threatened h…
More than 5,500 cases of gender-based violence, mostly rapes of women and girls, have been reported in Haiti so far this year, the United Nations said Wednesday. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said more than 1,000 incidents were recorded in June alone. He described…
Hundreds of transgender Pakistanis and supporters protested in Karachi on Wednesday against rising prices, calling for relief from inflation and help finding secure employment. Demonstrators in Pakistan's largest city chanted and held signs with slogans inclu…
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has defended France's order expelling Russian commentator Xenia Fedorova, saying it was not a restriction on freedom of expression and accusing her of relaying Russian propaganda. Nunez told BFMTV on Thursday that the ca…
Japan's population of Japanese residents has fallen below 120 million for the first time in 42 years, government data showed Wednesday. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said 119.74 million Japanese residents were living in Japan as of Janua…
Rough sleepers and homelessness charities in London have expressed doubt and cautious support after Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged £340 million to get people off British streets. Burnham promised on his first day as prime minister to “end rough sleeping,…
Burkinabe journalists and a judicial officer who fled to Ivory Coast say they left to avoid conscription, threats and repression under the military government led by Ibrahim Traore. AFP interviewed four people from the media and judiciary, using changed names…
Two Hong Kong independent bookshops raided by national security police this month are closing or suspending operations, after police arrested five people on suspicion of displaying and selling items with “seditious intent”. Greenfield Book Store, which opened…
A report by the J7 Large Communities' Task Force Against Antisemitism called 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in more than 30 years. The report, released Wednesday, examined incidents in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Britain an…
Amnesty International and a coalition of rights groups accused Shell executives of knowing that thieves were tapping Nigerian oil pipelines but keeping oil flowing to preserve profits. The groups' report, released Wednesday, said a significant cause of pollut…
Italy's fertility rate fell to 1.14 children per woman in 2025, its lowest level since 1945, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Birthrate Foundation and Italy's National Institute of Statistics. The report said 355,000 babies were born in Italy…
Valerio Tuveri has returned to a historic public garden in Rome to remove graffiti from its wall for the second time in two weeks, part of a volunteer effort he promotes online as "the guy who cleans Rome". Tuveri, 28, used a high-pressure sandblaster to remo…
Relatives of victims of state violence in Peru held a vigil in central Lima late Monday, rejecting president-elect Keiko Fujimori's incoming government on the eve of her inauguration. More than 100 people gathered to demand justice for crimes including disapp…
Amnesty International condemned what it called an escalation in Iran's use of executions after authorities said Abolfazl Sepahi and Amir-Hossein Safari were hanged on Tuesday over charges linked to anti-government protests. Iran's judiciary said the two men's…
A Rotterdam-based foundation is helping hundreds of abuse and coercion victims in the Netherlands remove forced tattoos through free laser treatment, with plans to expand its work internationally. Spijt van Tattoo, or Tattoo Regret, was founded by husband-and…
A Tokyo government AI-powered dating app has led to 265 marriages since it launched in 2024, according to official data. TOKYO Enmusubi went live in September 2024 as part of efforts to address Japan's low birth rate. The app was created after a survey found…
UNESCO added Brazil's Theatro da Paz and Teatro Amazonas to its World Heritage list on Monday, recognising two Amazon region theatres linked to the rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Theatro da Paz is in Belem and the Teatro Amazonas i…
A UN-backed fact-finding mission criticised Venezuela’s planned withdrawal from the International Criminal Court on Monday, warning that the move risked reinforcing impunity for alleged human rights violations and international crimes. Venezuela’s foreign min…
Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chadema, said on Monday that 61 people arrested for calling for or participating in planned protests had been charged with terrorism. Chadema lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala said most of those charged were party members. He said abo…
An Azerbaijani court sentenced nine independent journalists, NGO workers and a pro-democracy activist linked to Toplum TV to between 12 and 15 years in prison on July 27. The Baku court convicted them of smuggling charges that all nine defendants rejected as…
A film about India’s crackdown in Punjab during the 1980s and 1990s is drawing crowds at informal screenings after it was removed from online platforms within 48 hours of release. “Satluj” tells the story of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a rights activist who was all…
Hundreds of people gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Sunday to mourn the victim of a deadly minivan ramming near the city’s Pride parade and to oppose attempts to use the attack to promote anti-immigration politics. The ramming late Saturday killed one…
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands formally opened WorldPride 2026 in Amsterdam on Saturday at a ceremony attended by drag queens and LGBTQ activists, as speakers warned about a backlash against LGBTQ rights in some countries. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema welco…
UNESCO added the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy to its World Heritage List on Sunday, completing a project that began nearly two decades ago. The listed area stretches for more than 80 kilometres, or 50 miles, along France's northwestern coast. Allied forc…
On 25 July 2026, UNESCO added six centuries-old medinas in the Comoros to its World Heritage List, making them the first sites from the archipelago to receive the designation. The medinas were once historic sultanates on Indian Ocean trading routes. They incl…
The United Nations General Assembly voted Friday to renew Volker Turk's mandate as high commissioner for human rights for four years, despite strong opposition from the United States, Russia and Israel. The assembly approved the renewal by 144 votes in favor,…
Lawyers for Niger's deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, called Friday for his immediate release, three years after he was toppled and detained by the military. Bazoum has been held with his wife, Hadiza, in a wing of the presidential palace in Niamey since a j…
A jailed Western Sahara independence activist ended his hunger strike after 46 days, Morocco's prison service said, citing a written notification from the inmate. Naama Asfari is serving a 30-year prison sentence in connection with deadly violence in Western…
United Nations rights experts urged the United Arab Emirates to release Ryan Cornelius, a 72-year-old British businessman who they said completed his original prison sentence in 2018. The experts said Cornelius's continued detention risked his health and life…
Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was being held over alleged involvement in coup attempts, has been released for medical treatment in Portugal, judicial and security sources said. Pereira leads the African Party for the Independenc…
Cambodian union leader Chhim Sithar said freedom in Cambodia has been shrinking and that speaking out has become difficult and riskier, as activists marked 10 years since the murder of government critic Kem Ley in Phnom Penh. Chhim Sithar, 37, spoke at a demo…
Reporters Without Borders said on 23 July 2026 that Burkina Faso's ruling junta has an organised online group that spreads propaganda and intimidates journalists and critics on social media. The media watchdog said in a study that the authorities had set up a…
Authorities in New Delhi have released Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez and journalist Irfan Mehraj on bail years after their arrests on terrorism-related charges, their families said. Parvez, programme coordinator for the Jammu Kashmir Coalition…
Bulgaria's top court has ruled that trans people have a right to legally change their sex, judicial news reports said, in the first such judgment in the country since 2020. Judges ruled that authorities could not refuse to change a person's sex in civil recor…
Human Rights Watch said Nigeria's mass terrorism trials of alleged jihadists and their supporters are leading to convictions based on limited evidence and are raising serious fair trial concerns. The rights group said the trials continue to focus mainly on lo…
A Moroccan rights group has raised concern about the health of Naama Asfari, a jailed Western Sahara independence activist who has reportedly been on hunger strike for more than 40 days while demanding his release. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights sa…
Kazakhstan is facing a widening gap between depopulating villages and fast-growing cities, as people leave rural areas in search of work and services. In Zaozerny, a village in northern Kazakhstan, abandoned apartment blocks are overgrown and only one buildin…
A court in Georgia sentenced journalist and government critic Vakho Sanaia to two weeks in administrative detention over a Facebook post, amid a wider crackdown on dissent during a prolonged political crisis. Sanaia is a television presenter at the pro-opposi…
A Turkish LGBTQ journal editor and environmental volunteers were among around a dozen people released on Wednesday nearly a month after they were arrested on terror-related charges before a NATO summit in Ankara. Yildiz Tar, editor-in-chief of LGBTQ journal K…
Iran's judiciary said it executed Mehdi Khanaki after he was found guilty of charges linked to protests that spread across the country last winter. The judiciary's Mizan Online news website said the death sentence was carried out after confirmation by the sup…
Rights groups and analysts have warned that a new wave of political disinformation targeting Rohingya refugees in Malaysia is fuelling xenophobia and intimidation against the community. Fact-checkers have identified false claims about the Muslim ethnic group…
French lawmakers were scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a proposal to ban social media access for children under 15, as governments in several regions consider or introduce age limits for online platforms. A tally in the report says 20 countries worldwide have…
On Indonesia's island of Sumba, people are still born into a hereditary status of bondage even though slavery has been illegal in the country for more than 160 years. The practice survives in Sumba's caste system, particularly in the east of the island, about…
Turkey's foreign ministry condemned a Greek decision to close eight schools serving the country's Turkish-speaking minority, accusing Greece of discrimination. In a communique on Sunday, the ministry said Greece was following systematic practices that weakene…
A journalist from Radio Sahara FM in northern Niger was freed on Friday after more than a year in detention, local media and a private media association said. The association said Hamid Mahmoud, who worked for the Agadez-based station, had been released. Mahm…
Tributes from across cricket followed the death of West Indies all-rounder Garry Sobers on Friday at the age of 89. Sobers was widely regarded as one of the greatest players in cricket history. Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott said anyone who saw Sober…
Irish actress Brenda Fricker, who won an Oscar in 1990 for her supporting role in "My Left Foot", has died at the age of 81, her agent announced on Friday. Agent Phil Belfield said Fricker died peacefully on Thursday in Dublin, after a period of ill health. F…
Britain's charities regulator is assessing concerns about an Amnesty International UK report that described Beira's Place, a women's centre for sexual violence…
Ugandan prosecutors said Friday that they had withdrawn a case against two women who were arrested for kissing in public under the country's anti-gay law. The two women, both in their 20s, were arrested in February after a complaint by neighbours in the north…
Human rights groups said Thursday that Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara remains in custody even though he finished serving a five-year prison term a week earlier. Otero Alcantara, who Amnesty International has designated a prisoner of consci…
China warned Friday that it could take countermeasures after Washington finalized rules shortening how long journalists can stay in the United States, with Chinese nationals facing the strictest limits. Under the change, which could take effect as soon as Sep…
A lawyer with a rights group handling some of the cases said Egyptian authorities have arrested about 60 people for joining a political opposition group on Discord. Shorouk Sallam, head of the legal unit at the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, said the detain…
Vietnamese police said on Wednesday that they had arrested three executives of a publishing house that released a book about Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the country's Communist Party. The book, "Stories with Thanh -- A New Account of Light", was written by fo…
As France looked set to adopt a bill allowing assisted dying on Wednesday, several European countries already permit some terminally ill people to end their lives, under different legal systems and conditions. The source distinguishes euthanasia, in which a c…
Hong Kong police raided an independent bookstore run by former journalists on Wednesday, in the latest action targeting independent bookshops in the city. Officers led a handcuffed woman to a van and removed several boxes of materials from Have A Nice Stay bo…
Botswana church and cultural groups told a court on Tuesday that they opposed a bid by a gay couple to overturn laws that bar same-sex marriage. Bonolo Selelo, 41, and Tsholofelo Kumile, 39, have taken Botswana's government to court. They argue that the Marri…
Palestinian rights organisations launched an international campaign on Tuesday to document and combat alleged sexual violence against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. Campaign coordinator Youssef al-Amayreh, who was released in January after two year…
Saudi Arabia is showing tentative signs of trying to reassure LGBTQ visitors before it hosts the 2034 World Cup, including a planned LGBTQ-focused cruise from Jeddah next year, while homosexuality remains criminalised in the kingdom. The US travel company VAC…
Afghanistan's minister in charge of vice and virtue defended a crackdown on women's dress in the western city of Herat, saying it protected dignity and rejecting criticism as propaganda. Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban government's minister for the Propag…