The United States Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is repealing limits on climate-warming pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants, the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
Satirist and political commentator Azamat Omarov, who had been in pre-trial detention in Kazakhstan since mid-April on “inciting discord” charges, struck a plea bargain with the prosecution, under the terms of which he pled guilty, and on September 15, was released.
The convictions of Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaçi and three senior former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders for war crimes on September 16, 2026, are an important step toward accountability for victims of the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.
A new Chinese government decree expands the discretion of administrative authorities to arbitrarily bar people from leaving China, violating the internationally protected right to leave a country.
Hungary’s new government has taken an important step toward dismantling a key discriminatory legacy of the Orbán era—the legal targeting of LGBT people. The job is not finished, however.
The explosion of headlines warning about AI threats and cybersecurity events is not happening in isolation. It directly echoes United Nations and national debates on autonomous weapons systems and military AI, where Human Rights Watch has actively pressed for international restrictions. What was once a science fiction idea is now a live question of international law and civilian protection.
Sweden has a long history of supporting human rights, and successive governments across the political spectrum have described respect for human rights and international law as a "cornerstone" of Swedish foreign policy. That commitment is being tested.
Last year’s “State of the European Union” speech made headlines when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally proposed suspending the trade part of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and sanctioning Israeli ministers and settlers. One year on, almost none of those measures have been adopted, and as more and more EU countries and allies adopt bans on trade with Israel’s illegal settlements, von der Leyen’s Europe is lagging behind.
