By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Caption: Residents react after a missile hit an apartment building during Russian attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine, June 17, 2025. © 2025 Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war—defined by a relentless series of apparent war crimes and crimes against humanity—has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties and triggered Europe’s largest displacement crisis since World War II.Throughout the war, Russian forces have repeatedly shown disregard for international humanitarian law and civilian life.…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image © 2026 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch Iran’s intelligence agencies and security forces have carried out mass, arbitrary, violent arrests and detentions of protesters, including children, since December 28, 2025. Tens of thousands are reported to have been arrested across the country. Waves of arrests have continued following the countrywide massacres of January 8 and 9, 2026.Authorities have subjected detainees to torture and other ill-treatment. Those detained are at serious risk of death in custody, grossly unfair trials, and secret, summary, and arbitrary…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior shoots the ball to score teams first goal during a Champions League playoff soccer match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid in Lisbon, Portugal, February 17, 2026. © 2026 Joao Bravo/Sports Press Photo/Sipa USA/AP Photo Just months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, the world of football is again rocked by cases of discrimination both off and on the pitch.Members of the football community, including footballers and fan groups, have long warned of pervasive discrimination in the sport.During a UEFA Champions League match this month,…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Memorial ceremony held on February 21, 2020 at the Saint Theresia Cathedral l in Kumbo, North-West region, Cameroon, for victims of the Ngarbuh massacre. © 2020 Private (Nairobi) – The lenient prison terms for defendants on trial for the February 2020 massacre in Ngarbuh, in Cameroon’s North-West region, compounds the authorities’ insufficient efforts to hold senior military officers accountable and compensate victims’ families, Human Rights Watch said today.On February 20, 2026, a military court in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, sentenced three security force members…
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By Amnesty International
Ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said: “The people of Ukraine have now endured another year of full-scale aggression, the most devastating so far in terms of its humanitarian consequences, and deadliest in terms of civilian casualties since […] The post Ukraine: Four years on from Russia’s full-scale invasion, unwavering global commitment to justice is paramount appeared first on Amnesty International. ]]>
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By Catherine Kevin, Associate Professor in Australian History, Flinders University
Gisèle Pelicot’s compelling and moving memoir begins with the day she learned that over the course of at least nine years, she had been raped by her husband Dominique and around 80 other men, while she was drugged and unconscious.
On that first day of knowing, in November 2020, she was a few months shy of 68. Her memoir explores the aftermath of that knowing, but also rewinds to her parents’…
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By Angélica Durán-Martínez, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass Lowell
Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have set up roadblocks and attacked property and security forces in the days following their leader’s death.
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By James Trapani, Associate Lecturer of History and International Relations, Western Sydney University
The Soviets came to Cuba’s aid in the 1960s. It remains to be seen whether Russia can do the same now.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Free speech activist Pimsiri Petchnamrob in Bangkok, Thailand. © 2020 The Momentum (Bangkok) – A Thai court on February 20, 2026, sentenced a prominent free speech activist and three others to 32 months in prison for criticizing King Maha Vajiralongkorn under Thailand’s royal insult law, Human Rights Watch said today.The Bangkok Criminal Court found Pimsiri Petchnamrob, 35, guilty of lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) for her speech during a democracy rally in Bangkok in November 2020 that criticized what she considered to be the monarchy’s unchecked power. She…
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Monday, February 23, 2026
Judges at the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday opened a confirmation of charges hearing for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send him to trial on alleged crimes against humanity linked to killings during the country’s so-called “war on drugs”.
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