Hostage Aid Worldwide launches to tackle the issue of state hostage diplomacy
5 March 2021 marked the launch of Hostage Aid Worldwide with a global online event which brought together former hostages, family … Read more →
News on Human Rights Abuses Worldwide
Further encroachments on Iranian civil society as Iran’s largest NGO is dissolved
A Tehran court has upheld an Interior Ministry motion to dissolve the Imam Ali Popular Students Relief Society (IAPSRS), a prominent anti-poverty NGO and the only Iranian organisation to hold consultative status with the United Nations. … Read more →
UK condemns deteriorating human rights situation in Russia
Neil Bush, the Head of the United Kingdom’s Delegation to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), used his speech to the Permanent Council to deny Russia’s deteriorating human rights situation. … Read more →
Afghan civic space still under attack as three female journalists shot dead in Jalalabad
Three female media workers have been shot dead in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, in what appears to be the latest in a wave of unprecedented attacks on journalists and civil society activists. … Read more →
China’s slow cultural genocide practices of the Uyghurs revealed in official report
A leaked report accidentally published online has exposed how Chinese labour programmes in Xinjiang are designed to reduce the population density of Uyghur minorities. The research by academics … Read more →
Open Letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs requesting special attention into the trial of those accused of killing Tahir Elçi
The undersigned organisations request your urgent action ahead of the next hearing in the criminal trial of those accused of killing lawyer Tahir Elçi. We urge you to request the Turkish authorities to ensure a fair trial by an impartial and independent tribunal (respecting the procedural rights of Tahir Elçi’s family), as well as carry out a prompt, effective, impartial, and independent investigation into his death. … Read more →
UN report: Tens of thousands of Syrian detainees forcibly disappeared
Tens of thousands of arbitrarily detained civilians in Syria remain unaccounted for, according to a newly published report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. … Read more →
Lengthened jail time for people smugglers as the Home Office continues policy of deterrence
Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has announced plans to lengthen jail terms faced by people smugglers in a bid to stymie the recent surge in migrant Channel crossings. … Read more →
Begum case sets precedent for the UK: citizenship deprivation, lack of access to fair trial and crumbling counter terrorism policies
Shamima Begum has lost her appeal at the Supreme Court in a case that sets a precedent for scores of British women … Read more →
Open letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to repatriate all British children in Syria
Dear Foreign Secretary, British children are still being held in detention two years after the siege of the ISIS stronghold of Baghouz which drove the last cohort of women and children into the refugee camps of north eastern Syria. It is three months since our previous correspondence, and I again appeal to you for the… … Read more →