Washington Center For Human Rights
From DC to the World
CategoriesAdvocacy StatementsI n a case generally perceived as retaliation for Canada’s detention of a senior Huawei executive wanted by the US, a Chinese court sentenced Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in jail on Wednesday. Spavor was sentenced to prison for espionage and exporting state secrets overseas, according to the Dandong City Intermediate People’s Court. […]
CategoriesAdvocacy StatementsIn response to the spiralling violence in Southeast Nigeria, security forces have committed a slew of human rights violations and crimes under international law, waging a repressive campaign that has included sweeping mass arrests, excessive and unlawful force, torture, and other ill-treatment since January. The armed group known as the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the […]
CategoriesAdvocacy StatementsOn Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, repeating a plea for human rights progress. Blinken and the Saudi minister discussed regional security, the attack last month on the tanker Mercer Street in the Arabian Sea, which Washington blames on Iran, and other regional matters, […]
CategoriesStatements AdvocacyWith the parliamentary elections in Russia scheduled for September 19, every day brings new stories of arbitrary arrests, interrogations, and other attacks on critical voices. The Kremlin’s war on free expression claimed three fresh lives lately. After Roskomnadzor, the government’s communications regulatory organization, suspended their websites, independent news groups MBKh-Media, Open Media, and Open Rights […]
CategoriesStatementsHuman Rights Watch said today that Sri Lankan police are increasingly killing and abusing people under the pretext of Covid-19 pandemic efforts and an anti-drug campaign. Extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary incarceration have all been documented in the media recently. The government should re-establish independent police oversight and investigate and prosecute allegations of police misconduct. […]
CategoriesStatementsAccording to Human Rights Watch, Taliban militants advancing in Ghazni, Kandahar, and other Afghan provinces have summarily killed captured soldiers, police officers, and civilians with alleged connections to the Afghan government. Taliban forces have allegedly identified individuals who served with the Afghan National Security Forces in places they invade, according to locals from several districts. […]
CategoriesStatementsSince the beginning of the Anglophone conflict in late 2016, government troops have routinely violated human rights during security operations against armed separatists trying to establish an independent Anglophone state known as Ambazonia. “New abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions by both government security forces and armed separatists highlight the urgent need to protect communities at […]
CategoriesStatementsEleven Democratic senators have asked Joe Biden’s administration to denounce the alleged continued pattern of human rights breaches under the Duterte government at the highest levels. Senators voiced concerns about the human rights situation in the Philippines in a letter dated July 26 sent to US State Secretary Antony Blinken, and asked a number of […]
CategoriesStatementsAs the Taliban advances, 200 Afghan interpreters and their families have arrived in the United States, the first of 2,500 Afghans being evacuated. The translators are being relocated as part of a visa program for people who worked with the US during the Taliban’s 20-year conflict, which concluded recently. They arrived early Friday morning and […]
CategoriesStatementsWashington Center For Human Rights condemn the execution of Javed Dehghan, an Iranian belonging to the Baloch minority, a few days ago. WCHR fear that the recent alarming increase in executions of prisoners of the Baloch minority in Iran will continue. We are shocked that the execution of Mr. Dehghan on 30 January was carried […]
CategoriesStatementsWashington Center For Human Rights expresses grave concern about the situation in Myanmar following the removal of civilian authorities from government and the arbitrary detention of dozens of political leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, activists and others by the military. On January 31, the Myanmar military seized power in the country, consolidated its control over the […]
CategoriesStatementsGlobal access to COVID-19 vaccines for everyone who needs them is a step all governments should cooperate on. The pandemic has demonstrated that no one in the world will be safe until everyone is safe. In-country prioritization of vaccines should include all eligible priority groups, regardless of who they are. Migrants should be given equal […]
CategoriesStatementsEmirati security forces arrested Ahmed Mansour in a late-night home raid on March 20, 2017. In May 2018, the State Security Department of the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal sentenced Mansoor to ten years in prison on charges entirely related to his human rights activities. On December 31, 2018, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the unjust […]
CategoriesStatementsThe Egyptian Parliament has approved President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s extension of a nationwide state of emergency for the fourth year in a row. The authorities have used the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to silence critics, including health workers, journalists, and bloggers, and to keep hundreds, if not thousands, of detainees in pretrial detention without […]
CategoriesStatementsThe corruption of the Lebanese authorities and their failure to deal with the stifling political and economic crises in the country have caused the biggest human rights deterioration that Lebanon has witnessed in decades. The unprecedented economic crisis, which was exacerbated by the outbreak of the “Corona” virus, led to a doubling of the poverty […]
CategoriesStatementsMore than 470 people, including suspected separatists and Indian army troops, were killed in gunfights and clashes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020, according to a report released on Wednesday. Prepared by the Legal Forum for Oppressed Voices of Kashmir, the report on the situation of human rights in the disputed region said that a […]
CategoriesStatementsThe European Parliament adopted a joint resolution called “forced labour and the situation of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region”. The resolution expressed its strong condemnation of the Chinese government’s policy of forcing the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minorities to work in closed factories and camps in Xinjiang The resolution called […]
CategoriesStatementsIranian women’s rights activists have been campaigning for a law that protects women for 16 years. The administration of President Hassan Rouhani has been working on the draft law since the 2013 elections. The Cabinet has been reviewing the “Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women Against Violence” bill since September 17, 2019, after the judiciary […]