release of HRDs
Wednesday 18.5.2022 Benin - Latest Developments -
Opposition members sentenced to prison; concerns about violations against LGBTQI+ people
In its annual report, issued in December 2021, the National Human Rights Commission noted its concern about "physical and sexual assaults, arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment observed recently in Benin against Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals, Transgenders, Queers, Intersex and others (LGBTQI+)". Read more
Tuesday 17.5.2022 Tanzania - Latest Developments -
President Suluhu acts on promise to expand media freedoms, arbitrary arrests of journalists continue
President Suluhu meets exiled opposition leader; Opposition party chairman released from detention; Planned eviction of Maasai community sparks protests in Tanzania and UK; Legislative amendments approved to expand media freedom; New licences issued to newspapers banned during Maghufuli era; Arbitrary arrests of journalists a remaining concern Read more
Friday 13.5.2022 Somalia - Latest Developments -
Ahead of the elections, journalists and media outlets face brutal repression
Suicide bomber assassinates Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, the director of the government-owned Radio Mogadishu; Hirshabelle police in Beledweyne raid local independent radio station Hiiraan Weyn and arrest seven journalists; police officers in the town of Abudwak, in the Galmudug regional state, raid privately owned Sooyal TV and Radio offices; Haramcad police officers (Special Operations Command Battalion) attack a group of journalists reporting a car bombing and gunfire attacks; Read more
Tuesday 10.5.2022 Saudi Arabia - Latest Developments -
Two activists released despite authorities' complete intolerance of online activism and dissent
Saudi blogger and human rights defender Raif Badawi was released from prison after completing his ten-year sentence; internet activist Naimah Al-Matrod was released from Al-Dammam prison in poor health, after being subjected to ill-treatment for six years; The SCC in Riyadh decided to postpone the trial of ten Egyptian Nubian citizens for a period of two months; the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) called on the Saudi authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions in which Internet activist and aid worker Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan is being held. Read more
Thursday 28.4.2022 Iran - Latest Developments -
WHRD Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returns home after years of prolonged arbitrary detention
British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori finally returned home to the United Kingdom after serving lengthy and entirely arbitrary detentions in Iran; woman human rights defender Atena Daemi was freed from prison in Iran; crisis related to the state’s severe mismanagement of water resources sparks prolonged mass protests in the city of Isfahan since November 2021. Read more
Wednesday 23.3.2022 Honduras - Latest Developments -
Honduras: Guapinol water defenders released after trial annulled by Supreme Court
On 27th January 2022, Xiomara Castro of the Libre party was sworn in as Honduras’ president. She took office amid a dispute with dissidents in her own party, who rebelled against her preferred choice for Congress leadership. Read more | Read in Spanish
Friday 18.3.2022 Nigeria - Latest Developments -
Civic space continues to be regularly violated in Nigeria
Wednesday 2.3.2022 Colombia - Latest Developments -
Colombia: surveillance of civil society and detention of protest leaders
2022 began with astounding violence in the north-eastern department of Arauca along the Colombia-Venezuela border. Over 60 homicides were recorded in the region in January 2022, attributed to the escalating dispute over narcotrafficking routes between armed groups ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) and dissidents of the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). Read more
Friday 18.2.2022 Uganda - Latest Developments -
Government critics face continued harassment, journalists face restrictions, assault and arrest
Police officers detain six environmental activists; military was deployed around the home of Robert Kyagulanyi, (popularly known as Bobi Wine) ahead of his scheduled campaign for his party’s candidature in the Kayunga district chairperson by-election; police officers arrest 33 doctors and interns attempting to petition the parliament speaker; Media Council of Uganda release a statement reiterating the directive for all news editors to register with the council; security forces violently arrest three journalists while covering the district LCV chairperson by-elections in Kayunga; Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) withdrew charges against two online journalists; Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, an author and government critic, arrested in his home by armed men claiming to be police officers for allegedly posting on Twitter about Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba Read more
