In its upcoming report, the Expert Mechanism will examine systemic racism against Africans and people of African descent in the enforcement of drug laws and policies, with a view to advance racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement globally in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 47/21. The...

In its resolution 60/26, adopted on 8 October 2025, the Human Rights Council requested OHCHR to prepare a report, in consultation with Member States, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other relevant United Nations agencies, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, on “Human rights challenges in addressing...

Rose a 32-year-old sex worker who was arrested in a police raid was a bundle of nerves when advocate Sunita Salsingikar first met her in a prison in Maharashtra. “She was a simple, quiet woman... she had no idea why she had been arrested,” recalled Salsingikar. That was three years...

The ACHPR, through Resolution ACHPR/Res.594 (LXXX) 2024, mandated the development of a Joint Analytical Study to examine the challenges that hinder effective litigation of women’s and girls’ rights before the AU’s human rights organs—the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and...

Women Beyond Walls: UN human rights experts* today urged Member States to take action to strengthen protections for women and girls in criminal justice systems, warning that access to justice, safety and dignity for women deprived of their liberty remains gravely inadequate ahead of the 70th session of the Commission...

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) deplores the conviction of ten lawyers, including Ramazan Demir, a member of the defence team of  Selahattin Demirtaş, who remains in detention despite binding ECtHR judgments, and the prison sentences imposed on them following a mass trial before the İstanbul 14 Heavy Penal Court. Their...

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) strongly condemns the Iranian authorities’ egregious use of widespread, excessive and lethal force to suppress ongoing anti-government demonstrations, in violation of the protestors’ rights to life, peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Since nationwide protests–calling for changes to the country’s governance in response to...

Invisible People: The term “Criminalization of Homelessness” refers to a range of laws and ordinances that punish people simply for being homeless. According to Housing Not Handcuffs, a multi-organization campaign to address this issue, criminalization of homelessness occurs when: “…Law enforcement threatens or punishes homeless people for doing things in public that...

The Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance (CHREAA): Across Malawi, the poor are routinely jailed for failing to pay fines they cannot afford, while wealthier defendants convicted of the same offences walk free, a groundbreaking legal study has found. By Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi (CIJM) In a...

Institute of Commonwealth Studies: Today in Fiji, Commonwealth Law Ministers noted in their 2026 Outcome Statement satisfaction with the production of the Practitioners’ Guide on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law, Including the Decriminalisation of Conduct Associated with Poverty and Status (Guide), produced in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat,...

VOCAL Africa calls for an immediate review and amendment of all counter-terror provisions that can be misapplied against citizens exercising their constitutional freedoms.A democratic nation cannot criminalise dissent. Counter-terrorism must not become a cover for repression. Kenya’s anti-terrorism framework was created to protect the public from extremist threats. Recent cases,...

Orange County, CA – An Orange County Superior Court judge has enjoined Riverside County, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, and Sheriff Chad Bianco, stopping them from jailing people arrested on lower-level charges before they have a court hearing simply because they cannot pay money bail. “I am happy that because of this case,...

Amnesty International: Reacting to the Russian Ministry of Justice’s move to seek to ban as “extremist” the leading LGBTI organizations in Russia – Russian LGBT Network and the Saint Petersburg-based group Vykhod (Coming Out) – Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said: “The Russian authorities are...

Amnesty International: Ahead of the parliamentary vote on legislative amendments announced by the Georgian Dream ruling party, which aim to further silence dissent and tighten control over those who receive foreign support for political and other civic activity, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia,...

From a judicial crisis to a prison crisis Prison Insider: A third of Gabon's population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN. The country has a particularly high incarceration rate: 226 people are imprisoned per 100,000 inhabitants. Overcrowding in prisons is rampant, the vast majority of detainees have not yet...

Amnesty International: The Egyptian authorities have intensified their crackdown on religious expression online in recent months, said Amnesty International today, calling on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release 23 people arbitrarily detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion and belief. Over the past six months,...

Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC): In an era when digital infrastructures have a strong hold on everything from civic participation to surveillance, human rights interventions must reckon with cyber politics on a broader spectrum. But cyber politics is not just about digital rights, it is deeply embedded in the ecosystems...

Penal Reform International (PRI): Meaningful participation of people with lived experience in the EU and UN spaces is not a “nice extra” – it is the only way to make drug and prison policies genuinely people‑centred, effective and rooted in the realities of those most affected. For people like me,...

Sexual violence and family expulsion among the challenges facing African LBQ women  A new African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) report reveals how lesbian, bisexual, and queer women experience systematic violence that begins within families and communities and continues through displacement, detention, and so-called host countries. Authored by Melanie Nathan, From Home to Hostile...

As Mayor Zohran Mamdani takes office, New York City stands at a crossroads. For decades, “public safety” in this city has been synonymous with policing, punishment, and incarceration. But New Yorkers know better: real safety isn’t achieved through handcuffs or jail cells—it’s built through stable access to affordable housing, food, health...

Tina was 16 years old when she says she was forced to get married. She describes what followed as decades of "relentless" abuse, including being "punched in the face a few times...[and] an incident where my head was smashed into a wall". It culminated in divorce - after which her...

New Zealand likes to present itself as the South Pacific’s moral leader. Abroad, its politicians speak fluently of bicultural partnership, equity, and human rights, invoking the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi as a progressive guiding principle. Yet at home, its prisons tell another story. Māori and Pacific peoples, though less than a fifth...

Across the world, incarcerated pregnant women are often held in deplorable conditions, leading some to miscarry or give birth alone inside a cell, say campaigners Dina Hernández was 35 weeks pregnant when she was arrested near her home in San Salvador in March 2024. The 28-year-old human rights activist, who was with...

In this second episode of our special series, ' Equal Under the Law?', we explore whether the law serves as a barrier or a tool for marginalized communities striving for equality, with a little help our expert panel of 11 inspiring activist leaders from Scotland. Throughout the episode, we confront...

A Clear Breakdown of Key Terms to Help the Public Speak Up, Push for Housing Solutions, and Move Past Harmful Misconceptions Invisible People: It’s happened to most of us at least once. We’ve walked past someone who didn’t have a home and wished we could help, but the fear of...

Amnesty International: Responding to the cancellation of bail of lawyers and human rights defenders Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha and an order to immediately arrest them in a bogus case relating to “anti-state” tweets, Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said:  “This baseless trial of Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha is a blatant abuse of the justice system. Pakistani authorities must end the judicial harassment and coercive tactics used to silence dissent and...

British Columbia, Canada will not be continuing its drug decriminalization project, Health Minister Josie Osborne announced in Victoria Wednesday. The three-year pilot project, which allowed people to be in possession of small amounts of illicit drugs, began on Jan. 31, 2023, and will expire at the end of this month....

Unprecedented Mass Prosecution of Xinjiang Protesters (London, January 15, 2026) – Kazakh authorities should drop charges against 18 Kazakh activists who peacefully protested against Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists, from the Nagyz Atajurt Volunteers group, face up to 10 years in prison for exercising their freedom of...

International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) are seriously concerned that a criminal case brought in Kazakhstan against activists protesting China’s repression of ethnic minorities is inconsistent with international human rights standards protecting freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and...

Amnesty International: Ugandan security forces have unlawfully targeted opposition rallies with unnecessary and excessive force and arbitrary arrests, and subjected some attendees to torture or other ill-treatment, Amnesty International said today. The organization has documented incidents in which security officers launched tear gas at peaceful crowds in Kawempe and Iganga,...

Common-Sense Protections Soon to Be Enshrined in State Law Invisible People: Pennsylvanian lawmakers are taking steps to preserve the protections that homeless people lost after the Grants Pass decision. A new bill soon to be introduced in the state legislature will restore the requirement for municipalities to provide alternate shelter...

Amnesty International: Civil disobedience is increasingly criminalized worldwide, despite its vital role in confronting government and corporate abuses, especially amid the climate crisis and other human rights emergencies. This post identifies three legal strategies that can counter punitive state responses and protect activists: invoking the necessity defence, asserting freedom of expression,...

Experts Warn That Punitive Laws Push Unhoused People into Danger While Worsening Stigma, Isolation, and Harm Invisible People: The growing criminalization of homelessness is contributing to increasing incidences of violence against people who are homeless, according to experts. Nearly every city across the country has quality-of-life ordinances that restrict or...

Amnesty International: Following the release of a small number of persons arbitrarily detained in Venezuela on 8 January 2026 out of a total of around one thousand politically-motivated arbitrary detainees (according to local civil society organizations), which included prisoner of conscience Rocío San Miguel and Spanish nationals like Jose María Basoa and Andrés Martínez, as well as political...

National Homelessness Law Center: The annual Homeless Persons' Memorial Day is this weekend. This year, like every year, people will gather across the country to mourn those who died without a safe place to call home. In a country as wealthy and as powerful as ours, it is shameful that...

From the Daily Times, Malawi: Persons with disabilities in Malawi continue to face harsh realities on the streets. This is happening as the Constitutional Court spends eight years on a case in which they are challenging Section 180 (b) of the Penal Code. The section in question criminalises begging. The...

While fewer women than men are incarcerated, their numbers are rising faster and most often for non-violent offences. More than 733,000 women and girls are held in penal institutions globally, according to the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research, either as pre-trial detainees or remand prisoners, or having been convicted and...

In an era when digital infrastructures have a strong hold on everything from civic participation to surveillance, human rights interventions must reckon with cyber politics on a broader spectrum. But cyber politics is not just about digital rights, it is deeply embedded in the ecosystems of power, identity politics and...

Incarceration should be a last resort, yet this broken and brutal system punishes marginalised women, most of whom are inside for non-violent crimes When you imprison a woman, you imprison a family,” a young woman in Sierra Leone told me, cradling her small baby in a damp cell. My mind...

FIACAT: In September-October 2025, ahead of the AU-EU human rights dialogue on 7 October, twenty civil society experts convened to discuss the current far-reaching and unprecedented changes taking place in the global human rights landscape and what meaningful actions the two institutions, their member states and their partnership can take...

Amnesty International: For too long, citizens, especially older women, have been victimized by witchcraft accusations in Ghana. This deeply rooted practice has led to untold suffering, discrimination, and violence. Act now to urge the President  John Mahama to sign the Anti-Witchcraft Bill into law to protect these vulnerable individuals. What’s...

Sonke Gender Justice: As the world approaches the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African feminist movements, youth advocates, policymakers, and grassroots organisations are coming together for a historic convening to accelerate progress on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and gender equality across the continent. The...

Amnesty International: Kenyan authorities systematically deployed technology-facilitated violence as part of a coordinated and sustained campaign to suppress Generation Z-led protests between June 2024 and July 2025 against corruption and the introduction of new tax legislation, a new Amnesty International report shows.  The report, “This fear, everyone is feeling it”: Tech-facilitated...

A nonprofit human rights organization in Nigeria, Lawyers Alert has launched a campaign tagged “HealthNotHarm”, a strategic initiative aimed at reshaping national discourse on safe termination of pregnancy and advancing reproductive justice in Nigeria.  The President of Lawyers Alert, Rommy Mom said the campaign is about justice, dignity, and the...

Tunisian authorities have increasingly escalated their crackdown on human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through arbitrary arrests, detention, asset freezes, bank restrictions and court-ordered suspensions, all under the pretext of fighting “suspicious” foreign funding and shielding “national interests,” Amnesty International said today. In an unprecedented step six NGO...

Women Beyond Walls: Women are the fastest-growing prison population worldwide, often locked up for low-level drug offenses tied to poverty, coercion, or survival. In this minisode, Marie Nougier from the International Drug Policy Consortium talks about moving beyond punitive drug laws that harm women and what  compassionate, evidence-based alternatives could...

Language used maybe offensive to some readers  Thousands of NYPD records secured by the rights groups detail expansive and unlawful surveillance of protesters, and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour communities.  Records obtained by Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights...

On a Tuesday afternoon in July, a magistrate sits inside a local prison in Malawi. A remandee stands before him and begins to share his story: he was arrested for stealing goods valued at 50 000 kwacha (30 USD), but the complainant never appeared in court. The prisoner has spent...