In Memory of Gyula Balog (1959-2025), an inspiring housing rights and anti-poverty activist Here is a brief reflection on behalf of @hrw.org to express our condolences, as Gyula’s friends and colleagues lay him to rest today in Budapest. Rest in power, Gyula bacsi! www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

Truly shocking from a party in government that previously introduced the Human Rights Act. Then it was “bringing rights home“ Now it is apparently about sending them away. We will all pay the price for this folly.

As European leaders meet to discuss the European Convention on Human Rights, here's a reminder that efforts to weaken the Convention and Court to serve the interests of states on migration will undermine the rights of everyone in the Council of Europe region www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

A new @europarl.europa.eu “Scrutiny Working Group” on funding for NGOs is painted as an effort to boost transparency. But its superfluous mandate, narrow focus and biased composition suggest the real aim is to silence and stigmatize civil society, @hrw.org says www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

Russia’s banning of @hrw.org as an “undesirable” foreign organization, made public today, is yet another mark of the Kremlin’s repression. It only redoubles our determination to document the Russian authorities’ human rights violations and war crimes www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

"A political deal that erases these crimes is not a peace plan. It is permission for future atrocities." - Kseniya Kvitka (@hrw.org), in must-read, published by @kyivindependent.com⤵️

Good riddance to rubbish policy. The end to the UK's "two child limit" social security policy has been announced, and it will soon be gone. We @hrw.org welcome the news, as one of many, many, many voices calling for an end to this arbitrary, cruel social security policy.

🚨 New from @hrw.org: UN leadership & member states should preserve the UN's long underfunded human rights pillar Independent mechanisms responding to grave crises need to be saved. Cutting or merging them won't solve the UN's funding crisis caused by US, #China & others not paying their dues.

RIP Jimmy Cliff Thank you for the incredible music www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmc5...

Bad politics as well as bad policy…

Oped by @yasmineahmed.bsky.social on UK govt's immigration plans: "We've seen the injustices caused by a hostile environment with the Windrush generation. Instead of learning from that shameful chapter, these proposals risk recreating the same architecture of precarity" www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

We’re thrilled to share that Human Rights Watch’s #WithHumanity campaign has been selected as a Gold award winner at the Anthem Awards. 🙌 www.anthemawards.com/winners/list...

France is failing to provide education to all children in the French overseas department of Mayotte , @hrw.org research finds. The French government’s neglect of Mayotte is an ongoing legacy of colonialism that has left the island persistently underdeveloped www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

This is now a familiar rubric for ideas that are hard to sell on merits. 2019: Boris Johnson’s agenda is the only way to stop Nigel Farage’s. 2024: Nigel Farage’s agenda is the only way to stop Tommy Robinson. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Among the many things wrong with Labour’s immigration strategy, this stands out: to “fight” a few thousand so-called illegal migrants, Shabana Mahmood is willing to make life hell for hundreds of thousands of people who are legally in the UK. 🔗 theconversation.com/labours-plan...

REMINDER: The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) keeps us all safe and free. Every. Single. Day.

Happening Now!

Today & tmrw, European Parliament will adopt its 1st report calling on EU & members to step up response to attacks & harassment by autocratic Govts against their nationals beyond their borders. #TransnationalRepression is a major threat to freedoms in the EU. www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/agen...

!!!

In Hungary, Pastor Gábor Iványi, whose church supports people in poverty, faces absurd charges. The pastor and his church are human rights defenders providing shelter, food, education to people left behind by the state. The move is part of a wider crackdown on dissent. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

As we celebrate 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights, some politicians want to weaken the court that enforces its protections and water down the convention itself. We should resist these efforts which would undermine rights for everyone #ECHR75 www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

We @hrw.org are glad to be able to support this initiative led by @bigissue.com calling on the UK government to set child poverty reduction targets. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

"It’s a question of humanity": How a small Spanish town led by a conservative mayor voted unanimously to regularise undocumented migrant workers A different way is possible... H/T @picumofficial.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

A draft law in Türkiye would pave the way for criminal charges against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in one of the most alarming rollbacks of rights in decades, @hrw.org says. The proposal should be immediately withdrawn www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

This photo by Don McCullin of a protestor - taken in 1962 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis - resonates strongly today...

A win for Windrush campaigners: Private pension losses will now be compensated under the #Windrush Compensation Scheme--important considering the age of claimants. BUT without free legal representation, access to compensation is hampered. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10... @hrw.org

They are PEOPLE before anything else.

Returning colonial-era cultural belongings & ancestral remains is an international human rights & reparations issue. Communities' rights should be at the core. Yet Germany's new guidelines distance themselves from international law. Returns aren't goodwill gestures. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

EU Parliament lawmakers from four political groups wrote a letter to the Commission urging an end to funding for all Libyan security forces. They condemn what they call the violent actions of the Libyan Coast Guard against humanitarian vessels in the Mediterranean. ➡️ https://l.euronews.com/kQ2V

Glad to see this report by @deschuttero.bsky.social is out. The links between states scaling back programs that protect social rights, people’s disillusionment with the establishment, and the draw of the far right, are all too evident in many European countries. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Our #WithHumanity campaign calling on the EU to save lives of people seeking safety or a better life is a finalist at the Anthem Awards! 🤝🙌 You can amplify the call with a vote for #WithHumanity for the Community Voice Award before Oct 30! 🗳️ https://wbby.co/HCAWNP

When govts convene this week in Paris to discuss feminist foreign policy, there will be a lot to talk about. The French govt’s description of the event says progress toward gender equality “is not being made fast enough.” That is an epic understatement. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

The EU’s LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030 reaffirms that equality and democracy are inseparable. The EU and its member states should now back their words with concrete action—political, legal, and financial—both at home and abroad. 📄 @hrw.org : www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child finds France responsible for grave and systematic violations of the rights of unaccompanied migrant children www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

The next Article 7 hearing in respect of Hungary will be held on 21 October in the General Affairs Council. 9 Hungarian civil society organisations outlined key developments, priority concerns, and recommendations on 13 topics under scrutiny. Our new paper: helsinki.hu/en/wp-conten...

Cough.

So let me get this straight - the Home Secretary thinks the Council of Europe shouldn't stand up for people's rights in the UK now because that might affect its ability to do so in the future. Good grief.

How can such a simple image be so beautiful?

The German government's plan for social security "reform" is bad news for #humanrights. I tried to set out why for @hrw.org here, a couple of weeks back, as we awaited details of these plans: www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

European Union member states meeting on October 21 to discuss Hungary’s erosion of the rule of law should vote on whether Hungary is at risk of a serious breach of EU treaty values, @hrw.org says www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

I am reading reports that the German coalition has agreed the main parts of its welfare "reform" package. Details still emerging. This shift toward a more punitive logic and harsher sanctions will come at the cost of human rights. I explain more in this recent piece. www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

The Women's Institute, the Church of England, the Scouts and the British Muslim Network are among those co-organising solidarity events tomorrow. The Together Coalition coordinating an effort involving faith networks, schools + charities,including British Future www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Tomorrow, a week on from Thursday's attack on the Manchester synagogue, this will be marked as a day of solidarity and mourning by civic groups from across all faiths and none. You are also invited to join online sharing #britainstandstogether More information together.org.uk/articles/bri...

I found this piece valuable as we try to make sense of the dreadful attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester and think about those impacted and how best to respond

Listening to voices from Manchester on #r4today, it seems clear to me (as local resident Josh Aronson said on #R4today) that, going forward, more dialogue not more security is the solution to rising antisemitic incidents. Jewish communal spaces really couldn’t be more securitised.

The United States is "actively trying to dismantle" today's system of international justice. @fborello.bsky.social and @agnescallamard.bsky.social discuss how US sanctions against Palestinian rights orgs and ICC and UN officials puts rights at risk globally:

The UN rights chief presented his office's report on #reparations for legacies of #colonialism and #enslavement in Geneva yesterday. @hrw.org welcomes his call for a transformative, context-specific & rights-based approach to reparations led by affected communities. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Four people were injured in a vehicle and stabbing attack at a Manchester synagogue on Thursday. Police shot the suspect and the immediate danger is over, according to authorities.