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Human rights

Human rights
Latest news, features and analysis on human rights, with a focus on civil liberties in Hong Kong, mainland China and Asia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Israel-Gaza war

Netanyahu, at UN, calls Gaza genocide accusations ‘biggest lie of the century’

Israel’s PM also denounced as ‘moral cowards’ a mass of delegates who walked out of the UN General Assembly when he took the podium to speak.

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Britain

UK far-right activist arrested after migrant boat slashed in English Channel

Middle East

Trump’s Board of Peace proposes US$2.45 billion Gaza reconstruction plan

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Southeast Asia forced-labour scams

Video | Chinese live-streamer held for US$90,000 ransom in Myanmar

Chinese state media said Wang Ran was first lured to Thailand and later told a friend she was being held against her will in Myanmar.

Chinese state media said Wang Ran was first lured to Thailand and later told a friend she was being held against her will in Myanmar
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Myanmar

Beatings, electric shocks, burns: women endure torture in Myanmar prisons

Human Rights Watch said detainees routinely experienced systemic abuse and life-threatening medical neglect.

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Americas and the Caribbean

Nicaragua govt responsible for at least 8 deaths in custody since 2018: UN

Experts also documented the disappearance of at least 161 people since 2018, when a crackdown on dissent began after mass protests.

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United States

Man shot by ICE in Texas says bullet still inside him

Lawyer says Venezuelan DoorDash driver is experiencing left-side paralysis following Austin encounter.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez’s vehicle at the scene of the ICE shooting in Austin, Texas. Photo: Reuters
Africa

UK brings first charges over the 1994 Rwanda genocide

Vincent Brown, 65, is accused of inciting and aiding murders of Tutsis after seven-year British investigation.

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Donald Trump

US prepares sanctions against the ICC: sources

Trump administration readies entity-wide measures that could severely disrupt tribunal’s war crimes probes.

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Israel-Gaza war

Rapper Macklemore’s US$1 million pledge highlights Palestinian suffering

‘There are children dying every single day’: non-profit leaders have welcomed both money and renewed public awareness.

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Palestinian children line up on the first day of the new academic year at a UN-run school in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday. Photo:
2026 Xi-Trump summits

China hawks join forces in US Congress to pressure Trump ahead of Xi’s visit

Trump administration criticised for focusing on achieving economic gains from Beijing while neglecting political and human rights issues.

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Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Trump administration did not "speak up for human rights in China because of commercial interests". Photo: AFP
Rodrigo Duterte

Video | Rodrigo Duterte appears in ICC courtroom for first time

The former Philippine leader’s trial over his ‘war on drugs’ that killed thousands starts on November 30.

Malaysia

Malaysia to invite Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing for Rohingya repatriation talks

Anwar Ibrahim says it is necessary to formally recognise Minh Aung Hlaing’s government if Malaysia wants to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

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Crime

Former Kosovo president Thaci gets 25 years in prison for war crimes

A tribunal said Thaci was guilty of the murder of 96 political opponents during the 1990s conflict with Serbia.

Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci. Photo: EPA-EFE
Singapore

Singapore is open to chemical castration, but what are ethical, health concerns?

Experts point to considerations on who receives the treatment, duration of the process and whether it is proportional to the offence.

Singapore’s city centre. The country recently strengthened its framework for dealing with high-risk sexual and violent offenders. Photo: Xinhua
France

France apologises for criticising US’ human rights record after backlash

France’s permanent mission to the UN expressed regret over a social media post questioning Washington’s commitment to human rights.

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Syria

Alarm as Syria plans private jet hub on former torture site

Rights groups warn turning Mezzeh airbase into a VIP airport could destroy mass graves and evidence of Assad-era atrocities.

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Britain

UK lawmakers reject bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales

The bill had proposed allowing adults with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval.

A campaigner against a change in the law on assisted dying holds a placard outside The Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament in central London, on Friday. Photo: AFP
Italy

Emma Bonino, Italy’s activist politician, dies aged 78

Bonino was a passionate advocate for social justice and gender equality who deliberately courted controversy to advance her many causes.

Israel-Gaza war

Lives ‘at serious risk’ as Gaza’s hospitals, homes battle fuel shortages

Doctors say hospitals have resorted to rotating power cuts between buildings, putting patients in ‘severe danger’.

European Union

Nicaragua accuses Germany of ‘multiple violations’ of law in Gaza genocide case

Nicaragua says Germany has breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its support, notably arms shipments, for Israel.

The Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the International Court of Justice, on Monday on the opening day of public hearings in the case of Nicaragua v. Germany. Photo: AP
United States

UN demands accountability over deaths in US immigration custody

Human rights chief voices alarm over rising detention fatalities and reported ICE plans to deploy electric shock gear.

ICE agents escort a handcuffed detainee outside the Ventura County Government Centre in Ventura, California in July. Photo: AFP
Israel-Gaza war

Evidence of Israel’s ‘atrocity crimes’ risks being removed, UN expert warns

Francesca Albanese says rubble in Gaza is ‘material record’ of war, and implications of Israel’s large-scale debris removal are ‘profound’.

Britain

UK minister slams ‘thuggish’ anti-migrant protests in Portsmouth

The gathering was the second anti-migrant demonstration in two days, after masked men disrupted traffic in the port of Dover ‌on Saturday.

Serbia

Commemoration held for late Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic

The ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ will be buried in Belgrade on Monday in a ceremony expected to draw thousands despite international condemnation.

A photo of Ratko Mladic is displayed during a commemoration ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia on Saturday. Photo: Darko Vojinovic / AP
Israel-Gaza war

US ambassador calls violent Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ after West Bank unrest

Mike Huckabee on Saturday met Palestinian American residents who described the impact of the violence on their lives and properties.

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US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaks to journalists on Saturday after he met residents of Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Photo: Reuters
France

Students slam ‘mini-dictatorship’ at Argentina-run residence in Paris

Residents allege surveillance and far-right meetings as they claim Argentina House at Cite Universitaire has become ‘a space of fear’.

European Union

5 EU nations plan to send rejected migrants to non-EU ‘return hubs’, target 2027

Rights groups have criticised the plan, arguing that European nations cannot guarantee the rights of migrants would be respected.

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