The reactions to the top UN court's ruling Friday in the Israel-Gaza case were split along the lines of the war raging in the Palestinian territory. Saudi Arabia welcomed the ICJ's decision and called for the international community to "hold Israel accountable" for "violations" of international law.

Dubai, UAE - The Emirates is to put 84 people on trial for terror-related offenses, state media said on Saturday. The Gulf state's attorney general ordered the trial of "mostly members of the terrorist organization of (the) Muslim Brotherhood", official news agency WAM said. In 2013, the UAE tried 94 activists,...

"Meta's censorship of content in support of Palestine adds insult to injury at a time of unspeakable atrocities and repression already stifling Palestinians' expression," said Deborah Brown, acting associate director of HRW's technology and human rights division. On Tuesday, Meta's independent oversight board had already criticized the social media titan...

Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed instantly in the strike on October 13 in the south of the country near the Israeli border. The others present -- two other Reuters journalists, two from Al Jazeera, and two from AFP -- were all injured. AFP photographer Christina Assi, 28, was seriously wounded, later...

Some world leaders like Ramaphosa and Erdogan use the term genocide to describe Israeli actions in Gaza. Israel has also been accused of war crimes by rights organizations.

Some world leaders like Turkey's President Erdogan use the term genocide to describe Israeli actions in Gaza. Israel has also been accused of war crimes by rights organizations.

Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers' strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system, and in some cases being forced to work. Lebanon's public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019, pushing most...

Saudi Arabia has strongly rejected allegations made by Human Rights Watch that its border guards fired on Ethiopian migrants crossing from Yemen, killing hundreds since last year. The allegations, described as "unfounded" by a Saudi government source, point to an escalation of abuses along the perilous route from the Horn...

According to the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, since the workers were arrested on November 5 and 7 in the rebel-held capital, it has been impossible for their families and offices to communicate with them. One works for UNESCO and the other for the UN human rights department.

In a collaborative bid to address the migrant crisis, Tunisia and Libya have announced a shared responsibility for hundreds of migrants stranded at their border. These migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan African countries, had been left in the desert area of Ras Jedir. The deal aims to provide shelter and essential...

The main activist group representing families of those killed has called for a protest march on Friday afternoon, converging on the port. On Thursday, 300 individuals and organisations including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International renewed a call for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission, a demand...

The bill must also be approved by the senate before being ratified by King Abdullah II and published in the official gazette.

The Jordanian government recently referred the draft bill to parliament for discussion with a view to amending a 2015 cybercrime law. The amendments would toughen penalties for those seen to have committed cybercrimes including spreading disinformation, with those found guilty potentially facing prison time.

Racial tensions flared into violence against migrants from sub-Saharan African countries in Tunisia's port city of Sfax last week, with hundreds fleeing or being pushed to inhospitable southern desert border areas. "All of the 500 to 700 migrants who were at the Libyan border have been transferred elsewhere," Salsabil Chellali...

TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a $10-billion agreement last year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship the crude through a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga. The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) has run into strong opposition from rights activists and...

The Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic will "clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons" in the country and "provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing." But Syria, along with Russia, China and Iran, objected to the new body,...

Ghannouchi, 81, a former speaker of parliament, was arrested last month over different accusations, part of what Human Rights Watch (HRW) called last week a move "to neutralise the country's largest political party". He had appeared in court at the end of February on the terror-related charges after being accused...

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libyan authorities have imposed "severe restrictions" on local and international civil society groups, obstructing their work in the war-scarred country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. "Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU) and other authorities are cracking down on non-governmental domestic and foreign organizations," the New York-based rights...

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron last Friday agreed a new pact worth over 500 million euros to thwart illegal migration across the Channel.

Dubai, UAE -- Bahrain has revoked visas for two members of Human Rights Watch who planned to attend this week's Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly in the Gulf state, the activist group said on Friday. Visas that were issued for two members of the rights group on January 30 were cancelled on...

Decades of unsustainable policies and fundamental neglect, capture of state resources by elites, alleged corruption, and vested interests cripple the power sector in Lebanon.

BEIRUT, LEBANON - Lawmakers attending an inter-parliament gathering in Bahrain's capital this week should seize the "opportunity" to address the Gulf state's "dismal rights record", rights groups have said. Parliamentarians from around the world are planning to attend this year’s Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the oldest and largest organization of parliaments in...

Riot police confronted the crowd in the central Habboubi Square with "brutal" force and "fired live ammunition", said demonstrator Mohammed al-Iraqi, who spoke to AFP at a morgue where dozens of relatives and friends of the two fatalities gathered. Hussein Riyad, a spokesman for the Dhi Qar provincial health ministry,...

Press advocates say the new law could allow authorities to shut down the internet, preventing the public from hearing about exiled Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker's claims about the government's alleged dirty affairs. Or, they say, the government could restrict access to social media as they did after a November...

The palm tree-styled street lamps and neon office blocks that line the highway from the expanded international airport to central Doha will be an instant sign to the million-plus incoming fans that the first World Cup in an Arab nation is going to be a glitzy affair. But with Qatar's...

The September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of Iran's morality police has sparked a major wave of protests and a crackdown that has left dozens of demonstrators dead. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has accused the Iraq-based Kurdish groups of "attacking and infiltrating...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes were targeting Iranian-aligned militia, causing "several casualties." Israeli strikes, the Britain-based war monitor said, targeted positions and depots of arms and ammunition of Iran-affiliated militias. It reported multiple heavy explosions that sparked fires and resulted in "several victims"

The portside blast of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrate, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever, killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands more and decimated vast areas of the capital.

The New York-based group presented the findings in a 141-page report focusing on eight journalists and public figures.

Moroccan authorities have said 23 migrants died when some 2,000 people, many from Sudan, stormed the frontier.

Four out of five children in Gaza suffer from emotional distress, Save the Children said Wednesday, 15 years after Israel slapped a strict blockade on the Palestinian territory. Israel imposed the measure in June 2007, as fighters of the Hamas movement took control of the densely populated enclave. Israel, and...

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Friday called on Algerian authorities to lift "arbitrary travel bans" on activists from the diaspora. The watchdogs singled out the cases of three Algerian-Canadians prevented from returning to their homes in Canada between January and April. "Although one of the three was finally...

The leaked draft law could permit authorities to dissolve civil society groups at will without going through the courts.

A year ago, the Israeli-based human rights group B'Tselem drew fire when it asserted that Israeli policies had been designed to enforce "Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea" and met the definition of "apartheid".

Allegations of pro-Israeli bias at Facebook were renewed in October when Human Rights Watch said the platform had "suppressed content posted by Palestinians

Lebanon's Education Ministry should extend the December 4, 2021, school registration deadline for Syrian children and end policies that are blocking Syrian refugee children’s access to education, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Thousands of Syrian refugee children have been out of school, blocked by policies that require certified educational...

Entisar al-Hammadi, 20, was arrested in February at a checkpoint while on her way to a photoshoot in the capital Sanaa.

Calais has for years been a rallying point for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trying to smuggle across the English Channel to Britain.

The move comes barely days after Human Rights Watch urged Iran to unconditionally release all water protesters it had detained.

The authorities should immediately release peaceful protesters, provide information about deaths, and allow an independent international investigation, says Human Rights Watch .

Unguided rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian groups towards Israel violate prohibition against targeting of civilians

HRW has condemned the Iran’s response to ongoing internal water protests; at least four people have been killed by security forces