Georgia 🇬🇪's ruling party claims new bill isn't a 'foreign agent' law, but that's exactly what it is. 🇬🇪 officials throwing gauntlet to EU to derail 🇬🇪 's EU candidacy, whereas they know public overwhelmingly supports 🇬🇪's EU integration.

“This heritage was part of our lives.” New @HRW & Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection @ Harvard report looks at the devastating harm to cultural heritage & civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas: hrw.org/node/387811 #ProtectCulturalHeritage #Oslo2024

Belarus’s new legal definition of pornography includes depictions of LGBT relationships.

It clearly aims to assault the dignity of LGBT people, who are already demonized and at risk of persecution in Belarus.
New from Human Rights Watch Anastasiia Kruope
hrw.org/news/2024/04/1…

As #Georgia 's foreign agent bill goes to first committee hearings, Human Rights Watch joins our statement against the proposed law. 'Their goal is not transparency; it is to attack our basic rights and silence critical organizations.' hrw.org/news/2024/04/1…

In today’s Russian papers, Russia’s opponents depicted as “forces of the Antichrist” and Russia described as a country “chosen by God.” How Moscow views the world right now. #ReadingRussia

Russian authorities should proclaim and enforce a zero tolerance policy for attacks on and harassment of Central Asians. Ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrests, and other abuses have spike following on the Crocus City Hall tragedy. Human Rights Watch hrw.org/news/2024/04/0…

Co-chair of the Noble Prize winning Memorial spends his 71st birthday birthday behind bars and suffers ill-treatment as Russian authorities are hindering his preparations for the appeals hearing on the unjust politically motivated verdict. Human Rights Watch hrw.org/news/2024/04/0…

In Kharkiv, boarded up windows become street art #Ukraine

'To me this will always be about my brother, getting him home. But it's also about journalism & free speech. The world needs him too.' Danielle Gershkovich talks to me about Evan. The US reporter was arrested in Russia a year ago today. Thanks Ben Tavener tinyurl.com/242855eh

Torture of suspects in the monstrous March 22 massacre: Nothing, not even a massacre this heinous justifies torture, far less makes it legal. Recording & sharing videos of the torture appears to be no accident but rather a depraved boast by the Kremlin. hrw.org/news/2024/03/2…

The rapid and widespread sharing of Krocus City terrorism suspects’ torture videos appears to be no accident but rather some kind of appalling boast by the Putin government of its brazen disregard for basic rights and fundamental humanity Human Rights Watch. hrw.org/news/2024/03/2…

The March 22 attack on a concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 115 and wounded many others was a horrific act of extreme violence for which those responsible should be fully prosecuted. Human Rights Watch extends our deepest condolences to victims' families and loved ones.

Russian #HumanRights defenders and celebrities appeal to #Kyrgyzstan 's president Садыр Жапаров / Sadyr Japarov with call to veto the 'foreign representatives' bill. More people should join this campaign to stop the Kremlin-backed legislation that will ultimately kill civic activism in Kyrgyzstan

A Moscow military court sentences poet & former schoolteacher Alexander Byvshev to 7 *years* in prison for an anti-war poem in which he expressed hopes for the emergence of Russia’s own Claus von Stauffenberg (who tried but failed to assassinate Hitler). ovd.info/express-news/2…

12 people were killed in Russian attack on Odessa, 5 of them children. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine called it “the deadliest incident for children in more than nine months.” Dispatch from the ground by Human Rights Watch Kseniya Kvitka hrw.org/news/2024/03/2…

It is 5 o’clock in the morning. People are hiding in the metro. Russia attacks Kyiv with aeroballistic missiles.
I don’t know how I can stand the whole day of different events after this night. But I know that I and other people in Kyiv will do it.
📷 Yulia Pyatetskaya

Russian officials have arrested employees of a club under the country's recent LGBT 'extremism' ruling.

They are the first to face criminal charges under the ruling, which has opened the floodgates for arbitrary prosecution of LGBT people and their allies.

Very useful study + recommendations : Enhancing the protection of #HumanRights defenders (HRDs): Facilitating access to the #EU and supporting HRDs from third countries europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/d…

#Russia #trolling 💀
#OlegOrlov , the #HumanRights defender condemned to prison term for denouncing the agression of #Ukraine was suggested to go fight in Russian troops in Ukraine instead of serving his sentence. Oleg is 71...

Guess what? He refused.

#FreeOlegOrlov

As for the Ukrainian Oscar. Some journalists stopped me today on Khreshchatyk. They were asking passers-by if they had seen the Oscar-winning film 20 Days in Mariupol. I honestly admitted I just could not watch it. 1/3