The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) praised the High Court of Malawi’s unanimous decision on Monday to decriminalize the former offense of defamation. CPJ spokesperson Muthoki Mumo said: Malawi’s Constitutional Court has taken a monumental step towards protecting press freedom and affirmed that criticism and dissent are essential to democracy by ruling criminal defamation to [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday reported that Mali’s armed forces and allied Russian mercenaries have carried out numerous “summary executions and enforced disappearances of ethnic Fulani men.” HRW documented that, since January, the Malian army and Wagner Group mercenaries have executed “at least a dozen Fulani men and forcibly disappeared at least 81 men” [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published a report on Monday assessing the state of public media across 27 EU member states, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The report warns of future threat scenarios for independent public media broadcasting as the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) is set to fully come into force on August 8. “Public media must [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called upon the Jordanian government to immediately reverse a policy that mandates displacing a Bedouin community from the Petra area through forcible evictions. Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adam Coogle, stated: Jordan can’t claim to protect Petra’s living heritage while sidelining the community that [...]

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) on Sunday called on the Syrian government to hold accountable those who attacked peaceful protesters in front of the country’s legislature in Damascus two days earlier. The protest had been convened to stop the escalating violence in the southern province of Suwayda, and to demand the protection of [...]

Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, called on the Irish government to move forward with the Occupied Territories bill, which would prohibit imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. In support of the bill, Callamard stated: The bill would be a powerful, much-needed tool for international justice and must be [...]

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwanda-backed Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) signed on Saturday a declaration of principles seeking to achieve peace and stability in the region. According to the Associated Press, the declaration of principles committed both the Congolese government and the Rwanda-backed rebels to sign a final peace [...]

Leila de Lima, a lawmaker with the Mamamayang Liberal Party and human rights activist, called for urgent measures to be taken to end the practice of red-tagging in the Philippines on Saturday.  De Lima has vowed to criminalize red-tagging in the upcoming 20th Congress of the Senate of the Philippines. Among the bills that she [...]

UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned a deadly Israeli artillery strike that damaged Gaza’s historic Holy Family Catholic Church on Thursday, calling the attack “unacceptable” and reiterating calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages. The strike, which occurred on July 17, killed three civilians and injured several others, including parish priest [...]

Angolan police used excessive force and carried out arbitrary arrests during a peaceful protest in Luanda on July 12, Human Rights Watch alleged Friday. According to reports, officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets without justification, assaulted demonstrators, and detained 17 protesters, some of whom were released only after legal intervention. The demonstration, organized by [...]