11 h. ago Palestine Action prosecutions should be suspended, say UK rights groups

Campaigners tell attorney general that proceeding with trials before judicial review raises legal and moral questionsUK politics live – latest updatesProtesters arrested for supporting Palestine Action should not be prosecuted until a legal challenge to a ban on the group has been heard, organisations including Greenpeace and Human Rights Watch have told the attorney general for England and Wales.In a letter to Richard Hermer KC, also signed by Friends of the Earth, Global Witness and the Quakers, they say proceeding with charges or trials before the judicial review, which is expected to be heard in November, would raise significant legal and moral questions. Continue reading...

Politics

22 h. ago Sydney restaurant faces human rights complaint after temporarily denying entry to people wearing keffiyehs

Exclusive: Racial Justice Centre to file Australian Human Rights Commission complaint against Merivale restaurant Jimmy’s FalafelGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Racial Justice Centre is preparing to file a group complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after a Sydney restaurant denied dine-in service to people wearing Palestinian keffiyehs during a 20-minute period last weekend.The legal centre will file the complaint to Australia’s national anti-discrimination body on behalf of six Palestinian complainants, regarding an incident that took place on 3 August at Merivale-owned Jimmy’s Falafel in the Sydney CBD after the Sydney Harbour Bridge march, first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. Continue reading...

Society

30 h. ago Voices: What a cheek! The US is in no position to lecture us about free speech

An annual global human rights report from the US state department has declared that freedom of speech is under threat in the UK. The British are too polite to tell the Trump administration what we really think about that – but I’m not, writes Sean O’Grady

Politics

31 h. ago NHS Fife told to ‘progress corrective actions’ urgently on single

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said the health board has admitted it failed to carry out an equality impact assessment previously.

Politics

33 h. ago Voices: I watched the police arrest hundreds of peaceful protesters – I fear Britain is on a slippery slope towards authoritarianism

What human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger saw at the Palestine Action demonstration in Parliament Square was not public order policing – it was the suppression of lawful dissent, and the deliberate targeting of vulnerable people to send a chilling message: no cause is now safe from criminalisation

Events

37 h. ago Trump’s foreign aid cuts have ‘strengthened tyranny’ in Myanmar, rights groups say

USAID funding cuts have given Myanmar’s military rulers ‘carte blanche’ to escalate human rights abuses

Politics

39 h. ago Israeli airstrikes on Tehran killed inmates in ‘apparent war crime’ – report

Human Rights Watch also finds that Iran abused survivors of June attack, which killed 80 peopleIsraeli airstrikes on Tehran’s Evin prison in June killed scores of detainees, visitors and staff in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called an “apparent war crime”. Iranian authorities have since subjected survivors to abuse, enforced disappearances and inhumane detention conditions, the rights group said on Wednesday.HRW’s investigation, based on satellite imagery, videos and witness accounts, found the 23 June Israeli airstrikes destroyed visitation halls, prison wards, the central kitchen, the medical clinic and administrative offices. No evident military targets were identified in the facility, which held more than 1,500 prisoners at the time, many of whom had been jailed for peaceful activism. Continue reading...

Events

55 h. ago US warns human rights have 'worsened' in Britain under Labour with 'surge in anti

A new report by the US State Department found 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression' and violence 'motivated by anti-Semitism'.

Events

58 h. ago Human rights have 'worsened' in Britain under Labour with 'surge in anti

A new report by the US State Department found 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression' and violence 'motivated by anti-Semitism'.

Politics

58 h. ago Human rights 'worsened' in Britain under Labour with 'surge in anti

A new report by the US State Department found 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression' and violence 'motivated by anti-Semitism'.

Politics

59 h. ago Democrats say Trump is illegally blocking them from visiting Ice detention: ‘The goal is to bully us’

Confrontations are playing out nationwide as lawmakers conduct checks of facilities where thousands are being heldThe Arizona representative Yassamin Ansari toured a detention facility in May where immigrants rounded up as part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportation were being housed. She described what she saw inside as “sickening” and “worse than prison” – immigrant detainees were held in overcrowded, moldy cells and many reported that they did not have reliable access to food, water or medical care.Two months later, Ansari returned to the remote desert complex to conduct another congressional oversight visit. This time, she was denied entry. Continue reading...

Politics

60 h. ago Netanyahu suggests ‘allowing’ Palestinians to leave Gaza to go to South Sudan

Palestinians and human rights groups have largely rejected Israel’s proposal to remove Gazans from their homeland

Politics

62 h. ago Trump administration accuses UK of failing to uphold human rights

US state department says Labour government ‘repeatedly intervened to chill speech’ online after Southport attackThe Trump administration has accused the UK of backsliding on human rights over the past year, citing antisemitic violence and “serious restrictions” on free speech.The annual US state department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, highlighted laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, as well as the way government officials “repeatedly intervened to chill speech” online after the 2024 Southport attack. Continue reading...

Politics

63 h. ago Use of AI could worsen racism and sexism in Australia, human rights commissioner warns

Labor divided on how to respond to the emerging technology as media and arts groups fear ‘rampant theft’ of intellectual propertyFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAI risks entrenching racism and sexism in Australia, the human rights commissioner has warned, amid internal Labor debate about how to respond to the emerging technology.Lorraine Finlay says the pursuit of productivity gains from AI should not come at the expense of discrimination if the technology is not properly regulated. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago FIFA moves ahead with new human rights strategy for World Cup games, but advocates are skeptical

FIFA is testing a new protocol for the 2026 World Cup in North America, requiring host committees to develop human rights action plans

Politics

4 d. ago We expected dominance but Peak China may finally have arrived | George Magnus

The technological and strategic brilliance of its world-class companies are being swamped by macroeconomic troublesProclamations about the inevitability of China’s dominance of the global economic system, or the so-called Chinese century, are much less validated by contemporary Trumpian angst than what should be the Communist party’s appeal to its intrinsic values and virtues.Common concerns about coercive politics and human rights aside, some notions of China as an unstoppableeconomic, technological and military behemoth sit alongside others focused more on an increasingly sclerotic, over- centralised political economy, that depends on wasteful economic stimulus, and features poor governance and institutions. The fusion of these notions suggests that we may already have reached “peak China”. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘A desperate attempt to silence voices’: Israel accused over the ever

Human rights organisations and news organisations have condemned the deaths of scores of journalists since 7 October 2023

Politics

5 d. ago ‘Deport now, appeal later’ scheme expanded in drive to remove foreign criminals

The scheme allows the UK to deport offenders who have had a human rights claim against their removal rejected.

Events

5 d. ago The Guardian view on attacking the ECHR: the real target is judicial independence and the rule of law | Editorial

The populist right sees the European convention as a soft target in a longer campaign to degrade democratic checks and balancesMost British citizens have little contact with human rights law, which is as it should be in a mature democracy. Widespread anxiety about basic freedoms is a feature of more repressive regimes.Many people will only have heard of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) in the context of the last Conservative government’s failed attempts to dispatch asylum seekers to Rwanda, or in a handful of incidents where convicted criminals or terrorist suspects have avoided deportation to jurisdictions where they might face inhumane treatment. Such cases are amplified by politicians who are hostile to the whole apparatus of human rights law. The Strasbourg court that adjudicates on breaches of the ECHR is denounced as an enemy of British sovereignty. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago I told my mum I was unsure about having children. Her reply opened my eyes | Michaela Makusha

My mother’s own dedication to parenthood has always floored me, but I realised I hadn’t understood where it came fromTo me, my mother is Mummy and Mum; the fount of all knowledge and the source of love; the keeper of the rulebook and the holder of the cheerleader’s pompoms. She’s all of those things, but she is also a madwoman, who on her first night out in England from Zimbabwe was shocked by how cold it was after leaving her flat in a short skirt and heels, no jacket. She was pushed into hockey, literally, by her friend, who shoved her out of the line when the coach asked for a volunteer. I am named after that friend. My mother is both a protester and a nurturer; she has been teargassed at least twice (that I know of) while protesting in the name of human rights. Her life is a series of near misses and question marks, which I enjoy learning about and am sometimes horrified by.Given the obvious richness of her experience, I have asked her many times why she decided to have children...

Politics