19 h. ago UN human rights chief slams Israel’s ‘mass killing’ of Palestinians in Gaza

The United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel on Monday for its “mass killing” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and “hindering of sufficient life-saving aid”, saying the country had a case to answer before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Volker Turk, who heads the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stopped short of describing the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, as hundreds of UN staff had urged him to do. But in his opening address to...

Politics

47 h. ago ‘Even if I was shot, I was fine with that’: a North Korean’s journey to freedom

A man whose early life in North Korea was so bleak that he was prepared to be shot in the back while making a break for freedom across the Chinese border has told his story after defecting to Japan in 2017. The man is one of many to have become involved with an Osaka-based charity that addresses North Korean human rights issues. The organisation provides speaking opportunities for North Korean defectors on podcasts and other platforms, allowing them to share information about the realities of...

Politics

5 d. ago Fear travels: Cambodians in Japan silenced through threats to loved ones

It begins with a knock at the door in Phnom Penh: police officers asking about a son, sister or cousin living thousands of miles away – and warning the family to make them stop. Cambodian dissidents who thought they had found safety in Japan are still facing threats delivered not to their own doors, but to the homes of loved ones left behind, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. The NGO’s Tokyo office said on Tuesday that nearly all of the 23 Cambodian nationals it interviewed in Japan...

Events

5 d. ago ‘Make them stop’: Cambodian exiles in Japan face intimidation tactics back home

It begins with a knock at the door in Phnom Penh: police officers asking about a son, sister or cousin living thousands of miles away – and warning the family to make them stop. Cambodian dissidents who thought they had found safety in Japan are still facing threats delivered not to their own doors, but to the homes of loved ones left behind, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. The NGO’s Tokyo office said on Tuesday that nearly all of the 23 Cambodian nationals it interviewed in Japan...

Politics

7 d. ago Gazans despair: ‘stay and die, or leave towards nowhere’, as Israel pushes deeper

Israel pushed tanks deeper into Gaza City and detonated explosives-laden vehicles in one suburb as air strikes killed at least 19 people on Monday, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The reports came as the president of the world’s leading genocide scholars’ association said it had passed a resolution stating the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. There was no immediate response from Israel on the accounts of the Gaza City offensive or on...

Events

1 week ago Denmark, Greenland apologise for historic mistreatment of Inuit women

Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday apologised for their roles in the historic mistreatment of Greenlandic Indigenous girls and women, including forced contraception, in cases that date back to the 1960s. Nearly 150 Inuit women last year sued Denmark and filed compensation claims against its health ministry, saying Danish health authorities violated their human rights when they fitted them with intrauterine devices (IUDs). The devices, fitted in the uterus, prevent sperm from fertilising an...

Politics

1 week ago UK’s Farage unveils plan to deport asylum seekers, warns of ‘civil disorder’

Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-migration Reform UK party, announced a plan on Tuesday to repeal human rights laws to allow for mass deportations of asylum seekers, action he said was needed to prevent “major civil disorder”. Farage said his party, which is leading in national opinion polls, would remove Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and nullify other international treaties that have been used to block the forced deportation of...

Events

2 w. ago Abrego Garcia faces deportation again as he surrenders to ICE

Kilmar Abrego Garcia surrendered to US immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday and faces possible efforts by the Trump administration to deport him to Uganda, an African country with documented human rights abuses and a language he does not speak. The Maryland construction worker became the face of US President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador. He was returned to the US in June, but only...

Politics

2 w. ago 4 Palestinians killed while seeking aid near Gaza City, witnesses say

Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian aid-seekers travelling on Sunday through a military zone south of Gaza City that is regularly used to reach a food distribution point, a hospital and witnesses said. Gaza City is in famine after 22 months of war, while Israel’s military moves ahead with a planned offensive to seize the city, perhaps within days. Israel’s defence minister has warned that the city of hundreds of thousands of people could be destroyed. Al-Awda Hospital and two witnesses...

Events

2 w. ago US names five more Chinese industries for enforcement under Uygur labour law

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Tuesday it is designating five new Chinese industry sectors, including copper, lithium and steel, for “high priority” enforcement under a human rights law restricting imports from China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Tuesday’s updated list also names caustic soda – a chemical used in textiles and detergents – and red dates, bringing the total number of high-priority sectors targeted under the law to 12. The Uygur Forced Labour...

Events

2 w. ago US names 5 more Chinese industries for enforcement under Uygur labour law

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Tuesday it is designating five new Chinese industry sectors, including copper, lithium and steel, for “high priority” enforcement under a human rights law restricting imports from China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Tuesday’s updated list also names caustic soda – a chemical used in textiles and detergents – and red dates, bringing the total number of high-priority sectors targeted under the law to 12. The Uygur Forced Labour...

Events

3 w. ago China’s latest weapons on show, US human rights slammed: SCMP daily highlights

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. EU envoys mull skipping China military parade over Putin’s attendance: sources European envoys in Beijing are discussing plans to skip China’s massive military parade next month after considering the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the possible participation of Russian troops, the Post has learned. 2. What new weapons were on show in...

Events

3 w. ago China’s latest weapons on show, Beijing slams US on human rights: SCMP daily highlights

China’s latest weapons on show, Beijing slams US on human rights: SCMP daily highlights  South China Morning Post

Events

3 w. ago ‘Bargaining chips in power games’: China report slams US on human rights

China has accused the United States of using human rights as a “bargaining chip” in its latest annual report on the issue. The report released on Sunday criticised what it called the hypocrisy of the US political system, its unequal social welfare, widespread racism, and the politicisation of immigration, where immigrants become “scapegoats for political parties”. The US had turned human rights into “props for political theatre” and “bargaining chips in power games”, it alleged. The year 2024...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Despicable’: Beijing’s office slams 2024 US report on ‘significant human rights issues’ in Hong Kong

‘Despicable’: Beijing’s office slams 2024 US report on ‘significant human rights issues’ in Hong Kong  Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Politics

3 w. ago US’ annual China human rights review shorter, remains sharply critical

The US State Department’s annual review of China’s human rights record, released on Tuesday, was pared back as part of a broader restructuring of its country reports but still retained many of its most politically sensitive criticisms of Beijing’s conduct. “Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year in China against predominantly Muslim Uygurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the report said in its executive summary. The China assessment,...

Politics