Human Rights

Egyptian prosecutors and judges are turning a blind eye to children as young as 12 being arrested, forcibly disappeared and tortured, human rights campaigners have said. A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Egyptian rights group Belady documents abuses against 20 children between the ages of

Human rights advocate Mary Lawlor has been appointed as UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Michel Forst, the current special rapporteur, is stepping down after six years in the role.

A new report published by Amnesty International today shows how the Saudi Arabian authorities are using a counter-terrorism court – the Specialised Criminal Court – as a weapon to systematically silence peaceful opposition in the country. Charges used in proceedings in the court fre

Four of Ireland's main political parties have committed to all eight election demands issued by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). The group challenged all parties to commit to its eight "human rights asks", which cover issues ranging from abortion access to hate crime and image-based sex

The UK's refusal to allow the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands to return to their homeland is a crime against humanity, an eminent international lawyer has said. Speaking in Edinburgh, Philippe Sands QC criticised Britain's failure to abide by a judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Ireland's judge at the European Court of Human Rights has been elected as one of five section presidents. Síofra O'Leary began her two-year term as head of the court's fifth section at the start of the year.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival (NIHRF) has officially launched its 2019 programme of events, taking place across Belfast and Northern Ireland from Sunday 8th to Saturday 14th December.

A tool that aims to make the UK’s human rights records transparent and the government accountable has been launched. HumanRightsTracker.com allows civil society organisations, academics, parliamentarians and legal professionals to learn about the UK’s human rights duties under UN treatie

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, has met with human rights chiefs in Dublin with discuss the impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement.

A group of 16 young people, including Swedish school strike activist Greta Thunberg, have brought a legal complaint to the UN over five countries' inaction on climate change. The children, all under 18 and one as young as eight years old, have brought a petition against Argentina, Brazil, France, Ge

A decision by South Wales Police to equip officers with mobile facial recognition technology, via an app, has been condemned by human rights group Liberty. The force’s new use of technology comes while the case against their use of facial recognition, brought by Liberty client Ed Bridges, is y

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has marked the entry into force today of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, by setting out its recommendations for key priority actions from the State. The Commission, as Ireland’s nat

Protestors in Hong Kong are preparing for fresh rallies on Friday as they demand city authorities satisfy their demands on the revocation of the Extradition Bill, The Guardian reports. Anonymous calls have been made on social media for people to gather outside the government headquarters in the Admi

A former UK Supreme Court judge has criticised the "mission creep" of the European Convention on Human Rights and suggested that the UK could be forced to withdraw from the nearly 70-year-old convention. Lord Sumption, 70, said that "intensely political questions" had been reclassified by the ECHR a

One of Europe's most senior human rights chiefs met with Government ministers yesterday while visiting Ireland to mark the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe. Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, met with Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and his colleague Da