The Latest Breaking News from Human Rights

As 27 European countries urge changes to laws forged after second world war, human rights chief says politicians are playing into hands of populists

Letters: Nick Moss, Dr Deborah Talbot, Dimitra Blana and Mary Pimm on the prime minister’s plan to ‘protect our borders’ and Donald Trump’s accusations that Europe is ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’

Racism - and widespread denial of the issue - have been called out as human rights advocates are recognised by their peers.

Mohammadi ‘violently’ detained along with other activists at memorial event in Mashhad, her foundation says

A foundation in her name said she was detained at a memorial for a human rights lawyer recently found dead under disputed circumstances

In England and Wales, whole-life imprisonment is the harshest sanction available to the courts, emerging in the decades after the abolition of the death penalty. The whole-life order requires people to spend their whole lives in prison with no prospect of release, except on exceptional compassionate grounds.

Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for the first time of crimes against humanity during and after the 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel that led to the war in Gaza.

Guardian story helped to draw attention to planned hanging of Goli Kouhkan over death of abusive husband

Dozens of Russian nationals deported from the United States received military summonses immediately after landing in Moscow, according to human rights activists. Others faced separation from loved ones and FSB threats, family members of deportees told Euronews.

European ministers have agreed to negotiate a new approach to the continent's main ECHR human rights treaty, that would make it easier to deport illegal migrants. The decision comes as more governments argue that the treaty restricts their ability to control their borders.

In today’s newsletter: As the UK joins a group of European governments pushing for stricter asylum rules, critics warn of the risks of weakening safeguards