Tag - human-rights

 
 

HUMAN RIGHTS

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a gathering with the Philippine community in Hong Kong on March 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Mar 11, 2025
Former Philippine President Duterte arrested over crimes against humanity
Police in Manila acted on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to Duterte's deadly war on drugs.
Members of a Liberal Democratic Party panel discuss proposals about allowing spouses to retain their respective surnames, in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 10, 2025
Eternal debate over surname law comes to fore again
Since last October’s general election, momentum has picked up for a legislative change to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda addresses a rally calling for the introduction of a system allowing married couples to choose whether to use the same or different family names on Feb. 26 at parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2025
Some 44% of Japanese lawmakers back selective dual surname system
The figure far outstrips the 1% who said that the country should maintain its current same surname system.
Students walk through the University of Pennsylvania campus. It has been reported that the U.S. State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke the visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants.
WORLD
Mar 7, 2025
Reported U.S. plan to use AI to revoke student visas sparks alarm
Axios reported that a "Catch and Revoke" effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts.
Following the Nagoya High Court ruling on the same-sex marriage lawsuit, lawyers and others raise banners and boards that read "unconstitutional" and similar statements on Friday in Naka Ward, Nagoya.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025
Nagoya High Court rules not recognizing same-sex marriage unconstitutional
It is the fourth high court ruling in Japan on same-sex marriage, following decisions in Sapporo, Tokyo and Fukuoka.
Hong Kong activist Tang Ngok-kwan speaks to reporters in Hong Kong on Thursday after the Court of Final Appeal ruled in his favor and quashed his jail term for refusing to hand over information to the city's national security police.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Hong Kong’s Tiananmen activists win rare appeal in security case
The ruling marked a rare victory in challenging the enforcement of the national security law imposed by Beijing.
The minaret of a mosque is pictured next to destroyed buildings in the Khalidiya district in Homs on Feb. 10, 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2025
'Total panic' as USAID cuts jobs from Syria to Haiti
In 2023, USAID spent $42 billion to support programs across 157 countries — ranging from malaria and HIV prevention to fighting starvation and helping those displaced by war.
An immigration detention center in Bangkok. A group of Uyghurs were sent to China in accordance with international standards, Thailand's defense minister said, in Thailand's first confirmation of the deportation.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 28, 2025
Thailand sends 40 Uyghurs back to China after decade in detention
Rights experts warned that the Uyghurs were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned.
Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses the Human Rights Council at the U.N. in Geneva on Feb. 29, 2024.
WORLD
Feb 27, 2025
Israel disregards human rights and Hamas broke international law, U.N. says
The U.N. Human Rights Chief called for all violations to be investigated independently, a move which the European Union supported.
Lawyers advising in a racial profiling case speak during a news conference on Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 26, 2025
About 70% of foreign nationals questioned by police on the streets: survey
The survey was believed to be the first conducted comparing police questioning between foreign nationals and Japanese on the issue.
Former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (left) and his sister, Hideko, attend a gathering of his supporters after his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case was finalized in October last year.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 22, 2025
Over 80% of Japanese say death penalty system is 'unavoidable'
The Cabinet Office survey, which is conducted every five years, found that 16.5% of respondents believe the death penalty should be abolished.
A list with the file name "Prohibited words" has been circulating since at least last week in official work chats, according to two U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 21, 2025
White House says FDA memo banning 'woman' and 'disabled' made in error
The erroneous FDA list likely resulted from a misinterpretation of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order against 'gender ideology,' a White House spokesman said.
Lo Kin-hei (center), chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, along with other senior leaders, announced Thursday that it will start preparations to wind down operations.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 21, 2025
Hong Kong's oldest pro-democracy party prepares to shut down
The Democratic Party's fortunes declined after Beijing tightened its grip and imposed a national security law.
The Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia on July 1, 2016
WORLD
Feb 20, 2025
In Russia, dozens of dissenters are held as psychiatric patients
The practice carries echoes of a method of control used widely in the Soviet Union and known as "punitive psychiatry."
A Taliban security personnel stands guard as Afghan men wait to receive winter aid packages in Kandahar in January.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2025
Japan urges Taliban officials to cooperate with international society
The Taliban officials came to Japan at the invitation of the nonprofit Nippon Foundation.
People pay tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at his grave at the Borisovo cemetery, marking the first anniversary of his death while incarcerated in a remote Arctic penal colony, in Moscow on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 17, 2025
Russians risk reprisals to visit Navalny grave on death anniversary
Russia has still not fully explained the circumstances of his death.
Demonstrators rally to support the Uyghur community in Istanbul in 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 14, 2025
China rights monitors suspend work and lay off staff amid U.S. aid freeze
The groups are key to documenting a yearslong crackdown by President Xi Jinping on minorities, rights defenders and lawyers.
Tyler Wright competes in the WSL Pipe Pro event at Pipeline in Hawaii on Feb. 8.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 14, 2025
LGBT surfer Tyler Wright to compete in UAE after assurances of safety
The WSL confirmed last year it would add Abu Dhabi to the pro surfing calendar for the first time, prompting criticism from Wright's wife and brother.
Xuan, a Vietnamese migrant, speaks during an interview in London.
WORLD
Feb 13, 2025
'Trapped': Vietnamese slavery victim's ordeal on U.K. dope farm
Vietnamese migrants are among the most exposed to modern slavery, with more than 1,000 presumed victims reported to British authorities in 2023.
Visitors look at information promoting Saudi Arabia's Neom megaproject at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22.
WORLD
Feb 13, 2025
Why are TikTok 'momfluencers' lauding Saudi Arabia's desert megacity?
One Thai "momfluencer" shared a video of her "typical afternoon in Neom." The video has been viewed around 800,000 times. The city it shows is almost deserted.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji