Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi has confirmed the discovery of migrants’ mass graves in the northern state of Perlis, which borders Thailand. They were found near the camps, in which illegal migrants had been held for several years.

Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned about the UK government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act and limit the role of the European Court of Human Rights in the UK, or failing that even to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, reports say.

19 May 2015 — The UN independent human rights expert on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, today urged the Armenian government to devote more attention to the issue of violence against children as well as irregularities in adoption processes, which can amount to sale of children.

Migrants rescued from a sinking boat off Indonesia have told the BBC that about 100 people died after a fight broke out over the last remaining food.

The killing of hundreds of protesters by Uzbekistani security forces in the early hours of 13 May 2005 must be independently investigated and the ongoing persecution of those connected to the unrest must end, Amnesty International said on the 10th anniversary of the Andizhan killings.

Jail and prison staff throughout the United States have used unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force against prisoners with mental disabilities, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.

On 12 May, an atheist blogger for Mukto-Mona has been hacked to death in Bangladesh. Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by masked men with machetes, police say. It is the country’s third such deadly attack since the start of the year.

Refugees and migrants across Libya face rape, torture and abductions for ransom by traffickers and smugglers, as well as systematic exploitation by their employers, religious persecution and other abuses by armed groups and criminal gangs, according to a new Amnesty International briefing published today.

On 6 May, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), launched its Global Overview 2015: People internally displaced by conflict and violence at the United Nations in Geneva.