THE RAPPORT — 13 October 2025 to 26 October 2025

THE RAPPORT is the only newsletter devoted to briefing human rights practitioners on the communications of the UN Special Procedures. It is written by our Principal, Kate McInnes, and is published on Sundays on a biweekly basis. To subscribe and read the full newsletter, visit https://therapport.substack.com/.

Americas

• The government of Colombia's “gravely deficient” compliance with Judgment T-622 of the Constitutional Court — addressing ongoing human rights violations caused by deforestation and mercury contamination in the Atrato River basin resulting from illegal gold mining in the region — has disproportionately impacted Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities, say the Working Group on African descent and the Special Rapporteurs on toxics and the environment. (COL 4/2025)

• The enforced disappearance of Mr. Brooklyn Riveram a Miskitu Indigenous person and a sitting member of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, appears to have been a reprisal “for his work defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples, his role as a traditional authority, and for exercising his rights to political participation, freedom of expression, and freedom of association,” say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on Indigenous Peoples, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, and health. (NIC 2/2025)

• The Trump administration’s executive orders and policies curtailing “race-centred ideology in historical exhibits and memorials” in the United States risks “creating a widespread chilling effect, deterring public and private institutions from advancing inclusion for historically marginalized persons and groups due to fear of prosecution, contract or funding revocation, or other sanctions,” say the Working Group on African descent and the Special Rapporteurs on racism, cultural rights, and truth and justice. (USA 26/2025)

• A draft bill before the North Carolina House of Representatives — which would, inter alia, prohibit the Attorney General from advancing “any argument before a state or federal court in another state that would result in the invalidation of any statute enacted by the General Assembly” — arises in the context of the dismissal and reassignment of a considerable number of federal prosecutors in the United States and risks seriously undermining the independence of this office, says the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. (USA 36/2025)

• A bill before the Texas House of Representatives Committee on High Education — which would require institutions to “prohibit any student or employee on a non-immigrant visa from ‘publicly supporting’ terrorist activity related to an ongoing conflict” — raise concerns under the law of state responsibility, wherein a federal state, like the United States, is responsible for violations of international law by its territorial units, say the Special Rapporteurs on terrorism, education, and peaceful assembly. (USA 34/2025)

Africa

• The abduction and enforced disappearance of Mr. El Bachir Thiam, a journalist and activist who has called for a return to constitutional order, by a group of unidentified men suspected of being intelligence agents, is emblematic of the “broader context in Mali marked by an upsurge in repressive measures against several civil society actors, human rights defenders, journalists, and other dissenting voices,” say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on Mali, freedom of opinion, and freedom of assembly. (MLI 6/2025)

• The murder of a 14-year-old girl with albinism in Mozambique, and evidence that body parts, including her uterus, may have been removed and sold for ritualistic purposes, raise serious concerns about broader state failures to investigate and prosecute offences against persons with albinism, says the Independent Expert on albinism. (MOZ 3/2025)

• The death of Mr. Khamis Mohamed Abdulmajeed Al-Aqab while in the custody of the Libyan National Army, allegedly detained on accusations of witchcraft, and the failure to conduct an adequate and independent investigation into his death, may constitute a violation of jus cogens obligations under international law applicable to both state and non-state actors, say the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteurs on executions, health, and freedom of religion. (OTH 107/2025)

Asia

• Violent forced evictions carried out by the armed forces in Indonesia, stemming from the Mandalika Urban and Tourism Infrastructure Project, may be taking place without adequate consultation with, or the informed consent of, the Indigenous peoples living in the Mandalika region, in violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, say the Working Group on human rights and business and the Special Rapporteurs on housing, internally displaced persons, and extreme poverty. (IDN 7/2025)

• Physical attacks on and the intimidation of Ms. Dewi Anakoda, an Indigenous woman human rights defender working to expose the human and environmental impact of nickel mining on Halmahera Island, Indonesia, implicates a wide range of actors, including companies domiciled in Indonesia, France, and China, say 10 Special Rapporteurs. (OTH 99/2025, OTH 98/2025, OTH 91/2025, OTH 93/2025, OTH 97/2025, IDN 6/2025, FRA 8/2025, OTH 94/2025, CHN 16/2025, OTH 92/2025)

• Kazakhstan’s alleged obstruction of the participation of Mr. Amangeldy Shormanbayev, a human rights defender, in the UN Human Rights Committee’s review of Kazakhstan’s report in June 2025 — including the imposition of a negligible tax debt that may have prevented him from leaving the country — may constitute “a deliberate effort to prevent Mr. Shormanbayev from engaging with United Nations mechanisms and may be directly linked to his human rights defence work and the exercise of his freedom of expression,” say the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders and freedom of opinion. (KAZ 3/2025)

Europe

• The “worrying and consistent pattern” of stifling climate justice and Palestinian solidarity protests across Germany “indicate an apparent failure of the state’s positive obligation to facilitate the rights to freedom of peaceful assemblies, of association and of expression, and to refrain from unwarranted interference,” say the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of assembly, freedom of opinion, climate change, the environment, human rights defenders, democratic international order, international solidarity, racism, and terrorism. (DEU 2/2025)

Middle East

• The alleged arbitrary detention and harsh interrogation of an Indian human rights defender, working to advance the rights of Gulf migrant workers, by the United Arab Emirates while in transit from Bengaluru to Nairobi in June 2025, may constitute torture and a clear violation of international human rights law, say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion, and freedom of association. (ARE 4/2025)

• The escalation of harassment of BBC News Persian staff in London, and the persecution of staff family members who remain in Iran, constitute a transnational attempt “to silence and censor critical reporting,” say the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on Iran, terrorism, executions, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, privacy, and torture. (IRN 13/2025)