THE RAPPORT — 19 January to 1 February 2026

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

• Serious human rights abuses against an agricultural community in Durán, Guayas Province, Ecuador, by shellfish farming company Trupeca S.A.S., are indicative of “corporate strategies that … undermine families’ rights to land and livelihoods, increasing their vulnerability to forced eviction, coercive measures, and ongoing human rights violations,” in violation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, say the Working Groups of peasants and business and human rights and the Special Rapporteurs on food and poverty. (ECU 9/2025, OTH 146/2025, OTH 145/2025)

• A violent attack on 30 June 2025 against Ms. Luz Marina Becerra illustrates a structural and interrelated pattern of attacks on human rights defenders in Colombia, disproportionately affecting Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and peasant communities, say the Working Groups on people of African descent and discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, and transitional justice. (COL 5/2025)

• The unjustified and arbitrary transfer of Guatemalan Judge Nancy Anel Oajaca de León, carried out without due process or adequate justification, could violate the international human rights law principle of immovability, which protects against any form of reassignment — whether by promotion or transfer — without a judge’s consent, says the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. (GTM 9/2025)

• The ongoing detentions of Dr. Enrique Anaya Barraza and Ms. Ruth López in El Salvador — characterised by prolonged pre-trial detention, enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, lack of access to the case file, excessive confidentiality measures, and public dissemination of identifying images — “collectively jeopardize the integrity of the criminal process and the accused’s right to an effective and fair defense,” in violation of international human rights law, say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, and human rights defenders. (SLV 8/2025)

• The separation of children from their families in the context of detentions and deportations of Venezuelan nationals from the United States may constitute violations of international human rights law aimed at preserving family unity, including provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on migrants, education, independence of judges and lawyers, terrorism, human trafficking, and violence against women and girls. (USA 37/2025)

• Mass poisonings from pollution in Valparaíso, Chile, linked to activities at the Ventanas Industrial Complex, indicate “a lack of due diligence incompatible with the state’s obligation to guarantee the right to a healthy environment free from toxic substances,” say the Special Rapporteurs on a healthy environment and hazardous substances. (CHL 6/2025)

• Ongoing debt negotiations between the International Monetary Fund and Argentina must ensure that economic reform measures are “designed and implemented in ways that avoid foreseeable retrogression in the enjoyment of rights, ensure participation, transparency and accountability, and prioritise minimum essential levels for all,” says the Independent Expert on foreign debt. (OTH 154/2025, ARG 8/2025)

• President Trump’s executive order imposing American sanctions on the International Criminal Court is a “manifestly inappropriate response to disagreement” with the legitimate work of prosecutors and judges, says the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. (USA 1/2026)

Africa

• The “unprecedented fiscal collapse” in Sudan, occurring in the context of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, does not diminish the minimum core obligations owed to the Sudanese population by their government under international human rights law, say the Special Rapporteurs on education, foreign debt, health, the sale and sexual exploitation of children, and violence against women and girls. (SDN 5/2025)

• The arbitrary detention and mistreatment in prison of Mr. Abdelwahab Ahmed Mohamed Hashem, a human rights defender representing public sector employees in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, appear to contradict the Convention on the Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise as well as the Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, to which Sudan is a party, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion, and freedom of assembly. (SDN 6/2025)

• The sexual harassment, suspension from office, and punitive measures suffered by Nigerian Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan appear to be “a direct result of her efforts to expose alleged sexual harassment and advance accountability within the Nigerian Senate as an elected woman serving in a public office,” say the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and girls and freedom of opinion. (NGA 4/2025)

• The arrest, detention, and criminal prosecution in Morocco of Ms. Ibtissam Betty Lachgar, apparently in retaliation for a social media post of herself wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “Allah is a lesbian,” represent an invocation of blasphemy laws incompatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of opinion, health, human rights defenders, and SOGI. (MAR 9/2025)

• The ongoing harassment, threats, and attacks against Mr. Zola Ferreira Bambi, a human rights lawyer in Angola, engage the state’s responsibility pursuant to the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers to ensure that legal professionals are able to perform all of their functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment, or improper interference, say the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and human rights defenders. (AGO 3/2025)

• The widespread and systematic sexual and gender-based violence used as a tactic of war by all parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including government-aligned forces and armed groups such as the M23 militia, is a gross violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, which recognise such offences as amounting to torture and potentially war crimes, say the Working Groups on discrimination against women and girls and arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteurs on health, human rights defenders, internally displaced persons, sale of children, slavery, torture, trafficking in persons, transitional justice, and violence against women and girls. (COD 3/2025)

Asia

• Human rights violations and abuses related to mining operations in Pakistan, specifically to the Reko Diq mine operated by a subsidiary of Canadian-based Barrick Gold Corporation, engage the human rights obligations of states, companies, and financial institutions, say the Working Groups on business and human rights, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances, and the Special Rapporteurs on executions, freedom of opinion, human rights defenders, minorities, terrorism, and hazardous substances. (PAK 11/2025, OTH 140/2025, OTH 139/2025, OTH 138/2025, OTH 137/2025, CAN 6/2025)

Europe

• Violations of freedom of expression in Serbia — including attacks on journalists and state pressure for the removal of Ms. Aleksandra Subotic from her position as CEO of United Media — are potentially indicative of a “deliberate narrative against an independent news organization, undertaken and promoted by state officials,” say the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of opinion and freedom of assembly. (SRB 7/2025)

• The Southwark Children’s Social Services proceedings regarding the protection of the child born to a Black British citizen, which have already resulted in an extended stay in foster care, are indicative of a pattern whereby “a Black mother’s emotional responses, mental health, or parenting capacity are being assessed by systems with documented racial bias, which gives us cause for concern in connection with pertinent patterns documented in the U.K. regarding racial disparities in maternal health and maternity care,” say the Working Group on people of African descent and the Special Rapporteurs on persons with disabilities, education, and violence against women and girls. (GBR 23/2025)

• The Independent Expert on foreign debt has issued communications to Belgium, Britain, France, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, addressing each country’s decision to cut Official Development Assistance, which contravenes the “legal and moral obligations” to “support countries and communities who have contributed the least to the climate crisis but are suffering its highest costs and worst consequences.” (GBR 22/2025, CHE 8/2025, SWE 2/2025, NLD 4/2025, DEU 7/2025, FRA 14/2025, FIN 1/2025, BEL 2/2025)

Middle East

• Acts of violence against workers of Hakoritna Farm in the West Bank and the recent demolition order of this facility by the Israeli Civil Administration may amount to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including article 27 of the IV Geneva Convention, which mandates that the “manners and customs” of civilians of occupied zones must be respected, say the Working Group on peasants and the Special Rapporteurs on cultural rights, food, housing, and Palestine. (ISR 22/2025)

• The detention of poet and activist Mr. Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in the United Arab Emirates, following his extradition from Lebanon based on charges relating to the legitimate exercise of his freedom of expression, appear to fall well below international standards and may amount to torture under international law, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on torture, freedom of opinion, independence of judges and lawyers, and terrorism. (ARE 7/2025, LBN 4/2025)

• The poor prison conditions of and lack of appropriate medical attention for Mr. Taher Naghavi, a lawyer who has represented political prisoners and ethnic minorities in Iran, reflect a broader pattern of crackdowns on lawyers and minority groups over recent months, say the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion, health, independence of judges and lawyers, Iran, and torture. (IRN 18/2025)

• Israel’s Bill for the Incarceration and Prosecution of Participants in the Events of 7 October, which would establish a special court to prosecute suspects of the 7 October attacks, does not appear to provide for the safeguards necessary to protect against inappropriate political interference in prosecutorial independence, say the Special Rapporteurs on terrorism, the independence of judges and lawyers, and Palestine. (ISR 24/2025)

Other

• The Working Group on discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on Indigenous Peoples, freedom of assembly, and internally displaced persons have turned to the United Nations Department of Peace Operations concerning the recurrent involvement of military officials from Bangladesh in alleged human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples in the country, in the context of previous communications sent to Bangladesh directly going unanswered. (OTH 132/2025)

• The European Union’s proposal for a regulation establishing a common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the EU provides inadequate protections against non-refoulement and may result in the expansion of immigration detentions, in violation of current EU directives, say 16 Special Rapporteurs. (OTH 166/2025)