THE RAPPORT — 5 January to 18 January 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

• The restructuring and staff reductions at memory sites in Argentina, and the appointment of authorities who have publicly “downplayed” grave human rights violations committed during the last military dictatorship, constitute a “serious setback” in the realisation of rights implicit in transitional justice initiatives and, “therefore, a direct violation of the obligations of the Argentine State,” say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on transitional justice, cultural rights, and executions. (ARG 7/2025)

• Immense food insecurity in Nicaragua, which have a particularly negative impact on vulnerable groups and the Miskitu and Mayangna Indigenous Peoples in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, is a clear violation of legal obligations and may amount to “ethnocide”, say the Special Rapporteurs on food, cultural rights, environment, and Indigenous Peoples. (NIC 4/2025)

• The United States’ decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Myanmar, based on the clearly incorrect conclusion that “conditions in Myanmar no longer hinder the safe return of its nationals,” does not align with the prohibition on refoulement under the Convention against Torture and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, says the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar. (USA 2/2026)

Africa

• The enforced disappearance of Kenyan human rights defenders Mr. Nicholas Oyoo and Mr. Bob Njagi, following their abduction in Kampala, Uganda, “constitutes a clear violation of international human rights law by the Ugandan authorities,” say the Working Group on enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders and freedom of opinion. (UGA 5/2025)

• The referral of over 90 lawyers to trial before the terrorism circuits of Egypt’s criminal courts, reportedly as a direct result of their legitimate human rights work, including through providing legal representation to victims and individuals accused in political cases, amounts to “large-scale arbitrary detention” and is inconsistent with the country’s obligations under the ICCPR, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances and the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, human rights defenders, and terrorism. (EGY 7/2025)

• The arrest of student leaders, activists, and human rights defenders in Togo between June and September 2025 appear to be “in retaliation for their peaceful and legitimate protection and promotion of human rights, in particular their defense of students’ rights,” in violation of the rights to liberty, to a fair trial, and to freedom of expression and association, say the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, education, freedom of opinion, and freedom of assembly. (TGO 2/2025)

Asia

• Violations of the rights of rural, forest-dwelling communities and Indigenous Peoples in Jagatsinghpur, India, whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by a proposed integrated steel plant, engage India’s obligations to ensure that all development initiatives “comply with both international and national legal frameworks and that people and peoples must be the primary beneficiaries of any sustainable development processes,” say the Workings Groups on business and human rights and peasants and the Special Rapporteurs on food, cultural rights, environment, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, and human rights defenders. (IND 11/2025, OTH 142/2025)

• Japan’s new Act on the Appropriate Implementation of Employment for Skill Development for Foreign Nationals and Protection of Foreign Trainees and Employees violates a number of International Labour Organization conventions, including the prohibition on charging fees by private employment agencies, say the Working Group on business and human rights and the Special Rapporteurs on slavery, migrants, and human trafficking. (JPN 5/2025)

Europe

• A defamation lawsuit filed in Italy by Fox Petroli S.p.A. against environmental human rights defenders Roberto Malini and Lisetta Sperindei, amounts to “direct retaliation for their public criticism of the company’s operations and for their environmental human rights advocacy,” say the Working Group on business and human rights and the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, environment, freedom of opinion, and safe drinking water. (ITA 8/2025, OTH 141/2025)

• The arbitrary detention and torture in Russia of journalist Maria Ponomarenko, solely for promoting an anti-war stance, has resulted in a serious deterioration of her health requiring “access to timely and adequate medical assistance, with due recognition of her inherent human dignity, as provided by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),” says the Special Rapporteur on Russia. (RUS 8/2025)

• The ongoing detention of Muamera Muhamedagić, a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina held in northeast Syria with two of her children, engages the State’s positive obligations to repatriate nationals at serious risk, particularly where children are involved, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteurs on terrorism, a democratic international order, and violence against women and girls. (BIH 2/2025)

• The absence of transitional justice measures addressing grave human rights violations suffered by women held in Francoist Spain’s Patronato de Protección a la Mujer — which sought the “moral rehabilitation of women, especially young women, in order to prevent their exploitation, remove them from vice, and educate them in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic religion” — is indicative of a failure of the Spanish state to investigate and sanction grave human rights violations, as required under international human rights law, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and discrimination against women and girls, and the Special Rapporteurs on transitional justice, slavery, human trafficking, and violence against women and girls. (ESP 1/2025)

• The decision by Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum to limit service to only 10 tickets per day for lawyers have severely limited the work of legal professionals and conflicts with basic fair trial rights, including “that accused persons should have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defense and should be able to communicate with a lawyer of their choice,” say the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and migrants. (PRT 1/2025)

• The criminal investigation of teacher and human rights defender Géza Buzás-Hábel, who has been the organiser of the pride festival in Pécs, Hungary, is pursuant to 2025 legislative amendments that “established a basis for unlawful restrictions on the human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly” and are grounded in “the discriminatory assertion that the peaceful expression of gender-diverse identities poses a threat to public health and morality,” say the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, and SOGI. (HUN 2/2025)

• The extension of prison terms for four people for their alleged “malicious disobedience” to penitentiary authorities is arbitrary and indicative of the weaponization of criminal law to further political ends in Belarus, say the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteurs on Belarus, freedom of opinion, independence of judges and lawyers, and terrorism. (BLR 12/2025)

• The seven-year detention of a Swiss national in north-eastern Syria, despite the absence of any charge, engages Switzerland’s obligation to repatriate its nationals in order to prevent serious violations of peremptory norms of international law, say the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and the Special Rapporteur on terrorism. (CHE 7/2025)

• The criminal offence of “apology for terrorism” under Article 421‑2‑5 of the French Penal Code is imprecise and excessive in scope and may be incompatible with France’s international obligation to respect the right to freedom of expression, say the Special Rapporteurs on terrorism, freedom of opinion, and human rights defenders. (FRA 16/2025)

Middle East

• The death sentence imposed by Iran on Zahra Shahbaz Tabari for her involvement in the Women, Life, Freedom protests of 2022 amounts to the criminalisation of “the exercise of fundamental rights protected under the ICCPR, including the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly,” say the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls and the Special Rapporteur on Iran and violence against women and girls. (IRN 22/2025)

• The death sentence imposed by Iran on 22-year-old mechanical engineering student Ehsan Faridi, convicted of “propaganda against the state” and “corruption on earth,” amounts to a number of violations under the ICCPR, including the absolute prohibition on the arbitrary deprivation of life and rights relating to due process and fair trial guarantees, says the Special Rapporteur on Iran. (IRN 21/2025)