Kazakhstan Women Need Action on Domestic Violence
By Viktoriya Kim October 14, 2026 Reform Necessary to Close Legal Gaps, Ensure Accountability Participants at the international Women's Day rally in Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 8, 2022. © 2022 Stanislav Beketov During its October 6 review by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Kazakhstan pledged new legislation to make domestic violence a standalone crime – a timely commitment. Now the government should turn words into action
Iranian Intelligence Department Arrests 39 Protesters
By IranWire October 19, 2026 According to the Tasnim News Agency, citing the General Directorate of Intelligence of Qazvin Province, 39 citizens have been arrested in connection with the January 2026 protests. The identities of those detained, their current locations, and the status of their legal cases remain unknown. In a report that included no names or identifying details, the Qazvin Intelligence Department claimed that the detainees operated across eight separate groups
Malnutrition stalks the most vulnerable in Afghanistan
By Elena Becatoros and Abdul Qahar Afghan October 16, 2026 Malika, 25, tends to her 3-year-old daughter, Kalsoum, who has symptoms of malnutrition, in the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi children’s hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Lying in her hospital cot, the 3-year-old girl roamed the room with her gray-green eyes, but her body was listless. Her mother sat by her bedside, quietly weeping. Just
AFP, AP and Reuters
Oct 17
Iran Escalates Shipping Attacks Ahead of US Vote
By Parisa Hafezi, Jonathan Saul and Phil Stewart October 14, 2026 Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, October 13, 2026. Razieh Poudat/ISNA/via WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Iran is deploying new tactics to target ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz as it seeks to keep oil prices high and influence the US midterm elections, two senior Iranian officials told Reuters. Tehran has tried to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz
Reuters
Oct 13
Azerbaijan Blocks Social Media as Hijab Protests Continue
By Rafig Shahbazov 12 October 2026 Photo: Shutterstock Users in Azerbaijan have reported difficulties accessing Instagram and TikTok, claiming the sites only work with VPNs: fuelling speculation that the authorities are restricting access amid protests against hijab restrictions in schools. Users have reported that the platforms were inaccessible from Monday morning, with some complaining about slow connections, feeds failing to refresh, and videos not loading. While outage-m
Open Caucasus Media
Oct 13
Afghanistan Country Report
Country Report: Afghanistan October 2026 By Holly Swiglo Afghan women wearing burqas, as mandated by Taliban law. (Photo: Faruk Tokluoglu) August 15, 2026, marked five years since the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, took power in Afghanistan after the United States withdrew its troops from the country. The Taliban has since eliminated all political and civic rights, dissolved representative bodies, and imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Independent jou
Genocide Watch
Oct 11
Nearly 500 Children Killed In Afghanistan over Three Year
By Afghanistan International October 10, 2026 Credit: Afghanistan International The UN says 1,415 children were killed or wounded in Afghanistan over three years, including 446 killed and 969 injured. The casualties included 1,094 boys, 310 girls and 11 children of unknown sex. According to the UN secretary-general’s latest report on children and armed conflict, the Taliban recruited and used 557 boys during the same period, including children as young as 12. Cases of child r
ICC Unseals Four Arrest Warrants for Taliban Gender Crimes
By United Nations News October 5, 2026 The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made public four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which amounts to a crime against humanity. © UNICEF/Azizullah Karimi | Many girls have exchanged the classroom for household responsibilities following the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan. In a decision on Monday, judges unsealed warrants for Taliban Supreme Lea
United Nations News
Oct 8
Special Report: The Islamic State-K - A Resurgent Threat
By Alžběta Frommerová and Michał Jagielski Genocide Watch A still taken from an undated video shows Hafiz Saeed (center), the founder of IS-K, at an undisclosed location at the Afghanistan-Pakistani border in January 2015. Introduction After the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) territorial collapse in 2019, the threat to the West receded as ISIS’ capacity to strike Europe declined. Over the past four years, however, IS branches in sub-Saharan Africa have made the regi
Genocide Watch
Oct 7
Georgia: Critics Jailed for Online Speech
By Human Rights Watch September 18, 2026 The Georgian Interior Ministry headquarters in Tbilisi, February 2, 2010. © 2010 David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters (Berlin, September 18, 2026) – Georgian authorities are using vague administrative offenses to jail or heavily fine people for online speech, deepening the government’s crackdown on freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Since June 2026, a new Ministry of Internal Affairs unit has monitored social media and refer
Human Rights Watch
Oct 7
Rights Groups Urge Kazakhstan To Halt Extradition
By Kazakh Telegraph Agency 6 October, 2026 A number of international human rights organizations have issued a joint appeal urging the authorities of Kazakhstan to halt the extradition of activists Yulia Emelyanova and Mansur Movlayev—requested by Russia—or to allow them to safely travel to another country. "Kazakhstan must not allow its courts and detention facilities to become instruments of transnational repression against people who fled Russia in search of safety. If retu
Special Report: The Persecution of Afghanistan’s Hazaras
By August Wyma and Sophia Khan Girls read from their textbooks at the Dasht-e-Barchi Education Centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Credit:UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani) Afghanistan is a religiously and ethnically diverse country whose modern history has been shaped by attempted intervention, political instability, and national identity struggles. Within such circumstances, the Hazara people in Afghanistan have endured over a century of systematic persecution because of their distinct eth
Genocide Watch
Oct 3
