Human rights

JESSICA GOW/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

Sweden summons Iranian ambassador over dual national sentence

The Iranian-Swedish national was arrested during Iran’s June war with Israel for allegedly spying on Israel’s behalf.

Iranian soldiers keep watch at a patrol post in Zabol, southeastern Iran, near the Afghan border, on Oct. 10, 2012.

Analysis

Militant merger in Iran’s Baluchistan signals new threat to Tehran

The group’s outreach to broader ethnic communities reflects a strategic bid for wider legitimacy and a role in the wider struggle against the Islamic Republic.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

A fan waves a Pride flag before the soccer match between the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers at Lumen Field, on June 3, 2023, in Seattle, Washington.

Culture

World Cup: Iran fumes over LGBTQ+ themes as Jordan qualifies for first time

Morocco is hoping to build on its historic run in 2022, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others in the region similarly vying to build on recent successes.

Security personnel from the Syrian Ministry of Interior stand outside the Justice Palace ahead of the first trial of more than a dozen suspects linked to massacres that left hundreds dead in Syria's Alawite coastal heartland earlier this year, in Aleppo on November 18, 2025. The first trial of more than a dozen suspects linked to massacres that left hundreds dead in Syria's Alawite coastal heartland earlier this year began on November 18, an AFP journalist in the courtroom said. The massacres in March, whic

Feature

A year since Assad’s fall, Aleppo trial tests Syria’s transitional justice

Syria recently launched its first open trial on the deadly sectarian violence in March, but questions about judicial independence and political influence make the upcoming hearings a major test of accountability in post-Assad Syria as the first anniversary of Assad’s fall approaches.

Alessandra Bajec

By Alessandra Bajec

Latest News

Turkey sentences journalist over 4 years in jail for threatening Erdogan

Prominent Turkish journalist Fatih Altayli is pictured in this undated image.

Saudi Arabia lifts travel ban on US citizen Saad Almadi

An undated image of Saad Ibrahim Almadi.

Fed up with Netanyahu, more Israelis seek European passports

Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Israeli settlers arrested after injuring 4 Palestinians in West Bank rampage: What to know

A Palestinian man tries to extinguish flames from a burning truck after an Israeli settlers attack in the village of Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank on Nov. 11, 2025.

Activists from of the Lebaanon’s LGBTQ community take part in a protest outside police station in Beirut on May 15, 2016, demanding the release of four transsexual women and calling for the abolishment of article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature". (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Lebanon's LGBTQ community faces digital exploitation, blackmail

Lebanon's LGBTQ community is being targeted through social media platforms and dating apps, and the perpetrators are acting with impunity.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (L) answers journalists' questions with Iceland's Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir (R), during a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Iran, at the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 24, 2022.

Analysis

As Germany's relations sour with Iran, pressure grows on Berlin to do more

Activists in Germany are doubtful whether the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats will thwart the death sentence of German-Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Taiwanese navy launches a US-made Standard missile from a frigate during the annual Han Kuang Drill, on the sea near the Suao navy harbor in Yilan county on July 26, 2022. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP) (Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)

US bolsters human rights criteria for arms sales

The arms transfer policy takes into account how US weapons sales could be used to commit rights abuses.

Washington Pulse

Turkish soldiers stand next to a destroyed building in Hatay.

Turkish youth dies in police custody as impunity soars in wake of Turkey's killer quakes

Vigilantes and members of the Turkish gendarmerie are brutalizing some survivors in the provinces struck by the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.

Iran street

EU slaps fifth wave of sanctions on Iran, targeting 32 individuals

The new list brings the total number of Iranian individuals under EU sanctions to 196 and the tally of sanctioned Iranian entities to 33.

Iraqi women's rights activists lift placards during a rally near the Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad on Feb. 5.

Honor killings in Iraq rekindle efforts to criminalize domestic violence

There is once again outrage and calls for legal reforms in Iraq to protect women from being murdered at the hands of family members.

Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

Barcelona ends twin city agreement with Tel Aviv, citing Israeli 'apartheid'

Barcelona’s Mayor Ada Colau said that thousands of residents in her city signed a petition to sever ties with Tel Aviv so as to pressure Israel on Palestinian human rights.

Blinken and Shoukry in Cairo

Blinken seeks detainee progress, but releases are Egypt’s ‘prerogative’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Al-Monitor he raised the cases of individual political prisoners during his two-day visit to Cairo, which included a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Brussels, Jan. 25, 2023.

Israel's president holds talks on Iran and Hamas hostages during EU visit

In Brussels, Herzog was expected to raise the issue of two Israeli nationals — Avera Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed — captured by Hamas

Turkish riot police

'We are in a very dangerous situation,' Kuwait's five sisters plead for help to stay in Turkey

Five Kuwaiti sisters, including two minors, say they escaped domestic violence and sexual abuse, and are now beseeching Turkish authorities and civic groups for a safe life.

A general view of the UNESCO-listed buildings in the old city of Sanaa, Yemen, July 25, 2022.

Two Yemen YouTubers in detention, put on trial by Houthis

Courts run by the Houthis have been used to settle scores with opponents, especially media activists accusing the group of corruption.

FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP via Getty Images

Breaking | Last Updated: January 19, 2023, 2:08 pm

European Parliament slaps sanctions on Iran's IRGC

The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Union to blacklist Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to sanction the Iranian leadership.