#Human Rights

#Human Rights

Closer cooperation between regulators and increased funding are needed for the UK to deal effectively with the human rights harms associated with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. On 4 February 2026, the Joint Committee on Human Rights met to discuss whether the UK's regulators have the resources, expertise and powers to ensure that human rights are protected from new and emerging harms caused by AI. While there are at least 13 regulators in the UK with remits relating to AI, there is no single regulator dedicated to regulating AI.

Federal attorneys admitted at a Feb. 9 court hearing that numerous immigrants apprehended by ICE agents over the past few months while attending immigration court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza are now being detained on multiple floors of the building. The revelation came after a judge ordered last year that ICE reduce the number of people detained at Federal Plaza after video footage from inside a detainment area there showed numerous men sleeping on the floor and sharing one toilet.

Western governments, the U.S. under Donald Trump leading the pack, are caught in the grip of an anti-immigration fervor, enforcing cruel and degrading laws that violate human rights and undermine public safety. This entire approach toward immigrants is not only immoral but also rests on false economic claims, argues Daniel Mendiola, assistant professor of history and migration studies at Vassar College, in the interview that follows.

Iranian security forces have arrested several figures from the country's reformist movement, local media reported on Monday, as Tehran's crackdown on dissent continues to widen. Those arrested include Azar Mansouri, the head of the Reformist Front, which represents several factions, former diplomat Mohsen Aminzadeh and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who was part of the group that stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Do not use any information from a non-government source (e.g., an NGO, even if it is or has been funded by the U.S. government, or media) that advances policies inconsistent with presidential executive orders, including promotion of 'racial justice,' 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' and gender ideology, the cable says, per . The department deems such sources not to be credible, the cable goes on. The extraordinary instruction could be applied widely, as Politico points out. Many major human rights groups like Amnesty International tout their investment in initiatives like DEI, as do many large news outlets like The New York Times.

On Wednesday (February 4, 2026), Maja T.*, an anti-fascist activist from the eastern German city of Jena (Thuringia), was found guilty by a court in Hungary of having attacked and seriously injured several suspected right-wing extremists in Budapest in February 2023. The attacks had apparently been directed at individuals thought to have participated in the annual "Day of Honor" rally of neo-Nazis from all over Europe, held in the Hungarian capital.

Citizens of Nowhere is a documentary short about stateless people in the United States individuals who, through circumstance or legal technicality, belong to no nation. Without passports, citizenship or legal recognition, they live in a state of uncertainty. From finding work and accessing education, to simply existing within a system that does not officially recognise them, stateless people face endless bureaucratic barriers.

With Washington's stance on Ukraine shifting, debates in Kyiv over Gaza continue to gain momentum. Kyiv, Ukraine At the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced support for Israel, while First Lady Olena Zelenska said Ukrainians understand and share the pain of the Israeli people. Billboards across Kyiv lit up the capital with Israeli flags.

Al Jazeera has condemned YouTube's compliance with an Israeli law banning the network's livestreams in the country, warning that the move signals how major tech companies can be co-opted as instruments of regimes hostile to freedom. YouTube's submission to Israel's ban became apparent on Wednesday, days after Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi ordered a 90-day extension of an existing ban on the network's operations in Israel, blocking broadcasting and internet companies from carrying the network's content.

ICE, which was formed in response to the terror attacks on 11 September 2001, is a federal agency that enforces the United States' immigration laws by identifying and deporting people who breach such laws, as well as those who are viewed as a threat to national security. Since Trump returned to the White House for his second term, his administration has led a huge campaign to bolster the work of ICE and make good on his anti-immigration campaign promise to carry out mass deportations.