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In human rights work, we say what needs to be said. Sometimes, we say it for those who are unable to speak out at the moment – or speak at all anymore.

Yet, sometimes, it seems as if we shouldn’t have to say what we say. What we’re saying seems so fundamental, so obvious, that no one should have to say it at all.

For example…

We shouldn’t have to say to Australia, “Don’t jail ten-year-old kids.” That should be clear enough to anyone.

We shouldn’t have to say to the European Union, “Don’t send refugees to places where you know they’ll be tortured.” Again, obvious stuff.

We shouldn’t have to say to Israel, “Don’t starve children.”

We shouldn’t have to say to the US, the UK, Germany, and Iran: “Don’t keep sending weapons to warring parties committing atrocities.”

We shouldn’t have to say to Rwanda, “Stop torturing people.”

We shouldn’t have to say to the Taliban in Afghanistan, “Your invented ‘tradition’ is no excuse for horrific abuses.”

We shouldn’t have to remind global leaders on trade junkets that China is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

We shouldn’t have to explain to anyone that we all need a habitable planet to live on.

We shouldn’t have to say to Elon Musk, “Don’t give Nazi-style salutes.”

We shouldn’t have to say to the Trump administration, “Don’t negotiate away justice for victims of Russia’s atrocity-ridden invasion of Ukraine.”

All these things should be so obvious that no one should need to say them. Governments and government leaders should know their legal and moral obligations without being reminded.

Yet, here we are.

We face governments that often willfully ignore their obligations to serve the powerful at the expense of the powerless. So, human rights groups and activists often have to say what is simply obvious.

It’s important that we do so. Because if no one pointed out the obvious, it would gradually become less obvious. Human rights abuses would seem not worth mentioning, become “normal.”

Yet, however common they are, human rights abuses should never be considered normal. We all need to remind those in power of the standards humanity expects every day. We need to say what has to be said – even when no one should have to say it.

US: Later today, US President Donald Trump is slated to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress. In a new article, our experts break down the issues at stake, international and domestic – and the damage to human rights Trump has already done in his first weeks in office.

Bangladesh: The country offered one of the rare good-news stories last year, as the old, repressive government fell from power. But hard-won progress will be lost without swift reforms that can withstand pressure by forces inside and outside the government that seek to derail human rights reforms. It’s make or break time.

Thailand/China: Last week, the Thai government violated domestic and international law by forcibly sending at least 40 Uyghur men to China, where they could face torture. The men had been held in Thai immigration detention for over a decade.

Today, we have a mix of your recommendations along with a couple of ours, compiled by Ines Mhand:

• US suspends all military aid to Ukraine in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row (The Guardian) 
• EU plans to strengthen defence spending could cost €800bn (The Guardian)
• Gazans face tough choices as their future is debated on the global stage (BBC) 
• Scale of child rape in Sudan widespread, UNICEF says (Le Monde) 
• Violence against children in Haiti: Rape, recruitment, hunger and shuttered schools (El País) 
• India’s north-south divide over Modi's plan to redraw constituencies (Reuters) 
• Where Being Gay Is Punishable by Death, Aid Cuts Are ‘Heartbreaking’ (The New York Times) 
• Why can Rwanda seemingly do no wrong? (Le Monde Diplomatique) 
• $75 million was awarded to plant trees in places that badly need them. In anti-DEI push, that’s over (AP)