• Mercury Treaty: Last Chance to Address Health Effects
    Jan 10, 2013
    A proposed international treaty to address the damaging effects of mercury should include specific provisions to protect the health of children and other vulnerable populations, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments are to meet in Geneva beginning January 13, 2013, for a fifth and final round of talks for the treaty. Mercury is a toxic metal that attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.
  • SADC: Press Mugabe to End Crackdown
    Mar 29, 2011
    The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) should publicly press President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his party to end their harassment and arbitrary arrests of civil society activists and political opponents. The SADC is meeting beginning March 31, 2011, in Livingstone, Zambia.
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Reports

  • Off the Record
    U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror”
  • Policy Paralysis
    A Call for Action on HIV/AIDS-Related Human Rights Abuses Against Women and Girls in Africa
  • "The Bullets Were Raining"
    The January 2001 Attack on Peaceful Demonstrators in Zanzibar
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Tanzania and Zanzibar

  • Mercury Convention "Must Be Brought to Life"
    Jan 21, 2013
    This weekend, more than 140 governments agreed on the text for a new legally binding convention on mercury, a highly toxic metal. It has taken three years and many compromises to get here. What often seemed like a dry and bureaucratic process – delegates arguing over nuance during long night sessions – has very real implications for millions of people around the globe.
  • Mercury Treaty Will Help Protect Right to Health
    Jan 19, 2013
    The international mercury treaty just agreed sends an important signal that governments must do more to address the threat of mercury to the right to health, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 19, 2013, 140 governments created the treaty after five rounds of intense talks, which began in 2010.
  • Mercury Treaty: Last Chance to Address Health Effects
    Jan 10, 2013
    A proposed international treaty to address the damaging effects of mercury should include specific provisions to protect the health of children and other vulnerable populations, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments are to meet in Geneva beginning January 13, 2013, for a fifth and final round of talks for the treaty. Mercury is a toxic metal that attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.
  • The Global Mercury Treaty: Japan’s Chance or Shame
    Dec 29, 2012
    Mercury is an ancient metal rich in history, cloaked with mystery and power. It is liquid at room temperature, with a beautiful silver hue. The metal is used in industrial production, in medical and cosmetic products, and in small-scale gold mining.
  • End Child Labor in Gold Mines
    Nov 13, 2012
    In Tanzania, I met "Julius", a boy of about 13, who works in an artisanal gold mine. He told me he digs ore in pits more than 15 metres deep and mixes toxic mercury with ground ore to retrieve the gold. Once a pit collapsed and almost killed another boy, his friend. The work had made him feel "pain in the whole body."
  • SADC: Press Mugabe to End Crackdown
    Mar 29, 2011
    The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) should publicly press President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his party to end their harassment and arbitrary arrests of civil society activists and political opponents. The SADC is meeting beginning March 31, 2011, in Livingstone, Zambia.
  • SADC: Press Zimbabwe to Implement Rights Reforms
    Aug 31, 2009
    Southern African leaders should press Zimbabwe's power-sharing government to end ongoing human rights violations and to implement legal reforms.
  • African Civil Society Urges African States Parties to the Rome Statute to Reaffirm Their Commitment to the ICC
    Jul 30, 2009
    Recognizing our obligation to help protect human rights and uphold the rule of law, we, the undersigned civil society organizations, appeal to African ICC States Parties to reaffirm their support for the ICC and their commitment to abide by their obligations under the Rome Statute, particularly in relation to the arrest and transfer of the President of Sudan to the ICC.
  • Tanzania/Uganda: Prevent Forced Return of Refugees
    Jun 19, 2009
    The Tanzanian and Ugandan governments should ensure that refugees living in camps due to close on June 30 and July 31, 2009 are not forcibly returned to their home countries and are immediately given full information about their options.
  • The costs of marital rape in Southern Africa
    Aug 18, 2008
    For years now, women’s groups in Southern Africa have campaigned tirelessly to ensure that the Southern African Development Community adopt the Protocol on Gender and Development. Yesterday, the SADC finally took that historic step. Member states will be obliged to amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women across a wide range of issues, from provisions that require member states to enshrine equality in their constitutions, to firm commitments to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent. But while that’s a cause for celebration, the Protocol still does not refer explicitly to domestic violence, and it still doesn’t oblige states to introduce legal provisions that criminalise marital rape.
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