When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of their early actions was to ban women from the legal profession. In this conversation, HRW’s Macarena Sáez is joined by Judge Marzia Babakarkhail, Justice Mona Lynch, Judge Basira Qazizada, and Judge Bahida Rahimi to discuss this crisis.

In Vietnam, more than 160 political prisoners are currently locked up simply for exercising their basic rights. Rights bloggers and activists face police harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and interrogation on a daily basis. Activists face long stints of pre-trial detention, without access to lawyers or family in a one-party police state that tolerates no dissent.

Arrests, Tickets, Property Destruction Brutalize People Who Need Housing.

 (San Salvador, July 16, 2024) –El Salvador’s state of emergency, declared in March 2022, has led to severe human rights violations against children of low-income communities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 107-page report, “‘Your Child Does Not Exist Here’: Human Rights Abuses Against Children Under El Salvador’s ‘State of Emergency,’” documents arbitrary detention, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment against children under President Nayib Bukele’s “war on gangs.” Detained children have often faced overcrowding, lack of adequate food and health care, and have been denied access to their lawyers and family members. In some cases, children have been held, in the first days after arrest, alongside adults. Many have been convicted on overly broad charges and in unfair trials that deny due process.

Since April 2023, more than a half-million people have been forced from their homes in Sudan due to fighting between two armed groups who were once aligned. The story of how the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces turned on each other, with devastating consequences for Sudan’s civilians, can be traced back to

In the early 2000s, a campaign to “Save Sudan” became the bipartisan issue of the time. Celebrities and politicians alike implored a global audience to pay attention. As interventions waned, so did the world's attention. But, since the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began fighting in April 2023, more than

When Robert Taylor bought land and began to build a home in St. John Parish in Louisiana, he envisioned a compound that would house his family for generations to come. Now, Taylor hopes that his grandchildren don’t have to live in the “Sacrifice Zone” in Louisiana's Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch of land along the banks

Persistent Failure to Ensure Right to Work; Quotas Unfilled

In 2023, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman came across a letter the United Nations had sent to the government of Saudi Arabia expressing concern over the killing of Ethiopian migrants who were attempting to enter the kingdom - including a mention of a mass grave of up to 10,000 in a remote border region. Nadia's

Harassment and Prosecutions; Total State Control Over Legal Profession