• Afghanistan: Moral Crimes
    Mar 26, 2012
    Approximately 400 women and girls are imprisoned in Afghanistan for “moral crimes”, which usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina, sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution. Zina is a crime under Afghan law, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Human Rights Watch found that almost half the women in prisons and all the girls in juvenile detention centers had been arrested after they fled a forced marriage and women who had fled abusive husbands and relatives. Some women interviewed by Human Rights Watch had gone to the police in dire need of help, only to be arrested instead. The women and girls described abuses including forced and underage marriage, beatings, stabbings, burnings, rapes, forced prostitution, kidnapping, and murder threats. Virtually none of the cases had led even to an investigation of the abuse, let alone prosecution or punishment.
  • Burma: Untold Miseries
    Mar 15, 2012
    The Burmese government has committed serious abuses and blocked humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of displaced civilians since June 2011, in fighting in northern Kachin State. Some 75,000 ethnic Kachin displaced persons and refugees are in desperate need of food, medicine, and shelter. Based on more than 100 interviews with internally displaced persons, Human Rights Watch found that the Burmese army has attacked Kachin villages, razed homes, pillaged properties, and forced the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Soldiers have threatened and tortured civilians during interrogations and raped women. The army has also used antipersonnel mines and conscripted forced laborers, including children as young as 14, on the front lines.The Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) need to take effective measures to end abuses by their forces, ensure humanitarian access, and permit an independent international mechanism to investigate abuses by all sides.
  • FUKUSHIMA: One Year On
    Mar 9, 2012
  • Fukushima: One Year On
    Mar 8, 2012
    Many residents of Fukushima Prefecture still lack basic information and clear answers about the level of radiation in their food and environment. Although the explosion at the Daiichi plant is considered the most severe radiation crisis worldwide since Chernobyl, many residents of Fukushima prefecture report that they have not been able to have their children tested for radiation exposure.
  • Burma Releases Political Prisoners
    Jan 20, 2012
    Burma's government has finally heeded international calls to release political prisoners. Photographer James Mackay was at the Rangoon airport on January 13 to document the homecoming of some of the country's most prominent activists. Human Rights Watch's Elaine Pearson reports.
  • Nepal: Adding Insult to Injury
    Nov 29, 2011
    Five years after the end of Nepal’s civil war, victims on both sides of the conflict are still waiting for justice. Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum have found that families of those killed or disappeared have fought hard to obtain justice, but not a single perpetrator has been successfully prosecuted for serious abuses in a civilian court. Evidence shows that police face intense pressure from senior government officials, political parties, and the Nepal army to obstruct justice, ignore supreme court rulings and evade prosecution. In the absence of a robust legal system that would force compliance, perpetrators of human rights violations continue to enjoy impunity.
  • Burma: Promises of Reform
    Nov 23, 2011

    Burma's repressive regime has promised reforms and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is making a historic visit there. Human Rights Watch's David Mathieson says there have been some surprising openings in political and press freedoms in Burma, but the country still has a long way to go.

  • Cambodia and Malaysia: Domestic Workers Face Abuse
    Oct 24, 2011
    The Cambodian and Malaysian governments’ failure to regulate recruiters and employers leaves Cambodian migrant domestic workers exposed to a wide range of abuses. Tens of thousands of Cambodian women and girls who migrate to Malaysia have little protection against forced confinement in training centers, heavy debt burdens, and exploitative working conditions. Some recruitment agents in Cambodia forge fraudulent identity documents to recruit children, offer cash and food incentives that leave migrants and their families heavily indebted, mislead them about their job responsibilities in Malaysia, and charge excessive recruitment fees.
  • Laos: Inside a Drug Detention Center
    Oct 10, 2011
    The Somsanga Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Laos has received a decade of international support from the United States, the United Nations, and other donors. But inside the center, detainees are held without due process, and many are locked in cells inside barbed wire compounds. Joseph Amon, director of health and human rights at Human Rights Watch, reports.
  • Laos: Drug Users Forcibly Detained
    Oct 7, 2011
    Police and local militia in Vientiane are forcibly detaining people who use drugs in a so-called treatment center where they risk beatings and other abuse. Homeless people, street children, people with mental disabilities, and others deemed “undesirable” are often detained in the center as well. The Somsanga Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, which has received a decade of international support from the United States, the United Nations, and other donors, holds detainees without due process, and many are locked in cells inside barbed wire compounds. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they had been held for periods of three months to more than a year, and those who try to escape may be brutally beaten.