• US: New Prison Rape Standards Offer Landmark Protection
    May 17, 2012
    Press release
    The long awaited national prison rape elimination standards issued on May 17, 2012 by the Justice Department, if fully implemented, may end widespread prison rape in the United States. The standards provide detailed guidance to federal, state, and local officials on how to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse in their confinement facilities.
  • US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworkers
    May 15, 2012
    Press release
    Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in its 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.”
  • Colorado: Assembly Acts to Protect Youth Accused of Crimes
    Mar 6, 2012
    Press release
    Colorado’s General Assembly passed a bill on March 5, 2012 that will help keep children accused of crimes out of adult jails when they are awaiting trial.
  • US: Proposed Rules Would Save Child Farmworker Lives
    Feb 2, 2012
    Press release
    The rules are intended to make paid farm work safer for the hundreds of thousands of children in the United States who labor in agriculture. They would not apply to children working on their parents’ farms.
  • US: Harsh Conditions for Young Lifers
    Jan 3, 2012
    Press release
    The approximately 2,570 youth offenders serving life without parole sentences in adult US prisons experience conditions that violate fundamental human rights. The United States is the only country in the world with youth offenders (below the age of 18 at the time of offense) serving life without parole sentences. The US Supreme Court will consider arguments about the constitutionality of the practice in March 2012.
  • US: Ruling Should Spur Domestic Violence Reform
    Aug 18, 2011
    Press release
    The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has ruled that the United States violated international obligations when the government failed to enforce a restraining order against an abusive husband, Human Rights Watch said today. The couple’s daughters were found dead with gunshot wounds in the back of the husband’s truck in Colorado in 1999.
  • US: Remove ‘Global Gag Rule’ From House Bill
    Jul 20, 2011
    Press release
    The House Foreign Affairs Committee should remove language that would reinstate the so-called “Global Gag Rule” from the draft Foreign Affairs Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012. The “Gag Rule” would outlaw US funding to international groups that provide abortions, counsel women about abortion, or engage in advocacy for abortion rights, even if no US funds would be used for those purposes.
  • US: Protect Against Rape in Immigration Detention
    Jun 24, 2011
    Press release
    The indictment of a prison guard in a sexual abuse case of a detained immigrant underscores the need for the US government to provide immigration detainees the same protections from rape that it plans for other prisoners.
  • US: Improve Weak Standards to End Prison Rape
    Apr 4, 2011
    Press release
    Proposed Justice Department standards to reduce rape in prison are unduly weak and should be significantly improved to protect victims and ensure accountability. The Justice Department released its proposed standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) on February 3, 2011, and established a sixty day comment period, ending April 4.
  • US: Protect Detainees in Immigration Facilities from Rape
    Feb 15, 2011
    Press release
    President Barack Obama should direct the federal government to apply Prison Rape Elimination Act standards to detainees in US immigration facilities. The proposed standards for detecting, preventing, reducing, and punishing sexual abuse of people in government custody would exclude detainees in US immigration facilities even though the law calls for establishing standards for all federal, state, and local confinement facilities.