• China: CNMC Public Listing Needs Investor Vigilance
    Apr 22, 2012
    Press release
    Prospective investors in China Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation’s (CNMC) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong should be aware of the company’s disturbing labor rights practices in Zambia. CNMC’s inability or unwillingness to respect worker’s rights in their Zambia operations raises critical questions about corporate behavior that potential investors should direct to the company.
  • Cambodia: Cut Draft Provision Allowing Prison Labor
    Nov 28, 2011
    Press release
    The Cambodian government should urge the Senate to strike a provision of the draft Law on Prisons that would permit prison labor to be used for producing goods for private firms.
  • Zimbabwe: Rampant Abuses in Marange Diamond Fields
    Aug 30, 2011
    Press release
    (Johannesburg) – Zimbabwe police and private security guards employed by mining companies in the Marange diamond fields are shooting, beating and unleashing attack dogs on poor, local unlicensed miners. 
  • EU: Freeze Assets of Syrian Oil and Gas Companies
    Aug 16, 2011
    Press release
    The European Union (EU) should freeze the assets of the Syrian National Oil Company, Syrian National Gas Company, and the Central Bank of Syria until the Syrian government ends gross human rights abuses against its citizens. On August 13, 2011, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the EU High Representative and foreign ministers of the 27 member states urging them to swiftly impose such sanctions.
  • US/Colombia: Rights Conditions Crucial for Trade Deal
    Apr 7, 2011
    Press release
    The US Congress should insist on vigorous enforcement of human rights commitments by Presidents Barack Obama and Juan Manuel Santos before moving forward on the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
  • US/Colombia: Establish Benchmarks for Trade Pact
    Mar 17, 2011
    Press release
    The initiative by members of the US Congress to establish human rights benchmarks that Colombia should meet prior to US ratification of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a critically important development.
  • Kimberley Process: Demand End to Abuses in Diamond Trade
    Nov 1, 2010
    Press release
    The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme should not allow further exports from the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe until the government makes clear progress in ending abuses and smuggling. Participants in the scheme, an international body that oversees the diamond trade, are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem from November 1 to 4, 2010.
  • US: European Corporate Hypocrisy
    Sep 2, 2010
    Press release
    Many European companies that publicly embrace workers' rights under global labor standards nevertheless undermine workers' rights in their US operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today.
  • Zimbabwe: End Persecution of Activist Group
    Jun 2, 2010
    Press release
    Civil Society organizations, including Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, and Partnership Africa Canada, today condemned the state-sponsored harassment and intimidation of a Zimbabwean nongovernmental organization, the Centre for Research and Development (CRD). The group has been instrumental in exposing ongoing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s notorious Marange diamond fields.
  • Kimberley Process: Suspend Zimbabwe
    Oct 29, 2009
    Press release
    The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, scheduled to meet in Swakopmund, Namibia, from November 2 to 5, 2009, should immediately suspend Zimbabwe for continuing human rights abuses and widespread smuggling in the Marange diamond fields.