• You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

    Juliane KippenbergChildren as young as six are working in toxic conditions in Mali's gold mines. Juliane Kippenberg reports.

  • Children work in an artisanal gold mine, Kéniéba cercle, Mali.
    © 2010 International Labour Organization/IPEC
    Mali: Artisanal Mines Produce Gold With Child Labor
    At least 20,000 children work in Malian artisanal gold mines under extremely harsh and dangerous conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Malian government and international donors should take action to end child labor in artisanal mines, Human Rights Watch said. Artisanal miners rely on low-tech methods and often organize informally.
More news »

Featured Content

    • Mali: Child Labor and Mercury in Gold Mining
      Dec 1 2011 - 16:58

      You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.
    Hellish Work: Tobacco Workers in Kazakhstan
Subscribe to content feed

Reports

Children's Rights

  • Nigeria: Child Lead Poisoning Crisis
    Feb 7, 2012
    Thousands of children in northern Nigeria need immediate medical treatment and dozens of villages remain contaminated two years into the worst lead poisoning epidemic in modern history, Human Rights Watch said today while releasing a video on the issue. Four hundred children have died, according to official estimates, yet environmental cleanup efforts have not even begun in numerous affected villages.
  • Letter to the Ministry of Mines
    Feb 3, 2012
  • Syria: Stop Torture of Children
    Feb 3, 2012
    Syrian army and security officers have detained and tortured children with impunity during the past year. Human Rights Watch has documented at least 12 cases of children detained under inhumane conditions and tortured, as well as children shot while in their homes or on the street. Human Rights Watch has also documented government use of schools as detention centers, military bases or barracks, and sniper posts, as well as the arrest of children from schools.
  • US: Proposed Rules Would Save Child Farmworker Lives
    Feb 2, 2012
    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.
  • Give child offenders chance at rehabilitation
    Feb 2, 2012
    Virginia should not move in the direction of treating child sex offenders the same as adult offenders. Instead, the state should stand by its commitment to offer young offenders a chance at rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
  • We Told the Children Not to Enter
    Jan 31, 2012

    The Philippine government is engaged in a long-running armed conflict with the insurgent New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. While the NPA maintains a presence in the mountains of northern Luzon, there has only been limited military action in the Cordillera region since the 1990s. Despite the low levels of conflict, the military continues to place troops and guns in local communities. And in some cases these troops and their guns establish a home on school grounds.

  • US: End Life Without Parole for Juvenile Offenders
    Jan 26, 2012
    Human Rights Watch joined 25 other institutions in filing an amicus brief before the US Supreme Court in the upcoming cases of Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Arkansas. It argues that international practice, opinion, and treaty obligations support holding all life without parole sentences for juveniles unconstitutional.
  • EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    Jan 22, 2012
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
  • Universal Periodic Review of South Africa
    Jan 20, 2012

    South Africa has failed to clarify its position on the 22 recommendations made during the first UPR cycle in 2008 – making the assessment of the implementation problematic.  South Africa should clearly communicate its responses and commitments on all recommendations made during its second UPR cycle. 

  • US: Harsh Conditions for Young Lifers
    Jan 2, 2012
    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.
more documents on this topic »