• Surviving Rape in Papua New Guinea
    Media spotlight
    Aug 10, 2011
    While rumors of abuses like gang rapes and beatings had long been associated with the mine, Barrick Gold – the world’s largest gold mining company in terms of production – had denied these claims as unfounded.
  • New iPad App Showcases Human Rights Multimedia
    Press release
    May 9, 2011
    Human Rights Watch today launched a new issue-specific multimedia application for Apple's iPad, pioneering the first in a series of in-depth and original human rights multimedia apps through the iPad. Users can download the app for free from Apple's App store.
  • Responsible Mining: Companies Can't Go it Alone
    Commentary
    Feb 10, 2011

    Human Rights Watch recently released a report that details brutal gang rapes and other abuses allegedly carried out by employees of Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea. Barrick, a Canadian firm, is the world's largest gold producer and Porgera is one of the world's largest gold mines. Now the company is scrambling to put things right, investing in new mechanisms for oversight and accountability and firing some of its private security personnel while others are being hauled away by the police.

  • Papua New Guinea: Serious Abuses at Barrick Gold Mine
    Press release
    Feb 1, 2011
    Private security personnel employed at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Porgera mine has produced billions of dollars of gold in its twenty years of operation, and  is operated and 95 percent owned by Barrick Gold, a Canadian company that is the world's largest gold producer.
  • Australia: Gillard Should Promote Rights At Home And Abroad
    Letter
    Dec 8, 2010
    Human Rights Watch looks forward to working with your government in the coming months to help Australia realize its commitments to protecting and promoting human rights at home and abroad.
  • Canada: Ignatieff Has Some Explaining to Do
    Commentary
    Nov 4, 2010
    It was not surprising that last week Stephen Harper's government defeated a modest opposition private member's bill that offered an opportunity to improve the human rights records of Canadian oil, mining and gas companies. But the apparently ambiguous stance of opposition leader Michael Ignatieff on the bill came as a surprise to many -- and leaves him with some explaining to do.
  • Canada: Monitoring of Mining Companies Long Overdue
    Commentary
    Oct 27, 2010
    The House of Commons is to vote today on a modest, sensible piece of legislation that would be a small step to help improve human rights and the reputation of Canadian companies around the world. You would never know this listening to bill C-300's enemies in the mining industry. The debate over this legislation has descended into circus-like hyperbole, and it is long past time to set the record straight.
  • Papua New Guinea: Don’t Regress on Death Penalty
    Press release
    Jul 14, 2009

    The Papua New Guinea government should abolish the death penalty instead of putting it back into effect, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint letter to Dr. Allan Marat, justice minister and attorney general.

  • Letter to Papua New Guinea Minister of Justice
    Letter
    Jul 10, 2009
    Human Rights Watch writes to express concern over recent statements in Parliament suggesting that the death penalty might be soon implemented for the first time since Papua New Guinea gained self-governance and independence and that the Ministry of Justice may develop regulations to do so.
  • Where Violence Against Women is Rampant
    Commentary
    Jan 27, 2009
    Papua New Guinea has made the international news again with a horrific story to reinforce stereotypes about the country: sorcery, sex, and fire. On January 6, a group of men reportedly stripped a woman naked, bound her hands and feet, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, and burned her alive on a dumpsite. Rumor has it that she had "confessed" to having eaten a man's heart.