• Hope for Haiti's Women
    Commentary
    Jan 17, 2012
    Women's rights is one example of huge problems and work ahead, and yet it also shows why no one should give up on Haiti. Groundbreaking work is being done to promote the rights of women and girls -- who have suffered immeasurably in Haiti's disasters and instability -- through new legislation.
  • Healthcare is failing women
    Commentary
    Dec 20, 2011

    South Africa has one of the world's highest incidences of violence, including rape and domestic violence, against women. A study by Interpol estimates that, in South Africa, a woman is raped every 17 seconds and one in four South African women suffers domestic violence.

      

  • UN: Report Is Milestone for Reproductive Health
    Written statement
    Oct 25, 2011

    Human Rights Watch joined other human rights groups and health groups in issuing the following statement today following the release of a report about reproductive health by Anand Grover, the UN special rapporteur on the right to health. 

  • Keeping Health Systems Accountable: A Critical Component of the Every Woman, Every Child Campaign
    Commentary
    Oct 20, 2011

    Abeba M., an Ethiopian refugee living in Port Elizabeth, a small coastal town of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, developed severe high blood pressure during her pregnancy. She went to a district hospital for treatment of this dangerous condition, but left because “the nurses and doctors did not treat me well,” she told me. She had to return when her condition worsened, though, and was admitted. Instead of getting the help she needed, she experienced treatment delays, abuse, and negligence.

  • From Condoms to the Pill: Trust, Control and Violence
    Commentary
    Sep 1, 2011
    As media reports celebrate advances toward new male contraceptive methods, the fact that women currently take the larger responsibility for birth control is held up as somewhat inevitable and sad. In effect, contraceptive use is now so firmly established as a woman's responsibility that data on birth control often are collected from women only.
  • Philippines: Dictating choices, risking lives
    Commentary
    Jun 20, 2011
    Doe-eyed and frail, with a mellow voice and a cheery smile, nothing about Sara (not her real name) suggested she had been through ordeal after ordeal in her 22 years. Forcibly married at 15 to a much older man, she discovered after the marriage that her husband had HIV, and that he had infected her. When her in-laws found out, they subjected her to a barrage of abuse and accused her of infecting her husband. Before he died, her husband apologized to her: Deported as a migrant worker from Malaysia for testing HIV positive, he knew he was positive before he married her. He told her he had not known much, though, about HIV itself, how it is transmitted, or that condoms could have kept him and her from becoming infected.
  • Kenya: Fulfill Health Funding Pledges
    Letter
    Apr 13, 2011
    The Kenyan government should remove barriers to health care and make sure that there is no backsliding in access to care, Human Rights Watch said today in a submission to parliament. Parliament is currently debating the budget for 2011-2012.
  • Kenya: Submission to the Government on Health Budget
    Letter
    Apr 13, 2011
    In a submission to the Kenyan Government, Human Rights Watch called on the Government to fulfill its earlier pledge of health funding, instead of reducing the resources allocated to health services.
  • Breaking through the Silence: HIV and the Deaf
    Commentary
    Dec 1, 2010
    This week, different groups around the world are observing World AIDS Day and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on December 1 and 3 respectively. But many of the stories of people with disabilities and their experiences with HIV - particularly those who are deaf - are shrouded in silence.
  • Left Out Twice: Living with HIV and Disabilities
    Commentary
    Jul 21, 2010
    A global conference on AIDS is taking place this week in Vienna, Austria, and the special vulnerabilities of women with disabilities must be kept on the agenda.