• Human Rights in the United States

    The enormous US prison population, the world's largest, partly reflects harsh sentencing practices contrary to international law, such as disproportionately long prison terms and mandatory sentencing without parole. Those behind bars include a growing number of elderly people, whom prisons are ill-equipped to handle, and youth under age 18 held in adult prisons. Unauthorized immigrants and their families in the United States are vulnerable to abuses stemming from an outdated, ineffective immigration system that deprives them of basic rights, and increasing numbers are held in detention facilities. A number of abusive counterterrorism policies have continued under President Barack Obama, including detentions without charge at Guantanamo Bay.

  • A photograph of Ethan A. (pseudonym) held by his mother, showing her son at age 11, four months before he was arrested for committing a sex offense and placed on the sex offender registry in Texas.
    © 2013 Private
    US: More Harm Than Good
    Harsh public registration laws often punish youth sex offenders for life and do little to protect public safety, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A web of federal and state laws apply to people under 18 who have committed any of a wide range of sex offenses, from the very serious, like rape, to the relatively innocuous, such as public nudity.
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United States

  • United States: Facebook Makes Human Rights Commitment
    May 22, 2013
    Facebook has taken a critical step toward increasing respect for human rights by joining the Global Network Initiative.
  • Q&A: Turning Migrants into Criminals
    May 22, 2013
    Questions and answers about Human Rights Watch's report, "Turning Migrants into Criminals: The Harmful Impact of US Border Prosecutions."
  • US: Prosecuting Migrants is Hurting Families
    May 22, 2013
    The skyrocketing criminal prosecutions of migrants for illegally entering or reentering the United States carry huge human and financial costs, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Imprisoning migrants with minor or no criminal records before deporting them often affects people seeking to reunite with their families in the US or fleeing persecution.
  • US: Policy Recommendations on Counterterrorism
    May 21, 2013
    On May 23, 2013, US President Barack Obama will give a speech at the National Defense University on counterterrorism policy. Human Rights Watch has long reported on US counterterrorism policy, and has recently made a number of recommendations that address issues on the president’s agenda.
  • Guantanamo: ‘An Unmitigated Disaster’
    May 20, 2013
    Seven days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), a joint resolution passed by Congress that empowered the president to use force against those responsible for the attacks. More than 11 years later that law is still in effect.
  • Florida has a chance to get mandatory youth sentencing right — next time
    May 17, 2013
    A bill requiring judges to sentence youth convicted of homicide to at least 50 years in prison has put the Florida Senate on a collision course with the courts — unless Florida gets it right. The Florida Legislature should not spend its time trying to craftily dodge a Supreme Court ruling. It should tackle this difficult issue directly and fairly.
  • US: Statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee on the AUMF, Targeted Killing, & Guantanamo
    May 16, 2013
    On May 16, 2013, the US Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing entitled “The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force”. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, gave the following testimony before the committee.
  • Arms/US: Endorse Recommendations of Heyns Report on Lethal Autonomous Robotics
    May 14, 2013

    Human Rights Watch calls on the United States to welcome the Heyns report on lethal autonomous robotics and endorse its four recommendations, which in effect urge all states to take steps similar to those the United States is already committing to take on fully autonomous weapons.

  • Joint letter to Chuck Hagel on the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay
    May 13, 2013
    We write to request that you intervene to end the force-feeding of competent hunger-striking prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, which constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
  • A New Chance to Act on Guantanamo
    May 9, 2013
    The last time Amina al-Rabeii video conferenced from Yemen with her brother Salman, a detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, she barely recognized the skeletal man on the screen.
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