Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in Bahrain face exploitation and abuse despite government reforms intended to protect them. Human Rights Watch documented the many forms of abuse and exploitation suffered by migrant workers in Bahrain and details the government's efforts to provide redress and strengthen worker protections. Human Rights Watch found that authorities enforce some safeguards, but have not adequately carried out several other worker protections, such as those against withholding wages, charging recruitment fees, and confiscating passports. All of these practices make it harder for workers to leave abusive work situations. Bahrain has just over 458,000 migrant workers. Most are employed in low-skill, low-wage jobs in construction, trade, manufacturing, and domestic work.

Government forces and other armed groups deployed in schools in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, are putting tens of thousands of students at risk and undermining education. The troops and armed groups were deployed during the 2011-2012 uprising, which ended the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Forces on both sides used schools as barracks, bases, surveillance posts, and firing positions. Combatants also stored weapons and ammunition, detained prisoners, and in some cases tortured or otherwise abused detainees on school grounds or in school buildings, in some cases as teachers and students looked on. In some instances, the forces inside schools came under attack while students and teachers were present. Yemen, which already has the lowest rates of literacy in the Middle East and some of the lowest rates of school enrollment in the world, should prohibit the deployment of armed forces and groups in schools where it violates international law and endangers the lives of students, teachers and school administrators throughout the country.

‪Former detainees and defectors have identified the locations, agencies responsible, torture methods used, and, in many cases, the commanders in charge of 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies. The systematic patterns of ill-treatment and torture that Human Rights Watch documented clearly point to a state policy of torture and ill-treatment and therefore constitute a crime against humanity.‬ Human Rights Watch commissioned a Syrian artist to produce sketches based on statements received from former detainees and security force defectors. They depict six of the most commonly used torture methods in detention centers across Syria — shabeh, dulab, beating with object, falaqa, electrocution, and basat al-reeh. They are not representations of any specific individuals.

Several thousand ethnic Kachin refugees from Burma are isolated in Yunnan, China, where they are at risk of return to a conflict zone and lack needed humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watch documented how 7,000 to 10,000 ethnic Kachin refugees are scattered across more than a dozen makeshift settlements lacking adequate shelter, food, potable water, sanitation, and basic health care. Most children have no access to schools, while adults are vulnerable to abuses by local employers and have been subject to arbitrary drug testing and prolonged and abusive detention by the Chinese authorities. While the government of China has allowed most of the refugees to stay in Yunnan, some have been forced back to the conflict zone or denied entry into China at the border. Many Kachin originally fled severe abuses by the Burmese army ­– including attacks on villages, killings, rape, and the use of abusive forced labor. Most of the displaced fled to makeshift camps in Burma, where international humanitarian aid has been minimal, and the only assistance has come from private and local Kachin aid networks.