• The Global Mercury Treaty: Japan’s Chance or Shame
    Commentary
    Dec 29, 2012
    Mercury is an ancient metal rich in history, cloaked with mystery and power. It is liquid at room temperature, with a beautiful silver hue. The metal is used in industrial production, in medical and cosmetic products, and in small-scale gold mining.
  • Mali: Rising Ethnic Tensions Threaten New Violence
    Press release
    Dec 20, 2012
    Mali’s newly appointed prime minister, Diango Sissoko, should take urgent measures to end rights abuses by the security forces and address rising ethnic tensions linked to the occupied northern provinces, Human Rights Watch said today. Sissoko was appointed prime minister of the country’s transitional government on December 11, 2012, a day after the military forced Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra – in office since April – to resign.
  • Joint Letter to UN Security Council on an International Military Force for Mali
    Letter
    Dec 5, 2012

    As the UN Security Council considers the authorization of an international military force for Mali, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FIDH, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect share concerns about the possible human rights challenges such a force could encounter if it is not accompanied by the proper safeguards for civilian protection and human rights monitoring capability.  

  • Testimony of Corinne Dufka before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on African Affairs
    Testimony
    Dec 5, 2012
    The Tuareg rebellion, Islamist occupation of the north, and political upheaval generated by the March 2012 military coup have led to a drastic deterioration in respect for human rights in Mali. This insecurity led to the displacement of some 400,000 northern residents.
  • End Child Labor in Gold Mines
    Commentary
    Nov 13, 2012
    In Tanzania, I met "Julius", a boy of about 13, who works in an artisanal gold mine. He told me he digs ore in pits more than 15 metres deep and mixes toxic mercury with ground ore to retrieve the gold. Once a pit collapsed and almost killed another boy, his friend. The work had made him feel "pain in the whole body."
  • Mali: Islamist Armed Groups Spread Fear in North
    Press release
    Sep 24, 2012
    Three Islamist armed groups controlling northern Mali have committed serious abuses against the local population while enforcing their interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. Human Rights Watch in recent weeks has interviewed some one hundred witnesses who have fled the region or remain there.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Statement on the Situation of the Rohingya in Burma, and on the Situation Throughout Mali
    Oral statement
    Sep 9, 2012
    Human Rights Watch shares the High Commissioner's concerns about serious ongoing abuses in Arakan and Kachin State in Burma. The Rohingya situation, as well as serious abuses arising out of the ethnic armed conflict in Kachin State, reinforce the need for the Government to invite the High Commissioner's office to set up an office in the country. Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the continuing deterioration of the human rights situation throughout Mali and urges the Human Rights Council to encourage OHCHR to set up a presence in the country and to continue to report on the situation in the country as a whole.
  • Mali: Security Forces ‘Disappear’ 20, Torture Others
    Press release
    Jul 24, 2012
    Soldiers loyal to Mali’s coup leader have forcibly disappeared at least 20 soldiers allegedly linked to an April 30, 2012 counter-coup, and committed torture and other abuses against dozens of others. The security forces of Capt. Amadou Sanogo, who led the March 22 coup against President Amadou Toumani Touré, have also engaged in a campaign of intimidation against journalists, family members of detained soldiers, and others deemed a threat.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Eritrea, Belarus Told to End Abuses
    Press release
    Jul 5, 2012
    The United Nations Human Rights Council took bold action to address the chronically poor human rights situations in Belarus and Eritrea
  • Mercury Treaty: Ban Mercury Use by Child Gold Miners
    Press release
    Jun 24, 2012
    Negotiations for an international treaty to limit the use of mercury should seek to protect the health rights of artisanal gold mining communities