• 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.
  • 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."
  • SADC: Press Mugabe to End Crackdown
    Press release
    Mar 29, 2011
    The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) should publicly press President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his party to end their harassment and arbitrary arrests of civil society activists and political opponents. The SADC is meeting beginning March 31, 2011, in Livingstone, Zambia.
  • SADC: Press Zimbabwe to Implement Rights Reforms
    Press release
    Aug 31, 2009
    Southern African leaders should press Zimbabwe's power-sharing government to end ongoing human rights violations and to implement legal reforms.
  • African Civil Society Urges African States Parties to the Rome Statute to Reaffirm Their Commitment to the ICC
    Written statement
    Jul 30, 2009
    Recognizing our obligation to help protect human rights and uphold the rule of law, we, the undersigned civil society organizations, appeal to African ICC States Parties to reaffirm their support for the ICC and their commitment to abide by their obligations under the Rome Statute, particularly in relation to the arrest and transfer of the President of Sudan to the ICC.
  • Tanzania/Uganda: Prevent Forced Return of Refugees
    Press release
    Jun 19, 2009
    The Tanzanian and Ugandan governments should ensure that refugees living in camps due to close on June 30 and July 31, 2009 are not forcibly returned to their home countries and are immediately given full information about their options.
  • The costs of marital rape in Southern Africa
    Commentary
    Aug 18, 2008
    For years now, women’s groups in Southern Africa have campaigned tirelessly to ensure that the Southern African Development Community adopt the Protocol on Gender and Development. Yesterday, the SADC finally took that historic step. Member states will be obliged to amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women across a wide range of issues, from provisions that require member states to enshrine equality in their constitutions, to firm commitments to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent. But while that’s a cause for celebration, the Protocol still does not refer explicitly to domestic violence, and it still doesn’t oblige states to introduce legal provisions that criminalise marital rape.
  • SADC: Adopt Gender and Development Protocol
    Press release
    Aug 14, 2008
    Southern African leaders should adopt the proposed Gender and Development Protocol at their upcoming summit after amending it to include crucial provisions deleted in 2007. One of the most important provisions that should be put back in to the protocol would commit states to criminalize marital rape.
  • Africa: Bush’s Trip Highlights Flaws in US HIV/AIDS Policy
    Press release
    Feb 14, 2008
    President George W. Bush’s praise for US efforts against HIV/AIDS in Africa should not obscure how his administration’s policies continue to undermine HIV prevention on the continent and globally, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • Leading Human Rights Groups Name 39 CIA ‘Disappeared’ Detainees
    Press release
    Jun 7, 2007
    In the most comprehensive accounting to date, six leading human rights organizations today published the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown. The briefing paper also names relatives of suspects who were themselves detained in secret prisons, including children as young as seven.