• China: Activist’s Imprisoned Nephew Needs Effective Care
    Press release
    Apr 30, 2013
    Chinese central government and Shandong provincial authorities should immediately facilitate effective medical treatment for Chen Kegui, the imprisoned nephew of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, Human Rights Watch said today. Chen Kegui is receiving only antibiotics for appendicitis, which could lead to a life-threatening result. Failure to provide prisoners access to adequate medical care is cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment that may rise to the level of torture, and violates the right to health and the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners.
  • China: EU Commitments Demand Tough Response
    Press release
    Apr 24, 2013
    European Union (EU) High Representative Catherine Ashton should publicly raise concerns over ongoing and persistent human rights violations in China when she visits Beijing later this week, Human Rights Watch said today. Ashton’s visit to China will take place on April 25 and 26, and is the Head of the EU’s External Action Service’s first official visit since the new Chinese leadership assumed power.
  • Kerry, confront China on human rights
    Commentary
    Apr 13, 2013
    This weekend, Kerry will have arguably his best opportunity to demonstrate that commitment to rights in an environment in which tough, effective and audible American diplomacy is needed: China.
  • The Sun Rises on Human Rights
    Commentary
    Apr 12, 2013
    As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making waves.
  • China: Kerry Should Prioritize Rights With New Leadership
    Press release
    Apr 9, 2013
    US Secretary of State John Kerry should publicly deliver a strong message in defense of human rights to China’s new leadership when he visits the country later this week.
  • Letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry on his Forthcoming Trip to China
    Letter
    Apr 9, 2013
  • China: Free Anti-Corruption Activists
    Press release
    Apr 3, 2013
    The Chinese government should immediately release four activists detained after calling for requiring government officials to disclose their assets publicly.
  • What Are the BRICS Building?
    Commentary
    Mar 30, 2013
    The Chinese call it jin zhuan, or golden brick. The Russians have suggested calling it briuki, an acronym meaning trousers in Russian. And what about the ambiguous S? It originally was just a plural for the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, places where a Goldman Sachs analyst was urging greater investment. Now it stands for South Africa, which joined in 2010 despite having an economy roughly on the order of China’s sixth-largest province.
  • BRICS: Take Concrete Steps to Help Syria’s People
    Press release
    Mar 26, 2013
    The BRICS countries should call for an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian-populated areas in Syria, and insist that cluster munitions and incendiary weapons should not be used. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are meeting in Durban for the annual BRICS summit on March 26 and 27, 2013.
  • China's failing policy in Tibet is 'self-defeating'
    Commentary
    Mar 25, 2013
    How badly does the Chinese government really want to stop Tibetan self-immolations? A campaigner suggests that the rhetoric from Beijing does not match the reality of draconian policy programmes.
  • Time for Brics to stop sitting on the fence over Syria atrocities
    Commentary
    Mar 22, 2013
    Brics should call for the Syrian government to permit the delivery of humanitarian aid across its borders, including from Turkey
  • China: Alarming New Surveillance, Security in Tibet
    Press release
    Mar 20, 2013
    The Chinese government’s announcement that it will expand a pervasive new security system throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) despite an already heavy security presence and little evidence of violent threats to the state raises grave concerns about threats to human rights of this intrusive monitoring across the region, Human Rights Watch said today. Officials announced the system’s expansion in the annual TAR work report, which was released on February 7, 2013.
  • UN Report Highlights Abuse as ‘Drug Treatment’
    Press release
    Mar 3, 2013
    A United Nations report about torture and other abuses in healthcare settings points to the need for donors to withdraw funds to compulsory drug detention centers, Human Rights Watch and Harm Reduction International said today.
  • China: Advance Rights Reforms at National People’s Congress
    Press release
    Feb 28, 2013
    China’s National People’s Congress should follow through on official statements by putting forward laws to strengthen human rights protections.
  • China: Letter to Xi Jinping outlining issues for reform during China National People's Conference
    Letter
    Feb 28, 2013
    Popular support for significant legal and political reform in China has grown substantially in recent years, and many of your remarks and those of other senior officials in recent months have asserted, in your words, that “the government takes seriously people’s aspirations and demands. This session of the NPC, the first under the new Chinese Communist Party leadership, is an opportunity to demonstrate the extent of these stated commitments to enacting crucial legislative reforms to improve human rights protections in China. We urge that the NPC take immediate legislative action on four major issues on which there is broad support for [reform/legislation], as reiterated in recent months by senior Party and government leaders. These are 1) abolish re-education through labor; 2) abolish the hukou household registration system; 3) adopt a comprehensive domestic violence law; and 4) ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
  • China: New Global Effort to Free Liu Xiaobo
    Advocacy/impact
    Feb 27, 2013
    In a campaign led by the International Committee for Liu Xiaobo with the support of Amnesty International, petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world were delivered today to Chinese embassies to demand the immediate release of imprisoned Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. The petitions are part of a campaign created by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Change.org.
  • Zambia: Safety Gaps Threaten Copper Miners
    Press release
    Feb 20, 2013
    Workers in the copper mining sector in Zambia remain vulnerable to abuse. New Human Rights Watch research found that the government of President Michael Sata, who promised to prioritize labor rights when he took office in September 2011, has made some improvements in supporting the oversight of the mines, but there remains inadequate enforcement of national labor laws designed to protect workers’ rights.
  • China: Stop Sentencing Tibetans for “Inciting” Immolations
    Press release
    Feb 1, 2013

    Chinese judicial authorities should immediately release two Tibetans who were found guilty in legal proceedings that relied solely on confessions they gave during five months in detention.

  • China: Government Represses Growing Demand for Rights
    Press release
    Feb 1, 2013
    China’s human rights record remained poor in 2012, with minimal significant progress on political, civil, socio-economic, or cultural rights, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013.
  • China: Re-education Revisited
    Commentary
    Jan 30, 2013
    How much of a reformer is China’s new leader, Xi Jinping?
  • China: Commute Death Sentence in Domestic Violence Case
    Press release
    Jan 30, 2013
    The Chinese government should immediately commute the death sentence against Li Yan, a woman convicted of killing her husband following months of violent abuse
  • Rights group: China may not be ready for labor camp reforms
    Commentary
    Jan 16, 2013
    Did the Chinese government announce earlier this week that it would end its notorious detention system known as Re-Education Through Labor (RTL)?
  • China: Fully Abolish Re-Education Through Labor
    Press release
    Jan 8, 2013

    The Chinese government’s announcement today that it will sometime this year “stop using” the notorious Re-Education Through Labor (RTL) system is a rare positive response to the system’s growing unpopularity, Human Rights Watch said today. While suspending use of RTL would be an important step, the government should aspire to fully abolish the RTL system.

  • China: Renewed Restrictions Send Online Chill
    Press release
    Jan 4, 2013

    The Chinese government’s further tightening of internet controls and mandating real name registration threaten security and privacy of internet users. On December 28, 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislative body, passed the “Decision to Strengthen the Protection of Online Information.” The Decision contains troubling provisions that require internet access and telecommunications providers to collect personal information about users when they sign up for internet access, landline, or mobile phone service.