• US: White House is 'puzzling' on racial profiling
    Commentary
    May 1, 2012
    The Obama administration has displayed a lack of interest in changing Justice Department rules on religious profiling or in supporting legislation like the End Racial Profiling Act, which would impede the government’s ability to monitor Muslim communities without cause.
  • US: Labor Department Abandons Child Farmworkers
    Press release
    Apr 27, 2012
    The US Labor Department's withdrawal of proposed rules to shield hired child farmworkers from the most dangerous tasks condemns children to be killed and maimed, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed regulations would have updated for the first time in decades the list of tasks too dangerous for employed children under age 16. The regulations would not have applied to children working on family farms. The Labor Department withdrew the proposal on April 26, 2012.
  • US: Senate Vote on Violence Against Women Act a Victory
    Press release
    Apr 26, 2012
    The US House of Representatives should move quickly to renew the Violence against Women Act (VAWA), Human Rights Watch said today. The US Senate, in a bipartisan vote on April 26, 2012, passed the bill, the primary federal law providing legal protection and services to counter domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
  • US: Transfer CIA Drone Strikes to Military
    Press release
    Apr 20, 2012
    Remarks by a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official suggesting the agency is not legally bound by the laws of war underscore the urgent need for the Obama administration to transfer command of all aerial drone strikes to the armed forces.
  • Addressing violence against all women
    Commentary
    Apr 20, 2012
    The bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces a likely vote in the Senate next week, but its provisions that would assist immigrant women who are victims of violence have drawn some inexplicable opposition. The country’s single most important law for addressing domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking has offered life-saving protections to immigrant women since it first passed in 1994.
  • No real justice in Guantanamo
    Commentary
    Apr 19, 2012
  • US: End Discriminatory Profiling by Police
    Written statement
    Apr 17, 2012
    Human Rights Watch submitted a written statment to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, for the record of their April 17, 2012 hearing entitled "Ending Racial Profiling in America."
  • US: Momentum Against the Death Penalty
    Press release
    Apr 12, 2012
    Connecticut is poised to become the fifth US state in five years to abolish capital punishment, a clear sign that the momentum against the death penalty is gaining force.
  • Alabama: Repeal Unjust Immigrant Law
    Press release
    Apr 10, 2012
    A bill before the Alabama legislature to amend the state’s law restricting immigrant rights does little to remedy the severe harm caused by the law. The Alabama House of Representatives Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will hold a public hearing on the amendments, contained in House Bill (HB) 658, on April 11, 2012.
  • Letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta: Repatriate or Resettle Detainees Cleared for Transfer and Implement PRBs
    Letter
    Apr 9, 2012
    Human Rights Watch wrote to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urging the administration to redouble its efforts to facilitate the repatriation and or appropriate resettlement of those detainees already cleared for transfer and to implement as soon as possible the Periodic Review Board (PRB) process to facilitate identification of additional detainees for repatriation or resettlement.