• Kenya: Refugees Describe Abuse by Police
    Press release
    May 23, 2012
    Kenyan police arbitrarily arrested, detained, and beat refugees following the discovery of explosives and an attack on a police vehicle in the Dadaab refugee camps in mid-May 2012. Senior officials visiting the camps on May 23 should ensure a full and speedy investigation leading to the identification and disciplinary measures against any officer responsible for abuse and the compensation of victims.
  • Update: ICE Limits Immigrant Detainee Transfers
    Media spotlight
    May 22, 2012
    US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has fully implemented its new directive on immigration detainee transfers, which limits ICE’s ability to transfer detainees with nearby immediate family or attorneys of record to other detention facilities.
  • Angola: Stop Rape, Abuse of Congolese Migrants
    Press release
    May 21, 2012
    Angolan security forces frequently abuse irregular migrants during expulsions from Angola, including sexual violence and other degrading and inhuman treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
  • Update: Alabama Governor Signs Dangerous Amendments
    Update
    May 21, 2012
    On May 18, Governor Robert Bentley signed HB 658 into law, despite expressing concerns about the amended version of the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. Human Rights Watch renewed its call to the Alabama legislature and Governor Bentley to repeal the Beason-Hammon Act and the recent amendments to it.
  • Alabama: Seek Full Repeal of Anti-Immigrant Law
    Press release
    May 18, 2012
    Alabama Governor Robert Bentley should call for the full repeal of the state’s immigrant law. It violates the right to equal protection under the law, and attempts to amend it do not address its basic flaws.
  • Joint Letter to UN Special Rapporteur on Health
    Letter
    May 9, 2012
    Human Rights Watch, Positive Voice, and the European AIDS Treatment Group write to the special rapporteur on two issues of urgent and serious concern in Greece: the administrative detention and compulsory medical testing of immigrants and asylum seekers based on health status and the arrest, criminal prosecution and compulsory HIV testing of sex workers.
  • The invisibility of domestic workers
    Commentary
    May 4, 2012

    Liesl Gerntholtz, the Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, says one of the major problems they have found in their latest research (mainly in Asia and the Middle East) is that labor law does not recognize domestic workers as workers so they are therefore not well protected. 

  • Maternal mortality under scrutiny
    Commentary
    May 4, 2012
    Since the 1990s South Africa has not reduced the number of women who die needlessly each year from preventable and treatable causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth.
  • Testimony of Bill Frelick before the Canadian Parliement on Bill C31 Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act
    Testimony
    May 1, 2012

    Human Rights Watch has serious concerns that certain provisions of proposed Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, are harmful to refugees and asylum seekers and incompatible with international refugee and human rights law. Although the detention provisions of Bill C-31 are ostensibly proposed to deter human smugglers, Human Rights Watch believes that these provisions in fact, target refugee claimants fleeing persecution, who will suffer their consequences.

     

  • Asia/Middle East: Increase Protections for Migrant Workers
    Press release
    Apr 15, 2012
    Labor ministers from 19 Asian and Middle Eastern countries should endorse protections for migrant workers and increase dialogue with civil society, Migrant Forum Asia and Human Rights Watch said today. The ministers are meeting in Manila from April 17 to 19, 2012, as part of the second round of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, an inter-regional consultation between labor-sending countries and labor-receiving countries on contractual migrant workers.