With the sentencing of two female activists who tried to help an abused woman, the Kingdom has made it clear that it will not tolerate women who stand up for other women's rights.

Syrian military and pro-government forces known as shabiha have arbitrarily detained female opposition activists as well as female relatives and neighbors of pro-opposition activists and fighters, and in a number of cases, subjected them to torture and sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

This month, hundreds of ethnic Arakanese Buddhist protesters marched through the streets of Sittwe calling on authorities to enforce a two-child limit on Rohingya Muslims—that is, to demand a discriminatory population control regulation that restricts Rohingya from choosing how many children they have.

On June 16, CNN premiered "Girl Rising," which documents extraordinary girls and how education can change the world. But what are some of the biggest challenges facing women and girls across the globe today? Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, answers readers’ questions about the challenges women face in the Middle East, Asia – and here in the United States.

Akech B. loved to study and dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when she was 14, her uncle who was raising her forced her to leave school to marry a man Akech described as old and gray-haired. The man paid 75 cows as dowry for Akech. He was already married to another woman with whom he had several children.

Human Rights Watch will present a photography exhibition, “Dowry – Child and Forced Marriage in South Sudan,” from June 13 to 26, 2013. The exhibit, by the award-winning photographer Brent Stirton, will be at Lincoln Center during the annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Thousands of advocates for the reproductive rights and health of women and girls are gathering in Malaysia this week for the international "Women Deliver" Conference.

Many of the 1,429 households resettled to make way for Vale and Rio Tinto’s international coal mining operations in Tete province, Mozambique have faced serious disruptions in their access to food, water, and work. The Mozambican government’s speed in approving mining licenses and inviting billions of dollars in investment has outstripped the creation of adequate safeguards to protect directly affected populations.

Kwamboka W. was still in primary school when she had sex with her first boyfriend. She had no information about contraception and didn’t use any protection. Three months later, she was shocked to learn that she was pregnant.

Victoria J. married in 2009 at age 14, and became pregnant shortly after. “I started labour in the morning on a Friday …. The nurse kept checking and saying I would deliver safely. On Monday she said I was weak.

President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador should ensure that a woman who faces substantial risk of death if her pregnancy continues can obtain an abortion without criminal penalty, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Funes.

In Yemen, South Sudan, and other parts of the world, instead of going to school or spending time with their friends and families, girls, some as young as 8, are married -- often to much older men. If the girls don’t want to marry, their families generally force them. After they are wed, life often changes for the worse.

Members of the Seleka rebel coalition, which ousted President François Bozizé of the Central African Republic on March 24, 2013, have committed grave violations against civilians, including pillage, summary executions, rape, and torture.

Although the man held a knife to her throat when he tried to rape her, Eleanor managed to escape. When she reported the attack to Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police, she thought the worst was over – but that was before the police refused to consider the attack an “attempted sexual assault.” Nothing she said could convince them otherwise. She felt betrayed by the people whose job it was to protect her, and she lost her faith in law enforcement. Eleanor also worried that her attacker might assault more women who, unlike her, may not be lucky enough to escape.

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted today the report on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Canada’s human rights record, which included a large set of questions, recommendations, and comments from countries across the world about violence against indigenous women and girls. The attention should spur Canada to take decisive action to address the hundreds of murders and disappearances of indigenous women and girls over the last four decades, Human Rights Watch said today.

Germany is State party to most of the core international human rights standards with the exception of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The German Government continues to refuse ratification. This submission further explores the respect of human rights law by the Federal Republic of Germany, ahead of its UPR.

The harsh experience of Somalis driven to seek shelter in Mogadiushu 's unsafe camps should be an urgent priority for the country's new government and its foreign donors.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities should not deport 19 Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka because they would be at serious risk of torture and persecution upon return. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has recognized all 19 as refugees, but the UAE authorities have told the group they must leave the country by April 11, 2013.

The United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda should be grounded in human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

On the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein, violence and political crisis plague Iraq. The government blames its problems on regional interference, the unceasing threat of terrorism and the specter of Saddam Hussein’s Baathism. Implicit in their thinking is the idea that rights violations are justified by the state’s responsibility to prevent terrorism.

Across the country, victims of violent crimes, including sexual assault, as well as those who witness it, frequently do not file criminal complaints, cooperate with investigators, or testify truthfully in courts because they fear retaliation. In many rape cases, survivors are threatened or intimidated into settling with the perpetrator.

The government of South Sudan should increase efforts to protect girls from child marriage. The country’s widespread child marriage exacerbates South Sudan’s pronounced gender gaps in school enrollment, contributes to soaring maternal mortality rates, and violates the right of girls to be free from violence, and to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent.

An appeals court’s ruling to uphold the conviction of a journalist who interviewed a woman alleging rape by government forces is a major setback for freedom of the media in Somalia. The woman, who had also been convicted of “insulting the government” and other alleged crimes, was found not guilty.

The United States House of Representatives should approve a Senate-passed bill to renew the Violence against Women Act (VAWA), not a weaker House version that undermines protections, Human Rights Watch said today. Approving the Senate-passed bill would ensure that all women who are victims of violence have access to protection and services, Human Rights Watch said. The House is expected to vote on renewing the act this week.

It was winter when I interviewed Tahmina at a Kabul prison for girls. Six to eight girls lived in each room, and although I preferred to interview each of them privately, the girls all wanted to stay together and hear what everyone had to say. So together, we sat on the carpeted floor and listened to Tahmina’s story.

Ten leading international organizations called on ministers of labor around the globe in a letter released today to protect child domestic workers and to ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention (Convention 189 concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers). The convention, adopted in June 2011, will help eliminate child domestic labor and improve the lives of an estimated 15 million child domestic workers.

Reported comments by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Bob Paulson show the need for an independent civilian mechanism to investigate police abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.

This memorandum provides an overview of Human Rights Watch’s main concerns with respect to the human rights situation in Angola. We hope it will inform the Committee’s preparation for its review of the Angolan government’s compliance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“the Covenant”).

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in northern British Columbia has failed to protect indigenous women and girls from violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Women and girls Human Rights Watch interviewed also described abusive treatment by police officers, including excessive use of force, and physical and sexual assault.

It’s an occupational hazard when you work on women’s rights, to routinely face women who have been subjected to unspeakable violence, horrible beyond anything you could imagine. As a young lawyer in South Africa in the 1990s, one of first my clients was stabbed by her estranged husband. I held her hand as she bled to death on the pavement. When I worked as the director of the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women in Johannesburg, I, and the other lawyers who provided legal advice at the centre, saw women every day looking for help to protect themselves from rape, beatings and other violence. Many of our clients arrived at the office with the signs of violence clearly visible on their bodies and their faces.

Libya is still plagued by serious rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, torture, and deaths in detention nearly a year-and-a-half after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference for its World Report 2013.

A Somali court’s conviction of a woman who alleged rape by security forces, and a journalist who interviewed her, is a serious setback for ending sexual violence and protecting press freedom, five human rights and media organizations said today. The government should drop its groundless case against the journalist and the woman, and immediately order the release of the journalist, the organizations said.

A Somali woman who said she was raped by state security forces, a journalist who interviewed her, her husband, and two others who tried to assist her, have been charged with multiple crimes, including insulting a government body. They face a court hearing on February 2. The journalist is sitting in a Mogadishu prison right now. All of them – including the woman herself – could face years of prison in the war-torn city if they are convicted.

Victims of sexual assault in Washington, DC are not getting the effective response they deserve and should expect from the district’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Sexual assault cases are too often not properly documented or investigated and victims may face callous, traumatizing treatment, despite official departmental policy to the contrary.

Despite recognition in the Millennium Declaration of the importance of human rights, equality, and non-discrimination for development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) largely bypassed these key principles. The fundamental human rights guarantees of equality and non-discrimination are legally binding obligations and do not need instrumental justifications. Discrimination can both cause poverty and be a hurdle in alleviating poverty. Even in countries where there have been significant gains toward achieving the MDGs, inequalities have grown. The MDGs have supported aggregate progress—often without acknowledging the importance of investing in the most marginalized and excluded, or giving due credit to governments and institutions which do ensure that development benefits these populations. Recognition of this shortcoming in the MDGs has brought an increasing awareness of the importance of working to reverse growing economic inequalities through the post-2015 framework, and a key element of this must be actively working to dismantle discrimination.

2012 brought significant progress for the rights of domestic workers, with dozens of countries adopting policy or legislative measures to strengthen protections for domestic workers, including 8 that moved to ratify the ILO Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (ILO Convention 189, Domestic Workers Convention). Here is a summary of noteworthy developments.

The quick official response to the horrific gang rape and murder of a young Indian woman shouldn’t fool us. The country has a long way to go when it comes to justice for rape victims.

On January 9, 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker convicted of killing a baby in her care in 2005 when she was 17 years old. Human Rights Watch strongly condemns the execution.