• US: House Vote a Step Backward for Women’s Rights
    Press release
    May 17, 2012
    The US Congress should move forward with a Senate bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and reject the dangerous alternative passed by the House of Representatives.
  • US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworkers
    Press release
    May 15, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in its 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.”
  • UAE: Proposed Law to Benefit Domestic Workers
    Press release
    May 11, 2012
    A proposed United Arab Emirates (UAE) law on domestic workers holds promise for significant improvements in addressing worker abuse. While a newspaper has reported about the law, its contents have not been made public, and a number of the reported provisions raise concerns.
  • US: House Bill Puts Immigrant Women at Risk
    Press release
    May 9, 2012
    The full US House of Representatives should reject a dangerous version of a bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Human Rights Watch said today. The bill would undermine the law and expose immigrant women and families to abuse, Human Rights Watch said. The House Judiciary Committee on May 8, 2012 approved a version that makes multiple changes to VAWA’s existing provisions addressing immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Indonesia: Parliament Approves Migrant Workers Convention
    Press release
    Apr 12, 2012

    Indonesia’s ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention will bring new protections for millions of Indonesian migrant workers, Migrant Care and Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian parliament adopted the international treaty on April 12, 2012, without reservations in a plenary session.

  • US: Statement to the House of Representatives on the Department of Homeland Security’s New Immigration Detention Standards
    Written statement
    Mar 28, 2012
    Immigration detention is no holiday. 129 detainees have died in ICE custody since 2003, and there is credible evidence that poor medical care in detention contributed to a number of those deaths. The 2011 Performance Based National Detention Standards published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) represent an important step toward ensuring the safety of immigrants in detention.
  • Lebanon: Stop Abuse of Domestic Workers
    Press release
    Mar 23, 2012
    Lebanese authorities should act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers. The government should also announce publicly the outcome of the investigation into the recent abuse and subsequent suicide of Alem Dechasa-Desisa, an Ethiopian domestic worker.