• 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Senate: Renew the Violence Against Women Act
    Press release
    Mar 19, 2012
    The US Senate should renew the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) when it votes on the measure later in March 2012. The act is the primary federal law providing legal protection and services to counter domestic and sexual violence and stalking. Approval will maintain critical programs and improve legal protection against violence.
  • A sick system abuses its refugees
    Commentary
    Mar 18, 2012

    South Africa's tourism website describes the country as the "land of good times and friendly people". Sadly, Araya Y, a pregnant Somali refugee living in Port Elizabeth, did not experience this side of the country. Instead, when she went to a government district hospital in July 2010 to give birth, she was abused by medical staff and denied care. 

  • Kuwait: End Police Abuses Against Transgender Women
    Press release
    Jan 15, 2012
    Kuwaiti police have tortured and sexually abused transgender women using a discriminatory law, passed in 2007, which arbitrarily criminalizes “imitating the opposite sex.” The government of Kuwait should repeal the law, article 198 as amended in 2007, and hold police officers accountable for misconduct.
  • Egypt: Prosecute Sexual Assaults on Protesters
    Press release
    Dec 22, 2011
    There is an escalating pattern of physical attacks by Egyptian military and police officers against women and male protesters, journalists, and activists in Cairo, some of which are sexual in nature. News reports and images of protesters in Cairo being stripped, beaten, and dragged through the street in the past several days are just the latest incidents.
  • Healthcare is failing women
    Commentary
    Dec 20, 2011

    South Africa has one of the world's highest incidences of violence, including rape and domestic violence, against women. A study by Interpol estimates that, in South Africa, a woman is raped every 17 seconds and one in four South African women suffers domestic violence.

      

  • Yemen Could Seize Moment to Ban Child Marriage
    Commentary
    Dec 20, 2011
    Yemen's version of the Arab Spring has eclipsed urgent social concerns both in debates within Yemen and with donor countries. One of these issues is the widespread forced marriage of girls; very young girls in some cases.Now that President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to cede power, there may be an opportunity to press for social reform as part of the transition process.