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  • Human rights record in Bahrain still abysmal - Europe must act
    June 21, 2013
    When European Union ministers meet their counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council states for a summit in Bahrain on June 30, the dismal state of that island kingdom's human rights record needs to have a prominent place on the agenda. Despite King Hamad's claims of reform, Bahrain is clearly heading down the road of greater repression and the EU ministers should make a point of clearly and publicly saying so.
  • Human Rights, Hashtags and the UK's Policy Towards Central Asia
    June 21, 2013
  • Morocco/Western Sahara: Dubious Confessions, Tainted Trials
    June 21, 2013
    Morocco’s courts are convicting defendants based on confessions they claim were obtained through torture or falsified by police, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The country’s judicial reform agenda needs to include stronger safeguards to ensure that courts discard as evidence any statement made to the police under torture or ill-treatment.
  • Encouraging stronger engagement by emerging powers on human rights
    June 21, 2013
    Resentment of the west is making emerging powers hold back when they could be using their strengths and experiences to challenge the world’s abusive regimes.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 20 June
    June 20, 2013
  • New York: Pass Condom Law to Protect Public Health
    June 20, 2013
    (New York) –The New York State Assembly should enact a bill that would prohibit the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution-related offenses. Assembly bill 2736 was voted out of the New York State Assembly Rules Committee on June 20, 2013 and could be passed by the full assembly before the session ends on June 21.
  • Mexico: Conduct Federal Investigation Into Activists’ Killings
    June 20, 2013

    Mexico’s federal prosecutors should conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the killing of three political activists in Guerrero state, including examining allegations against government officials, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should offer robust protection for survivors of the attack and their families. 

  • Ecuador: Fully Respect Refugee Rights
    June 20, 2013

    Ecuador should ensure that all asylum procedures fully respect the basic rights of refugees under international law, Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent today, World Refugee Day, to President Rafael Correa.

  • Libya: Blasphemy Charges Over Election Posters
    June 20, 2013
    Libyan judicial authorities should immediately drop all criminal charges that violate freedom of speech over election poster cartoons against two Libyan National Party officials. Under the laws being applied in this case, the men could face the death penalty over posters their party displayed during the 2012 election campaign for the General National Congress.
  • Uzbekistan: US Decision Vindicates Forced Labor Victims
    June 20, 2013
    The United States government’s decision to downgrade Uzbekistan in a human trafficking ranking based on its use of forced and child labor sends a powerful message of support to the millions of Uzbeks forced to pick the country’s cotton crop. Moving Uzbekistan to the lowest category is one of the strongest efforts in years to hold Uzbekistan accountable for its atrocious record on forced labor
  • Governments Should Sign, Ratify Mercury Treaty
    June 20, 2013
    (New York)- Governments around the world should sign and ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and take immediate steps to reduce mercury pollution, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to environment ministers around the globe. Human Rights Watch sent its letters to countries with artisanal gold mining and to all others, including donor countries, in advance of a diplomatic conference for countries to sign the international treaty, from October 7 to 11, 2013, in Japan. For the treaty to go into force, at least 50 countries must sign.
  • Bahrain: New Associations Law Spells Repression
    June 20, 2013
    New laws and lengthy jail terms for activists have put freedom of association in Bahrain under severe threat, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Bahraini authorities have left hardly any space for peaceful political dissent. Through a mix of restrictive laws and abusive policies, the government is sending a clear message that it will not tolerate calls for reform that challenge the ruling family’s monopoly on power.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 19 June
    June 19, 2013
  • Vietnam: Escalating Persecution of Bloggers
    June 19, 2013
    The Vietnamese government should unconditionally release recently arrested bloggers and end physical attacks on critics.
  • Welcome to Russia’s Syria doublespeak
    June 19, 2013
    While world leaders managed to produce a joint communique on Syria at the end of the G8 summit, the closing media remarks made it clear that Vladimir Putin hasn’t actually moved an inch on the issue. The Russian president once again lashed out at the European Union and the United States for considering arms shipments to the Syrian opposition, suggesting it will further destabilize Syria. At the same time, he made it clear that Russia will continue supplying a range of weapons to the Syrian government, arguing that this will help stabilize the region while preventing a foreign intervention.
  • To Stop the Spread of HIV, Address Rights of Marginalized Groups
    June 19, 2013
    In 2012, Mwamini K. a sex worker in Dar es Salaam, was raped at gunpoint by a client who got angry when she asked him to use a condom. She did not report the case to the police nor seek medical assistance because she did not trust that she could get the help that she needed, she told me. (Mwamini’s name, like all others here, has been changed.) Mwamini explained that in 2011, she sought treatment for a sexually transmitted infection at Mwananyamala Hospital. The nurse refused to treat her unless she brought her sexual partner. Mwamini told the nurse that she was a sex worker and did not know who infected her. The hospital turned her away.
  • US: Reject Extreme Immigration Enforcement Bill
    June 19, 2013
    The United States House of Representatives should reject an expansive immigration enforcement bill that would worsen existing abuses within the US immigration system. House Resolution (HR) 2278, the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act (or “SAFE Act”), passed the House Judiciary Committee on June 18, 2013.
  • Sierra Leone: Investigate Alleged Rebel Arms Supplier
    June 19, 2013

     The Sierra Leone authorities should open a criminal investigation of a suspected arms supplier for his alleged involvement in international crimes during Sierra Leone’s civil war. This would be Sierra Leone’s first purely domestic prosecution in relation to war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during its 11-year armed conflict, which ended in 2002.
     

  • The EU and Azerbaijan: Mismatched Objectives
    June 19, 2013
    President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan is visiting Brussels this week for negotiations on the Southern Gas Corridor, which someday might transport gas from the Caspian Sea region to European markets. This oil-rich country in the south Caucasus plays a significant role in the European Union's energy security. That should in no way impede José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, from being very clear that the need to meet human-rights standards will be a part of any relationship with the EU.
  • China: ‘Benefit the Masses’ Campaign Surveilling Tibetans
    June 18, 2013
    The Chinese government, under the rationale of a campaign to improve rural living standards, has sent more than 20,000 officials and communist party cadres to Tibetan villages to undertake intrusive surveillance of people, carry out widespread political re-education, and establish partisan security units.
  • Cambodia: Court Upholds Unjust Verdict
    June 18, 2013
    A Cambodian court’s ruling upholding the conviction of a land rights activist on trumped-up charges shows the political use of the country’s legal system to persecute critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 18 June
    June 18, 2013
  • Sri Lanka: Proposed Media Code Threatens Free Speech
    June 18, 2013
    A new media code proposed by the Sri Lankan government contains overbroad and vague language that could have a severe and chilling effect on free speech.
  • US: Protect National Security Whistleblowers
    June 18, 2013
    The United States should protect people who use classified or other sensitive government information to expose what appear to be serious human rights violations and other government wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch said in a statement released today.
  • Colombia: Military Justice Law a Blow to Human Rights
    June 18, 2013

    Colombia’s passage of a law to reform the military justice system is a major setback for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The law creates a serious risk that unlawful killings by the military, known as “false positives,” will be transferred from civilian prosecutors to the military justice system. The law also authorizes public security forces to use lethal force against civilians in a dangerously broad range of situations.

  • Brazil: Investigate Use of Violence against Protesters
    June 18, 2013
    The São Paulo state government should honor pledges to thoroughly and impartially investigate the legality of force used by security forces during recent crowd-control operations in São Paulo, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • For Libya to end the violence, it needs to shut down the militias
    June 18, 2013
    From tragedy can come positive change. The Libyan government has that chance, after violent clashes last week between a militia and residents of Benghazi left 32 people dead.
  • US/Germany: End Mass Surveillance
    June 18, 2013
    On Tuesday (18 June), the German chancellor and the US president will embrace each other. Eyes will be shining as both sides praise the German-American friendship. After all, this visit from Washington is an election campaign present for Angela Merkel, and the president can hope for symbolic pictures to build his own legend.
  • Uganda: Museveni's 10,000 Days in Power
    June 18, 2013
    On 15 June, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, joined the ‘10,000 Club’, a small coterie of world leaders who have held power for over 10,000 days – more than 27 years. In Africa, only Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola have remained in office longer.
  • Sudan: Satellite Images Confirm Villages Destroyed
    June 18, 2013
    Satellite images confirm the wholesale destruction of villages in Central Darfur in an attack in April 2013 by a militia leader sought by the International Criminal Court
  • Afghanistan: Weak Appointments Undermine Rights Body
    June 18, 2013
    Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s appointment of a weakly qualified human rights commission with little public consultation raises concerns about the country’s most important rights body.
  • Tanzania: Police Abuse, Torture, Impede HIV Services
    June 18, 2013
    Tanzanians who are most at risk of HIV face widespread police abuse and often can’t get help when they are victims of crime, Human Rights Watch and the Wake Up and Step Forward Coalition (WASO) said in a report released today.
  • Turkey: A Weekend of Police Abuse
    June 18, 2013
    The Erdoğan government’s use of force in a clampdown on protesters over the weekend has precipitated a deepening human rights and political crisis in Turkey. Human Rights Watch documented a huge wave of arbitrary detentions and police attacks on people who were on hospital premises, as well as on a hospital itself and on makeshift health clinics. With the trade union confederations declaring a strike on June 17, 2013, there were signs of further clampdown on demonstrations in the evening.
  • Saudi Arabia: Activists Convicted for Answering Call for Help
    June 17, 2013

    A Saudi court convicted two Saudi women’s rights activists on June 15, 2013, for inciting a woman against her husband. Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and two-year travel bans.

  • Kuwait: Immediately Halt Executions
    June 17, 2013
    Local media in Kuwait are reporting that at least two prisoners, both Egyptian, will be executed on live television at 7:30 a.m. on June 18, 2013. It will be Kuwait’s second round of executions since it ended its de facto moratorium on use of the death penalty in April.
  • Ecuador: End Assault on Free Speech
    June 17, 2013
    The Communications Law that the Ecuadorian National Assembly approved on June 14, 2013, seriously undermines free speech. The law includes overly broad language that will limit the free expression of journalists and media outlets.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 17 June
    June 17, 2013
  • Best Father's Day Gift?
    June 16, 2013
    On Father’s Day, we’ll no doubt hear more calls for dads to spend time with their kids. Now it’s time for a national policy on paid family leave to make this feasible.
  • Kyrgyzstan, Violence vs Justice
    June 16, 2013
    Even in the basement of the courthouse, safe behind a closed door, I’m sure the defendant could still hear the women screaming at him. I certainly could hear the women, standing just metres away, and I definitely felt their violent rage as one hit me in the arm, shouting at me - “What are you drawing in your notebook, girl, what are you drawing?” - as I walked out of the courthouse.
  • Women’s rights violations not just developing nation issue
    June 16, 2013
    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.
  • Tunisia: 2 Years in Prison for a Song
    June 15, 2013
    The two-year prison sentence for a Tunisian rapper on June 13, 2013, for “insulting the police” in a song violates freedom of speech. The criminal court sentence is another manifestation of the continuing intolerance for those who criticize government institutions in Tunisia.
  • Tunisia: Sweeping Political Exclusion Law
    June 15, 2013
    Tunisia’s legislature should amend the latest draft of a law intended to bar government officials under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from holding public office for seven years.
  • Laos: End Cover-Up in Activist’s ‘Disappearance’
    June 14, 2013
    Authorities in Laos have failed to seriously investigate or credibly explain the enforced disappearance six months ago of a leading social activist, Sombath Somphone.
  • Turkey: A Long and Eventful Week in Istanbul
    June 14, 2013
    It has been a long and eventful week in Istanbul. It will be hard for many who were there to forget the scenes reminiscent of war on the streets around Taksim Square and Gezi Park, the site of the protests, on Tuesday evening and into the night. After apparently conciliatory tweets from Istanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu to the young protesters occupying Gezi Park just a day earlier, and following indications that the prime minister was ready to sit down to talks over the protests on Wednesday, both leaders made an astonishing about-face.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 14 June
    June 14, 2013
  • Libya: No Impunity for ‘Black Saturday’ Benghazi Deaths
    June 13, 2013
    Libyan authorities should promptly and thoroughly investigate the violent clashes in Benghazi on June 8, 2013, that left 32 people dead. The authorities should also hold those who violated the law accountable, the group said.
  • Deported Without Her Children - Alicia’s Story
    June 13, 2013
    The women, about a dozen in all, had just finished breakfast at the Tijuana shelter when I arrived. Like many people in Mexican towns on the US border, they had been deported from the United States for not having proper documentation. When I asked them if they had kids living in the United States, most raised their hands and started crying. All these mothers, missing their children, unable to legally return to their families in the United States. I passed around tissues. These days, I always carry tissues with me.
  • Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 13 June
    June 13, 2013
  • Ghana: Mine Accident Highlights Risk to Children
    June 13, 2013
    A recent mining accident that killed 16 people at an unlicensed artisanal gold mine in Ghana underscores the need for tougher measures to end child labor and protect the safety of adult artisanal miners. HRW visited the site of the mine collapse between May 31 and June 2, 2013.
  • Russia/Kyrgyzstan: Overturn Extradition Orders
    June 13, 2013
    Russia’s Supreme Court should stop the extradition of three ethnic Uzbeks to Kyrgyzstan, where they would be at serious risk of torture. On June 19, 2013, the court is scheduled to hear an appeal of the prosecutor general’s decision to extradite Gairatbek Saliev, in response to a request by the Kyrgyz government for his extradition to stand trial on multiple charges relating to the June 2010 interethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan.