On November 14th and November 15th, 600 supporters in Silicon Valley and San Francisco gathered to celebrate the work of HRW and to honor Abbé Benoît Kinalegu, an extraordinary human rights defender and advocate for human rights in Congo. We also recognized HRW’s Elizabeth Calvin, for her efforts in the passage of California Senate Bill 9, giving a second chance to youth offenders sentenced to die in prison. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, this year's dinners raised $2.5 million to support the work of HRW in over 90 countries around the world. THANK YOU!

The 2012 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival will be held every Thursday from March 1-29 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The films will also be featured at a special 3-day screening from March 29-31 at The University of San Francisco. Every year Human Rights Watch presents a selection of powerful films with distinctive human rights themes. This year's films put a human face on threats to individual freedom and dignity, and celebrate the ability of the human spirit and intellect to prevail.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director, Ken Roth, spoke on President Obama's human rights record at the Stanford University Program on Human Rights at the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law on April 13, 2011.

There is new evidence that state governments are finally understanding what a tragic mistake they made during the 1990s when they began trying ever larger numbers of children as adults instead of sending them to the juvenile justice system. Support an end to Juvenile Life Without Parole in California by visiting: http://www.fairsentencingforyouth.org/.