(New York, 26. November 2008) - Human Rights Watch erhält den Menschenrechtspreis 2008 der Vereinten Nationen. Damit wird auch der herausragende Einsatz der Menschenrechtsbewegung in den letzten 60 Jahren im Kampf gegen Menschenrechtsverletzungen geehrt, so Human Rights Watch.

Shin Dong-hyuk is the only man born in one of North Korea’s camps for political prisoners, called kwan-li-so, who is known to have escaped. In the camp, he was forced to do back-breaking labor and went hungry for days on end. Guards tortured him, hung him from his ankles and burned him with hot coals. At age 14, he watched as his mother was hanged and his brother shot dead.

For probably the first time, Bangladesh’s government has leveled pollution-related fines against two leather tanneries in Hazaribagh, a Dhaka neighborhood so polluted with waste from its roughly 150 tanneries that residents and workers are plagued by serious health problems.

Sex workers in San Francisco, Washington DC, and part of New York State can now carry condoms – protecting themselves and their clients from HIV/AIDS – without fearing that police will use the condoms as evidence of prostitution.

Suzanne, an 11-year-old who lives in Mali, eagerly explained how she handles deadly mercury to mine gold to help support her family.

(New York) – Ukraine’s recent registration of oral morphine, a strong pain medication used most frequently to treat severe cancer pain, is a major step toward improving end-of-life care, Human Rights Watch said today.

(Geneva) – The international mercury treaty just agreed sends an important signal that governments must do more to address the threat of mercury to the right to health, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 19, 2013, 140 governments created the treaty after five rounds of intense talks, which began in 2010.

Xenophobia has soared in Greece, a country in the midst of a deep economic crisis and on the front line of immigration into the European Union. The upsurge of violence this year has left migrants and asylum seekers—many of whom have fled war zones—afraid to walk the streets of Athens at night for fear of being attacked.

The seven ethnic Tamil men waited on the tarmac of a London airport last May, literally minutes from take-off and from being deported to Sri Lanka. British authorities had rejected their applications for asylum, despite increasing information that Tamils suspected of anti-government sympathies faced torture back home.