(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.

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.

In an important step forward for juvenile justice, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill giving young offenders in California a second chance. Human Rights Watch and others campaigned for years against California’s extreme juvenile sentencing, and this bill officially gives youths sent to prison for life an opportunity for parole.