• Human Rights in the United States

    The enormous US prison population, the world's largest, partly reflects harsh sentencing practices contrary to international law, such as disproportionately long prison terms and mandatory sentencing without parole. Those behind bars include a growing number of elderly people, whom prisons are ill-equipped to handle, and youth under age 18 held in adult prisons. Unauthorized immigrants and their families in the United States are vulnerable to abuses stemming from an outdated, ineffective immigration system that deprives them of basic rights, and increasing numbers are held in detention facilities. A number of abusive counterterrorism policies have continued under President Barack Obama, including detentions without charge at Guantanamo Bay.

  • A photograph of Ethan A. (pseudonym) held by his mother, showing her son at age 11, four months before he was arrested for committing a sex offense and placed on the sex offender registry in Texas.
    © 2013 Private
    US: More Harm Than Good
    Harsh public registration laws often punish youth sex offenders for life and do little to protect public safety, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A web of federal and state laws apply to people under 18 who have committed any of a wide range of sex offenses, from the very serious, like rape, to the relatively innocuous, such as public nudity.
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US Domestic Policy

  • Q&A: Raised on the Registry
    May 1, 2013
    Questions and answers about Human Rights Watch's recent report, "Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US."
  • US: More Harm Than Good
    May 1, 2013
    Harsh public registration laws often punish youth sex offenders for life and do little to protect public safety, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. A web of federal and state laws apply to people under 18 who have committed any of a wide range of sex offenses, from the very serious, like rape, to the relatively innocuous, such as public nudity.
  • US: Fulfill Promises to Close Guantanamo
    Apr 30, 2013
    US President Barack Obama should move swiftly to fulfill newly repeated promises to end indefinite detention without trial at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
  • US: Supreme Court Limits Suits against Rights Abusers Abroad
    Apr 29, 2013

    A decision by the US Supreme Court could severely limit the use of a federal statute that for more than 30 years has permitted foreign victims of atrocities abroad to obtain civil remedies in federal courts and has denied rights abusers a safe haven in the United States. It undercuts case law that had made the US courts a mainstay for redress for victims of serious human rights abuses.

  • Immigration reform overlooks asylum-seekers
    Apr 26, 2013
    "Work authorization is not meant to get you rich, it's to let you live," said an Egyptian asylum-seeker who fled to the United States after a radical group beat him and tried to kidnap his wife and daughter. After fleeing persecution in their home countries, asylum-seekers like this man in New Jersey face a new type of maltreatment in the United States: The U.S. government won't let them work during what is often a drawn-out asylum process.
  • US: Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Targeted Killing"
    Apr 23, 2013
    On April 23, 2013, the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights held a hearing entitled “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing”. Letta Tayler, Senior Researcher in the Terrorism/Counterterrorism Division submitted the following testimony for the record.
  • Re: Letter of Support from Human Rights Watch for Bill: AB 336 (Condoms as Evidence in Prostitution)
    Apr 22, 2013
  • Memorandum of Support from Human Rights Watch for Bill: S1379/A2736
    Apr 22, 2013
  • US: Senate Immigration Plan Important Yet Flawed
    Apr 16, 2013
    The US Senate is set to take an important step toward establishing landmark protections for unauthorized immigrants. The plan could grant eventual legal status to millions of people and reduce their vulnerability to human rights abuses. A summary of the proposed bill was made public on April 16, 2013, outlining significant changes to the complex array of immigration laws in the United States.
  • US: Bipartisan Study Shows Need to Investigate Torture
    Apr 16, 2013
    A bipartisan study finding “indisputable” evidence of torture for which the highest United States officials bear responsibility should spur the US government to thoroughly investigate detainee abuse since September 11, 2001, and provide redress to victims.
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