• Agnes Odhiambo
    Healthcare is failing women

    South Africa has one of the world's highest incidences of violence, including rape and domestic violence, against women. A study by Interpol estimates that, in South Africa, a woman is raped every 17 seconds and one in four South African women suffers domestic violence.

      

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Migrants

  • The invisibility of domestic workers
    May 4, 2012

    Liesl Gerntholtz, the Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, says one of the major problems they have found in their latest research (mainly in Asia and the Middle East) is that labor law does not recognize domestic workers as workers so they are therefore not well protected. 

  • Maternal mortality under scrutiny
    May 4, 2012
    Since the 1990s South Africa has not reduced the number of women who die needlessly each year from preventable and treatable causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth.
  • Asia/Middle East: Increase Protections for Migrant Workers
    Apr 15, 2012
    Labor ministers from 19 Asian and Middle Eastern countries should endorse protections for migrant workers and increase dialogue with civil society, Migrant Forum Asia and Human Rights Watch said today. The ministers are meeting in Manila from April 17 to 19, 2012, as part of the second round of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, an inter-regional consultation between labor-sending countries and labor-receiving countries on contractual migrant workers.
  • Indonesia: Parliament Approves Migrant Workers Convention
    Apr 12, 2012

    Indonesia’s ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention will bring new protections for millions of Indonesian migrant workers, Migrant Care and Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian parliament adopted the international treaty on April 12, 2012, without reservations in a plenary session.

  • Alabama: Repeal Unjust Immigrant Law
    Apr 10, 2012
    A bill before the Alabama legislature to amend the state’s law restricting immigrant rights does little to remedy the severe harm caused by the law. The Alabama House of Representatives Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will hold a public hearing on the amendments, contained in House Bill (HB) 658, on April 11, 2012.
  • Bill to fight human smuggling only punishes victims
    Mar 30, 2012
    Parliament is currently debating legislation that would require one-year, mandatory detention for certain migrants arriving in Canada, including 16- and 17-year-old children. Ostensibly intended to prevent human smuggling, this bill in fact punishes victims of human smuggling, including those desperately fleeing persecution and violence.
  • Joint NGO Letter to NATO Regarding Investigations into Boat Incident from March-April 2011
    Mar 26, 2012
    We are writing to inquire further about internal investigations into the fatal boat episode of March-April 2011, in which a disabled boat filled with migrants fleeing Libya drifted for two weeks in the Mediterranean before landing back in Libya on April 10, 2011.
  • A sick system abuses its refugees
    Mar 18, 2012

    South Africa's tourism website describes the country as the "land of good times and friendly people". Sadly, Araya Y, a pregnant Somali refugee living in Port Elizabeth, did not experience this side of the country. Instead, when she went to a government district hospital in July 2010 to give birth, she was abused by medical staff and denied care. 

  • Letter to Canadian MP's on C-31 Law
    Mar 16, 2012
    Human Rights Watch is writing to raise concerns about certain provisions of proposed Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, that we believe are harmful to refugees and asylum seekers and incompatible with international refugee and human rights law. Although the detention provisions of Bill C-31 are ostensibly proposed to deter human smugglers, Human Rights Watch believes that these provisions, in fact, target refugee claimants fleeing persecution, who will suffer their consequences.
  • Letter to Arab League on Syrian Refugees
    Mar 15, 2012
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the Council of the League of Arab States’ February 12 call on Syria to end all forms of violence against Syrian civilians and to grant access to Arab and international relief organizations to bring humanitarian assistance to affected populations, and respectfully urges the ministers of the LAS Council to adopt a further resolution that calls upon all member states to provide at least temporary asylum to Syrian civilians fleeing conflict and persecution.
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