• Greece: Strengthen Proposal for Hate Crime Units
    Nov 13, 2012
    New police units to address racist violence need a strong mandate, proper staff, and clear guidelines, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Greek minister for public order and citizen protection, Nikos Dendias.
  • US: State Votes a Global Victory for Gay Rights
    Nov 7, 2012
    The successful ballot initiatives on same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington State on November 6, 2012, were major victories for gay rights both in the United States and globally.
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Reports

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Racism and Discrimination

  • Time for an Anti-discrimination Law
    Dec 16, 2012
    Left unchecked, Lebanon’s sectarian dynamics have spread like a cancer across public administrations. Today, the simplest public appointment is subject to sectarian horse-trading with the predictable outcome that qualifications are rarely the main selection factor. Take the recent appointment of a six-member committee to oversee and regulate the oil and gas sector. Instead of focusing on expertise, the government focused on ensuring that the appointees came from the following six communities: Shia, Sunni, Druze, Maronite, Greek Catholic, and Greek Orthodox. Tough luck for any oil expert who may belong to the other 12 religious communities recognized in Lebanon.
  • Joint Letter to States on UNGA’s Final Vote on Human Rights in Iran
    Dec 14, 2012
  • Too little to celebrate - Dayton Continues to Fail Bosnia’s Minorities
    Nov 21, 2012
    On November 21, 1995, the EU and US brokered the Dayton peace agreement, putting an end to the three-and-a-half-year bloody war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The agreement failed to tackle the division that the war had wrought, though, instead establishing a loose federation along ethnic lines. The hope was that in time, as wounds healed, and with the political, military and economic support of the US and EU, a country that fully respected equality and other human rights would emerge.
  • Greece: Strengthen Proposal for Hate Crime Units
    Nov 13, 2012
    New police units to address racist violence need a strong mandate, proper staff, and clear guidelines, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Greek minister for public order and citizen protection, Nikos Dendias.
  • Greece: Letter to Greek Minister of Public Order on Specialized Hate Crime Units
    Nov 13, 2012
    We write to provide our support for your initiative to create special police units to address racist violence. We take this opportunity to share our observations on the draft decree and to recommend the crucial steps we believe are necessary to ensure these units are effective in curbing the alarming phenomenon of xenophobic violence in Greece.
  • US: State Votes a Global Victory for Gay Rights
    Nov 7, 2012
    The successful ballot initiatives on same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland, and Washington State on November 6, 2012, were major victories for gay rights both in the United States and globally.
  • New Zealand: Letter to Members of Parliament Regarding Marriage Equality Bill
    Nov 6, 2012
    On the eve of your parliamentary debates regarding whether to support marriage equality in New Zealand, I invite you to look back to a country that went through the same discussions and soul searching about 15 years ago.
  • Malawi: Courageous Move to Suspend Anti-Gay Laws
    Nov 6, 2012
    The Malawian government’s decision to suspend enforcement of laws that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct is the right thing to do, and should serve as an inspiration to other countries that criminalize homosexuality. During a radio debate last week with activists from Malawi’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, the justice minister announced a moratorium on arrests on the basis of the country’s colonial-era sodomy laws.
  • Ukraine: Letter to Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
    Oct 16, 2012
    The provisions of the proposed law violate fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Should the law be enacted, it will create an unacceptable environment of state-promoted discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, including those under 18 years of age. This draft law would also endanger the rights of human rights defenders to engage in human rights work regarding the rights of LGBT people.
  • France: Ombudsman Supports Identity-Check Reform
    Oct 16, 2012
    The French defender of rights, the national ombudsman, acknowledged in a report the need for reform to tackle abusive and discriminatory identity checks in France and restore trust between police and the population, but failed to take a clear position on key recommendations, a group of French and international organisations said today.
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