• Yemen: Order to Free Hunger Strikers Ignored
    Jun 5, 2013
    Prison officials in Yemen should carry out a June 5, 2013 order by President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to the attorney general to release immediately 19 of 22 detainees on a hunger strike. The detainees have been held for 18 months without charge.
  • Drug Policies Fuel Deadly Hepatitis C Epidemic
    May 30, 2013
    (New York) – Governments should ensure that efforts to reduce illicit drug use do not increase vulnerability to infection with Hepatitis C or impede access to treatment, Human Rights Watch said today in response to a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The report, released on May 30, 2013, urges reform of existing drug policies to protect public health, minimize human rights violations, and ensure access to health care for drug users.
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  • Yemen: Order to Free Hunger Strikers Ignored
    Jun 5, 2013
    Prison officials in Yemen should carry out a June 5, 2013 order by President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to the attorney general to release immediately 19 of 22 detainees on a hunger strike. The detainees have been held for 18 months without charge.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea Confirms Patterns of Abuses
    Jun 5, 2013
    The Eritrean government remains among the worst human rights violators in the world. The report of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea confirms the patterns of abuses that Human Rights Watch and other independent observers have documented over the past 15 years. As the Rapporteur noted, there is a “blatant disrespect for human rights in Eritrea” that requires “fundamental reform.”
  • Drug Policies Fuel Deadly Hepatitis C Epidemic
    May 30, 2013
    (New York) – Governments should ensure that efforts to reduce illicit drug use do not increase vulnerability to infection with Hepatitis C or impede access to treatment, Human Rights Watch said today in response to a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The report, released on May 30, 2013, urges reform of existing drug policies to protect public health, minimize human rights violations, and ensure access to health care for drug users.
  • Bahrain: Detained Activists Allege Torture
    May 14, 2013
    Bahraini authorities should immediately investigate allegations that officials are torturing activists in detention, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should ensure that no evidence secured by torture is used against detainees.
  • UN Report Highlights Abuse as ‘Drug Treatment’
    Mar 3, 2013
    A United Nations report about torture and other abuses in healthcare settings points to the need for donors to withdraw funds to compulsory drug detention centers, Human Rights Watch and Harm Reduction International said today.
  • The ethics of research in compulsory drug detention centres in Asia
    Dec 5, 2012
    Throughout China and southeast Asia, people who use drugs are compulsorily detained in government centers in the name of “treatment” or “rehabilitation.” While involuntary research is clearly unethical, there has been little discussion of the ethical considerations of research on individuals in extra-judicial compulsory drug detention centers.
  • Laos: Drug Users, ‘Undesirables’ Detained, Abused
    Oct 11, 2011
    Police and local militia in Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR, are forcibly detaining people who use drugs in a so-called treatment center where they risk beatings and other abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Homeless people, street children, people with mental disabilities, and others deemed “undesirable” are often detained in the center as well, Human Rights watch said.
  • Vietnam: Torture, Forced Labor in Drug Detention
    Sep 7, 2011
    People detained by the police in Vietnam for using drugs are held without due process for years, forced to work for little or no pay, and suffer torture and physical violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Government-run drug detention centers, mandated to “treat” and ”rehabilitate” drug users, are little more than forced labor camps where drug users work six days a week processing cashews, sewing garments, or manufacturing other items.
  • Cambodia: Close Compulsory Drug Detention Centers
    Jan 25, 2010
    Detention centers in Cambodia, mandated to treat and ‘rehabilitate' drug users, instead subject them to electric shocks, beatings with electrical wire, forced labor, and harsh military drills.
  • China: Drug ‘Rehabilitation’ Centers Deny Treatment, Allow Forced Labor
    Jan 6, 2010
    Chinese authorities are incarcerating drug users in compulsory drug detention centers that deny them access to treatment for drug dependency and put them at risk of physical abuse and unpaid forced labor.