• Kuwait: Emir Should Sign New Detention Bill
    May 14, 2012

    The Kuwaiti parliament passed a law on May 10, 2012, that would provide an important expansion of due process protections in Kuwait. The law would eliminate unlimited renewals of pretrial detention and significantly limit the periods allowed for pretrial investigative detentions. The Emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, should sign the bill into law.

  • US: Momentum Against the Death Penalty
    Apr 12, 2012
    Connecticut is poised to become the fifth US state in five years to abolish capital punishment, a clear sign that the momentum against the death penalty is gaining force.
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Reports

Sentencing and Re-Entry Policy

  • Kuwait: Emir Should Sign New Detention Bill
    May 14, 2012

    The Kuwaiti parliament passed a law on May 10, 2012, that would provide an important expansion of due process protections in Kuwait. The law would eliminate unlimited renewals of pretrial detention and significantly limit the periods allowed for pretrial investigative detentions. The Emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, should sign the bill into law.

  • US: Momentum Against the Death Penalty
    Apr 12, 2012
    Connecticut is poised to become the fifth US state in five years to abolish capital punishment, a clear sign that the momentum against the death penalty is gaining force.
  • Assisted Living — Behind Bars
    Mar 26, 2012
    If elderly prisoners can be safely released from prison to finish the rest of their lives under parole supervision — at much lower cost to taxpayers — it is hard to see what society gains from keeping them behind bars.
  • The Human Rights Paradigm: The Foundation for a Criminal Justice System We Can Be Proud Of
    Mar 21, 2012
    Human rights are unmatched as guideposts toward a truly just criminal justice system. Advocates can look to them for a dignity-affirming template for progress.
  • Iran: Quash Convictions and Free Rights Advocates
    Mar 8, 2012

    Iran’s judiciary should immediately overturn a lower court ruling against a lawyer sentenced to 18 years in prison for his human rights activities and set him free, Human Rights Watch said today. Abdolfattah Soltani, a colleague of Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and cofounder of a banned rights group, was convicted on charges that violate his rights to freedom of expression and association protected under international law. On the same day another colleague of Soltani’s, Narges Mohammadi, learned that an appeals court had sentenced her to six years in prison on similar charges.

  • US: Number of Aging Prisoners Soaring
    Jan 27, 2012
    Aging men and women are the most rapidly growing group in US prisons, and prison officials are hard-pressed to provide them appropriate housing and medical care. Because of their higher rates of illness and impairments, older prisoners incur medical costs that are three to nine times as high as those for younger prisoners.
  • US: Harsh Conditions for Young Lifers
    Jan 3, 2012
    The approximately 2,570 youth offenders serving life without parole sentences in adult US prisons experience conditions that violate fundamental human rights. The United States is the only country in the world with youth offenders (below the age of 18 at the time of offense) serving life without parole sentences. The US Supreme Court will consider arguments about the constitutionality of the practice in March 2012.
  • Cameroon: Letter to the Minister of Justice Regarding Article 354
    Dec 22, 2011
  • Malaysia: Revoke Law Banning Same-Sex Sexual Relations
    Dec 22, 2011
    The Malaysian government should revoke its colonial-era law criminalizing consensual sexual acts between people of the same sex. The authorities should drop their criminal case alleging consensual “sodomy” against opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is awaiting the verdict in his trial that began in February 2010.
  • Letter to Saudi Rights Body on Amputation Case
    Dec 16, 2011

    Human Rights Watch urges you to intervene in the case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada, and five other co-defendants, sentenced to have their right hands and left feet cut off.  Such a sentence should not be carried out in any circumstances, since it constitutes torture, in violation of the kingdom’s international human rights obligations. Moreover, in this case, allegedly grave violations of the defendant’s right to a fair trial cast serious doubt on whether the man sentenced to undergo this punishment is guilty as charged.

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