• Advances in Fighting Maternal Death

    In a recent report Human Rights Watch analyzed India's maternal health policies in Uttar Pradesh state, which has one of the highest maternal death rates in India. One of our most important findings was that the government was not tracking the problem closely enough - and understanding the scope and underlying causes of the problem is the first step toward solving it.

    After analyzing the data, we recommended that the government track all pregnancy outcomes, investigate the causes of deaths and monitor access to emergency obstetric care. We also urged the creation of a complaints system for women and their families to register grievances and access reparation for harm caused.

    A new study in the medical journal The Lancet says the number of women dying from pregnancy and childbirth is dropping worldwide. That's good news! But there is still much more to be done. The study estimates that only 23 countries are on track to meet international goals for reducing maternal death rates. It also notes that HIV/AIDS has slowed progress in reducing maternal deaths, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Like Human Rights Watch, the authors of the Lancet article call for reforming healthcare systems and "delivery of interventions to women when and where they need them." Over the last six years, countries like Sri Lanka and Malaysia have managed to halve their maternal mortality numbers. By putting in place the right measures, we believe that other countries - including India -- should be able to do the same.

  • Canada: Investigate Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women
    Dec 17, 2012
    Canada’s federal government should establish a national commission of inquiry into the country’s hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. This recommendation follows today’s release by the British Columbian government of the final report from the provincial Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry.
  • Bangladesh: Discriminatory Family Laws Fuel Female Poverty
    Sep 16, 2012

    Bangladesh’s discriminatory personal laws on marriage, separation, and divorce trap many women and girls in abusive marriages or drive them into poverty when marriages fall apart. In many cases these laws contribute to homelessness, hunger, and ill-health for divorced or separated women and their children. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have recorded significantly higher levels of food insecurity and poverty among female-headed Bangladeshi households. 

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Reports

  • Those Who Take Us Away
    Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada
  • “Nobody Remembers Us”
    Failure to Protect Women’s and Girls’ Right to Health and Security in Post-Earthquake Haiti
  • At a Crossroads
    Human Rights in Iraq Eight Years after the US-Led Invasion
More >>

Women and Security

  • Ensuring witness safety central to rule of law
    Mar 13, 2013
    Across the country, victims of violent crimes, including sexual assault, as well as those who witness it, frequently do not file criminal complaints, cooperate with investigators, or testify truthfully in courts because they fear retaliation. In many rape cases, survivors are threatened or intimidated into settling with the perpetrator.
  • Canada: Investigate Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women
    Dec 17, 2012
    Canada’s federal government should establish a national commission of inquiry into the country’s hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. This recommendation follows today’s release by the British Columbian government of the final report from the provincial Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry.
  • It's time for governments to finally put an end to child marriage
    Oct 11, 2012

    The first UN International Day of the Girl, designed to promote education for young women everywhere, is the perfect opportunity to finally stamp out child marriage, writes Gauri van Gulik from Human Rights Watch.

  • UN Human Rights Council: HRW's Submission for Canada's Universal Periodic Review
    Oct 10, 2012
    This submission, drawn from recent Human Rights Watch research, focuses on four areas of concern regarding Canada’s human rights record: violence against indigenous women and girls, counterterrorism, abuses related to the extractives industry, and the use of cluster munitions. It also examines Canada’s adherence to commitments made in response to its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2009.
  • Bangladesh: Discriminatory Family Laws Fuel Female Poverty
    Sep 16, 2012

    Bangladesh’s discriminatory personal laws on marriage, separation, and divorce trap many women and girls in abusive marriages or drive them into poverty when marriages fall apart. In many cases these laws contribute to homelessness, hunger, and ill-health for divorced or separated women and their children. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have recorded significantly higher levels of food insecurity and poverty among female-headed Bangladeshi households. 

  • Protecting the domestic front
    Sep 14, 2012

    It would be a wonderful gift for the many domestic workers if a treaty, which could signal better protection of their rights, was signed before Christmas. 

  • UN Human Rights Council: Call to Recognize the Status of Women's Human Rights Defenders
    Jun 26, 2012
  • Trapped after being forced to say 'I do'
    May 28, 2012

    Punitive measures against girls forced into child marriages should not find a place in government policies, programmes and practices.

  • 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.
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