• Saudi Arabia: Activists Convicted for Answering Call for Help
    Jun 17, 2013

    A Saudi court convicted two Saudi women’s rights activists on June 15, 2013, for inciting a woman against her husband. Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and two-year travel bans.

  • Libya: Seize Chance to Protect Women’s Rights
    May 26, 2013
    Libyan authorities should seize a historic opportunity to promote and protect women’s rights as the country transitions from four decades of dictatorship, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
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Women’s Status in the Family and Legal Status

  • Saudi Arabia: Activists Convicted for Answering Call for Help
    Jun 17, 2013

    A Saudi court convicted two Saudi women’s rights activists on June 15, 2013, for inciting a woman against her husband. Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Oyouni were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and two-year travel bans.

  • Q & A: Child Marriage and Violations of Girls' Rights
    Jun 14, 2013
  • In South Sudan, Ending Child Marriage Will Require a Comprehensive Approach
    Jun 13, 2013
    Akech B. loved to study and dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when she was 14, her uncle who was raising her forced her to leave school to marry a man Akech described as old and gray-haired. The man paid 75 cows as dowry for Akech. He was already married to another woman with whom he had several children.
  • Women face challenges as Libya moves toward a new constitution
    May 31, 2013
    “I have waited my whole life for tomorrow, which will be a new day for Libya,” an elated Haja Nowara told Human Rights Watch on the eve of Libya’s first democratic national elections in July 2012. “We sacrificed a lot to get here.”
  • Libya: Seize Chance to Protect Women’s Rights
    May 26, 2013
    Libyan authorities should seize a historic opportunity to promote and protect women’s rights as the country transitions from four decades of dictatorship, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
  • The Trials of Child Marriage
    May 13, 2013
    In Yemen, South Sudan, and other parts of the world, instead of going to school or spending time with their friends and families, girls, some as young as 8, are married -- often to much older men. If the girls don’t want to marry, their families generally force them. After they are wed, life often changes for the worse.
  • Mark Mother’s Day by Reforming Family Leave Laws in US
    May 9, 2013
    Every industrialized nation in the world—except the United States—guarantees paid leave for new mothers.
  • Leaning In, and Sometimes Falling Over the Edge
    Mar 18, 2013
    Kimberly N. "leaned in" to her career for years. As a vice president of a large charitable organization, she earned high praise and enjoyed her work. When Kimberley got pregnant, she negotiated a six-week maternity leave, and looked forward to resuming work. Things did not go according to plan.
  • South Sudan: End Widespread Child Marriage
    Mar 7, 2013
    The government of South Sudan should increase efforts to protect girls from child marriage. The country’s widespread child marriage exacerbates South Sudan’s pronounced gender gaps in school enrollment, contributes to soaring maternal mortality rates, and violates the right of girls to be free from violence, and to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent.
  • Don’t Overlook Domestic Violence
    Feb 18, 2013
    According to December 2011 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women in the U.S. has been a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime. Nearly one in five has been raped.
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