December 9, 2020 | 5:30 PM CST

Join us December 9, the eve of Human Rights Day, as we celebrate our Future We Build Together Global Challenge. This year has test us all, but we have come together in solidarity with one another and will celebrate our collective work to advance human rights and dignity for all.

Thank you for standing with us in 2020 and beyond.

The global virtual event will begin at 5:30 PM CST. Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Chief Programs Officer Tirana Hassan will address why this moment is unlike any other for the human rights movement.

The program will also include a special surprise musical performance to celebrate our Future We Build Together Global Challenge.

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Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and columnist with The Washington Post, joined Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth in conversation moderated by Chicago Committee Co-Chair Shalini Sharma to discuss human rights lessons learned during the pandemic, the outlook and future for the human rights movement, and opportunities to make progress with the incoming Biden Administration.

The Chicago Committee of Human Rights Watch hosted its first online screening and Q&A on May 8, 2020, with ANOTE'S ARK. The film by Matthieu Rytz profiles the impact of climate change on the island nation of Kiribati, which is danger of disappearing underwater as a result of rising sea levels. The Q&A featured Matthieu Rytz and Human Rights Watch Senior Environment and Human Rights Researcher Felix Horne.

Join Margaret Wurth, Senior Researcher with the Children's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, and Terry Cosgrove, President and CEO of PersonalPAC, for a briefing and discussion on the state of abortion laws in the United States and Illinois.

Hosted by Jerry Newton, Weinberg/Newton Gallery, and Human Rights Watch.

Thursday, February 13 | 5:00pm
Weinberg/Newton Gallery
688 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60642

Join Human Rights Watch, the Chicago Community Bond Fund, and the Illinois Justice Project for a Panel Discussion at Weinberg/Newton Gallery Wednesday, October 2nd to expose and elucidate algorithm based pre-trial risk assessment tools and their role in national and regional bond reform debate.

Featuring
John Raphling, Senior Researcher on Criminal Justice, Human Rights Watch
Sharlyn Grace, Executive Director, Chicago Community Bond Fund
Sharone Mitchell Jr., Deputy Director, Illinois Justice Project
Antonio Gutierrez, Organized Communities Against Deportations

Moderated by
Laura S. Washington, Moderator, In These Times Contributing Editor, Columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and political analyst for ABC 7-Chicago

Human Rights Watch returns to EXPO CHICAGO in partnership with Weinberg/Newton Gallery to present A Flight into the Abyss, an interdisciplinary site-specific installation by Chicago-based artist Maryam Taghavi.

We are delighted to invite you to support the global movement for human rights at the Voices for Justice Dinner Wednesday, November 6, 2019.  For more than 40 years, Human Rights Watch has been at the forefront of the human rights movement to advance fundamental values of justice, dignity, and compassion. This year, we are particularly proud to celebrate our tenacious Children’s Rights Division and the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Donate or register here.

In light of the commission's formation, US Program Senior Researcher John Raphling has written to share Human Rights Watch's findings and recommendations regarding pretrial incarceration, money bail, and risk assessment tools. While endorsing the adoption of pretrial reforms so as to mitigate the harm caused by the money bail system, the letter warns against the use of risk assessment tools as a shortcut to this goal, citing their inherent racial and class bias as well as their poor track record with reductions in pretrial incarceration rates.

Read the letter here.

Carlos Hernandez Vazquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan teenager, died in a Border Patrol shelter in Texas last week, making him the third child to die in Customs and Border Protection custody in six months. There were 56 deaths in ICE custody during the Obama administration. And next month will mark one year since President Trump issues an executive order to end his administration's policy of separating families at the border — though a similar scheme may soon be initiated, wherein immigrant parents will choose either to be separated from their children or to waive their children’s rights so they can be sent to jail together. These are the issues to which Clara Long, a senior researcher with the US Program at Human Rights Watch, dedicates her work. Long focuses on U.S. immigration and border policy and wrote in February about ICE force-feeding detainees who were on a hunger strike in Texas. She joins Worldview to provide an update on the human rights abuses that immigrants to America continue to endure at the border and beyond.

Listen to the interview here.

Jo Becker Fights For Children’s Rights Worldwide

At least 14 children were killed in a blast near a school in Yemen this April. Girls from Myanmar are regularly trafficked to China as brides. In Iraq, children suspected of ISIS involvement, sometimes incorrectly, are arrested or worse. These are merely a few of the threats children around the world face. Human Rights Watch aims to bring attention to these children’s plight and advocate on their behalf so that conditions might change. The issues on which the organization focuses include child marriage, sexual abuse, lack of access to education and corporal punishment, among others. Jo Becker is the advocacy director for the Children's Rights Division for Human Rights Watch. She joins Worldview to talk through some of the human rights abuses children face and how we can work toward a better world for all children. Becker’s 2017 book is Campaigning for Children: Strategies for Advancing Children's Rights.

Listen to the interview here.

Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Divison, sat down with Steve Bynum on Chicago's WBEZ radio station to give an update on Human Rights in East Asia. Their talk covered issues and current cases of dentention, asylum, and capital punishment. Tune in here to take a listen!

Last week, more than a dozen Chicago Committee members attended a briefing with Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Division for Human Rights Watch. Phil shared details about the ongoing commitment to the fight for human rights in Asia as well as the inspiring story of Rahaf al-Qunun, the Saudi teen who fled her country and has now been granted asylum in Canada. 

To keep up with Phil and the great work happening in the Asia Division on Twitter click here!