Reports

This report documents communal attacks by armed groups against 42 villages and hamlets in Mopti region, particularly near the Burkina Faso border, and the town of Djenne, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The violence has led to widespread displacement, hunger, and looting of livestock, affecting civilians from various communities. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita should ensure that Mali’s security forces impartially protect all civilians at risk from attacks by militias and Islamist armed groups. Judicial authorities should investigate and prosecute groups responsible for abuses.

This report documents how state and federal policies contribute to a treacherous reproductive health environment in Alabama, where women are dying from cervical cancer at rates higher than in any other US state. The report presents the experiences of women mostly from the Alabama Black Belt, a largely rural region of Alabama that is primarily African American and has high rates of poverty and poor physical health. Human Rights Watch found that governments are not doing enough to facilitate access to reproductive health care services and provide information to prevent these deaths.

This report documents how the global travel companies Airbnb and Booking.com are listing and facilitating the rental of dozens of properties in settlements in the occupied West Bank. Settlements of civilians in occupied territory are unlawful under international humanitarian law regardless of the status of the land on which they are built. The presence of the settlement properties triggers serious human rights abuses against Palestinians, including blocking their access to nearby privately-owned plots of land, restricting their freedom of movement and, because of those travel restrictions, limiting their right to access education and health services and protections for keeping families intact.

This report concludes that many girls simply have no access to education, including because of a shortage of government schools – especially for girls. Nearly 22.5 million of Pakistan’s children – in a country with a population of just over 200 million – are out of school, the majority of them girls. Thirty-two percent of primary school age girls are out of school in Pakistan, compared with 21 percent of boys. By ninth grade, only 13 percent of girls are still in school.

This report shows how the lack of clarity about the legal status of same-sex conduct leaves LGBT people vulnerable to arbitrary arrests, physical violence, and routine discrimination. The justice minister issued a moratorium on arrests for adult consensual same-sex conduct in 2012, but there are divergent views about its legality. 

This report evaluates patterns of arrest and detention conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 25 years after the Oslo Accords granted Palestinians a degree of self-rule over these areas and more than a decade after Hamas seized effective control over the Gaza Strip. Human Rights Watch detailed more than two dozen cases of people detained for no clear reason beyond writing a critical article or Facebook post or belonging to the wrong student group or political movement.