US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration
The 112-page report, “Remedies Abandoned: US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration,” documents the administration’s efforts to unravel the work of four key agencies between January 2025 and the spring of 2026: the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which lost about 75 percent of its attorneys; the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which moved to lay off nearly half its staff in one day and closed 7 of its 12 regional offices; the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Fair Housing Office, which shrank dramatically; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which reached its lowest staffing levels in over 40 years.
Torture, “Disappearance,” and Extrajudicial Execution in Mexico
Torture, "disappearances," and extrajudicial executions remain widespread in Mexico, despitenumerous legal and institutional reforms adduced by successive Mexican governments asevidence of their commitment to protecting human rights. Indeed, reforms have taken place, butthey have failed to abate, much less resolve, these serious, seemingly intractable problems.
Under the pretext of “depoliticizing” the campuses, the Serbian parliament in May 1998 enacted a law that removed basic protections for academic freedom and destroyed the autonomy of universities in Serbia.
This report examines the situation of the ethnic Turkish minority of Thrace, a region of Greece. It serves as a follow-up to two earlier reports issued by Human Rights Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece (August 1990) and "Greece: Improvements for Turkish Minority;Problems Remain" (April 1992).
Jamaican Children in Police Detention and Government Institutions
In the island nation of Jamaica, many children-often as young as twelve or thirteen-are detained for long periods, sometimes six months or more, in filthy and overcrowded police lockups, in spite of international standards and Jamaican laws that forbid such treatment.
This report documents how, from the moment the state assumes their care, orphans in Russia---of whom 95 percent still have a living parent---are exposed to shocking levels of cruelty and neglect.
In the aftermath of President Soeharto's resignation in May 1998, political tension in Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, has increased. The province, called West Papua by supporters of independence, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea.
Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico’s Maquiladora Sector
In this report Human Rights Watch documents the Mexican government's failure to enforce its own labor laws in the export processing (maquiladora) sector. In violation of Mexican labor law, maquiladora operators oblige women to undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of work. Women thought to be pregnant are not hired.
At least 1,000 ethnic Albanians are currently believed to be in Serbian prisons and police stations, according to Human Rights Watch. In Detention and Abuse in Kosovo, released today, Human Rights Watch charges that many have been subjected to beatings and torture to extract confessions or to obtain information about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and are being tried on charges of "terrorism."
Children in the Custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
In this report, Human Rights Watch charges the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) with violating the rights of unaccompanied children in its custody.
Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile
Since the 1980s, the term “transition to democracy” has been used to describe those processes of political change that aim toleave behind a dictatorial past, a situation of internal armed conflict or another type of radical breakdown of the political orderor absence of the rule of law, and to advance toward the foundation or reconstruction of a democratic system.
How Victims Can Pursue Human Rights Criminals Abroad
On the night of October 16, 1998, London police arrested Gen. Augusto Pinochet. They were acting on a Spanish warrant charging the former dictator with human rights crimes committed in Chile during his seventeen-year rule. The British courts rejected Pinochet's claim that he was entitled to immunity and ruled that he could be extradited to Spain to stand trial.
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was arrested on September 20 under the Internal Security Act, a law that Human Rights Watch believes to be a violation of basic human rights. Since his sacking on September 2, many of his supporters have also been arrested. The background to the case follows.
