Reports

Afghanistan’s Healthcare Crisis

The 38-page report, “‘A Disaster for the Foreseeable Future’: Afghanistan’s Healthcare Crisis,” describes how the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy after the Taliban takeover in August 2021 inflicted severe harm on the country’s healthcare infrastructure. Donors’ decisions to reduce humanitarian aid have further weakened health care access, destabilized the economy, and worsened food insecurity. The Taliban’s abusive policies and practices have greatly exacerbated the crisis. Bans on education for women and girls have blocked most training for future female healthcare workers, ensuring shortages for the foreseeable future.

An unidentifiable woman holds her baby son on a hospital bed

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  • April 27, 2017

    Overdose Prevention, Naloxone, and Human Rights in the United States

    This report identifies federal and state laws and policies that are keeping naloxone out of the hands of people most likely to witness accidental overdoses, denying them the ability to save lives. 

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    Cover for the US Naloxone Report
  • April 19, 2017

    Sanitation as a Human Right

    This report is based on more than a decade of reporting by Human Rights Watch on the abuses, discrimination, and other obstacles people encounter in trying to perform the simple act of relieving themselves with dignity and in safety. As of 2015, 2.4 billion people around the world were estimated to be using unimproved sanitation facilities, defined as those that do not hygienically separate human excreta from human contact. Nearly a billion people practice open defecation – which has been linked to malnutrition, stunting, and increased diarrheal disease, among other harmful effects.

    Cover of the Global Sanitation Report
  • April 2, 2017

    Israeli Restrictions on Access to and from Gaza for Human Rights Workers

    This report documents how Israel systematically bars human rights workers from traveling into and out of Gaza, even where the Israeli security services make no security claims against them as individuals. Egypt is also imposing severe travel restrictions on its border with Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office should take note of the restrictions in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination of the Palestine situation.

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    Cover image of the Israel/Palestine Gaza Access Report
  • January 24, 2017

    Violations of Property and Inheritance Rights of Widows in Zimbabwe

    This report found that in-laws often tell women shortly after the deaths of their husbands that the relatives intend to take over the homes and lands or other property where the husband and wife had lived for decades. One widow quoted her brother-in-law’s words to her after her husband’s funeral, in front of the family that had gathered: “He said in my face, ‘You are rubbish and you will get nothing. I am taking everything.’”

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    Cover of the Zimbabwe report
  • December 8, 2016

    Government Barriers to Condom Use by Men Who Have Sex With Men

    This report documents the failure of national and local governments in the Philippines to address the growing HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men.

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    Cover of the Philippines report
  • November 3, 2016

    Human Rights and Land Confiscation in Karen State

    This report documents human rights violations by militias, police, and government officials in Karen State for the confiscation of land from ethnic Karen farmers, many of whose families had farmed the land for generations.

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    Cover of Burma report
  • October 24, 2016

    Severe Medical and Food Shortages, Inadequate and Repressive Government Response

    This report documents how the shortages have made it extremely difficult for many Venezuelans to obtain essential medical care or meet their families’ basic needs. The Venezuelan government has downplayed the severity of the crisis. Although its own efforts to alleviate the shortages have not succeeded, it has made only limited efforts to obtain international humanitarian assistance that might be readily available. Meanwhile, it has intimidated and punished critics, including health professionals, human rights defenders, and ordinary Venezuelans who have spoken out about the shortages.

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    Cover of the Venezuela report
  • September 27, 2016

    Mining and Human Rights in Malawi

    This report examines the impact of extractive industries on communities in some of Malawi’s first mining areas, in Karonga district located on the northwestern shores of Lake Malawi. Malawi’s government has promoted private investment in mining and resource extraction to diversify its economy. But environmental risks are common in resource extraction and mining significantly contributes to climate change, which in turn affects governments’ ability to realize the rights to health, water, and food.

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    Cover of Malawi report
  • June 7, 2016

    Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis

    This report documents the impacts of serious and prolonged drinking water and sanitation problems for thousands of indigenous people – known as “First Nations” – living on reserves. It assesses why there are problems with safe water and sanitation on reserves, including a lack of binding water quality regulations, erratic and insufficient funding, faulty or sub-standard infrastructure, and degraded source waters. The federal government’s own audits over two decades show a pattern of overpromising and underperforming on water and sanitation for reserves.

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  • April 6, 2016

    The Failing Response to Arsenic in the Drinking Water of Bangladesh’s Rural Poor

    This report documents how Bangladesh’s health system largely ignores the impact of exposure to arsenic on people’s health. An estimated 43,000 people die each year from arsenic-related illness in Bangladesh, according to one study. The government identifies people with arsenic-related illnesses primarily via skin lesions, although the vast majority of those with arsenic-related illnesses don’t develop them. Those exposed are at significant risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease as a result, but many receive no health care at all.


     

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  • April 5, 2016

    Inadequate Conditions for Prisoners with Psychosocial Disabilities in France

    This report documents the lack of adequate mental health care and appropriate conditions for prisoners with psychosocial disabilities. The situation is exacerbated by overcrowding, stigma, and isolation, Human Rights Watch found. A shortage of mental health professionals in many prisons means that appointments are infrequent and often, brief and limited to prescribing medication. The lack of adequate conditions and care also results in difficult working conditions for prison staff.

     

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  • March 29, 2016

    Failure to Deliver HIV Services in Louisiana Parish Jails

    This report documents the inadequate, haphazard, and in many cases, non-existent HIV testing, treatment, and linkage to care in the jails.

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  • March 23, 2016

    Abuse against Transgender Women in US Immigration Detention

    This report documents 28 cases of transgender women who were held in US immigration detention between 2011 and 2015. More than half of the transgender women Human Rights Watch interviewed were held in men’s facilities at some point. Half also spent time in solitary confinement, in many cases allegedly for their protection. But solitary confinement is a form of abuse in and of itself, and many who had spent time there experienced trauma and profound psychological distress.

     

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  • February 4, 2016

    Challenges and Progress in Ensuring the Right to Palliative Care in Morocco

    This report estimates that each year, more than 62,000 Moroccans need palliative care, which focuses on improving the quality of life of people with life-limiting illnesses by treating pain and other symptoms. While the Moroccan government has taken a number of important steps to improve end-of-life care, Human Rights Watch found only two public hospitals, in Casablanca and Rabat, have specific units that offer this essential health service, and only to cancer patients. Patients suffering severe pain outside of these cities must either undergo difficult travel to these centers or do without effective pain medicine.

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  • December 9, 2015

    Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming

    The 73-page report, “Teens of the Tobacco Fields: Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming,” documents the harm caused to 16- and 17-year-olds who work long hours as hired laborers on US tobacco farms, exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and extreme heat. Nearly all of the teenagers interviewed suffered symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning – nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness – while working on tobacco farms.

     

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