Summary In the United States, access to lifesaving medication is a privilege that many cannot afford. Soaring medicine prices and inadequate health insurance coverage can result in unaffordable out-of-pocket costs that undermine the right to health,…

(New York, March 24, 2022) – Many Afghans evacuated to France as the Taliban took over their country more than six months ago are experiencing trauma and psychological distress, Human Rights Watch said today. While France has provided important support to…

Summary Many things were done to our lives, but we never got anything. They removed our nails. They beat us. Even our bones. We need to see those people who were doing those things to us taken to court. [We need them] to tell us why they are doing…

Summary The older woman told Human Rights Watch that the first time government soldiers and militias came to her village in South Sudan in 2015, all civilians were subject to attack. “The old men and women who couldn’t run were killed,” she said. “…

Summary After the United States rejected her asylum claim and deported her in October 2020, Esther,[1] a Cameroonian woman, found herself trapped in a nightmare in the country she had previously fled. “I was arrested and detained [by gendarmes]... I…

Summary Cervical cancer is not a disease that anyone should die from. It just doesn't make any sense. We know too much about it for it to be something that people die from. —Dr. Favors, obstetrician gynecologist in Albany, Georgia, June 6,…

(Atlanta, January 20, 2022) – The United States federal and many state and local governments are not doing enough to end cervical cancer deaths, the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI) and Human Rights…

Summary I have anxiety…. I feel stress, I am affected mentally…. That moment comes to my mind every day….  I always remember that day. —Tirhas S. (not her real name), 44-year-old sexual violence survivor, Tigray, March 16, 2021[1] The…

Summary As the harmful effects of immigration detention become more widely known and the appropriateness of detaining migrants is increasingly questioned, governments are looking at alternatives to detention as more humane and rights-respecting…

(Nairobi, September 21, 2021) – The Kenyan government’s response to gender-based violence during the Covid-19 pandemic has been too little, too late, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 61-page report, “‘I Had Nowhere to Go’:…

Summary The international reconstruction effort in Afghanistan after 2001 created an opportunity to advance human rights, and women’s and girls’ rights in particular. Although its achievements have fallen short of what was envisioned, significant…

(New York, May 6, 2021) – Falling donor support for essential services in Afghanistan is reducing women’s access to essential health care, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. More cuts are likely in coming months following the announcement…

Summary Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has depended on international donor support to fund essential services like health care. But this donor support has been falling for years and will likely to continue do so—perhaps precipitously—…

Introduction On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that an outbreak of the viral disease Covid-19—first identified in late 2019 in Wuhan, China—had reached the level of a global pandemic. Citing concerns with “the alarming…

(Nairobi, December 14, 2020) – South Sudanese authorities have failed to stem or investigate the appalling abuses by the country’s National Security Service (NSS), Human Rights Watch said in a report published today. Since the outbreak of the civil war in…

(New York, October 29, 2020) – Governments should maximize Covid-19 vaccine access and affordability for people worldwide, and those funding vaccines with public money should be transparent about the terms and conditions attached, Human Rights Watch said…

Summary In late 2014, police officers entered the home of Lim Ok Kyung, a smuggler in her forties from North Korea’s South Hwanghae province. The police were looking for, and found, home appliances smuggled from China. Lim Ok Kyung was detained at a…

(Perth, September 15, 2020) – Three suspected suicides in the last four months in Western Australia’s prisons have highlighted the urgent need for better mental health services and support for prisoners with mental health conditions, Human Rights Watch…

Summary When the Argentine Senate narrowly rejected a bill to decriminalize abortion in 2018, the country missed a historic opportunity to advance sexual and reproductive rights. Rejection of the reform has left women, girls and pregnant people in…

Egyptian police, National Security Agency, and military officials arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, and tortured children as young as 12 while prosecutors and judges turned a blind eye, Human Rights Watch and the rights group Belady: An Island…