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UN Takes on Global Racism

New Resolution Forms Expert Group to Probe Racism in Policing

The United Nations Human Rights Council recently adopted a milestone UN resolution to create an independent mechanism, made up of three experts, to investigate the root causes of systemic racism and police violence. Brought forward by the Group of…
Demonstrators kneel outside the Long Beach Police Department in Long Beach, California during a protest on May 31, 2020. 
News

Pushing Forward Reparations for Slavery in the US

The 21st Century Movement for Repair

The first government proposal to repair the damage of US slavery was Special Field Order No. 15 from civil war general William T. Sherman. The wartime order from Sherman, who led Union soldiers, allotted 40 acres of land to some newly freed Black families…
A sculpture of African slaves by Ghanaian artist, Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, at the beginning of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. 
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UN Condemns Systemic Racism, Police Violence

Unanimous Resolution Brings Scrutiny to Global Violations

The United Nations Human Rights Council is moving against systemic racism and police violence – including in the United States. On June 19, the 47-member council unanimously passed a resolution mandating that the UN high commissioner for human…
Delegates sit at the opening of the 41th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 24, 2019.
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Dispatches: New York Passes Paid Family Leave

Julia adopted a baby girl born four months premature in 2008. The baby weighed just 1.5 pounds and had to be resuscitated. Julia and her partner longed to have more time with their baby during the 110 days she spent in the hospital, but had to save their…
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Doors Open for Mississippians with HIV/AIDS

In a move that will benefit those living with HIV and AIDS in Mississippi, the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided to overhaul the state’s federally funded program meant to provide housing to people with AIDS. This comes roughly four years…
News

New Police Practices Help Fight HIV Epidemic

Cops Stop Harrassing Sex Workers for Carrying Condoms

Sex workers in San Francisco, Washington DC, and part of New York State can now carry condoms – protecting themselves and their clients from HIV/AIDS – without fearing that police will use the condoms as evidence of prostitution. In July, Human Rights…
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United States Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties

Contents Overview Conventionon the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Convention on the Rights of the Child Convention against Enforced Disappearance Mine Ban Treaty Convention on Cluster Munitions Convention on…
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Majority of US Senators Vote to Restore Habeas Corpus

On September 19, a majority of US senators voted to approve an amendment that would restore the right to habeas corpus, one of the oldest and most important checks on the arbitrary exercise of government power. Last year’s Military Commissions Act…
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Council of Europe Confirms Secret CIA Prisons

On June 8, the Council of Europe released a report confirming allegations first made by Human Rights Watch in 2005 that the CIA used locations in Poland and Romania for the secret detention of terror suspects. During several years of research, we combed…
News

China: Activist Freed

Under pressure from Human Rights Watch and colleague organizations, the Chinese government on February 17 agreed to lift its house arrest of prominent HIV/AIDS doctor Gao Yaojie. Dr. Gao had been detained for weeks to prevent her from obtaining a visa to…
News

United States: U.N. Confirms Abuses at Guantánamo

A report by U.N. human rights experts confirms what Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations have long documented-that the United States is violating international human rights law and the Geneva Conventions by indefinitely detaining,…
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United States: Soldiers Provide Accounts of Torture

In a new report by Human Rights Watch, United States soldiers have for the first time come forward to describe torture and other abuse by the U.S. military in Iraq, and the failure of superior officers to stop it. Human Rights Watch's report has…
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United States: U.S. Backs Down on Prostitution Pledge

In coalition with other human rights, public health, faith and community-based organizations, Human Rights Watch successfully challenged U.S. policies that impede effective HIV/AIDS work with men and women in prostitution. United States law requires that…
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Sweden: United Nations Confirms Sweden Violated Torture Ban

In two recent reports, Human Rights Watch has exposed the increasing reliance by Western governments on a practice called "diplomatic assurances," which enable those governments to return terror suspects to their home countries, many of which are known to…
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United States: HRW-backed Torture Amendment Passes the House

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed an amendment offered by Representative Edward J. Markey that reaffirms the government's opposition to torture and prohibits the use of U.S. funds for the practice of "extraordinary rendition." The…
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China: Briefing to the 60th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights

Urge China to Cooperate Fully with UN Monitoring Mechanisms

OBJECTIVE The Commission on Human Rights should adopt a resolution condemning China’s violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, religion and belief, repression of minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang and violations of the…
News

HRW Challenges Alleged Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects

On December 26, the Washington Post reported that persons held at a CIA interrogation center in Bagram air base in Afghanistan were being subjected to "stress and duress" techniques such as "standing or kneeling for hours" and "being held in awkward,…
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Release of Chinese AIDS Activist

AIDS activist Wan Yanhai, who was detained by the Chinese authorities on August 24, was released on September 20, following a concerted outcry that included three formal statements by Human Rights Watch.
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Abuse of Post-September 11 Detainees

On August 15, HRW released "Presumption of Guilt: Human Rights Abuses of Post-September 11 Detainees." The report is based on interviews with scores of detainees and their attorneys, documenting cases of arbitrary detention…
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Falungong, the Olympics, and President Bush in China

In 1999, the Chinese government banned Falungong, a variant of an ancient exercise and meditation system. The government labeled Falungong an "evil cult" and began an aggressive and often violent campaign against its practitioners which continues…

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