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US: Flawed Military Review of Civilian Casualties in Syria

Missteps Show Need for Congressional Oversight to Catalyze Change

(Washington, DC, May 19, 2022) – The US military’s review of a 2019 airstrike in Syria highlights fundamental and ongoing flaws in US handling of accountability for civilian harm, Human Rights Watch said today. The US Defense Department on May 17,…
Black smoke billows from the last small piece of territory held by Islamic State forces as US-backed fighters attack the area with artillery and airstrikes in Baghouz, Syria, March 3, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Andrea Rosa
News

The high cost of Guantanamo’s ‘forever prisoners’

The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may seem a world away from Florida, but it’s only 700 miles from Orlando. Growing up here myself, I never thought twice about what Guantanamo’s high financial and moral cost meant for me as a Floridian…
In this photo reviewed by US military officials, flags fly in front of the tents of Camp Justice, April 18, 2019, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.
News

Florida: Reject Dangerous 15-Week Abortion Ban

Human Rights Watch Letter to Florida Legislature

February 16, 2022 Chris Sprowls Speaker, Florida House of Representatives 402 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399 Senator Wilton Simpson President, The Florida Senate 404 South Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399 Re: House Bill 5/…
Report

“How Can You Throw Us Back?”

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…
News

Senate Hearing on "Targeted Killing' and the Rule of Law"

Human Rights Watch Statement for the Record

Statement of Human Rights Watch on  “‘Targeted Killing’ and the Rule of Law:  The Legal and Human Costs of 20 Years of U.S. Drone Strikes" before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 9, 2022. Human Rights Watch thanks the Senate…
The dome of the US Capitol seen through a glass ceiling in Washington, DC, April 29, 2021.
Report

“We Need Access”

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,…
News

US: Cervical Cancer Disproportionally Kills Black Women

Rural Women in Georgia Need Better Access to Care, Information to Reduce Risks

(Atlanta) – 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 Watch said in a report…
Illustration of three Black women reading a poster titled "HPV Vaccine: Cancer Prevention"
News

The Symbol of US Abuse in the Global War on Terror

Why President Biden should fulfill his pledge to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay

Two decades ago, on Jan. 11, 2002, the US military began detaining Global War on Terror (GWOT) prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, opening one of the longest and darkest chapters of its abusive responses to the 9/11 attacks. The US has unlawfully…
The first foreign Muslim men imprisoned by the US military at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in the so-called “global war on terror.” Since January 2002, the US has held nearly 800 men and boys at Guantánamo. Of the 39 who currently remain, 27 have never been charged. © 2002 Shane McCoy/Greg Mathieson/Mai/Getty Images
Report

Dismantling Detention

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…
News

Guantanamo Military Jury Condemns US Treatment of Detainee

Majid Khan Publicly Describes Torture at Sentencing Hearing

For the first time, a United States military commission jury urged clemency for a Guantanamo Bay detainee, Majid Khan, at a sentencing hearing. The jury’s recommendation, noting the severe abuse Khan endured while in detention, highlights the profound…
Photo of a man with black hair and a bear
News

US: The Texas Abortion Ban

The following is a joint statement about the Texas abortion law by the Global Justice Center, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch; The United States Supreme Court is holding oral arguments on November 1, 2021 on procedural questions…
News

Illinois: Legislature Repeals Harmful Abortion Restriction

Move Will Protect Young People’s Rights, Dignity, Access to Health Care

(Chicago) – Illinois state lawmakers have voted to repeal a harmful abortion restriction that forced anyone under age 18 to involve a parent in an abortion decision, Human Rights Watch said today. Governor J. B. Pritzker should sign the bill into law…
Abortion rally in Chicaco, Illinois, US.
News

A Step Toward Justice for Guantanamo Detainee

Despite US Federal Court Ruling, Continued Detention Likely

In a small step toward justice, a United States federal judge ruled this week that because Haroon Gul, an Afghan held at Guantanamo Bay, was not a member of Al-Qaeda or an associated force, the US had no legal basis for detaining him. The US…
Afghan refugee Roman Khan at a refugee camp near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar in September 2020, displays a photograph of his brother Asadullah Haroon, who is detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
News

When Targeted Killings Become ‘Tragic Mistakes’

Since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere have carried out targeted killings that frequently kill and injure civilians.

On September 17, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, gave an extraordinary news conference in which he admitted that the United States had killed an aid worker in Kabul and his family; McKenzie apologized, adding that…
The Pentagon, Washington, DC, United States.
News

End the 'War on Terror'

President Joe Biden was determined to end U.S. involvement in the Afghan "forever war" by the twentieth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He should also use the anniversary to announce a definitive end to the forever "global war on terror."…
Detainees apprehended after September 11, 2001 in a holding area under surveillance of the US military at Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba on January 11, 2002. 
News

Twenty Years On: The Legacy of 9/11

On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda hijackers turned four commercial airliners into instruments of terror, killing nearly 3,000 people and devastating the lives of thousands more. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States…
Bellevue Hospital memorial to victims of the World Trade Center attacks in New York, September 19, 2001. 
News

9/11 Unleashed a Global Storm of Human Rights Abuses

Victims of Attacks Still Await Justice

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were foremost a tragedy for the nearly 3,000 victims and their families. Lives were snuffed out, destinies forever changed, in acts of violence that elicited shock and outraged the world over. Many…
A man stands in the rubble after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower in New York City on September 11, 2001.
News

Texas and US Supreme Court Deal Blow to Reproductive Rights

New Law Prohibits Nearly All Abortion Essentially After Six Weeks of Pregnancy

The US state of Texas and the United States Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to women’s (and pregnant people’s) human rights last week. Dozens of US states have been passing destructive laws limiting abortion access for years, but courts usually…
Protesters march from City Hall to the federal courthouse in protest of the new state abortion law in Houston, Texas on September 5th, 2021.

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