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No segregation of people with disabilities in schools

All people should have the right to education from childhood and as a lifelong process. No one should be subjected to discrimination based on biases about whether they can benefit from receiving education or not. In the last years, Brazil’s law for…
A girl with a disability in the walled yard of an institution for people with disabilities in Rio de Janeiro.
News

Russia Should Repeal No-Women Jobs List

A Transgender Woman’s Court Victory Highlights the Russian Regulation’s Absurdity

A transgender woman in St. Petersburg, Russia has won a final court battle with a former employer who fired her in 2017 after she changed her legal gender. The woman, known throughout the ordeal by her pseudonym “Anna,” had worked for a decade at a…
The Russian flag flies on a courthouse building in St. Petersburg, Russia, March 15 2020.
News

Covid-19 Sheds Light on the Flaws of Institutional Care

At the peak of the Covid-19 infections, on April 30, the Serbian government published data that 574 people living in residential care institutions, including those for people with disabilities, had been infected with the virus. More recent numbers…
A room in the Veternik Institution for children and adults with disabilities where 540 persons, including children with disabilities live. Up to eight people live in one room. © 2015 Emina Ćerimović for Human Rights Watch
News

Supreme Court Strikes Down Bigotry in Brazil’s Schools

Rulings Affirm Equality, Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Amid the public health crisis in the country, Brazil has recently achieved two significant victories for the right to education and the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On April 24, the Supreme Court…
The Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) in Brazil.
News

Children with Disabilities Finally at Schools?

As children across Serbia enjoy their summer break, for some children the next school year can’t start soon enough. It may be their first chance to get an education. The Serbian government formally pledged in June that all children with…
Marina [pseudonym], a 4-year-old girl with developmental disabilities who spent ten months of her life in an institution, with her foster sister. © 2015 Jasenko Rasol for Human Rights Watch
News

Balkan Summit Must be More Than Hot Air

The London summit this week could kick-start the revival of the stalled reform process in the region – but won’t if human rights and the rule of law stay off the agenda

  Western Balkan and European Union leaders meet in London this week for a summit that could be a chance to revive stalled reforms and focus attention on critical issues. Unfortunately, there is every chance it will turn out to be full of hot…
Migrants are seen in front of a dorm destroyed during Bosnian 1992-1995 war, in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina May 11, 2018.
News

Children With Disabilities Grow Old Behind Walls in Brazil

We arrived at the institution for people with disabilities on a day in November 2016. The door had heavy locks. Once inside, in the back of a room full of beds, we saw a woman waiving us closer. She had cerebral palsy and could not…
A man with disabilities looks out through the bars of a psychiatric ward in an institution in Rio de Janeiro. Persons locked in this section of the institution never left their rooms, according to staff.
News

Discrimination Has No Role in the World Cup

  As Russia hosts the World Cup—the biggest single-event sports competition on the planet—the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should make clear that its rules off the pitch…
A Fifa tem influência para exigir respeito a direitos humanos
News

LGBT Rights at the World Cup

FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, had a reputation problem. In 2015, Sepp Blatter, the organization’s president at the time, and other top executives were facing corruption charges and, after awarding the 2018 and 2022…
Participants in a LGBT community rally in central Moscow, Russia hold a rainbow flag that reads, "Love. Don't make war", as a policeman stops them.
News

Witness: Leonardo’s Biggest Wish – to Live at Home

People with Disabilities in Brazil Forced to Live in Institutions

At age 25, Leonardo Barcellos de Albuquerque is finally where he wants to be – at home, living with his mother in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is creating his fourth music album – he released three other CDs over the past three years – and is also…
Leonardo_1
News

The Olympics Have Left Sochi, but Don’t Forget LGBT Russians

In June 2013, just months before the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed what became known as the “gay propaganda law,” arguing that “nontraditional sexual relations” were a danger to children…
People sing the Russian national anthem while raising rainbow flags and a Russian flag in solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of Russia
News

Latin America Could Lead the Way for LGBT Rights in 2018

In a moment when some countries have stepped back on LGBT rights, a January 9th decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has opened a window of opportunity for Latin America to lead the way.   In a landmark…
People celebrate after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights called on Costa Rica and Latin America to recognize equal marriage, in San Jose, Costa Rica, January 9, 2018. The sign reads: "The court said yes".
News

Victim of Chechnya’s anti-LGBT purge seeks justice

But will the Russian authorities deliver on their pledges to Investigate?

Yesterday, I ran a news-conference at which a man described how he was rounded up and tortured during Chechnya’s anti-gay purge in the spring. One of dozens of victims of this large-scale “cleansing” operation against gay people in…
Maxim Lapunov
News

Zika Emergency May Have Passed, But Risks to Families Remain

Clara is a community health worker’s dream client—she has absorbed all the training offered on preventing mosquito breeding in her home and implements it to perfection. I spoke to her last October in a favela in downtown Recife. She described how she…
Mother holding her child in Brazil.
News

Bullied as a Child, Gay Filipino Comes Into His Own

University’s LGBT Student Group Provides Support System

  Patrick’s knees were shaking as he marched with his university in the Pride Parade in the Philippine capital, Manila. “It’s a big step for me,” he said. “To accept my sexuality and to come out of the closet.”…
LGBT Rainbow Flag
News

Chechnya's Gay Purge Should Spark International Action

A brutal campaign against gay men is sweeping Chechnya, with reports of abduction-style detention, enforced disappearances, torture and deaths. Chechnya is an administrative unit of the Russian federation, and Russia’s authorities are duty bound to uphold…
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, on December 13, 2011.

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