Search Results

Sort by
News

Interview: Phone of HRW Director Attacked Using Pegasus Spyware

Lama Fakih, Who Lives in Lebanon and Oversees Work on Conflict, Targeted by Government Attack

Surveillance technology sold to governments by the firm NSO Group has repeatedly been used to target the phones of journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats. The software, called Pegasus, allows attackers full access to the phone’s camera,…
Lama Fakih
News

Interview: The World Desperately Needs More Covid-19 Vaccines

New Report Shows More Companies Could Help Produce mRNA Vaccines

The coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil, and South Africa, and a vaccine expert from the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) Access Campaign published a report today…
Vaccine Lab Worker
News

Interview: Aluminum Is the Future for Electric Cars

But Mining and Refining the Metal Often Involves Human Rights Abuses

Sales of electric cars are surging – with sales predicted to rise from 2 million in 2018 to 12 million in 2025 – as people choose to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and better protect the environment. To keep electric cars lightweight and ensure…
202107africa_guinea_use
News

Interview: The Human Rights Crisis Behind India’s Covid-19 Surge

Covid-19 is surging through India, resulting in record-breaking numbers of new cases with medicine, oxygen, and vaccines in tragically short supply. Amy Braunschweiger speaks with South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly about how this humanitarian crisis is…
People wait to get tested for Covid-19 in Hyderabad, India. A crowd stands before two health care workers.
News

Interview: In Afghanistan, Buying the Scalpel for Your Own Child’s Birth

The US Withdrawal, Drops in Foreign Aid, and Health Care for Women and Girls

When the United States announced in April that it would withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, it raised concerns the move would come with cuts in development assistance. Yet dwindling foreign investment has already left Afghanistan’s government with…
Midwives care for a mother who has just given birth in a hospital room
News

Interview: The Law Putting Illinois' Young People at Risk

Forcing Parental Involvement in Abortion Violates Rights

A law in the US state of Illinois that forces people under 18 to involve an adult family member in their abortion decision is failing some of the state’s young people and violating their human rights. In a new joint report with the American Civil…
An illustration of scales imposed over a woman's torso
News

Interview: Health, Not Wealth, Should Determine Access to a Covid-19 Vaccine

How Opaque Vaccine Deals Could Undermine a Global Recovery from the Pandemic

More than 1 million people around the world have lost their lives to Covid-19. At least another 38 million people have been infected; many have fallen severely ill. With nearly every country in the world having reported Covid-19 cases, the social and…
A line of people in face masks
News

Breaking the Poverty Trap

Why Poverty and Inequality are Human Rights Issues

Human Rights Watch has long documented how, when people live in poverty, their ability to exercise all their human rights erodes. Because of this, we have pushed governments to end abuses that contribute to poverty. We have recently decided to…
girls from the Kalokol Girls Primary School fetch water
News

Can Covid-19 Help Ease the Climate Crisis?

The Global Pandemic Offers Chance to Embrace Clean Energy

It’s been three months since governments around the world implemented lockdowns in response to Covid-19. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions more into joblessness and destitution. With the global transport of people and goods…
201909ENV_Brazil_main
News

‘The Country is Bleeding’: Covid-19 in the US

Leaders Should Plan to Better Protect Everyone During Future

As the Covid-19 pandemic rocks the United States, it is exposing cracks in the system. The differences often split along not just socio-economic but also racial lines. Who gets to work from home and still receive a paycheck? Which kids have computers they…
Covid mural in Seattle, Washington
News

More than Just China: COVID-19 May Ravage Asia

  What are your main concerns about the coronavirus in Asia? Because testing is so poor in most of Asia, we have no visibility about how widespread infections are. Overcrowded cities where social distancing is challenging or impossible also…
Factory workers wearing protective masks return to Dhaka from northern and southern districts in Bangladesh amid the government’s shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, April 4, 2020.
News

Waiting for the Storm: The Coronavirus in Africa

Pandemic Threatens Refugee Camps, Densely Populated Urban Areas

What are your main concerns about the coronavirus moving through Africa? In many countries where we work there is an extremely weak public health and healthcare infrastructure. The fact that the spread in Africa has been slower than elsewhere…
A member of the Senegalese graffiti collective "RBS CREW" paints informational murals advising how to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, on the wall of a high school in the Parcelles Assainies neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal, March 25, 2020.
News

The Coronavirus in Europe: From Lockdowns to Power Grabs

COVID-19 in Europe, the Central Eurasian Region, and Turkey

What are some of your biggest concerns about the coronavirus moving through Europe and Central Asia? Europe is one of the world’s epicenters of COVID-19 cases. There’s an awful death toll in Italy and Spain with the numbers of dead going up…
Military police officers patrol at a market in Budapest, Hungary, March 31, 2020.
News

Interview: A Toxic Mix of Abuses on Congo’s Oil Palm Plantations

How European Development Banks Fail the Very People They Claim to Assist

Why did you focus your research on these oil palm plantations? These plantations provide jobs for many people. But their workers are being underpaid and exposed to unhealthy working conditions. The European development banks that finance these…
201911ENV_DRC_reportphotos
News

Interview: Playing in Poisoned Dust

Being Outside is a Health Risk for Some of Zambia’s Children

How did you first become aware of the problem in Kabwe? We learned about it from an environmental group several years ago but became interested in doing our own research after seeing a young person from Kabwe speak at a United Nations event.…
201908crd_zambia_main
News

Interview: The Dangers of Opposing Mining in South Africa

Left Destitute and Sick, Communities Defy Police Abuse and Threats to Assert their Rights

What changes for a community once a mine starts operating? Most mining in South Africa takes place in rural areas, where people live off the land and their livestock. Mining often forces people to leave the land they use for farming and grazing…
Coal mine in Somkhele viewed from Ocilwane village in Fuleni, KwaZulu-Natal. © 2018 Rob Symons
News

Interview: Airbnb Checks Out of West Bank Settlements

Company to Stop Listing Properties in Unlawful Israeli Settlements

How was this project conceived? Years of our research has shown that businesses operating in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank both benefit from and contribute to serious violations of international law and human rights. We…
Listings by the global travel companies Airbnb and Booking.com for properties in unlawful Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Refine Search

Filter by Country
Filter by Topic
Filter by Type
Filter by News Category