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Covid-19 Hampers Workplace Safety in Georgia’s Mines

Labor Inspectorate Needs More Resources to Put Reforms into Effect

Two people died in a mining accident in the country of Georgia’s western coal mining town of Tkibuli last week. The accident in itself was tragic, but even more heartbreaking when you consider the context. The dangers of working in Georgia’s mines…
Miners going to work
News

Letter from Human Rights Watch to Institutional Shareholders

Re: Energy Companies in Myanmar and Abuses by the Military Junta

October 20, 2021 We are writing on behalf of Human Rights Watch concerning ownership by your firm (or funds or entities under its control) of energy companies, including Total Energies, PTT (and its subsidiary PTTEP), Chevron, and POSCO, which are…
News

Myanmar: Investors Should Act to Halt Funds to Junta

Revenues from Foreign Companies Keep Military in Power

(New York) – Payments by energy and extractive companies to entities under the control of the Myanmar military are providing key funds to sustain the junta and pose serious legal, financial, and reputational risks to investors in those companies.…
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News

Still No Justice for Killing of South African Mining Activist

Investigate Fikile Ntshangase’s Murder and Hold Killers Responsible

One year ago Fikile Ntshangase, an environmental activist from South Africa, was gunned down in her home in Somkhele in KwaZulu-Natal province, after raising concerns about a coal mine in the area. No arrests have been made. Today, members of her…
Activists from mining communities protesting at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on August 24, 2018, KwaZulu-Natal © 2018 Rob Symons
News

What is the Future of Guinea's Mining Sector After the Coup?

Guinea’s September 5 coup sent shock waves through both West Africa and global commodities markets. Guinea is the world’s second largest producer of bauxite, the ore needed to produce aluminum, and has rich iron ore, gold, and diamond reserves. The…
A woman in Lansanayah, a village 750 meters from a bauxite mine owned by La Société Minière de Boké consortium.
News

US Should Keep Millions of Children Out of Poverty

Expand the Child Tax Credit

The United States Congress is debating the content and price tag of the Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden’s proposal to invest $3.5 trillion over 10 years in education, fighting climate change, and strengthening the US social safety net.…
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, center, and US Congressman Jimmy Gomez, hold a press conference about the new Child Tax Credit, in Los Angeles, July 15, 2021. 
News

Biden’s Best Chance to Tackle US Inequality

Spending Package Would be Groundbreaking Expansion of Social Safety Net

Critics in the United States who argue about the cost of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package pending in the US Congress, which would expand government investment in the country’s broken social safety net and protections for workers, are missing…
US President Joe Biden speaks on how his Build Back Better agenda will lower prescription drug prices, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 12, 2021.
Video

Gender-Based Violence Survivors in Kenya Need More Government Support

(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’:…
News

US: Advance Human Right to Safe, Affordable Water

New Video Urges Congress to Include Equitable Access in Infrastructure Bill

(Washington, DC) – The United States Congress should support programs that ensure everyone in the US has access to safe and affordable water, Human Rights Watch said in a video released today. To advance this crucial goal, the US government should…
Leaky garden tap
News

Hunger during the pandemic shows Nigeria’s social security gaps

Water mixed with salt was dinner for Umar Abubaker and his family of eight, including three young children, for many nights during Nigeria’s five-week lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Before the lockdown, Abubakar, who has a physical…
A man reading the newspaper "The Nation"
Report

Underwater

Summary “Dao,” an ethnic Lao man in his 40s, previously lived a largely self-sufficient life in the village of Srekor in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province. He fished on the Sesan River and farmed rice and fruit on the fertile soil along…
News

Kenya Needs an Inclusive Social Protection Policy

Doris is a 75-year-old woman from Kayaba informal settlement in Nairobi. As with most families in the settlement, her house is a single dilapidated room with mud walls, a corrugated iron roof, and dirt floors. There is no clean running water, and she…
People stand outside a purple building with a mural on it that says "Corona is Real"
Report

“Between Hunger and the Virus”

Summary Margaret Okuomo lives with her seven children in Ago Egun Bariga, a waterside slum community in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous state and the epicenter of the country’s fight against Covid-19. Lagos, although Nigeria’s wealthiest state, has…
News

Zambia: Tackle Lead Poisoning at Former Mine

UN Experts Urge Full Clean-Up; Candidates Should Address Kabwe Issue

(Lusaka) – Zambia’s next government should urgently clean up lead pollution that has affected the health of tens of thousands of children and adults in the city of Kabwe, six organizations said today, following the publication of a United Nations…
Former Mine Pit in Kabwe, Zambia
Report

Aluminum: The Car Industry’s Blind Spot

Summary Maciré Camara, a widow and mother of five, is a farmer in Diakhabia, a village in the Boké region of Guinea, West Africa.[1] Walking through Camara’s community, it’s hard to imagine the connection between the global car industry and her rural…
Report

“We Are All Vulnerable Here”

Summary On March 27, 2020, Kenyan authorities introduced measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, including a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a directive to Kenyans to work from home. For “Wanjiku,” a 27-year-old pre-school teacher and single…
News

Questions about Money

Low-Income Communities Miss out on Kenya’s Covid-19 Relief

Jane Mbula, 50, a community worker in Mukuru Kayaba in eastern Nairobi, followed the news around Covid keenly. She heard the news in March 2020 when Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the first Covid-19 case in the country. The president later…
People stand outside a purple building with a mural on it that says "Corona is Real"
News

UK National Food Strategy Has Game-Changing Potential

Proposals to Tackle Inequality Can Help Advance Right to Food

A major independent review of the United Kingdom’s food systems has underscored the deep inequality around access to nutritious food in the country. The National Food Strategy makes clear recommendations on using food policy to help tackle…
Students eat lunch at Chertsey High School on March 09, 2021 in Chertsey, United Kingdom. 
Video

The Devastating Impact of Criminalizing Abortion in Ecuador

(Washington, D.C., July 14, 2021) – Ecuador’s laws criminalizing abortion violate the rights and risk the lives and health of women and girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 128-page report, “‘Why Do They Want to Make Me Suffer…