In the third of Ken Roth’s Exit Interviews, HRW discusses with Shaharzad Akbar the long fight for human rights in Afghanistan, nearly one year after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

In a historic decision, the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional guarantee of abortion access. Macarena Saez, Regina Tamés, and Amanda Klasing discuss the impact of the decision and what it means going forward for the abortion movement in the United States.

POLITICO published a leaked draft US Supreme Court opinion on the Mississippi case that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Last September, in advance the court’s hearing in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, we joined dozens of other groups in submitting amicus briefs

"Women together are invincible. We can change the world, but we have to do it together." ~ Isabelle Allende

Afghanistan is not the only country where women’s rights are under attack this International Women’s Day. But the speed and extent of the obliteration of women’s rights in Afghanistan is a warning to women around the world about the fragility of progress toward equality, how quickly it can vanish, and how few will defend it

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

Effective Law Enforcement, Access to Shelter, Financial Support Are Critical

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities have made no apparent progress investigating the September 2020 prison riot at Kasapa Central Prison in Lubumbashi, Human Rights Watch said. For three days, inmates repeatedly raped several dozen female detainees, including a teenage girl. The authorities should provide survivors with adequate medical care and mental health support. They should credibly and impartially investigate the incident, including officials who ignored repeated warnings of the impending riot, and fairly prosecute those responsible for abuses. Illustrations and animations by Edizon Musavuli.

Greatest Harm for Indigenous, Afro-Descendent People Living in Poverty

Widespread internet posting in South Korea of sexual images of women and girls without their consent is having a devastating impact on the victims. The government should be doing more to prevent and respond to these digital sex crimes. Despite legal reforms in South Korea, women and girls targeted in digital sex crimes – acts of online and tech-enabled gender-based violence – face significant difficulty in pursuing criminal cases and civil remedies, in part due to entrenched gender inequity. Digital sex crimes are crimes involving digital images – almost always of women and girls – that are captured without the victim’s consent, shared nonconsensually, or sometimes manipulated or faked