Arbitrary Arrests, Torture Follow Online Abuses, Illegal Phone Searches

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar comes to a close, HRW’s Rothna Begum and Minky Worden discuss the legacy of the games and the human rights implications with Equidem’s Dennis Dome.

In our weekly Twitter Space, HRW discusses labor conditions in Qatar and the fashion industry, and how to ensure better protection for those who make events like the FIFA World Cup and fast fashion products possible.

Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, LGBT Qataris are raising the alarm on abuses they have endured by security forces in Qatar. HRW’s Rothna Begum moderates this discussion with HRW researcher Rasha Younes and Qatari LGBT rights activist Dr. Nasser Mohamed.

El Salvador’s Need for Legal Gender Recognition

On May 20th, 2021, 21 participants were arrested at a paralegal training on LGBTI rights in Ho, Volta region under the charge of "unlawful assembly". One year later, HRW speaks with 3 of those activists about how the arrest impacted their lives, the state of LGBTI activism in Ghana and the recently proposed anti-LGBTI bill.

Discriminatory laws that prevent marriage equality in Panama have a real-life impact for same-sex couples in the country, including the three couples featured in this video. Under international human rights law, arbitrarily treating same-sex couples differently from different-sex couples is illegal, including with respect to marriage. Panama should join other countries in the region that have extended the right to marry to same-sex couples.

Isolation and Lack of Support Put Young People at Risk

(Tokyo, May 25, 2021) – Transgender people in [hrw.org/asia/japan]Japan face continuing barriers to changing their legally recognized gender, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Japanese government should heed increasing calls from activists and experts to revise its abusive and outdated transgender recognition law. The 55-page report, “‘The Law Undermines Dignity’: Momentum to Revise Japan’s Legal Gender Recognition Process,” documents the persistent barriers transgender people face in Japan under the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) Special Cases Act. The procedure for changing one’s legally recognized gender, which requires sterilization surgery and an outdated psychiatric diagnosis, is anachronistic, harmful, and discriminatory. Many transgender people in Japan and domestic medical, legal, and academic experts, as well as international health and human rights bodies, have said that the law should be substantially revised.

Power of the Streets Episode 6: How do you prove that the home you fled was unsafe, if you could never report the violence you faced there? Thomars Shamuyarira is a Zimbabwean migrant rights activist living in South Africa. He speaks on South Africa’s restrictive asylum process and the experiences of LGBT people from