Israel: White Phosphorus Use Evidence of War Crimes

Israel's repeated firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. More...

Sri Lanka: No Let-Up in Army Shelling of Civilians

The Sri Lankan army, despite government denials, is indiscriminately shelling the "no-fire zone" in northern Sri Lanka where thousands of civilians are trapped by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said today, citing new information from the region. More than 2,700 civilians have reportedly been killed over the last two months, and the number of casualties rises daily. More...

Middle East and North Africa: US Cuts Cluster Bomb Supply

A new US law permanently banning nearly all cluster bomb exports by the United States will end a long period of transfers of the weapon to Israel and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Human Rights Watch said today. The measure should spur the countries in the region as well as the US to join the international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch said. More...

New York: Stop Sending Prison Drug Users to ‘the Box’

New York State's practice of sentencing inmates to months, even years, in disciplinary segregation for drug use and possession and denying them effective drug dependence treatment constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. More...

In Misery, in Danger, Hidden and Unheard

Human Rights Watch researchers visited nine detention centers in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, and interviewed 48 women detained or recently released from immigration detention, as well as detention facility staff and health care providers, immigration officials, immigration attorneys and advocates. The FIAC report is based on interviews, phone conversations and correspondence with detainees and jail and immigration officials. It also includes information from US government materials, newspaper articles and other data. More...

International Film Festival - London 18 -27 March 2009

From March 18-27 the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival returns for its 13th year in London with nine days of screenings and discussions focusing on some of the most pressing stories of our times. More...

UN Drug Summit: Undo a Decade of Neglect

On March 11-20, 2009, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) will meet, opening with a high-level segment that will set the international drug policy agenda for the next decade. In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses - torture and ill-treatment by police, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and denial of essential medicines and basic health services. UN drug control agencies have paid little attention to whether international drug control efforts are consistent with human rights protections, or to the effect of drug control policies on fundamental human rights. More...

China: Hundreds of Tibetan Detainees and Prisoners Unaccounted for

The first extensive analysis of official Chinese accounts regarding the arrests and trials of Tibetan protesters from March 2008 shows that by the Chinese government's own count, there have been thousands of arbitrary arrests, and more than 100 trials pushed through the judicial system, Human Rights Watch said today. New Human Rights Watch research and analysis point to a judicial system so highly politicized as to preclude any possibility of protesters being judged fairly. More...

Mexico: Stop Blocking Abortions for Rape Victims

Officials in the Mexican state of Guanajuato should stop preventing pregnant rape victims from having abortions, though the law guarantees them access, and should stop prosecuting other women seeking abortion services, Human Rights Watch and Centro Las Libres said today in letters to the state government. More...

ICC: Bashir Warrant Is Warning to Abusive Leaders

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan signals that even those at the top may be held to account for mass murder, rape and torture, Human Rights Watch said today. ICC judges granted the warrant for Bashir, its first for a sitting head of state, on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in orchestrating Sudan's abusive counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur. More...

Israel/Gaza: Donors Should Press Israel to End Blockade

International donors to Gaza's reconstruction and development should call on Israel to end its punishing blockade of the territory and to allow needed humanitarian assistance and normal commerce to resume, Human Rights Watch said today. Even after the enormous war damage to civilian life in Gaza, Israel continues to block desperately needed aid from entering the territory and to strangle Gaza's economy. More...

US: Drug Arrests Skewed by Race

Blacks have been arrested nationwide on drug charges at higher rates than whites for nearly three decades, even though they engage in drug offenses at comparable rates, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Using data obtained from the FBI, the report reveals the extent and persistence of racial disparities in US drug-law enforcement. The data also show that most drug arrests are for nothing more serious than possession. More...