Human Rights Watch

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Saudi Border Guards Accused of Atrocities Against Migrants

Human Rights Watch says soldiers are murdering and torturing Ethiopians

(Newser) - A new Human Rights Watch report makes for grim reading about the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The organization accuses Saudi soldiers of raping, torturing, and killing African migrants trying to enter the oil-rich country, reports the BBC . HRW interviewed dozens of migrants from Ethiopia and examined photos and...

Uganda Has Harsh LGBTQ News
Uganda Has
Harsh LGBTQ News
Mar 22, 2023 2:40 PM CDT

Uganda Has Harsh LGBTQ News

Gay offenses could result in prison time if bill is signed by president

(Newser) - Ugandan lawmakers passed a bill prescribing prison terms for offenses related to same-sex relations, responding to popular sentiment but piling more pressure on the East African country's LGBTQ community. The bill was passed late Tuesday inside a packed parliamentary chamber after a roll call ordered by the House speaker,...

Bar Patron Slain After Identifying Presidential Pick

Concern about political violence in Brazil is high

(Newser) - Brazilian police said on Monday that a 39-year-old supporter of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was stabbed to death in a bar amid rising concern about political violence in a tense presidential campaign. The newspaper O Povo reported that witnesses told police a man entered a bar...

Saudi Activist's Release Seen as a Nod to Biden

Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be trying to play nice by freeing Loujain al-Hathloul

(Newser) - US and Canadian authorities are celebrating the release of a Saudi women's rights activist after 1,001 days in prison, though allies say she is not yet "free." Loujain al-Hathloul, a 31-year-old activist who attended university in Canada, was arrested in 2014 as she defied a ban...

Incendiary Weapons Have Taken Horrific Toll on Civilians

Human Rights Watch calls for the closing of treaty loopholes

(Newser) - A new report released Monday documents the use of incendiary weapons and their horrific human cost on civilians over the past decade in conflict zones like Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip, and Syria, with Human Rights Watch and Harvard’s human rights clinic calling on nations to close loopholes in international...

Human Rights Watch Director Banned From Hong Kong

China says it was because group supported protests

(Newser) - Hong Kong authorities barred the head of Human Rights Watch from entering the territory Sunday, the advocacy group said. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, had planned to launch the organization's annual world report in Hong Kong this week. The report's focus is China's efforts...

Submitting to Rape Is a 'Necessity' in North Korea
Submitting to Rape Is a
'Necessity' in North Korea
NEW REPORT
Nov 1, 2018 8:44 AM CDT

Submitting to Rape Is a 'Necessity' in North Korea

HRW report describes widespread abuses of women at highest levels

(Newser) - "Having sex with men who have power over you or letting them touch all over your body is a necessity to survive." Such is the assessment of one of 62 North Korean defectors who left the country after Kim Jong Un took power in 2011 and was interviewed...

In a First, Saudis May Behead Female Human-Rights Activist

Canada continues to push back

(Newser) - In the midst of a fight with Canada over female human-rights activists, Saudi Arabia plans to behead one. The country's public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against five activists, including Israa al-Ghomgham of the Shia Muslim minority, who documented mass protests in the Eastern Province beginning in 2011,...

Human Rights Watch Presses Arab Ruler on Fate of His Daughter

Sheikha Latifa was detained in March

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch on Saturday asked Dubai's ruling sheikh to reveal the whereabouts of his daughter after a French ex-spy and others say she fled the emirate, only to be arrested off the coast of India , reports the AP . A statement by the organization marks the latest twist in...

In Philippines, 'Ludicrous' Claims From Government in Drug War

Human rights groups push back at Duterte rep's claim that they're assisting drug lords

(Newser) - Human rights groups shining a spotlight on mounting deaths in the Philippines' drug war now have the added chore of denying the government's claims they're involved. Following one of the bloodiest weeks in President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on drugs—13 people were killed in a single night,...

Pot Arrests in US Outnumber Violent Crime Arrests

There's a drug arrest every 25 seconds

(Newser) - Law enforcement agencies made more arrests for marijuana possession last year than for all violent crimes combined, despite decriminalization and outright legalization in some states, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. The report is harshly critical of drug policies that have 137,000 Americans...

Filipino Kids Risk Lives in Country's Deadly Gold Mines

Some mines are 80 feet deep, some are underwater

(Newser) - Thousands of children in the Philippines are working in the country's gold mines, where conditions are deadly and "absolutely terrifying," according to a report published Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. According to Time , the report includes interviews with 65 child miners—some of whom started working in...

China Ignores Own Reform, Rampantly Tortures: HRW

Prisoners electrocuted, deprived of sleep, sprayed with chili oil

(Newser) - China promised years ago to reform its legal system so suspects wouldn't be abused in custody, but according to a Human Rights Watch report out today authorities are flouting the rules and continuing their brutal methods, the AP reports. "Police are torturing criminal suspects to get them to...

The NSA Just Got Sued by a Whole Bunch of Groups

Wikimedia, ACLU, Amnesty on same side of suit vs. 'dragnet surveillance'

(Newser) - The NSA and the Justice Department made an impressive and diverse list of enemies this morning, via a lawsuit filed over its spying. Not surprisingly filing the suit: the ACLU. But as Reuters reports, it filed Wikimedia v. NSA on behalf of: Amnesty International, the Global Fund for Women, Human...

HRW: Sudan Troops Raped 221 in Darfur; Gov't Says 0
HRW: Sudan Troops Raped 221 in Darfur; Gov't Says 0
NEW REPORT
Feb 11, 2015 1:00 PM CST

HRW: Sudan Troops Raped 221 in Darfur; Gov't Says 0

Alleges mass coverup by Sudan govt in calculated attack on village

(Newser) - Sudanese army troops raped at least 221 women and girls in a Darfur village in a series of organized, house-to-house attacks last year, Human Rights Watch says in a report today. The organization's Africa director called it "a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur."...

Top General in Cambodia: 'I Learned From Hitler'

Sao Sokha admires Vietnamese guerrillas, too

(Newser) - A word of advice for officials: Leave Hitler out of it. Days after a Texas Republican compared President Obama to Hitler , a Cambodian internal security honcho has praised the Nazi dictator during a speech in Phnom Penh. "Speaking frankly, I learned from Hitler," Commander General Sao Sokha said,...

Coming to Netflix: Documentary Filmed by James Foley

He shot scenes for E-Team before disappearance

(Newser) - Before disappearing in Syria in 2012, American journalist James Foley wrapped filming on a documentary called E-Team, which earned rave reviews at this year's Sundance Film Festival, reports the Daily Beast . The film focuses on Human Rights Watch's Emergencies Team, which documents war crimes firsthand. Rolling after the...

Rights Group: FBI Turned Muslims Into Terrorists

Human Rights Watch points finger at federal agents

(Newser) - The FBI has been coaxing and even paying American Muslims to commit acts of terror as part of the agency's domestic sting operations, a human rights group said today. According to Human Rights Watch, the FBI may have sometimes "created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the...

Did This Guy Flood Villages to Get Slave Labor?

Displaced villagers in Zimbabwe forced to work on ranch owned by Mugabe's party

(Newser) - Robert Mugabe isn't known for his human rights record, but is the Zimbabwean leader villainous enough to flood whole villages to create a source of cheap labor? Some 20,000 villagers were displaced from a region in southern Zimbabwe earlier this year and resettled on a ranch that just...

Young Kids Working in US Tobacco Fields

Human Rights Watch issues scathing report

(Newser) - Children are toiling in unsafe conditions, suffering everything from breathing problems to vomiting, and putting in 12-hour days and 72-hour weeks. Think we're talking a third-world sweatshop? It's what's happening right now on US tobacco farms, Human Rights Watch alleges in a report today. The group spoke...

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