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Lebanon: Migrant Domestic Workers Dying Every Week Most Deaths From Suicides or in Botched Escapes The high death toll of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, from unnatural causes, shows the urgent need to improve their working conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the official steering committee tasked with improving the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon to investigate the root causes of these deaths and develop a concrete national strategy to reduce them. August 25, 2008 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version Mongolia: Protect Rights of North Korean Migrant Workers The Mongolian government should protect the human and labor rights of North Koreans coming to Mongolia to work, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Mongolia’s minister of social welfare and labor. August 20, 2008 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version Letter to Mongolian Ministers to Protect Labor Rights of North Koreans North Korea’s economy has been in shambles for years, and it continues to suffer from serious and widespread food shortages. An opportunity to work overseas is hugely attractive to many North Korean workers. We are not advocating for Mongolia to reject North Korean workers, but to ensure that human rights and labor rights of North Koreans are protected while working in Mongolia. August 20, 2008 Letter Also available in
Printer friendly version Saudi Arabia: Implement Proposed Labor Reforms Government Should Immediately Abolish Sponsorship System Saudi Arabia should immediately implement its proposed reform to the kafala sponsorship system and extend labor protections to domestic workers, Human Rights Watch said today. Responding to the Saudi government's reaction to a recent report, "'As If I Am Not Human’: Abuses Against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia," author Nisha Varia said, “It’s a real shame when Saudis try to deflect attention from abuses against domestic workers by arguing that employers are the victims or focusing only on those women who have positive experiences.” July 21, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Egypt: Release Dozens of Protestors Held Without Charge Detainees Held for More Than 90 Days, Allegedly Tortured Egypt should immediately release six men who have been detained for more than 90 days without charge since their arrests following a workers strike and street protests in Mahalla al-Kobra in April, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on authorities to suspend the prosecution of 49 others by a security court where procedures violate fair trial rights and to investigate allegations that some of the men were tortured. July 18, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Saudi Arabia: Domestic Workers Face Harsh Abuses Key Reforms Stalled, Few Remedies for Slavery-Like Conditions Saudi Arabia should implement labor, immigration, and criminal justice reforms to protect domestic workers from serious human rights abuses that in some cases amount to slavery, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Employers often face no punishment for committing abuses including months or years of unpaid wages, forced confinement, and physical and sexual violence, while some domestic workers face imprisonment or lashings for spurious charges of theft, adultery, or "witchcraft." July 8, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version "As If I Am Not Human" Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia
HRW Index No.: 1-56432-351-X July 8, 2008 Report Also available in
Download PDF, 466 KB, 137 pgs Purchase online Read Press Release The Trap of Sponsorship By Christoph Wilcke and Nisha Varia Published in Al-Hayat In its new report, “As If I Am Not Human,” Human Rights Watch presents an in-depth look into the lives of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. After two years of research and more than 140 interviews with Asian domestic workers, recruiters, and government officials, the report details cases of forced labor, human trafficking, and slavery-like conditions and the much more widespread abuses of non-payment of salaries, forced confinement, food deprivation, excessive workload, and instances of severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. July 8, 2008 Commentary Also available in
Printer friendly version Protecting Domestic Workers’ Rights By Christoph Wilcke and Nisha Varia Published in Arab News DURING our last visit in March 2008 to Riyadh, we talked with a Sri Lankan woman in her fifties who worked as a housemaid. She told us that she was returning home, because her mother was dying. A year earlier, she had come to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker after her husband had died in the 2004 tsunami, and her house and life savings were washed away. Her salary as a schoolteacher was insufficient to support her two sons in university. July 8, 2008 Commentary Printer friendly version Testimony of Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno before the Canadian Parliament I am honored to appear before you today. Thank you for your invitation to address the situation of violence against trade unionists in Colombia and the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement that is now under negotiation. I would like to request that my written remarks be incorporated in the record. June 2, 2008 Testimony Printer friendly version Saudi Arabia: Nour Miyati Denied Justice for Torture Judge Ignores Evidence in Case of Extreme Abuse against Indonesian Domestic Worker An appeals court should overturn a Riyadh court’s decision to drop charges against the Saudi employer who abused Nour Miyati, an Indonesian domestic worker, so severely she required several surgeries, including amputation of her toes and fingers, Human Rights Watch said today. The judge awarded Nour Miyati 2,500 riyals as compensation, or approximately US$670, a small fraction of what such injuries would normally garner in Saudi Arabia May 21, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Labour Regulations Foreign domestic workers need rest, too By Emily Allen and Nisha Varia Published in The Straits Times Today as many of us celebrate May Day with a break from our jobs, others in Singapore are expected to work through the day. In fact, foreign domestic workers often work through all holidays. Far too many of them work every day of the week, every week of the year, without a single day of rest. May 1, 2008 Commentary Printer friendly version Lebanon: Protect Domestic Workers From Abuse, Exploitation Labor Day Campaign Challenges Employers to ‘Put Yourself in Her Shoes’ Lebanese employers, placement agencies, and the Lebanese authorities should improve the treatment of domestic workers by ensuring fair contracts, timely payment of wages, and a weekly day’s leave, Human Rights Watch said today, on the eve of Labor Day. Human Rights Watch is launching a campaign to highlight the often invisible abuses that many women who are domestic workers suffer in Lebanon. April 30, 2008 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version The Future of Human Rights: U.S. Policy for a New Era The thirteen essays in this volume, edited by William F. Schulz, provide thematic assessments of the current state of global human rights programs. Human Rights Watch's Refugee Policy Director Bill Frelick writes an essay on U.S. refugee and asylum policy and Senior Labor Rights and Trade Researcher Carol Pier contributes a chapter on labor rights. Taken together, the essays converge on one overarching point: to attract the widest support, the U.S. commitment to universal human rights should be presented as reflecting the best of the American tradition. April 16, 2008 Web Site Universal Periodic Review of the State of Bahrain Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council The Human Rights Council, in its review of Bahrain’s human rights record, should assess this legislation and recommend steps to bring existing legislation, especially in the areas of freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and accountability for grave crimes April 7, 2008 Written Statement Printer friendly version Universal Periodic Review of Morocco Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council Morocco continues to present a mixed picture on human rights. It has made great strides in addressing past abuses, allowed considerable space for public dissent and protest, and reduced gender inequality in the family code. But authorities, aided by complaisant courts, continue to use repressive legislation to punish peaceful opponents. April 7, 2008 Written Statement Printer friendly version Letter to President Álvaro Uribe We write to express our deep concern about the recent wave of threats, attacks and killings of human rights defenders and trade unionists in connection with the March 6 demonstrations against state and paramilitary human rights violations. We urge you to publicly and immediately adopt effective measures to stop this violence. March 26, 2008 Letter Also available in
Printer friendly version “One Year of My Blood” Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in Beijing
HRW Index No.: C2003 March 12, 2008 Report Download PDF, 304 KB, 59 pgs Purchase online Read Press Release Women’s Work By Nisha Varia Published in As-Safir International Women’s Day is an opportunity not only to evaluate women’s progress in areas such as education, employment, and politics, but also to honor the importance of what has been traditionally viewed as “women’s work”: cooking, cleaning, and childcare. March 8, 2008 Commentary Also available in
Printer friendly version Business: Rights at Risk in the Global Economy Companies Harm Human Rights Worldwide People in countries across the world are regularly harmed when businesses fail to respect basic human rights, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law. February 19, 2008 Press Release Printer friendly version |  |
 Display Only: Reports Briefing Papers Press Releases Themes: Featured Reports: Angola: Some Transparency, No Accountability
This 93-page report investigates the use of oil revenues in Angola and the loss of approximately $4.2 billion from government coffers between 1997-2002, and examines how this loss undermines the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of the Angolan people. January 2004
Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia
Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia—who comprise more than one-third of the population—endure abysmal and exploitative labor conditions. This 135-page report also provides compelling evidence of torture, forced confessions, and unfair trials when foreign workers enter into the flawed Saudi justice system. July 2004 Deliberate
Indifference: El Salvador’s Failure to Protect Workers’ Rights
This 110-page report documents violations of workers’ rights – most pervasively, the right to freedom of association – and investigates the government’s disregard and facilitation of such abuses; to prevent these violations, the report recommends revising and strengthening the labor rights protections afforded by the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). December 2003 2004 World Report Chapter: Engine of War: Resources, Greed, and the Predatory
State
Written by Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program, this chapter explores how corruption, lack of transparency, and private and public sector profiteering play into the “greed or grievance” theory on the cause of civil conflict; it cites examples from recent conflicts in Angola, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. January 2004  Beijing Olympic Watch |
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