The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles
The 337-page report, “‘You Have to Move!’ The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles,” documents the experiences of people living on the streets and in vehicles, temporary shelters, and parks in Los Angeles, as they struggle to survive while facing criminalization and governmental failures to prioritize eviction prevention or access to permanent housing. Law enforcement and sanitation “sweeps” force unhoused people out of public view, often wasting resources on temporary shelter and punishments that do not address the underlying needs. Tens of thousands of people are living in the streets of Los Angeles; death rates among the unhoused have skyrocketed.
Crackdown on Protesters in the Governorate of Homs, Syria
This report is based on more than 110 interviews with victims and witnesses from Homs, both the city and the surrounding governorate of the same name. The area has emerged as a center of opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Labor Abuses in Zambia's Chinese State-owned Copper Mines
This 122-page report details the persistent abuses in Chinese-run mines, including poor health and safety conditions, regular 12-hour and even 18-hour shifts involving arduous labor, and anti-union activities, all in violation of Zambia’s national laws or international labor standards.
Abuse of Cambodian Domestic Workers Migrating to Malaysia
This report documents Cambodian domestic workers’ experiences during recruitment, work abroad, and upon their return home. It is based on 80 interviews with migrant domestic workers, their families, government officials, nongovernmental organizations, and recruitment agents.
This 48-page report examines the attempts of families of those forcibly disappeared by the Kenyan army and the SLDF militia to seek truth and justice. In the last three years, the Kenyan government has done little to assist victims in their search, Human Rights Watch said, and has not ensured an independent, impartial inquiry into the abuses by either side.
Arbitrary Detention, Physical Abuse, and Suicide inside a Lao Drug Detention Center
This report examines conditions in the Somsanga Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, which has received a decade of international support from the United States, the United Nations, and other donors. Detainees are held without due process, and many are locked in cells inside barbed wire compounds.
The Need for Justice for Côte d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crimes
This 130-page report details the war crimes and likely crimes against humanity committed by forces under both Gbagbo and Ouattara. It documents the horrific human rights abuses that took place from November 2010, when Gbagbo lost an election and refused to yield power, through June 2011. Ouattara took power in April 2011.
How Jordanian Laws, Officials, Employers, and Recruiters Fail Abused Migrant Domestic Workers
This 111-page report documents abuses against domestic workers and the failure of Jordanian officials to hold employers and the agents who recruited the workers accountable.
A Briefing on Eritrea’s Missing Political Prisoners
In September 2001, President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea ordered the detention of 21 senior government members and journalists who criticized him and his government. Since then, Isaias has closed all independent media outlets and turned Eritrea into a country where arbitrary arrest, torture, disappearance, and death are rife and where it is almost impossible to leave.
Frontex Involvement in Ill-Treatment of Migrant Detainees in Greece
This report assesses Frontex’s role in and responsibility for exposing migrants to inhuman and degrading detention conditions during four months beginning late in 2010 when its first rapid border intervention team (RABIT) was apprehending migrants and taking them to police stations and migrant detention centers in Greece’s Evros region.
This 50-page report assesses the Office of the Prosecutor’s choice of cases in its first five investigations. Investigations in Central African Republic, Sudan’s Darfur region, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and northern Uganda have yielded 10 cases and three trials, making an important contribution to tackling impunity for some of the world’s worst crimes.
Human Rights Violations against Trans People in the Netherlands
This report documents the impact of a 1985 law, article 28 of the civil code, on the daily life of transgender people. The requirements violate transgender people’s rights to personal autonomy and physical integrity and deny them the ability to define their own gender identity.
This report documents serious abuses, such as killings, rape, arbitrary detention, abductions, forcible land grabs, and illegal raids by irregular armed groups in northern Kunduz province and the Afghan Local Police (ALP) force in Baghlan, Herat, and Uruzgan provinces.
Forced Labor and Other Abuses in Drug Detention Centers in Southern Vietnam
The 121-page report documents the experiences of people confined to 14 detention centers under the authority of the Ho Chi Minh City government. Refusing to work, or violating center rules, results in punishment that in some cases is torture.