Reports

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.

Police remove an unhoused woman from her tent

Search

  • June 15, 2011

    A Public Health Crisis in Four Chinese Provinces

    This 75-page report draws on research in heavily lead-contaminated villages in Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Hunan provinces. The report documents how, despite increasing regulation and sporadic enforcement targeting polluting factories, local authorities are ignoring the urgent and long-term health consequences of a generation of children continuously exposed to life-threatening levels of lead.

  • June 14, 2011

    Far and Frequent Transfers Impede Hearings for Immigrant Detainees in the United States

    This 35-page report states that transfers separate detained immigrants, including legal permanent residents, refugees, and undocumented people, from the attorneys, witnesses, and evidence they need to defend against deportation. That can violate their right to fair treatment in court, slow down asylum or deportation proceedings, and extend their time in detention.

  • June 13, 2011

    Kuwaiti Bidun and the Burden of Statelessness

    This 63-page report describes how Kuwait, one of the world’s richest countries, forces the Bidun to live under the radar of normal society, vulnerable and without protection. Many live in poverty.
  • June 8, 2011

    Kyrgyzstan’s Flawed Investigations and Trials on the 2010 Violence

    This report concludes that criminal investigations into the 2010 violence have been marred by widespread use of arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, including torture.
  • June 5, 2011

    The Sudanese Government’s Ongoing Attacks on Civilians and Human Rights

    This report documents the intensification of the eight-year conflict over the past six months. Since December 2010, a surge in government-led attacks on populated areas and a campaign of aerial bombing have killed and injured scores of civilians, destroyed property, and displaced more than 70,000 people, largely from ethnic Zaghawa and Fur communities linked to rebel groups.

  • June 2, 2011

    Access to Medicines and Palliative Care

    This 128-page report details the failure of many governments to take even basic steps to ensure that people with severe pain due to cancer, HIV, and other serious illnesses have access to palliative care, a health service that seeks to improve quality of life. As a result, millions of patients live and die in great agony that could easily be prevented, Human Rights Watch said.

  • June 1, 2011

    Crimes against Humanity by Syrian Security Forces

    This 54-page report is based on more than 50 interviews with victims and witnesses to abuses. The report focuses on violations in Daraa governorate, where some of the worst violence took place after protests seeking greater freedoms began in various parts of the country. The specifics went largely unreported due to the information blockade imposed by the Syrian authorities.
  • May 31, 2011

    The Legacy of Rwanda’s Community-Based Gacaca Courts

    This report assesses the courts’ achievements and outlines a number of serious shortcomings in their work, including corruption and procedural irregularities.

  • May 26, 2011

    This 59-page report describes the unique elements that have made this Vietnam's most high-profile political trial in decades. They include Vu's legal challenges to promote human rights, official accountability, and environmental protection against the country's political elite, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
  • May 24, 2011

    A Human Rights Agenda for Guinea’s New Government

    This report calls on the government to bring to justice those responsible for massacres in 2007 and 2009. It says that the government should strengthen the judiciary and provide it with adequate resources, rein in and reform the security sector, and ensure that Guinea’s population can benefit from the country’s abundant natural resources.

  • May 12, 2011

    Ukraine’s Obligation to Ensure Evidence-Based Palliative Care

    This 93-page report describes Ukrainian government policies that make it impossible for cancer patients living in rural areas to get essential pain medications. While most cancer patients in cities have access to some medications, the treatment they receive is inadequate and provides only limited relief, Human Rights Watch found.

  • May 10, 2011

    Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion

    This 53-page report documents abuses by RAB in and around Dhaka, the capital, under the current Awami League-led government. Nearly 200 people have been killed in RAB operations since January 6, 2009, when the government assumed office.
  • May 4, 2011

    Family Violence in Turkey and Access to Protection

    This report documents brutal and long-lasting violence against women and girls by husbands, partners, and family members and the survivors’ struggle to seek protection. Turkey has strong protection laws, setting out requirements for shelters for abused women and protection orders.
  • May 3, 2011

    Thailand’s 2010 Red Shirt Protests and the Government Crackdown

    This report provides the most detailed account yet of violence and human rights abuses by both sides during and after massive protests in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand in 2010.
  • April 14, 2011

    The Case of Jean-Claude Duvalier

    This 47-page report examines the legal and practical questions surrounding the case and concludes that Haiti has an obligation under international law to investigate and prosecute the grave violations of human rights under Duvalier's rule.