Reports

The 26-page report, “‘We’ll All Be Arrested Soon’: Abusive Prosecutions under Vietnam’s ‘Infringing of State Interests’ Law,” documents the Vietnamese government’s increased use of article 331 of the penal code to target those who use social media and other means to publicly raise issues including religious freedom, land rights, rights of Indigenous people, and corruption by the government and the Communist Party of Vietnam. The authorities should immediately end the systemic repression, and release everyone detained or imprisoned for exercising their basic rights.

The 42-page report, “‘All Conspirators’: How Tunisia Uses Arbitrary Detention to Crush Dissent,” documents the government’s increased reliance on arbitrary detention and politically motivated prosecutions to intimidate, punish, and silence its critics. Human Rights Watch documented the cases of 22 people detained on abusive charges, including terrorism, in connection with their public statements or political activities. They include lawyers, political opponents, activists, journalists, social media users, and a human rights defender. At least 14 detainees could face capital punishment if convicted. Over 50 people were being held on political grounds or for exercising their rights as of January 2025.

The 73-page report, “‘It’s Happening Even Without You Noticing’: Increasing Barriers to Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Romania,” documents that, although these rights are partially protected under Romanian law, in practice women and girls are regularly and systematically thwarted in their efforts to exercise these rights.

The 86-page report, “‘All I Know Is I Want Them Home’: Disproportionate Removal of Aboriginal Children from Families in Western Australia,” describes how authorities in the state of Western Australia have been quick to remove children from Aboriginal mothers fleeing domestic violence and from Aboriginal parents without adequate housing, rather than providing appropriate services to address domestic violence and homelessness. Western Australia has the highest rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care of any state or territory in Australia, and Aboriginal children are more than 20 times more likely to be living in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children.

The 81-page report, “‘It Tears You Apart’: Poverty and Gender in Germany’s Social Security System”, documents increasing poverty and the failure of the German social security system to ensure the right to an adequate standard of living for many people. In particular, the lack of adequate support affects single mothers raising young children and older women living alone on low incomes.

The 63-page report, “Living in Fear and Humiliation: Rising Xenophobic Harassment and Violence towards Central Asian Migrants in Russia,” documents that Central Asian migrants, mostly from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan working in Russia face ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrests, and harassment by police and private actors, including far-right nationalist groups. Migrants are also subject to new, often abusive administrative restrictions. Following the attack, Russian officials doubled down, fanning the fire of racist and anti-migrant public sentiments. Russian authorities should condemn any expression of xenophobia, including by their own officials, and work to ensure full compliance with the rights of migrants.

The 66-page report, “‘There’s Just No More Land’: Community-led Planned Relocation as Last-resort Adaptation to Sea Level Rise in Solomon Islands,” documents why Walande community members made the difficult decision to relocate after decades of adapting to climate change in place, how they moved without adequate government and international assistance, and how their enjoyment of their economic, social, and cultural rights is still threatened. Human Rights Watch found that the Solomon Islands’ government has taken important steps to support communities facing the most acute impacts of the climate crisis, including by adopting Planned Relocation Guidelines, but has not yet fully put them in operation.

The 67-page report, “Poisonous Profit: Lead Waste Mining and Children’s Right to a Healthy Environment in Kabwe, Zambia,” documents the Zambian government’s issuance of mining and processing licenses for South African, Chinese, and local businesses and its failure to intervene against blatant violations of Zambian environmental and mining law by several mining and processing companies.

The feature essay Ship of Humanity is a first-hand account of one of the last missions of the Geo Barents, the rescue ship operated by the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in September 2024.

The 178-page report, “Double Injustice: How Mexico’s Criminal Justice System Fails Victims and the Accused in Homicide Investigations,” examines in detail the reasons for the poor results of Mexico’s criminal justice system in homicide investigations and identifies ways to improve access to justice for victims.

The 85-page report, “‘Forced to Give Up on Their Dreams’: Sexual Violence against Girls in Guatemala,” documents the numerous barriers that girls who are survivors of sexual violence face accessing essential health care, education, social security, and justice. Guatemalan law classifies any sexual activity involving a child under 14 as sexual violence. Guatemala’s National Registry of Persons (RENAP) reported that between 2018 and 2024, 14,696 girls under 14 gave birth and became mothers, in many cases against their will.

The 61-page report, “Kids You Throw Away: New Jersey’s Indiscriminate Prosecution of Children as Adults,” reveals that prosecutors have near-total discretion to decide whether a child is tried as a child or an adult, known as a “waiver decision,” and leads to vastly different outcomes depending on geography and with stark racial disparities. Judges can only intervene if they find that a prosecutor has abused their discretion, a virtually impossible standard to meet. This leaves children vulnerable to arbitrary life-altering decisions, with little to no oversight or recourse.

The 133-page report, “‘The Land of Our People, Forever’: United States Human Rights Violations against the Numu/Nuwu and Newe in the Rush for Lithium,” found that the US Bureau of Land Management permitted the Thacker Pass mine without obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous people—the Numu/Nuwu and Newe, or Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone in English—in violation of their rights to religion, culture, and to their ancestral lands under international human rights law and standards. While there may be others, at least six Tribes have connection to the land at Thacker Pass.

The report, “No Excuse: Inadequate Cervical Cancer Prevention and Care for Black Women in the United States Mississippi Delta,” documents that state and federal policies and a lack of investment in prevention are failing to ensure Black women in the rural Mississippi Delta—a region with some of the worst health indicators and highest rates of poverty in the entire United States—have access to comprehensive, affordable, and equal reproductive healthcare services and information. Mississippi has the highest rate of cervical cancer deaths in the United States and Black women in the state are almost 1.5 times as likely to die of the disease as white women. Black women living in the largely rural Mississippi Delta area in the southern United States have an even greater risk of dying from the disease.

The 50-page report, “‘Five Babies in One Incubator’: Violations of Pregnant Women’s Rights Amid Israel’s Assault on Gaza,” finds that Israeli forces’ unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip, its severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, and attacks on medical facilities and healthcare personnel have directly harmed women and girls during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. The Israeli government, as the occupying power in Gaza, has violated the right to the highest attainable standard of health and other rights of pregnant women and girls, including the right to dignified, respectful health care throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum, as well as the right to newborn care.