Reports

The 59-page report, “United States: Repeal the Alien Enemies Act, A Human Rights Argument,” describes how the Trump administration has utilized the act as a vehicle for its attempted end run around basic due process and human rights protections. Modern international law binds the United States to respect human rights through treaty frameworks and customary norms, many of which have been incorporated into US domestic law. The Alien Enemies Act is an archaic statute that predates these legal norms and is entirely incompatible with them.

The 104-page report, “Punished for Seeking Change: Killings, Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention Following Venezuela’s 2024 Election,” documents human rights violations against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics during post-electoral protests and the months that followed. It implicates Venezuelan authorities and pro-government groups, known as colectivos, in widespread abuses, including killings of protesters and bystanders; enforced disappearances of opposition party members, their relatives, and foreign nationals; arbitrary detention and prosecution, including of children; and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

The 61-page report, “A Hazard to Human Rights: Autonomous Weapons Systems and Digital Decision-Making,” finds that autonomous weapons, which select and apply force to targets based on sensor rather human inputs, would contravene the rights to life, peaceful assembly, privacy, and remedy as well as the principles of human dignity and non-discrimination. Technological advances and military investments are now spurring the rapid development of autonomous weapons systems that would operate without meaningful human control.

The 40-page report “‘Nobody Cared, Nobody Listened:’ The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Panama” documents this mass expulsion. Human Rights Watch exposes harsh detention conditions and mistreatment migrants experienced in the United States, along with the denial of due process and the right to seek asylum. It also details migrants’ incommunicado detention in Panama, where authorities kept their phones, blocked visitors, and isolated them from the outside world.

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 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.