Impact

By investigating and exposing human rights abuses, we work to create a world where everyone is treated fairly and equitably, no matter their race, religion, or beliefs. We call for action so that people who disagree with their government can speak their opinions freely, so that children are protected, and refugees cared for. All of us, regardless of who we are, who we love, or the color of our skin, should be able to enjoy fully our human rights.

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Change is sometimes immediate, sometimes incremental. We work on issues for years and know from experience how to transform deep-rooted problems. Here are examples of some of the recent impact we have made, together with our partners, in advancing human rights around the world.

How do we bring about change?

Investigate
Our researchers investigate human rights abuses, first by speaking with victims or witnesses. We corroborate their stories using a variety of sources, including government records, weapons’ fragments, satellite imagery, and the statements of accused perpetrators – be they members of governments, armed groups, or companies. We often do this work together with partner activists.

Expose
We share this information widely, in multiple languages, to help shape public debate. Our reports, videos, and social media posts show up hundreds of times daily in news media around the world, bringing both global and local attention to our rigorously fact-checked findings.

Change
Often in coalition with local groups, we bring our findings to officials who have the power to change things. For every issue we work on, we make specific, concrete policy recommendations that will bring people justice, prevent future abuses, and protect human rights.

Our work has been instrumental in some foundational victories for human rights, including our work on banning landmines worldwide, for which we and our partners received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Below are some examples of our historic impact.

All impact

  • January 15, 2021
    New York State’s Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit yesterday against the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and its leadership for failing to address longstanding patterns of abuse, as well as using excessive force and making false arrests during racial justice protests that began last summer.
    Protester confronted by police line
  • December 4, 2020
    The passage of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) in the House of Representatives on December 4, 2020, is a landmark step toward a rights-respecting criminal legal system in the United States, while furthering racial justice.
    Supporters hold flags near the Capitol in Washington, DC, during a rally in favor of marijuana legalization on April 24, 2017.
  • November 24, 2020
    A Congolese military court’s conviction of the militia leader Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka and two co-accused for serious abuses is a significant step in the fight against impunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • November 24, 2020
    Football’s lifetime ban for Haitian soccer federation president Yves Jean-Bart is an important step forward to protect children and young women athletes in sport from sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.
    Women hold up signs demanding justice during the hearing of the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football (FHF), Yves Jean-Bart, regarding allegations that he abused female athletes at the country's national training center, outside the courthouse in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, Thursday, May 14, 2020.
  • October 29, 2020
    In a victory for intersex people, a hospital in Chicago pledged earlier this year to stop performing medically unnecessary surgeries on children born with intersex traits. The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital also became the first hospital in the United States to publicly apologize for the harm these surgeries caused intersex people, who are born with traits that don’t fit conventional expectations of female or male bodies.
    Intersex activist Sean Saifa Wall protests outside Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago for Intersex Awareness Day on October 26, 2017.
  • October 7, 2020
    In a momentous ruling today, an Athens appeals court found that the far-right neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organization. The court also found that members of the group orchestrated or colluded in the 2013 murder of 34-year-old anti-fascist activist and rapper Pavlos Fyssas, the 2013 murder of 27-year-old Pakistani national Shehzad Luqman.
    Magda Fyssa, the mother of late Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed and killed by a supporter of the extreme right Golden Dawn party in 2013, celebrates immediately after the delivery of the verdict in Athens, October 7, 2020.