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

  • August 4, 2020
    Hundreds of unaccompanied children who have ended up in Greece’s “protective custody” regime. But far from protecting them, the system puts children at risk of severe abuse.
    A child places his hands on a fence as Greek police officers stand guard at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees in Greece.
  • July 31, 2020
    In early June, Kenya’s Ministry of Health released guidelines on how people with mild or asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 could self-isolate at home. Previously, Kenya’s authorities forcibly quarantined tens of thousands of people in facilities that lacked proper sanitation.
    Kenyans make their way home before the daily dusk-to-dawn curfew in Nairobi, Kenya, April 6, 2020.
  • July 10, 2020
    The High Court of Uganda awarded damages of UGX 5,000,000 (about US$1,340) to 20 homeless gay, bisexual, and transgender people who had been arbitrarily detained and held without access to their lawyers.
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  • June 22, 2020
    The United Nations Human Rights Council on June 22, 2020 took a positive step toward accountability by establishing a fact-finding body to investigate violations by all sides in Libya, Human Rights Watch said today.
    Fighting since April 2019 resulted in considerable damage to residential areas in the surroundings of Tripoli Airport, shown here on June 2, 2020.
  • June 18, 2020
    A 16-year-old boy named David is one of a group of 15 children who lodged a UN complaint last year against Germany and four other countries for its lagging efforts to fight the global climate crisis. David is from the Marshall Islands, on the front line of climate change.
    UN Complaint Youth Activists
  • June 16, 2020
    Panama’s Ministry of Public Security announced last month that it had ordered security forces to avoid discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people under its Covid-19 policies – an important acknowledgment of the rights of transgender people in the country and the abuse they have faced during the pandemic.
    Women practice social distancing as they wait in line to enter a supermarket, on a day that men must stay indoors in Panama City on April 3, 2020.
  • June 9, 2020
    Thousands of children across Belgium studied five shortlisted Peace Prize nominees over the past school year and voted for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to win the award, given out every three years by the city of Ypres.
    Growing opposition to fully autonomous weapons from various quarters shows how the public conscience supports banning weapons systems that lack meaningful human control.