For 30 years, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival has recognized the rising importance of cinema as a force for raising awareness and galvanizing action.

Government soldiers carried out extensive abuses against civilians during counter-insurgency operations in South Sudanbetween December 2018 and March 2019 in Yei River state, Human Rights Watch said today. The soldiers shot at civilians, looted extensively, burned homes and crops, and chased thousands of residents from their villages. Human Rights Watch also documented accounts of rape and sexual violence by soldiers.

Human Rights Watch’s two-year investigation documented crimes including mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, and possibly unlawful air and ground attacks against civilians.

Girls suffered sexual violence and other abuses when armed groups attacked hundreds of schools during the 2016-2017 Kasai conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) in a report released today. The violence affected all children, but girls were particularly harmed, used as “magical” forces that would ward off bullets despite being unarmed, and raped and forcibly “married” to troops.

Every 25 seconds in the US, someone is arrested for possession of small amounts of drugs, a disproportionate number of them are black.

Human Rights Watch’s staff around the EU have a message: The representatives we all elect to the European Parliament will have an impact on the future of our rights and our communities. When you think elections, think human rights!

The report, “‘I Don’t Want My Child to Be Beaten’: Corporal Punishment in Lebanon’s Schools,” finds that children suffer from corporal punishment at school because of a lack of accountability for the abusers.

Liberian citizens called on President George Weah to support a war crimes court to bring justice for atrocities committed during Liberia’s civil wars.

The European elections on 23-26 May are a key moment for candidates to commit to protect our fundamental rights.

The European elections on 23-26 May are a key moment for candidates to commit to protect our fundamental rights.