The Ghanaian government should provide rights-based mental health services and adequate support for housing, independent living, and job training for people with mental health conditions, Human Rights Watch said today, in marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 2023. Human Rights Watch released a short film featuring three people who were locked up because they have a mental health condition and who talk about what freedom and independence meant for their recovery. The Ghanaian government should provide rights-based mental health services and adequate support for housing, independent living, and job training for people with mental health conditions, Human Rights Watch said today, in marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 2023. Human Rights Watch released a short film featuring three people who were locked up because they have a mental health condition and who talk about what freedom and independence meant for their recovery.

Migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates are exposed to escalating climate risks, especially working in extreme heat without adequate protections, which can cause chronic harms to their health, Human Rights Watch said today. Additionally, migrant workers face other widespread labor abuses like wage theft and exorbitant recruitment fees that have restricted their abilities to support their families back home, including during extreme weather events often linked to climate change. These abuses are occurring in the context of the climate crisis where the UAE is one of the world’s largest oil producers and among the highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, along with historic emitters.

Daily Brief, 8 November, 2023.

This is the story of María, a Venezuelan migrant who tried to make a living in Ecuador first before risking everything to come to the US through the Darién Gap. The security situation in Ecuador pushed her to make the decision of bringing her two young children and her mother through the Darién Gap to reunite with her in the US.

The EACOP oil pipeline had devastated thousands of people's livelihoods in Uganda and risks locking in decades of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the global climate crisis. 

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has devastated schools and kindergartens throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today. Since February 2022, over 3,790 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed, according to Ukrainian government figures, severely interrupting access to education for millions of children. The 63-page report, “Tanks on the Playground,” documents the damage and destruction of schools and kindergartens in four Ukrainian regions during the first months of the fighting. Most of the damage to educational facilities resulted from aerial attacks, artillery shelling, rocket strikes, and, in some cases, attacks using cluster munitions – causing significant damage to roofs, the collapse of walls, and major debris in classrooms. Russian forces frequently looted and pillaged schools they occupied, a war crime.