FREEDOM OF SPEECH - Freedom of speech is a bellwether: how any society

tolerates those with minority, disfavored, or even obnoxious views will often
speak to its performance on human rights more generally. In international law,
access to information and free expression are two sides of the same coin, and
both have found tremendous accelerators in the Internet and other forms of
digital communication. At the same time, efforts to control speech and
information are also accelerating, by both governments and private actors in
the form of censorship, restrictions on access, and violent acts directed against
those whose views or queries are seen as somehow dangerous or wrong. From
our earliest days, when we were called The Fund for Free Expression, we have
fought all forms of repression of speech, in all media, around the globe.
Russian authorities are harassing, intimidating, and detaining activists and
students ahead of protests
Children's rights - Millions of children have no access to education, work
long hours under hazardous conditions and are forced to serve as soldiers
in armed conflict. They suffer targeted attacks on their schools and
teachers or languish in institutions or detention centers, where they
endure inhumane conditions and assaults on their dignity. Young and
immature, they are often easily exploited. In many cases, they are abused
by the very individuals responsible for their care. We are working to help
protect children around the world, so they can grow into adults.
Slavery was banned and universally condemned but it persists in North
Korea, Iraq, Syria and Eastern Europe. Women and children are its
primary victims and are most often enslaved in the form of bonded labor,
domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, or forced marriage. Bonded labor
traps generations of families in manual labor in dangerous conditions
without the means to pay for freedom. Domestic servitude, is another
form of slavery that overwhelmingly targets women and adolescent girls.
CHILD MARRIAGE - Early marriage is a harmful practice that denies girls their
right to make vital decisions about their sexual health and well-being. It forces
them out of education and into a life of poor prospects, with an increased risk of
violence, abuse, ill health or early death. It happens because Inequalities between
boys and girls driven by harmful social and gender norms and Laws protecting
girls aren't enforced. Early marriage and forced marriage is highest in Sub-Saharan
Africa where 38% of girls become child brides.Among girls growing up in South
Asia, 30% experience early marriage, compared with 25% in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Rates are 17% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 11% in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia.

GENDER - Despite the strides to fight against it, women and girls around
the world are still married as children or trafficked into forced labor and
sex slavery. They are refused access to education and political
participation, and some are trapped in conflicts where rape is
perpetrated as a weapon of war. Around the world, deaths related to
pregnancy and childbirth are needlessly high, and women are prevented
from making deeply personal choices in their private lives. Human Rights
Watch is working toward the realization of women’s empowerment and
gender equality—protecting the rights and improving the lives of women
and girls on the ground.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION - People around the world face violence and
inequality because of their Sexual orientation. Human Rights Watch
works for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender peoples' rights, and with
activists representing a multiplicity of identities and issues. We document
and expose abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity
worldwide, including torture, killing and executions, arrests under unjust
laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medical abuses, discrimination in
health and jobs and housing, domestic violence, abuses against children,
and denial of family rights and recognition. We advocate for laws and
policies that will protect everyone’s dignity.
Disabilites - Many people with disabilities live in conflict settings or in
developing countries, where they experience a range of barriers to
education, health care and other basic services. In many countries, they
are subjected to violence and discrimination. People with disabilities are
also often deprived of their right to live independently, as many are
locked up in institutions, shackled, or cycled through the criminal justice
system.
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between human
beings based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they are
perceived to belong.[1] People may be discriminated on the basis of race,
gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation, as well as other categories.