Human Rights Watch on Monday reported 64 cases of torture and human rights violations by Brazilian police over the past four years. The report was sent by HRW to the office of President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's Congress and the media. According to the communique, the cases occurred in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espiritu Santo, Parana and Bahia since the year 2010, and in 40 cases the use of physical torture has been verified, while in the other 24 a reference is made to...

An average of 72 people were , often times in incidents unrelated to the country’s drug war, according to a Mexican nongovernmental organization. The numbers reported by the Council for Law and Human Rights differ sharply from official figures, creating confusion over the degree to which the crime -- which often goes unreported -- has expanded in recent years. Fernando Ruiz, the director of the Mexican NGO that works with victims of kidnappings, told Spanish news wire EFE the figures...

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says it has opened an investigation into the death of an 8-year-old girl who authorities say committed suicide at a shelter in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. The commission says the girl was traveling with a migrant smuggler who planned to take her to her parents in the United States when federal authorities arrested the smuggler. Federal officials turned the girl over to Chihuahua state authorities who placed her at a private shelter instead of...

Brazil should speak out in support of human rights in Russia and Russia’s independent activists at the BRICS summit, Human Rights Watch said today. Brazil should also firmly reject any attempt by Russia to persuade Brazil to support weakening the human rights mandate of the UN and other intergovernmental organizations. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) are meeting in Fortaleza, Ceará, for the sixth annual BRICS summit on July 14, 15, and 16, 2014. BRICS is...

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - They are coming to America because a good job here means sewing underwear in a sweatshop for $47 a week. They are leaving neighborhoods where you can walk down block after block of abandoned houses spray-painted with gang graffiti, with collapsed roofs and jungle plants sprouting in the living rooms. They are traveling 1,400 miles with hardly any luggage from a bus station controlled by an extortion ring and used for trafficking women and contraband cigarettes; last...

The National Assembly should modify provisions in its constitutional reform proposal to ensure that it respects Ecuador’s international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 26, 2014, the president of the National Assembly, a member of the government official party, submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Court that would revise 17 articles of the Ecuadorian Constitution. Among other concerns, the changes could limit citizens’ ability to challenge...

(São Paulo) - São Paulo authorities should conduct a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into allegations that police planted evidence of criminal activity on two protesters who were arrested on June 23, 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. “Protesters who engage in vandalism and violence should be held accountable,” said , Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “But so too should any police who plant evidence and deliberately accuse protesters of...

US Senate majority leader Harry Reid expressed his support for a bill seeking sanctions on Venezuelan officials held accountable of human rights violations during anti-government protests earlier this year in Venezuela. The official commented that he thought that a change in the leadership of the Venezuelan government would improve Venezuela-US relations, but said that would not be possible given the fact President Nicolás Maduro lacked the skills of his predecessor (Hugo...

HIDALGO, Tex. - Border agents drove their patrol vehicles one recent day at dusk through this spit of land on the bank of the Rio Grande. Here, in a place known as the Devil’s Corner, smugglers on the Mexican side have chosen to bring thousands of women and children to American soil. After only a few minutes scouting the dirt roads, the agents came upon a cluster of illegal migrants, huddled in tall grass under palm trees, seeking respite from the baking heat. They made no effort to...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed on Monday at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) its deep concerns over the serious human rights situation in Venezuela, describing it as "the most alarming" the country has gone through in years. The non-governmental organization said that after an anti-government protest held on February 12, 2014, law enforcement officers have hit people brutally, used firearms, pellets, and tear gas disproportionately against unarmed demonstrators. ...