Rights & Wrongs

As Global Program Director at Human Rights Watch, Lama Fakih knew attacks would likely reach Beirut as tensions escalated in the US/Israeli war with Iran. But she never thought the attacks would hit close to home.

About 50 years ago Lama’s grandparents got an apartment in a building in the southern suburbs of that city. Her dad grew up there, and Lama lived there too when she was very young. Much later, Lama and her husband got married in that apartment, brought her children home for visits, and gathered with family regularly.

This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele speaks to Lama about the loss of her home, how she experienced these human rights abuses following years of reporting on them, and what international law has to say about the attacks on Beirut.

Lama Fakih: Global Program Director, Human Rights Watch

Clive Baldwin: Senior Legal Adviser, Human Rights Watch

The gig economy has exploded across the globe. Whether organizing food deliveries or providing domestic labor, the companies behind these apps are making billions by using algorithms to assign tasks, set pay, evaluate performance, and even fire workers.

For the companies that built these systems, the model promises high rewards and low risk. But for workers, like Apraham, Agnes and Graeme, they’ve rewritten the rulebook, shifting the dangers of doing business onto their shoulders while limiting their control over earnings and working conditions. This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele speaks to gig workers and researcher Léna Simet about the pitfalls of these platforms, and what governments can do to help.

Apraham Urfalian: Uber driver in Lebanon

Agnes Mongera: Platform worker in Kenya

Graeme: Bicycle courier in Scotland

Léna Simet: Senior Advisor on Economic Justice, Human Rights Watch

In late 2024, the international football association (FIFA) announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 World Cup. This means the world’s largest sporting event will be taking place in a country where the government imprisons scores of activists and dissidents for peaceful criticism, denies women fundamental civil and human rights, and cheats migrant workers out of their pay, after treating them brutally.

There’s a word to describe countries notorious for human rights abuses hosting major sporting events: “sportswashing.” Host Ngofeen Mputubwele traces the history of sportswashing from the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany to Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the World Cup. What can fans and athletes do to fight back against sportswashing? Listen to find out.

Minky Worden:Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch

John Hird: Co-founder of Newcastle United Fans Against Sportswashing

Now that Maung has learned about the history of the Rohingya community, he begins working towards an escape route. He hopes to leave the refugee camp and get an education so that he can advocate for his community. But his freedom of movement is limited and educational resources are scarce. This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele charts Maung’s journey out of the refugee camp in Bangladesh and into New York City.

But even when Maung, and other refugees like him, settle into their new homes, the human rights abuses they have suffered linger. How is mental health impacted not only by past atrocities, but also by the current systemic mistreatment of refugees? And with refugees becoming political flash points across the world, what can be done to support refugee communities around the globe?

Maung Sawyeddollah: Agent of Change, Rohingya Muslim

Philippe Bolopion: Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Emina Ćerimović: Associate Director, Disability Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Spyros Orfanos: Director, New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

Now that he’s arrived in Bangladesh, Maung finds himself stuck in an in-between. He’s safe from the violence he faced in his home state of Rakhine, Myanmar, but there are restrictions on his freedom of movement, limiting his education and leaving him to grapple with the history that brought his community to the world’s largest refugee camp.

In this episode, host Ngofeen Mputubwele traces this history. Within the story of ethnic cleansing and apartheid enacted upon the ethnic Rohingya community, other big themes rise up. Witnesses and experts recount the role that social media played in Maung’s trajectory, and point to other communities facing this crisis across the globe.

Maung Sawyeddollah: Agent of Change, Rohingya Muslim

Matt Schissler: Lecturer in history and anthropology at the University of Melbourne

Htaike Htaike Aung: Director of the Myanmar Internet Project

Kaamil Ahmed: Journalist for The Guardian; author of "I Feel No Peace"

Shayna Bauchner: Researcher, Asia Division at Human Rights Watch

Maria Ressa: Nobel Peace Prize laureate; co-founder and CEO of Rappler

When Maung and his family, his neighbors, strangers, cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, they are officially refugees. But there’s no rest for the weary, and the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees escaping to Bangladesh have to build a refugee camp for themselves. As Maung helps his family assemble a temporary shelter, a sort of shadow city starts to rise up around them. Almost a decade later, Maung’s family is still in Cox's Bazar.

This week, Maung, other refugees and experts take listeners through a tour of life in the world’s largest refugee camp and life as a refugee more broadly.

Maung Sawyeddollah: Agent of Change, Rohingya Muslim

Chinda Precious: Nigerian refugee

Johannes van der Klaauw: Former representative at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Tamanna Tiku: Urban Designer

Mausi Segun: Executive Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Kyle Knight: Former Associate Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch

Belkis Wille: Associate Director of Crisis & Conflict division at Human Rights Watch.

Emina Ćerimović: Associate Director, Disability Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

When anti-Rohingya sentiment turned into gunshots in Myanmar in 2017, 16-year-old Maung Sawyeddollah was forced to flee. But what do you do when you’re forced to leave your home? Where do you go? This week on The Great Unrooting,host Ngofeen Mputubwele asks how migrants get from here to there.

What happens if you need medicine while you’re traveling or are living with disabilities that make traveling difficult? What challenges do migrants face as they make these strenuous journeys?

This week, we hear from people around the world who have faced these questions. We hear about Maung’s mom, who fled while pregnant. Her story, alongside accounts from HRW researchers, paints a picture of resilience and bravery of the migrants who risk everything in pursuit of safety.

Maung Sawyeddollah: Agent of Change, Rohingya Muslim

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Emina Ćerimović: Associate Director, Disability Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Lindsay Mputubwele: Doula and child-birth educator

Chinda Precious: Nigerian refugee

Hanaa Rahimi: Former Afghan policewoman sharing her story under alias

Maung Sawyeddollah grew up in a small town in Myanmar where, for years, life felt ordinary. That was before the rumors began. Social media fueled sectarian division, communities turned against each other. Then the soldiers arrived. It was a balmy night in August 2017 when Maung first heard the sound of gunfire. His family was forced to make an impossible choice: stay in the home they love or embark on a perilous journey to Bangladesh. They grabbed a few belongings and fled.

Through Maung’s extraordinary story—from fleeing for his life in Myanmar to attending the prestigious New York University—this episode explores the moment Maung’s family made the fateful decision to abandon their home, and the heart-wrenching decisions millions of people face when the world they know becomes unlivable.

The Great Unrooting begins with one life, and opens onto a global story of displacement, resilience, and hope.

Maung Sawyeddollah: Agent of Change, Rohingya Muslim

Mausi Segun: Executive Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

Kyle Knight: Associate Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch

Belkis Wille: Associate Director of Crisis & Conflict division at Human Rights Watch.

Welcome to The Great Unrooting, a five-episode narrative podcast special season of Rights & Wrongs that explores what it means to lose home — and what it takes to start again. Anchored in the story of Maung, a Rohingya refugee now living in New York, the series traces his journey of flight, survival, and rebuilding and explores displacement at a moment when more people are forcible displaced than at any point since World War II.

Excerpt from forthcoming poem, "The Rusted Key" by Kumar M. Tiku.

The rights of LGBT people are on the chopping block across the world, with new countries criminalizing same-sex practices and banning representation of queer relationships in 2025. However, the landscape for LGBT rights has also shifted tremendously towards progress over the past decades. What gives? 

This week, we explore the texture of progress for LGBT rights. As Indonesia prepares for a new Criminal Code that will outlaw same-sex relations, prominent local advocate Dédé Oetomo charts the trajectory of LGBT rights from cultural openness to increasing repression. Indonesia’s path illustrates a pattern of both forward movement and backtracking on the rights of LGBT people across the globe.  

Dédé Oetomo: Scholar and activist 

Kyle Knight: Associate Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch 

Phillip Ayoub: Professor in the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy at University College London 

Since April 2023, more than a half-million people have been displaced in Sudan due to fighting between two armed forces who were once aligned. The story of how the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces turned on each other, with devastating consequences for Sudan’s civilians, can be traced back to 2013 when a group of dissidents were told by their interrogators to ride a bicycle drawn with chalk on the wall of a Sudanese jail.  

Detained for providing legal support to torture survivors, Human Rights Watch researcher Mohamed “Mo” Osman was introduced to the power structures that have shaped today’s conflict. In “The Chalk Bicycle,” host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through a decade that began with conflict, then saw the ousting of a dictator and great hopes for democracy only to be plunged back into conflict again.  

Mohamed Osman: Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch 

Christopher Tounsel: Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington 

In the early aughts, a campaign to “Save Sudan” became the bipartisan issue of the time. Celebrities and politicians alike implored a global audience to pay attention to and advocate against Suan’s human rights crisis.  

As interventions waned, so did the attention of many global onlookers. But, since the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began fighting in April 2023, over 500,000 Sudanese civilians have been displaced. What has happened in Sudan since the world stopped paying attention?  

It’s been a year since our first episodes on Sudan. Since then, it has been the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. And things are only getting worse. Yet despite the scale of the onslaught on civilians, global mobilization has been missing. 

Mohamed Osman: Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch  

Christopher Tounsel: Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington 

When Harpinder Chauhan walked into his probation officer’s office in Florida, he thought it was just another check-in. Minutes later, he was in handcuffs and detained by ICE. In this episode of Rights and Wrongs, host Ngofeen Mputubwele talks to Harpinder about what it’s really like inside U.S. immigration detention— his days spent shackled, sleeping on concrete, and pleading for basic medical care. And he also speaks to an immigration lawyer about the profits and policies that are the driving force behind this cruel and inhumane system. 

Harpinder Chauhan: ICE detainee 

Katie Blankenship: Co-founder of Sanctuary of the South 

In 1977, American Nazis fought for the right to march in Skokie, Illinois—a town filled with Holocaust survivors—and won. Nearly fifty years later, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended for jokes the government says went too far. What connects these moments? Host Ngofeen Mputubwele talks with Aryeh Neier—Holocaust survivor, former ACLU director, and Human Rights Watch co-founder—about why he once defended Nazis’ right to march, and what that case reveals about protecting free speech and democracy today.  

Aryeh Neier: Co-founder of Human Rights Watch 

What’s the scariest sound in a war zone? In Kherson, Ukraine, it isn’t artillery or fighter jets—it’s the faint buzz of a $200 quadcopter drone. In this episode of Rights & Wrongs, host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes us inside Russia’s use of drones to stalk and attack civilians on the front line. Survivors describe the terror of being hunted from above, and Human Rights Watch’s Belkis Wille explains how drones are being misused to commit war crimes, what it could mean for civilians in future conflicts —and why we should be responding now. 

Belkis Wille: Associate Director of Crisis & Conflict division at Human Rights Watch. 

Roger and Daniela arrived in the U.S. in January, conditionally approved as refugees. Hours later, she was deported. Roger  vanished. When Rights & Wrongs first aired this story in May, it traced how a Venezuelan millennial with no criminal record ended up detained in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act—a centuries-old wartime law now repurposed for mass deportations. 

In a stunning twist two months later, the Trump administration brokered a deal: 10 Americans held in Venezuela were exchanged for 252 Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador, including Roger. 

In this update, host Ngofeen Mputubwele recaps Roger’s journey and  speaks with him about what really happened inside El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. 

Roger Eduardo Molina Acevedo : Venezuelan citizen expelled to El Salvador 

Juan Pappier: Deputy Director of Americas at Human Rights Watch  

In 2012, a Ugandan TV host asked trans activist Pepe Julian Onziema a now-infamous question: “Why are you gay?” The clip went viral, spawning internet fodder around the world – but behind the memes lies a chilling reality. In this episode of Rights & Wrongs, host Ngofeen Mputubwele looks at Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, a 2023 law that punishes same-sex intimacy with life in prison or even death. He speaks with “Emmanuel,” a young man in Kampala whose Grindr date turned into a violent police sting. Human Rights Watch researcher Oryem Nyeko explains how the law has fueled mob violence, extortion, and fear. But amid the repression, mothers of queer children are speaking up, leading the resistance in one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT climates. 

Oryem Nyeko: Senior researcher in the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch 

Last year, we told the story of how President Nayib Bukele came to power in El Salvador on a promise of ending gang violence. He succeeded, turning a state that was the world’s murder capital into one with one of the lowest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere. But in the process, he systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances and arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people, including children. El Salvador now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.  

This year, the story took a darker turn. The Trump administration deported over 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, where they were locked up in a maximum-security prison with no way to challenge their detention. We’re re-airing this episode with a chilling update on the dangerous deal between Trump and Bukele— and how it signals Trump’s growing alliance with authoritarian leaders to advance his hardline agenda. 

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division   

José Miguel Cruz:Director of Research at Florida International University's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center 

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office with a vow to eliminate illegal drugs. His “war on drugs” resulted in the brutal killing of between 12,000 and 30,000 people. Despite the international outcry and extensive media coverage of the deaths and their impact, Duterte remained popular—and untouchable – until recently.  In March, he was arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant for crimes against humanity and is now sitting in a jail cell in The Hague. 

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, whose fearless reporting helped expose Duterte’s brutal drug war, was targeted by Duterte – accused of everything from tax evasion to libel. In this episode of Rights & Wrongs, host Ngofeen Mputubwele speaks with Ressa and Human Rights Watch researchers about Duterte’s bloody legacy, the importance of standing up to dictators, and what his arrest means for other leaders indicted by the ICC.  

Maria Ressa:CEO of Rappler and Nobel Peace Prize winner 

Carlos Conde:Senior researcher at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch 

Maria Elena Vignoli:Senior counsel in the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch 

You’ve probably heard that authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe. Increasingly, countries are adopting policies that undermine democracy, reduce accountability, and erode civil liberties and human rights. But why is authoritarianism on the rise, and how do authoritarian leaders come to power?   

Lauded by Donald Trump and condemned by rights-defenders, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban provides a useful case study for those hoping to better understand the authoritarians’ playbook.  

This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele speaks to a Hungarian journalist and civil liberties strategist to map Orban’s journey to autocracy, and how his lurch towards authoritarianism has decimated civil liberties and allowed him to exert a stranglehold on Hungarian politics for more than 15 years.  

Stefania Kopronczay:Former director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union; visiting scholar at Columbia University   

Viktória Serdült:Journalist at HVG.HU 

Roger and his partner Daniela arrived in the U.S. in January,  conditionally approved as refugees by a US State Department-run program called the Safe Mobility Initiative. Hours later, she was deported. He was detained and then, he vanished. In this episode of Rights & Wrongs, host Ngofeen Mputubwele looks at what happened to Roger—and also examines the fate of 137 Venezuelans swept up under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 18th-century law has only ever been used in times of war. 

What began with border agents at the Houston airport questioning Roger about his tattoos turned into ICE detention and a secret transfer to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Roger, who has no criminal record, hasn’t been heard from since. Human Rights Watch’s Akshaya Kumar explains how an obscure law once used to detain Germans during both World Wars is now being deployed in peacetime for mass deportations. And Roger’s uncle, desperate for answers, shares how he watched helplessly as his nephew disappeared into a system where due process has collapsed—and fear has taken its place. 

Akshaya Kumar: Director of Crisis Advocacy at Human Rights Watch  

Noel Guape: Uncle of Roger Eduardo Molina Acevedo  

Juan Pappier: Deputy Director of Americas at Human Rights Watch  

They’re chained to trees. Locked in sheds. Confined and forgotten — because they have a mental health condition. Across the globe, people with mental health conditions are shackled — hidden away, dehumanized, and neglected in overcrowded, filthy rooms, sheds, cages, even animal shelters. This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele talks to Human Rights Watch researchers who are fighting to end this cruel practice — and to survivors who show that with the right support, healing and dignity are possible.  

Elizabeth Kamundia: Director,Disability Rights Division at Human Rights Watch 

Kriti Sharma: Associate Director, Disability Rights Division 

Shipbreaking Updated: The Most Dangerous Job in the World 

In mid 2024, students in Bangladesh organized mass protests and brought down the repressive government of Sheikh Hasana.  The country is now under a caretaker government of Muhammed Yunus, a Nobel Laureate who is attempting reforms. Months before this Monsoon Revolution, we told you about shipbreaking, the waste management of industrial ships sent to Bangladesh that has been dubbed “the most dangerous job in the world.” 

Guest Rizwana Hasan was then the country’s only environmental lawyer and fierce advocate against the shipbreaking industry. Today, she is the new government’s Adviser for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.  

What has changed for shipbreakers under this new government. This week, host Ngofeen Mputubwele revisits last year’s episode and catches up with Human Rights Watch researcher Julia Bleckner to understand this new moment in Bangladesh, and how it will impact shipbreaking.  

Julia Bleckner: Senior Researcher for the Asia Division and Global Health Initiative at Human Rights Watch 

Rizwana Hasan: Adviser for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Bangladesh 

For decades, Congo’s minerals have been coveted by the rich and powerful. You might not know much about the Democratic Republic of Congo, but its natural resources are quietly central to your daily life.  Recently, an armed group backed by Rwanda, Congo’s neighbor, took control of two cities in eastern Congo, injuring and killing civilians, and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.  

Host Ngofeen Mputubwele, whose family hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, talks with two very special guests – his parents – as well as Human Rights Watch associate director Lewis Mudge, who spent years in the country.  If you think this war has nothing to do with you, think again. 

Lewis Mudge:Associate Director of Africa Division at Human Rights Watch 

Makim Mputubwele:Retired Associate Professor at Lane College; Ngofeen’s papá 

Mulata Moba:Retired Counselor for Mental Health Agency; Ngofeen’s mamá 

Emmanuel Sekiyoba:Professor of Economics

Today, there are more displaced people in the world than at any other time in history. It is a humanitarian crisis on a global scale.  

But rather than seeking humane solutions to this crisis, many governments are choosing to weaponize it, creating a hostile environment for migrants and implementing laws that criminalize migration and undermine human rights.  

We have all read the headlines demonizing migrants, but we rarely hear from the people behind those headlines-their stories, their challenges, and what drove them to make a perilous journey in the hope of finding sanctuary far from home.   

In this week’s episode, host Ngofeen Mputubwele speaks to Hanaa R., a former policewoman who, fearing for her life, fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took control. We will hear about the risks she took and the sacrifices she made on her journey to become an asylum seeker in the US. But we will also hear why Trump’s new migration policies mean that this incredible story wouldn’t be possible today.  

Hanaa Rahimi: Former Afghan policewoman sharing her story under alias 

Bill Frelick: Director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch 

In late 2024, the international football association (FIFA) announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 World Cup. This means the world’s largest sporting event will be taking place in a country where the government imprisons scores of activists and dissidents for peaceful criticism, denies women fundamental civil and human rights, and cheats migrant workers out of their pay, after treating them brutally.

There’s a word to describe countries notorious for human rights abuses hosting major sporting events: “sportswashing.” Host Ngofeen Mputubwele traces the history of sportswashing from the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany to Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the World Cup. What can fans and athletes do to fight back against sportswashing? Listen to find out.

Minky Worden: Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch 

John Hird: Co-founder of Newcastle United Fans Against Sportswashing 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was created to try the worst crimes in the world – war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide. Established in 1998 following the brutal civil war in Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda, the ICC has indicted 63 suspects. All of the court’s 125 member countries areobligated to arrest these suspects should they set foot in their territory, but the arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are testing member states’ resolve. And now the US is threatening to sanction court officials. Can the ICC survive 2025? 

Richard Dicker: Founding Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch

Elizabeth Evenson: Director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch

We’ve bid farewell to 2024, but a lot of us are asking: What in the world just happened? Every January, Human Rights Watch publishes a World Report examining the human rights events of the previous year around the globe. In this episode, host Ngofeen Mputubwele talks with Human Rights Watch Executive Director Tirana Hassan about the status of human rights in 2024 – from conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan to leadership changes in Syria and the United States – and what it means for 2025.   

Tirana Hassan:Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. 

When Robert Taylor bought land and began to build a home in St. John Parish in Louisiana, he envisioned a compound that would house his family for generations to come. But living in this 85-mile stretch of land along the banks of the Mississippi River that is home to some 200 fossil fuels and petrochemical operations has taken its toll. Known as Cancer Alley, Taylor now hopes his grandchildren don't have to live in the "Sacrifice Zone." Learn what has happened since we first aired this episode - and how AI hosts would have told the story.

Human Rights Watch request for comment in advance of publication.

Comment received from Denka Performance Elastomer LLC.

Donald Trump built his reelection campaign off big promises – among them, the mass deportation of migrants, retaliation against political opponents, deploying the military to crush dissent, and allowing states to decide abortion rights. Having won a second term as the President of the United States, the question is, now what?  

Ngofeen Mputubwele  talks to three Human Rights Watch experts from the front lines of advocacy in the United States. Tirana Hassan, Tanya Greene and Sarah Yager discuss not only the threats looming over human rights in the United States and abroad, but how they maintain their hope that rights can be protected and promoted.  

Tirana Hassan:Executive Director of Human Rights Watch 

Tanya Greene:Director of Human Rights Watch’s US Program 

Sarah Yager:Washington Director at Human Rights Watch 

Gen. Sri Rumiati served as a policewoman in Indonesia for decades, but her life’s work became centered around protesting a policy of the state security forces. When she was summoned for military service, she was shocked to learn that she was required to take a virginity test. The Indonesian military and police held the misogynistic belief that female soldiers and officers needed to be chaste and that they could test for virginity by examining a woman’s hymen, an abusive practice that has no scientific basis. 

The policy lasted for decades, until a Human Rights Watch report and tireless advocacy by activists like General Rumiati moved the immovable. Indonesia’s military and police forces stopped requiring virginity tests. 

Andreas Harsono:Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch 

Sri Rumiati:Retired police general & activist 

Meenakshi Ganguly:Deputy director of the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch 

In the late 1960s, the United Kingdom made a deal allowing the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, one of 58 islands that make up the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The UK, which had colonized the islands in the 1800s, claimed there was “no permanent population” in Chagos. But that was a lie. Several hundred Chagossians lived on those islands. They were all forcibly removed by 1973 and have been campaigning to return ever since. In 2024, the UK announced it would relinquish its last colony in Africa, recognizing the sovereignty of Mauritius. What does this mean for the Chagossians? Will they finally be able to return home?  

Mausi Segun: Executive Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch  

Ellianne Baptiste: Second-generation Chagossian  

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong activist, was taking his daily walk along London’s River Thames when Chinese government thugs beat him up. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was filing paperwork at a Saudi consulate in Turkey when Saudi government assassins murdered and dismembered him. And Bi-2, a dissident Russian-Belarusian rock band, narrowly avoided being forcibly sent to Russia while on tour in Thailand. All had fled repression and thought they were safe in exile. But increasingly, governments are reaching beyond their borders to target critics – is anywhere safe? 

Sarah Yager: Washington Director at Human Rights Watch 

President Nayib Bukele came to power in El Salvador on a promise of ending gang violence. He succeeded, turning a state that was the world’s murder capital into to one with one of the lowest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere. But in the process, he systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances and arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people, including children. El Salvador now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. 

What’s to be done when an elected leader attacks human rights, yet remains wildly popular? That question is personal to Agustín, a Salvadorian teenager who spent his whole life trying to avoid gangs but was wrongly detained in Bukele’s crackdown.  

Juanita Goebertus Estrada:Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division  

José Miguel Cruz:Director of Research at Florida International University's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center 

Since April 2023, more than a half-million people have been displaced in Sudan due to fighting between two armed forces who were once aligned. The story of how the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces turned on each other, with devastating consequences for Sudan’s civilians, can be traced back to 2013 when a group of dissidents were told by their interrogators to ride a bicycle drawn with chalk on the wall of a Sudanese jail. 

Detained for providing legal support to torture survivors, Human Rights Watch researcher Mohamed “Mo” Osman was introduced to the power structures that have shaped today’s conflict. In “The Chalk Bicycle,” host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through a decade that began with conflict, then saw the ousting of a dictator and great hopes for democracy only to be plunged back into conflict again. 

Mohamed Osman: Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch

Christopher Tounsel: Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington

In the early aughts, a campaign to “Save Sudan” became thebipartisan issue of the time. Celebrities and politicians alike implored a global audience to pay attention to and advocate against Suan’s human rights crisis.  

As interventions waned, so did the attention of many global onlookers. But, since the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began fighting in April 2023, over 500,000 Sudanese civilians have been displaced. What has happened in Sudan since the world stopped paying attention? 

Mohamed Osman:Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch 

Christopher Tounsel:Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington 

When Robert Taylor bought land and began to build a home in St. John Parish in Louisiana, he envisioned a compound that would house his family for generations to come. Now, Taylor hopes that his grandchildren don’t have to live in this “Sacrifice Zone.”  

The Taylors’ home is situated in what’s known as Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch of land along the banks of the Mississippi River that was once home to sugar plantations, but now houses some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations. 

Through this ‘porch chat’ conversation with Robert and his daughter, Tish, we learn not only about the rare cancers, respiratory ailments, and miscarriages that afflicted their family and friends, but also how the duo is fighting back to stop these pollutants from ruining their environment.   

Robert Taylor:Founder of Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish and long-time resident of St. John Parish, located in Cancer Alley 

Tish Taylor:Member of Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish and daughter of Robert Taylor. 

In 2023, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman came across a letter the United Nations had sent to the government of Saudi Arabia expressing concern over the killing of Ethiopian migrants who were attempting to enter the kingdom. Migrants from the Horn of Africa had long used the so-called “eastern migration route” through war-torn Yemen in the hope of getting employment in Saudi Arabia – but the UN letter mentioned a mass grave of up to 10,000 in a remote border region. The Saudi government denied the allegations, saying the UN had no dates, and no locations. So, Nadia stepped in to see if she could verify them.  

Nadia couldn’t reach the remote border, so she began interviewing people in Yemen. One of the people she was in touch with began sending her social media videos from the massacre site. Nadia soon called on Human Rights Watch’s digital investigation’s lab for help. In this episode, Host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through how Human Rights utilized satellite imagery of burial sites, conducted interviews with survivors of the attacks, mined social media, and verified video footage from the border to show how Saudi authorities summarily executed hundreds of unarmed migrants – many of them women and children – in what is likely a crime against humanity.  In the aftermath of the report and the media attention it generated, Germany and the United States ceased funding and training Saudi border guards.  

Nadia Hardman:Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch 

Sam Dubberley:Managing Director, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch 

Devon Lum:Former Assistant Researcher, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch 

What happens to cargo ships at the end of their lives? Often, they wind up beached on shores in the global south where untrained and unprotected workers are tasked with breaking them apart in dangerous conditions. In this episode, Host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners to the beaches of Bangladesh where Human Rights Watch recently completed an investigation of the shipbreaking industry. Here, in what the International Labour Organization calls the most dangerous job in the world, workers are hit with nails, maimed by exploding pipes, sickened by exposure to asbestos and have been trapped in burning hulls as they “recycle” the ships that transport consumer goods to Europe, the United States and beyond.  

Julia Bleckner: Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

Rizwana Syeda Hasan:Bangladeshi environment attorney 

Learn more at HRW.org 

Support our work at HRW.org/podcast/donate 

The Russian military assault on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol between February and May 2022 left thousands of civilians dead and injured, including many in apparently unlawful attacks, and trapped hundreds of thousands for weeks without basic services, Human Rights Watch along with Truth Hounds and SITU research produced a report with extensive findings. It called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials should be investigated and appropriately prosecuted for their role in apparent war crimes committed by Russian forces during the fighting there, and Russia should provide reparations to victims of laws-of-war violations and their families.

Host Ngofeen Mputubwele revisits the investigation and walks listeners through experiences on the ground in Mariupol throughout and after the invasion.

Guests:

BelkisWille: Associate Director of Crisis & Conflict division at

Human Rights Watch.

Maryna Slobodyanuk: Head of Investigations at Truth Hounds

Learn more at HRW.org

Support our work at HRW.org/podcast/donate

Teaser: Rights & Wrongs