Edited by Irene Watson

For more than 500 years, Indigenous laws have been disregarded. Many appeals for their recognition under international law have been made, but have thus far failed – mainly because international law was itself shaped by colonialism. How, this volume asks, might international law be reconstructed, so that it is liberated from its colonial origins? With contributions from critical legal theory, international law, politics, philosophy and Indigenous history, this volume pursues a cross-disciplinary analysis of the international legal exclusion of Indigenous Peoples, and of its relationship to global injustice. Beyond the issue of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, however, this analysis is set within the broader context of sustainability; arguing that Indigenous laws, philosophy and knowledge are not only legally valid, but offer an essential approach to questions of ecological justice and the co-existence  of all life on earth.

Oxford; New York Routledge, 2017. 236p.

By Sara  De Vido 

Violence against women is characterised by its universality, the multiplicity of its forms, and the intersectionality of diverse kinds of discrimination against women. Great emphasis in legal analysis has been placed on sex-based discrimination; however, in investigations of violence, one aspect has been overlooked: violence may severely affect women's health and access to reproductive health, and State health policies might be a cause of violence against women. Exploring the relationship between violence against women and women's rights to health and reproductive health, Sara De Vido theorises the new concept of violence against women's health in international law using the Hippocratic paradigm, enriching human rights-based approaches to women's autonomy and reflecting on the pervasiveness of patterns of discrimination. At the core of the book are two dimensions of violence: horizontal 'inter-personal', and vertical 'state policies'. Investigating these dimensions through decisions made by domestic, regional and international judicial or quasi-judicial bodies, De Vido reconceptualises States' obligations and eventually asks whether international law itself is the ultimate cause of violence against women's health.

Manchester UK: Manchester University Press, 2020.

By Sabina Garahan

This book is a ground-breaking study of how the European Court of Human Rights interprets Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to liberty and security. The right to liberty is a fundamental provision that is enshrined not only in the Convention but in all major human rights treaties. Despite this, Article 5 remains both a largely underdeveloped and unexplored area of European human rights law. The work aims to fill this gap by presenting an original framework for the progressive interpretation of the right to liberty. It is argued that the Court has not made use of opportunities to evolve Article 5 standards, resulting in a weakening of protections against arbitrary detention. This book’s original framework for the progressive interpretation of Article 5 identifies and addresses gaps in the protection of vulnerable groups of detainees, including in areas of growing concern across the European human rights space. These include individuals held pre-trial, as children, in immigration detention, following protest, or as a result of their political dissent or human rights activism. The volume outlines the normative justifications for an evolutive approach to Article 5 and elaborates how a dynamic interpretation could be enacted in practice, including by reference to original interview data and insights from European Court of Human Rights judges. This book will serve as a key point of reference for anyone researching or working on detention and the right to liberty across the Council of Europe and beyond.

London; New York: Routledge, 2025. 240p.

By Peter Kempees

The European Convention on Human Rights is now crucial to decisions to be taken by the military and their political leaders in ‘hard power’ situations – that is, classical international and non-international armed conflict, belligerent occupation, peacekeeping and peace-enforcing and anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations, but also hybrid warfare, cyber-attack and targeted assassination. Guidance is needed, therefore, on how Convention law relates to these decisions. That guidance is precisely what this book aims to offer. It focuses primarily on States’ accountability under the Convention, but also shows that human rights law, used creatively, can actually help States achieve their objectives.

Leiden: Nijhoff, 2020. 

Edited by Alice Panepinto, Bana Abuzuluf, Ahma Damara, Brendan CiarÁn Browne, Munir Nuseibah, and Triestino Marinello

This open access edited collection is the first book-length academic publication on the Palestinian Bedouins at risk of forced displacement in the Central West Bank and Greater Jerusalem area. At its core are two questions: firstly; what are the humanitarian vulnerabilities they face and how are they produced/constructed? And secondly, how does protracted impunity for international law violations drive humanitarian protection risks for them? It interweaves international law, community-based empirical research and interdisciplinary perspectives, to offer the broadest possible framework for understanding these complex and complicated questions. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 223p.

By Quah Ee Ling

Featuring stories of early settler and contemporary Asian migrant women in Asia-Pacific region, Fire Dragon Feminism discusses Asian migrant women’s encounters with coloniality and racial capitalism at their workplace and in their everyday life. Centring anti-colonial, anti-racist feminist philosophies and strategies, this open access book introduces 'fire dragon feminism' - a migrant feminist strand that aims to blow flames at colonial, racial capitalist and neoliberal structures and build solidarities for more just and sustainable futures. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 Asian migrant employees in Australian universities, the book examines how Asian migrant women are implicated and complicit in white race-making projects while being subjected to racialisation and marginalisation simultaneously. Fire Dragon Feminism presents a historicised and sociological discussion of the contradictions, trade-offs, complicities and refusals in the Asian migrant women’s tales of migration, coloniality and racial capitalism. The author ends the book with a celebration of anti-colonial, anti-racist grassroots feminist activisms.

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. 

By Boccagni, Paolo

What does everyday life look like for young men who flee to Europe, survive, and are then assigned temporary housing? Hypersurveillance or parallel normality, irrelevance, or even nothingness? Based on four years of ethnographic research, Undoing Nothing recounts the untold story of Italian asylum seekers’ struggles to produce relevance—that is, to carve out meaning, control, and direction from their legal and existential liminality. Their ways of inhabiting space and time rest on a deeply ambivalent position: together and alone, inside and outside, absent and present. Their racialized bodies dwell in their assigned residence while their selves inhabit a suspended translocal space of moral economies, nightmares, and furtive dreams. This book illuminates a distinctly modern form of purgatory, offering both a perceptive critique of state responses to the so-called refugee crisis and nuanced psychological portraits of a demographic rarely afforded narrative depth and grace. “Undoing Nothing is an exceptional book. It moves us away from dramatic and sensational descriptions of refugee predicaments and toward a detailed and perceptive analysis of the ways people navigate and manage their lives in the interstices between being stuck and in motion, surviving and aspiring.”

Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2025. 228p

Edited by Adrian Di Giovanni and Luciana Bercovich

This book investigates grassroots, community-led justice strategies – known as legal empowerment – being used to promote the human rights of people living in informal settlements in the Global South. Residents of informal settlements, also known as slums or favelas, encounter a complex array of human rights violations; from systemic discrimination by public officials, to threats to physical security from forced evictions, or arbitrary arrests, to a lack of access to basic services such as housing, water, sanitation, and education. This book shows how grassroots justice organizations around the world are working with residents to defend their rights and secure more dignified living conditions. Drawing on original empirical research across 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the book demonstrates how legal empowerment can put residents at the centre of holistic approaches to urban development and confront exclusionary and undemocratic systems of governance. The book encompasses practical recommendations and strategies such as rights-based approaches to informality, participation, community mobilization and litigation. Bridging the gaps between the law on the books and the harsh realities of informality on the ground, this book will be an important read for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, working in realms of social and economic rights, access to justice and urban poverty and development.

London; New York: Routledge, 2025. 287p.

By Laura Durán and Leah Davison

Definitions matter. They shape how problems are understood, which responses are triggered, and who is recognised as needing protection. In the context of the exploitation of children, however, definitions are far from settled. The legal and policy landscape surrounding child trafficking and exploitation is shaped by a complex interplay between international, regional, and domestic standards. Definitions serve multiple purposes: they not only establish the legal parameters needed to prosecute offences but also function as tools for identifying victims and determining their eligibility for support and protection.

Whilst the terms “human trafficking”, “slavery,” and “forced labour” are defined in international law and have been incorporated into UK legislation, other key terms such as “modern slavery”, “labour exploitation” and “criminal exploitation” remain undefined in law, leading to inconsistent interpretations.

These inconsistencies are not just technical or academic, they have real world consequences. They influence not only how a child is viewed, but also what support they receive by determining their access to entitlements, the services triggered, and which system is involved. Definitional instability also undermines efforts to collect reliable data and assess prevalence. Without a shared conceptual foundation, prevalence estimates vary, interventions may be misdirected, and child victims risk being misidentified or overlooked. Language choices are shaped by institutional mandates and political priorities, not just descriptive accuracy.

Formal identification as a “victim of human trafficking” should trigger specific support under international law such as protection, counselling, legal advice, safe accommodation, interpretation services, health care, special measures in court, access to education, compensation, presumption of age, provide for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims for their involvement in unlawful activities, residence permit and a legal guardian for unaccompanied child victims.

This report explores how definitional inconsistencies across legal, policy, and practice frameworks in the UK shape the identification and protection of children who are subject to child trafficking. 

Key findings

1. Inconsistent definitions, gaps and overlaps in terminology, and varying thresholds for recognition, are undermining the identification and protection of children, leading to fractured responses and silos.

2. Preconceptions about exploitation along race, nationality and gender lines affects both identification and the determination of child NRM referrals. The proportion of child referrals refused on the basis of not meeting the definition has remained consistently high, with significant disparities by nationality.

3. An emphasis on movement in the definition of trafficking in domestic legislation in England and Wales and Northern Ireland overlooks other elements in the act of child trafficking such as recruitment and harbouring and continues to shape professional understandings of when a case constitutes child trafficking in both identification and prosecutions, particularly affecting children exploited locally to where they live, or those exploited online.

4. Age is a factor which determines the application of terminology, and perceived maturity is often interpreted as a proxy for consent, responsibility and perceived agency, affecting identification and criminalisation.

5. Child trafficking is primarily understood as abuse occurring outside of the family, obscuring the complexities of harm and affecting identification.

Key recommendations

1. Develop a Cross-Government UK wide Child Exploitation Strategy – the UK Government, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive should develop and implement a cross-government child exploitation strategy that recognises and responds to the overlapping nature of exploitation types. This strategy should be underpinned by integrated policy and operational frameworks across relevant departments to promote consistency in identification, protection, and support for children. Responsibility should be shared across key departments, including but not limited to the Home Office, Department for Education, and devolved administrations.

2. Align legal definitions with international standards – the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive should reform primary legislation language in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to reflect the international definition of child trafficking, removing the over-emphasis on movement and recognising actions such as recruitment and harbouring.

3. Establish a statutory definition of child exploitation – the Home Office should introduce a statutory definition of child exploitation that encompasses all exploitation types, allowing sufficient elasticity to evolve with emerging forms whilst clarifying current definitional inconsistencies to ensure child exploitation is always identified. This definition should be developed through meaningful engagement with children and young people, including those with lived experience, to ensure it reflects the realities of exploitation and supports effective identification and response.

4. Clarify the ‘Means’ element for children – the Home Office should review the Slavery and Human Trafficking (Definition of Victim) Regulations 2022 and the Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance to identify and amend language which indicates a means element for children is necessary such as coercion, deception, force or other terms which requires consideration of informed consent.

5. Independent review mechanisms to scrutinise NRM decision-making – the Home Office should introduce independent review mechanisms to scrutinise NRM decision-making where significant disparities exist in definition-based refusals by nationality, to assess whether children from certain nationalities are being systematically refused and to guard against unconscious bias.

Oxford, UK: Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) at the University of Oxford, 2025. 165p.

By Grant Miller, et al.  

Globally, coercive labor (i.e., forced, bonded, and/or trafficked labor) and child labor are disproportionately prevalent in environments with weak regulatory enforcement and state capacity. Effective strategies for addressing them may therefore need to align with the private incentives of business owners, not relying on government action alone. Recognizing this, we test a ‘business case’ for improving work conditions and promoting human rights using a randomized controlled trial across nearly 300 brick kilns in Bangladesh. Among study kilns, rates of coercive and child labor are high: about 50% of sampled workers are trafficked, and about 70% of kilns use child labor. Our experiment introduced a production method that increased kiln productivity and revenue, and we test if these productivity gains in turn increase worker “compensation” (including better work conditions). Because adoption of the method requires important changes in worker routines, we also test if providing information to kiln owners about positively incentivizing workers to enhance adoption (and hence business revenue) can lead to better work conditions. We find no evidence that productivity gains alone reduced labor trafficking or child labor, but adding the information intervention reduced child labor by 25-30% without reducing revenue or increasing costs.

  Working Paper No. wp2066 Stanford University, King Center on Global Development, 2024. 58p.

By Madison Lloyd,  Alice Campbell, Amie Carrington, Janeen Baxter

Domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) is a pervasive and growing issue in Australia. Despite government-led national plans to reduce this violence in Australia, there is evidence that rates are increasing and incidences are becoming more severe. DFSV support agencies offer a range of services to support victim-survivors including targeted support to assist clients to leave violent relationships, access housing, legal and counselling support, as well as offering emotional and social support and support to recognise and define abusive and violent behaviour. This paper argues that these services also have the potential to lead to social change at a structural level as suggested by a reverse dominance coalition framework. Inequalities persist when they are normalised and celebrated by society. 'Reverse dominance coalitions' make cultural change possible by establishing large collectives of people who speak out in solidarity, develop alliances and collectively establish expectations of equality.Data from interviews of victim-survivors is used to illustrate the applicability of the reverse dominance coalition framework to DFSV support services. The paper finds that the framework offers a means of understanding how support at an individual level to victim-survivors also has broader transformative power to change societal awareness, attitudes and responses. It concludes that DFSV agencies not only assist DFSV victims to recover and heal but also play a leadership role in promoting broader changes at the community, policy and societal level.
Brisbane: Life Course Centre,  University of Queensland, 2025. 30p.l. 

By Shane Tas

Background : This research project has been commissioned and supported by the Victorian Government as part of its commitment to help further develop effective strategies for preventing violence against women in Australia as articulated in Free from violence: Victoria’s strategy to prevent family violence and all forms of violence against women.  In recent years there has been an increasing focus on masculinities and engaging men in the prevention of violence against women. Men are a significant part of the problem, that is, it is primarily men who perpetrate violence against women. Efforts to prevent this violence must include both a specific conceptual focus on men and masculinities as well as a practical focus on engaging men. This evidence review seeks to build on existing primary prevention knowledge and work by developing a deeper understanding of the links between masculinities and violence against women and ways to engage men and boys in prevention efforts. International and national research shows that dominant forms and patterns of masculinity and, in particular, men’s rigid attachments to these forms, help to drive violence against women. These dominant forms include the particular attitudes, norms, roles, practices and structures that men are expected to conform to, display and participate in. This review provides an overview and critical discussion of the scholarship on masculinities in order to understand the dynamics of contemporary masculinities. Further, it reviews the international and Australian research on men, masculinities and violence against women to help understand the links between dominant forms and patterns of masculinity and violence against women. It draws out the implications of the literature for prevention work by suggesting how challenges to harmful forms of masculinity and the engaging of men in prevention efforts can help reduce and prevent violence against women. Key findings and conclusions In line with existing research on the prevention of violence against women, this review found there are differences in how men and women perpetrate and/or experience violence, with the majority of violent acts – including physical, sexual, financial, emotional and cultural forms of violence – overwhelmingly perpetrated by men. Women who experience structural inequality and other forms of discrimination, such as racism, classism, ableism, homophobia and colonialism, are most likely to experience violence at the hands of men and suffer severe impacts due to this violence. These findings highlight the importance of further developing and implementing work that focuses on men and masculinities in efforts to prevent violence against women. The review found that rather than focusing only at the individual level, or seeking single-factor explanations, prevention efforts require a comprehensive focus on how masculinities and gender inequality operate at all different levels of society. It concludes that prevention efforts should aim to be gender transformative. That is, to actively challenge dominant forms and patterns of masculinity that operate at and across structural, systemic, organisational, community, interpersonal and individual levels of society. A deeper conceptual understanding of masculinities and how they work is therefore integral to prevention work. The research shows masculinity to be a social construction, one that shifts and changes over time and place. Scholars describe masculinity as multiple and situational. The majority of men do not conform to one single model of masculinity, nor do they perform masculinity in the same way across different contexts. Further, masculinity intersects with other axes of identity and social location, such as race, class, sexuality, religion, ability and age, to produce multiple masculinities and different experiences of being a man. This means that dominant forms of masculinity intersect with gender inequality and other structural inequalities and forms of disadvantage to help shape men’s violence against women. This points to a need for prevention work to employ frameworks that emphasise masculinity as being multiple and situational and that capture these complexities. In particular, a focus on intersectionality and on structural-based approaches is important for understanding differences among men and how these differences shape men’s violence against women. Further, this emphasis highlights the limitations of approaches that are essentialist and binary-driven – approaches that rely on, uphold and naturalise the gender binary. Such approaches can impede prevention efforts that seek to challenge gender norms, structures and practices, and can also exclude and negatively impact trans, gender diverse and intersex people. Although masculinity is described as plural and situational, research shows there are dominant forms and patterns of masculinity that men are expected, and sometimes pressured, to adhere to and support. These work to maintain an overall system of gender inequality – that is, the power men as a group have over women as a group – and they also help to drive violence against women. Men who form rigid attachments to the norms and expectations of masculinity are more likely to demonstrate sexist attitudes and behaviours and to perpetrate violence against women – especially when their masculinity is challenged or when they find it difficult to live up to these standards. Men who experience social discrimination and disadvantage may also rely on dominant forms of masculinity, including expressions of aggression and violence, to assert some measure of control or power in their lives. These norms and behaviours of masculinity are central to male peer relationships and can provide ways for men to relate to each other and demonstrate or ‘prove’ their manhood. They are often promoted and maintained in a range of sites and settings. This includes settings in which large groups of men engage, such as male-dominated workplaces or settings where violence and aggression are commonly supported, legitimised and explicitly associated with masculinity – the military or highcontact sports, for example. It is therefore necessary to unpack and challenge these dominant forms of masculinity in order to help prevent violence against women. The research points to and outlines a number of promising approaches, both for the broader prevention work that aims to address masculinities and for initiatives that seek to directly engage men and boys. The review provides an overview of key programs and initiatives as highlighted in the literature and examines the specific strategies and approaches commonly employed by policy makers and practitioners. Many of these are education-based, and are delivered through direct participation programs and curriculums and through media campaigns and initiatives. These aim to increase men’s awareness, encourage reflection, and build their knowledge of and capacity to actively challenge dominant forms of masculinity to help prevent violence against women. The review suggests that well-designed programs and initiatives that effectively engage men and boys to reflect on and challenge dominant forms of masculinity can contribute to the reduction and prevention of violence against women. It notes the limitations of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and advocates for the use of multiple strategies across all different levels of society. It also recommends a range of different and tailored strategies be used to engage different groups of men in ways that are meaningful and relevant to those audiences. Further, it highlights a number of key settings and contexts that offer opportunities to engage men or boys in different ways – for example, in education, in sports settings, in workplaces, or in men’s roles as fathers. For men who experience structural/social discrimination and disadvantage, strategies should be community-driven, culturally relevant and should avoid alienating these men and/or reinforcing the structures and discourses of discrimination that impact them. The review notes that to date, few initiatives have been comprehensively evaluated. There is a lack of up-to-date data that measures the effectiveness of initiatives which seek to engage men and boys in prevention efforts, particularly in an Australian context. An increased focus on evaluation to measure and monitor the impact of this work is critical. 

Melbourne: Our Watch, 2025. 126p.

By Timothy Cubitt, Sarah Napier and Rick Brown

The live streaming of child sexual abuse (CSA) is a technologically and financially enabled crime type which has proliferated in recent years. This study uses a machine learning approach to produce a proof of concept model for identifying the financial indicators associated with CSA live streaming. This model was successful at identifying those who live streamed child sexual abuse, while making few errors in identifying those who did not. Seven financial risk indicators were identified. Six risk indicators centred on the value of transactions, and one on the age of the individual making the transactions. These findings reveal an important opportunity to use financial transactions as an avenue for detecting and disrupting CSA live streaming.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 718.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2025. 18p.

By the Council to Homeless Persons

Family violence is the single biggest driver of homelessness for women, young people and children in Victoria. In 2022–23, across the state, 54% of all women, young people and children who visited a Specialist Homelessness Service reported that they were also experiencing family violence. For nearly 4 in 10 women, young people and children visiting the homelessness sector, family violence was the primary driver of homelessness.

This report establishes an evidence base regarding the extent to which people experiencing homelessness and family violence are moving between these two sectors, explores existing guidelines and frameworks that affect the way the sectors intersect, provides an in-depth consultation report and offers recommendations for change to enable improved outcomes for clients experiencing homelessness and family violence.

It seeks to understand:

1. The extent to which victim survivors of family violence seeking crisis accommodation are being referred between the homelessness and family violence sectors and back, without receiving the service they are requesting.

2. The barriers faced by victim survivors in accessing crisis accommodation, which leads to multiple referrals.

3. Examples of good practice that can be built on to better support victim survivors of family violence seeking crisis accommodation.

The report makes a series of recommendations to better respond to family violence and homelessness, including:

• Build 7,990 new and additional social homes every year for 10 years.

• Additional investment in Safe at Home-type programs to prevent women, young people, and children from entering into homelessness.

• Prevent homelessness by enabling renters to stay in their homes.

• nvest in perpetrator interventions to reduce the impact of men’s family violence.

• Invest in systems where Lived Experience leads.

Melbourne: Council to Homeless Persons 2025, 121p.

By The Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)

The conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia started in November 2020 between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), with involvement from Eritrean military forces who were called into to support Ethiopian armed forces, and numerous ethno-regional militia groups notably from the Amhara and Afar regions of Ethiopia. The conflict was marked by widespread and severe forms of conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence as well as other human rights violations by all parties, some of which amount to crimes under international law.1

Following the signature of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) in November 2022 by the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF, violence continued, including widespread and severe sexual and reproductive violence along ethnic-political lines across regions by military actors.2 As the conflict unfolded, both the United Nations (U.N.) and the African Union (AU) established independent investigative mechanisms to document atrocities and preserve evidence for future justice and accountability processes.3 However, both mechanisms were prematurely shuttered, without investigators even being allowed into the country, after successful lobbying by the Ethiopian government to defer to national mechanisms, including the transitional justice process outlined in the CoHA.4 The decision to shut down these investigative bodies, and with their termination, the end of any impartial investigation into violation of international law, occurred despite the assessment by the U.N. and other actors. These assessments found that the consultative process undertaken in developing the transitional justice process, as well as the implementation, does not align with AU or international transitional justice standards.5 Notably, the process also lacks a survivor-centered approach, meaningful engagement with affected communities, or mechanisms to hold all perpetrator groups accountable, in violation of key international and regional standards on credible transitional justice processes.6 More recently the lack of openness of the transitional justice process to those seeking genuine accountability has been demonstrated by the Ethiopian government’s suspension of five human rights groups.7The lack of timely and meaningful justice for crimes committed in Tigray raised the alarm that instability and further atrocities would be perpetrated in other regions of Ethiopia.

Washington, DC:  The Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) 2025. 88p,

By Han‐Wei Ho, et al.

Utilizing a comprehensive panel dataset spanning from 1900 to 2020, this study introduces an innovative methodology for the analysis and categorization of legal documents, specifically national constitutions. Contrary to the predominant reliance on unsupervised methods within the field, this research incorporates a supervised machine-learning approach, notably the SEMMS method, alongside traditional unsupervised algorithms. This dual approach facilitates a nuanced analysis of the human rights provisions contained within national constitutions, resulting in the identification of both traditional and novel constitutional groupings. Broadly speaking, the more traditional common law-civil law divide does not seem particularly relevant in this context. Furthermore, our methodology enables the examination of “switchers”—nations transitioning between groupings— thereby shedding light on critical moments of constitutional reclassification. By pinpointing the key variables that delineate these groupings and transitions, our findings not only complement previous scholarly insights but also unveil unique patterns of constitutional evolution. The implications of our research extend beyond constitutional studies, offering valuable insights and methodological advancements for the analysis of extensive legal corpora across various domains. 

Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis 2024, Vol. 1(2) 255–273 

By Human Rights Watch

In recent years, criminal groups have expanded their influence across Peru. Homicides have more than doubled since 2018, with contract killings and extortion reaching record highs. Illegal mining has increased, leading to pollution of rivers in the Amazon and driving violence against human rights defenders and Indigenous leaders. Congress in Cahoots details how Peru’s Congress has undermined judicial independence and weakened prosecutors’ ability to investigate and dismantle organized crime groups—including those responsible for environmental destruction. It also documents failures by the administration of President Dina Boluarte to respond effectively to Congress’ attacks on the rule of law and to the expanding influence of organized crime. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) should urge Peru, currently trying to become a member of the organization, to implement meaningful reforms as a condition of membership. Peruvian authorities should uphold the rule of law, restore judicial independence, and protect civil society groups. Peruvians deserve a Congress and executive branch that work to ensure their rights, including to be safe from violence by organized crime groups.  

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2025.. 48p.

By Human Rights Watch

Over 4 million Myanmar nationals are currently in Thailand, nearly half of whom are undocumented, facing the constant threat of harassment, arrest, and deportation. Many have entered Thailand since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, amid surging abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, by the military junta. “I’ll Never Feel Secure” examines the situation for Myanmar nationals in Thailand since the coup. While many are refugees under international law, Thailand has not recognized them as such, leaving limited ways in which they can regularize their status. Undocumented Myanmar nationals struggle to cope without legal security or permission to work and live in fear of being returned to repression, conflict, and a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. Thailand not only does not recognize refugees as such, but the limited measures it has in place for “protected persons” are effectively closed to most Myanmar nationals. As a result, many Myanmar nationals in Thailand, including children, have no legal access to basic health care, education, or work. The reality for many is self-imposed house arrest to avoid the constant risk of extortion, not only from random encounters with Thai police, but also from the semi-formal systems Thai security personnel use to extract money from undocumented migrants. The report calls on the Thai government to introduce accessible legal residency and work authorization for Myanmar nationals, including refugee status for those who qualify. At a minimum, the government should adopt a “temporary protection framework” for Myanmar nationals that will stop the endemic exploitation and extortion made possible because of their lack of immigration status.   

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2025. 54p.

By Human Rights Watch

Since January 2025, the United States government has dramatically expanded immigration detention in Florida, detaining thousands of immigrants—many without criminal convictions—in overcrowded, unsanitary, and abusive conditions. This report documents serious human rights violations at three detention centers in South Florida as detention numbers have increased: the Krome North Service Processing Center, the Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Miami. Detainees described being shackled for hours on buses, confined in freezing, overcrowded cells without bedding or access to hygiene, denied essential medical and mental health care, and subjected to degrading treatment by guards. Women were held in male-only facilities without access to gender-appropriate care or privacy. The subpar medical care may have been linked to two deaths, one at Krome and one at BTC. The report is based on interviews with eleven currently and recently detained individuals, some of which took place at Krome and BTC; family members of seven detainees; and immigration lawyers, as well as data analysis. It finds that the conditions in these facilities flagrantly violated international human rights standards and the United States government’s own immigration detention regulations. The abuses documented—ranging from denial of medical care to punitive isolation and excessive use of force—amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Human Rights Watch calls on the US government to end the use of immigration detention as a default response, terminate harmful state-federal enforcement agreements, ensure international and national detention standards are upheld, and guarantee rigorous oversight and accountability.  

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2025. 98p.

By Ruiz-Ramírez, Carlos, Castillo-Rojas-Marcos, Juan, Molinero-Gerbeau, Yoan

The EU’s agricultural sector depends on migrant labour from more recently acceded member states, non-EU European countries, and non-European countries. A study of literature covering Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden shows the broad range of problems faced by millions of migrant workers who keep Europe fed. The work is hard, days often long – and employers and intermediaries can be exploitative. Migrants can either be hired after they arrive or in their country of origin. For the latter, in order to pay lower wages and/or maintain deliberate demographic selection criteria (based on gender, origin, migration status, etc.), some employers work through intermediaries to hire ‘posted workers’. Not only do these migrants often pay to be hired, but they may also find their pay reduced further to cover private health insurance when they begin working, because they are not covered by social insurance in the country they work in. In terms of spontaneous arrivals of migrants, although a large proportion of labour is from the newest EU members, such as Romania and Bulgaria, there is a large range of nationalities represented, among which there is also a significant part of irregular migrants who do not come from the EU, i.e., those without valid paperwork to be in the country. For the latter, a work contract, even with unfair/unethical/exploitative conditions, is one of the only ways to regularize their status in Europe and obtain authorized residence in most European countries. This gives some employers greater leverage over them, and thus more opportunity to exploit them. Additionally, those holding short-term seasonal work permits face substantial challenges due to the conditions and terms of their permits and recruitment processes. Similarly, undocumented migrants find themselves in an even more precarious position, heavily dependent on their employers due to limited opportunities to regularize their status and access decent work. Wages for staff are low, in some cases below the local minimum wage. A common tactic for underpaying migrants is to deduct the cost of basic needs such as accommodation, food and mandatory protective equipment from wages, often at inflated prices. Migrants also face delayed payments, the denial of payment, or unpaid overtime. However, workers are unlikely to complain due to fear of reprisals, ranging from being further denied work or pay, to dismissal. For those undertaking piecework, the incentive to self-exploit has serious health consequences. Housing arrangements vary. For those living on-site, provisions tend to be very basic: migrants often lodge inside cramped containers. Those who do not live on site often live in makeshift shantytowns nearby, without access to electricity, running water or other basic infrastructure. Those without an official address, cannot register with a clinic, and thus cannot access healthcare services. The remoteness of farms can make access to shops and other services difficult, and transport can be prohibitively expensive. Without appropriate translation of safety instructions and, in many cases, the provision of legally required safety equipment, migrants are put at risk. For example, 20 workers were poisoned by phytosanitary products in Italy; and a Nicaraguan worker in Murcia, Spain, died after working 11 hours in 44ºC heat without being provided water. In some cases, employers use violence against their staff, including forcing them to remain silent about workplace abuses, confiscation of personal documents and sexual assault. In some cases, migrants’ frustrations with their exploitation have led to acts of resistance. However, in most cases, employers have tended to simply replace their workforces for subsequent seasons, as a form of ‘union busting’ in the face of such resistance. Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused the plight of migrant agricultural workers to enter the news in some countries, their ‘essential worker’ status did not result in any actual improvement in their treatment.  

Nairobi: Oxfam International, 2024. 73p.