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PODCAST

Rights & Wrongs

Human Rights Watch

Rights & Wrongs is a bi-monthly podcast from Human Rights Watch. It explores stories from the places where abuses are unfolding around the world, through the eyes and ears of the people on the frontlines. Human Rights Watch investigators span the globe and work in more than 100 countries, producing dozens of meticulously researched reports every year. Host, Ngofeen Mputubwele, takes listeners behind the scenes of these in-depth investigations. Go to hrw.org to find out more about our investigations

news documentary

All Episodes

43:37

The Texture of LGBT Progress

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/12/01

The rights of LGBT people are on the chopping block across the world, with new countries criminalizing same-sexpractices 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 localadvocate DédéOetomocharts the trajectory of

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25:31

Rerun: The Chalk Bicycle

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/11/24

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

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28:13

Rerun: Protesting a Dictatorship in a Dictatorship

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/11/17

In the early aughts, a campaign to “Save Sudan” becamethebipartisan 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

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34:06

ICE Detention: Forced to Eat Like a Dog Out of a Bowl

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/11/03

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

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30:30

From Nazis to Late Night: Why Free Speech Matters

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/10/20

In 1977, American Nazis fought for the right to march in Skokie, Illinois—a town filled with Holocaust survivors—and won.Nearly fiftyyears later, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended for jokes the government says went too far. What connects these moments? HostNgofeenMputubweletalks 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

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28:16

Hunted From Above

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/10/06

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

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34:26

Loaded Gun Recap: El Salvador, the Alien Enemies Act,...

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/09/22

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

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30:26

“Why Are You Gay?” -- From Viral Clip to...

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/07/14

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

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32:00

From Mass Graves to Mass Incarceration: Recap

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/06/30

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

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26:37

Duterte in the Dock: A Landmark Arrest

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/06/16

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

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30:54

One Authoritarian's Playbook

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/06/02

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

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29:23

The Loaded Gun

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/05/19

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

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29:46

Break the Chains

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/05/05

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

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29:51

Shipbreaking Updated: The Most Dangerous Job in the...

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/03/24

Shipbreaking Updated: The Most Dangerous Job in the WorldIn 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

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37:26

Congo: The Real-Life ‘Vibranium’ Wars

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/03/10

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 killingcivilians, and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents. Host Ngofeen Mputubwele, whose family hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, talks with two very special

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34:46

Why Do People Move?

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/02/24

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,

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26:29

Sportswashing Explained

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/02/10

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

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29:53

Can the ICC Survive 2025?

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/01/27

The International Criminal Court(ICC)was created to try the worst crimes in the world –war crimes,crimes against humanity,genocide.Established in 1998 followingthebrutalcivil war in Yugoslavia and genocideinRwanda,the ICChasindicted 63suspects.Allofthecourt’s 125 membercountriesareobligated to arrestthese suspectsshould they set foot in their territory, but thearrest warrants againstRussian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuare testingmember states’resolve. And

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28:53

A Year of Reckoning, World Report 2025

Rights & Wrongs ·

2025/01/13

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

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40:27

"The Sacrifice Zone," Redux - According to AI

Rights & Wrongs ·

2024/12/02

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

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32 results

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