Rights & Wrongs

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