Our grant to Human Rights Watch (HRW) supported women’s rights. For more than 25 years, Human Rights Watch has defended human rights worldwide by extensively publicising examples of abuse. It works in over 70 countries, dealing comprehensively with cases of severe repression or abusive war. By speaking with victims and witnesses, HRW investigators expose the atrocities that governments and abusive forces try to hide. Their reports on these atrocities, widely seen as reliable, timely and incisive, are covered by press and media around the world. HRW builds pressure on abusive forces to respect human rights by shaming them before their public and peers; enlisting the diplomatic and economic support of influential governments and institutions and, in extreme cases, seeking their prosecution before national and international tribunals.

Since 1990, women’s rights have been a central part of HRW’s work. HRW believes that violence and discrimination against women are global, social epidemics and rejects all cultural relativist defences of them. Our funding will help HRW to continue its empirical research into the persecution of women as well as its more practical fight to end the dehumanisation of women through fact gathering, press releases, advocacy and lobbying.

In 2006, we committed a further $5 million to help expand the Women's Rights Division. Among other things, this will fund more work in Africa and research on religious justifications for discrimination against women.