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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.