Kyle Knight
Human Rights Watch
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Kyle:
American Bar Association Backs Intersex Autonomy
The American Bar Association (ABA), a membership organization for attorneys in the United States that develops professional ethics codes, has issued a resolution supporting the rights of children with intersex traits to consent to surgeries. → Read More
Uzbekistan’s Proposed Medical Testing Law Violates Basic Rights
Uzbekistan’s Internal Ministry has proposed a regressive new law that would require police to conduct mandatory testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, as part of police raids on venues where “dangerous groups” gather or live as well as those suspected of having close contact with them. → Read More
US Health Agency Undermines Equity in Covid-19 Policy
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has rolled out new Covid-19 guidelines that undermine the right to health in the United States and send a worrying signal that a leading health authority will no longer consider protecting marginalized groups from illness and death. → Read More
Polish Court Rejects Case Against ‘LGBT-Free Zones’ Activist
A court in the Polish city of Rzeszów has thrown out a case against Bartosz Staszewski, an LGBT rights activist who was being sued by the Niebylec commune for defamation. → Read More
New Covid-19 Death Count Should Prompt Stronger Action
Nearly 15 million people have died either directly or indirectly from Covid-19 in the past two years, new data from the World Health Organization shows. Human rights failures underly this devastating death toll. Authorities have the knowledge, technology, and tools to prevent infections and deaths, but widespread policy failures are prolonging the pandemic and exacerbating its effects. → Read More
UN Body Condemns Sri Lanka’s Criminalization of Same-Sex Acts
In a major judgment issued this week, a United Nations treaty body called on Sri Lanka’s government to repeal its law criminalizing adult, consensual same-sex conduct – including between women. → Read More
Stop Conflating Covid-19 Vaccine Access with ‘Hesitancy’
Many of the conditions that deter or prevent people from getting vaccinated are also classic barriers to wider healthcare access, which governments have a human rights obligation to address. But widespread inappropriate or inaccurate uses of “vaccine hesitancy” can obscure those obligations, ignoring the underlying problems and undermining the right to health. → Read More
India’s Medical Curriculum Gets LGBTI Update
India’s National Medical Commission has ordered publishers and medical schools to edit their textbooks and curricula to exclude discriminatory and unscientific portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. → Read More
Protest Demands End to Harmful Surgeries on Intersex Children
Protesters picketed a private institution part of the New York Presbyterian Hospital system, earlier this month, demanding the hospital cease medically unnecessary surgeries on children born with intersex traits. → Read More
Global Covid-19 Vaccine Equity Should Get a ‘Booster’ Too
The race for boosters is another chapter in the sordid story of global vaccine shortages and inequities. → Read More
New York City Hospitals Prohibit Unnecessary Intersex Surgeries
New York City Health & Hospitals, the largest public healthcare system in the United States, has instituted a policy to defer all medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children. The move is a major boost for Intersex rights following City Council legislation earlier this year that mandates public education on the issue. → Read More
'X' Passports in US Mark Shift Toward Respecting Gender Diversity
The new policy will allow applicants to select “X” for non-binary or unspecified, meaning the US joins a dozen other countries – from Canada to Malta to Nepal – that recognize more than two genders on their passports. → Read More
An International Pandemic Treaty Should Center on Human Rights
The proposed International Pandemic Treaty could be undermined by political posturing and national protectionism—or it could be an opportunity to chart a different global future based on human rights. → Read More
New York City Government Votes to Promote Intersex Rights
New legislation in New York City mandates the city’s health department to develop educational materials about how so-called “normalizing” surgeries on children born with variations in their sex characteristics are medically unnecessary and risk lifelong harms. → Read More
How to Chart an Equitable Exit from the Pandemic
Today marks World Health Day with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling for increased government investment and cooperation to tackle global health inequities. → Read More
77 Lashes for a Gay Couple in Indonesia
Authorities in Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly flogged two gay men 77 times each on Thursday after a vigilante mob raided their apartment in November, allegedly caught them having sex, and handed them over to the police. → Read More
Netherlands Apologizes for Transgender Sterilizations
The Dutch government has apologized to transgender people for previously mandating surgeries, including sterilization, as a prerequisite for legal gender recognition. Government officials also announced plans to compensate people who underwent the operations. → Read More
First US Hospital Pledges to End Intersex Surgeries
A children’s hospital in Chicago is the first hospital in the United States to publicly apologize for the harm it caused intersex people. → Read More
Russia Should Repeal No-Women Jobs List
A transgender woman in St. Petersburg, Russia has won a final court battle with a former employer who fired her in 2017 after she changed her legal gender. → Read More
When Will Sports Stop Policing Femininity?
In a report published this week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recommends that eligibility regulations for women athletes like those enforced by World Athletics, track and field’s global governing body, be revoked immediately. → Read More