Human Rights Watch is launching a new application for Apple's iPad on January 20, 2011, making it a pioneer among human rights groups in offering its reports, articles, videos, and photographs through an iPad app. Users can download the app free from Apple's App Store. “The iPad app gives Human Rights Watch a new platform to focus attention on human rights abuses so that we can generate pressure for positive change,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “It's an innovative way to give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes.” The Human Rights Watch for iPad app delivers the week's most pressing global human rights news as well as the organization's in-depth reports, allowing users to learn more about current challenges and opportunities to create change. The “latest news” section is regularly updated, ensuring that viewers have the most current information possible. As Human Rights Watch reports can range from 30 to 120 pages, the app was created to enhance long-form reading. Reports include features enabling viewers to take notes, bookmark pages, and share excerpts on Facebook. Viewers will be able to watch original videos, listen to podcasts with Human Rights Watch researchers, and swipe through pictures taken in the field by award-winning photographers. The app will allow anyone instant access to multiple reports wherever they go – whether tourists abroad or journalists in the field. Users will be able to make a donation from the app. The app was developed by Electric Publisher, an independent digital publisher, and designed by Zago for Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights around the world. Human Rights Watch conducts investigations and presses for an end to human rights abuses in more than 90 countries, among them some of the most dangerous and oppressed places on Earth. “The streamlined, easy-to-use design makes it easy to keep up on human rights developments,” Roth said. “It's a new way to give our supporters a comprehensive view of our work around the world.” Download the app here or search under “human rights” in Apple's App Store. Be sure to download the app in advance of the 2011 World Report – an essential, comprehensive volume summarizing key human rights issues in more than 90 countries worldwide to be released on January 24. HRW
