Fighting between the Burmese army and Kachin rebels reignited last June, displacing some 75,000 ethnic Kachin and leaving them in desperate need of food, medicine, and shelter. However, the Burmese government has blocked aid to conflict areas. Five days after Human Rights Watch released a report on the abuses in Kachin state, which borders China, the Burmese government granted the United Nations access to Kachin state’s conflict areas, allowing the United Nations to send in a couple of badly needed convoys of aid containing essential food and supplies.
Last week in Libya, Human Rights Watch witnessed the destruction of nearly 100 Chinese-made antivehicle landmines – weapons that kill or maim civilians, often children, long after the fighting has stopped.
Lubanga’s name is not as quickly recognizable as Joseph Kony’s, because of the Kony 2012 viral video that educated nearly 80 million people on the atrocities of Kony’s rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). But like Kony, Lubanga has the blood of many Congolese on his hands and is one of the most infamous present-day recruiters of child soldiers.
In October, 2011, the Obama administration said it would send 100 US military advisers to central Africa to help the region’s armies combat the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a vicious Ugandan rebel group. Human Rights Watch has pressed the US government to help bring Joseph Kony and the LRA’s murderous leadership to justice, even appealing directly to President Barack Obama.
Late in the afternoon on November 29, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo was removed from his prison cell in the dusty northern town of Korhogo and served with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He was then put aboard a plane to The Hague, where he now faces four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, and persecution.
Since its September release, our report on the drug detention centers in southern Vietnam has already compelled two major multinational companies to cut ties with these facilities—US-based Columbia Sportswear Co. and Swiss-based Verstergaard Frandsen.
The Burmese government yesterday freed at least 200 of its estimated 2,000 political prisoners. Officially, Burma denies having any such prisoners – but Human Rights Watch has worked hard to make sure these imprisoned activists weren’t forgotten. We held high-level meetings with UN and government officials visiting Burma, arming them with the evidence they used to pressure Burma into releasing these journalists, artists, and Buddhist monks.
The daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator planned to unveil her spring fashion line at New York City’s prestigious Fashion Week. But her show was canceled after Human Rights Watch and a coalition of like-minded organizations spotlighted her connection to her father’s tyrannical government.
The Convention on Domestic Violence – launched in May and so far ratified by 15 countries – calls for establishing hotlines, shelters, medical and forensic services, counseling, and legal aid services. It is designed to help the estimated 25 percent of women in the European region who experience physical or sexual abused in their lifetime.
Domestic workers -- nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers -- are some of the most exploited workers in the world. But a new international treaty has been adopted to help protect them, thanks in part to 10 years of Human Rights Watch research and advocacy. The treaty is the first of its kind.
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