• Maash Hussein Abikar shows scars left by Kenyan soldiers when he was beaten with a gun butt during a round-up of ethnic Somalis in Wajir in December 2011. He also lost two teeth and now has blurry vision in one eye as a result of the beating.
    © 2012 Human Rights Watch
    Kenya: Investigate Security Force Abuses Against Ethnic Somalis
    The Kenyan security forces have committed widespread human rights abuses against ethnic Somalis with total impunity. Between November 2011 and March 2012, Kenyan police and soldiers arbitrarily arrested and mistreated Kenyan citizens and Somali refugees in North Eastern province in response to attacks by militants suspected of links to Somalia’s Islamist armed movement al-Shabaab.
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Reports

Africa

  • DR Congo: Bosco Ntaganda Recruits Children by Force
    May 15, 2012
    Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who mutinied against the Democratic Republic of Congo in early April 2012, has forcibly recruited at least 149 boys and young men into his forces since April 19. Ntaganda, a former rebel leader turned army general, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes for previous recruitment and use of child soldiers.
  • Africa: Fugitives Take Note - Justice Can Be Done
    May 15, 2012

    Liberia's "big man" surely thought he'd enjoy a comfortable retirement when he left power back in 2003. But on April 26 the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity, proving that even the most powerful aren't immune from justice

  • Jordan: Don’t Deport Eritrean Refugees to Yemen
    May 15, 2012
    Jordanian authorities are about to deport nine detained Eritrean refugees, including a 7-year-old girl, to Yemen where they risk indefinite detention and possibly deportation to persecution in Eritrea. Jordan should allow the group to remain in Jordan and give the United Nations refugee agency access to the refugees.
  • Uganda: Draft Public Order Law Would Violate Rights
    May 11, 2012
    The Uganda parliament should significantly revise the draft Public Order Management bill, which would drastically restrict freedom of assembly and expression. Despite pressure from the executive to pass the bill in its current form, key recommendations from parliament’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee should be used to guide revisions before the bill is presented for a vote.
  • If Charles Taylor Can Be Tried for War Crimes, Why Not Kissinger?
    May 10, 2012

    Should Vladimir Putin be studying the conviction of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president? What about Henry Kissinger? The verdict marked the first time since the post–World War II Nuremberg trials that a former head of state has been convicted by an international tribunal of war crimes and crimes against humanity. What may be of more lasting significance, however, is that Taylor was not convicted for oppressing his own people—though he did that as well—but for his material support to abusive forces in another country. In that respect, the decision speaks not just to tinpot dictators but to leaders of countries who fight proxy wars by knowingly giving client states or rebel allies the means to commit atrocities. 

  • In Talks, Former Gbagbo Party Omits Côte d’Ivoire’s Victims
    May 8, 2012
    Les pourparlers de réconciliation tant attendus entre la coalition des partis au pouvoir dirigée par le président Alassane Ouattara et les partis d’opposition se sont, dans l’ensemble, achevés comme ils avaient commencé : le Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI) a indiqué qu’il ne participera au dialogue politique qu’à condition que Laurent Gbagbo et d’autres anciens dirigeants du parti en détention soient libérés. Ces conditions préalables révèlent le mépris de l’élite politique du FPI pour les milliers de victimes d’actes souvent atroces de violence politique.
  • Equatorial Guinea: Opposition Figure Wrongly Convicted
    May 7, 2012

    The conviction of a prominent member of Equatorial Guinea’s beleaguered political opposition is a travesty of justice. A trial court in the city of Bata found Wenceslao Mansogo Alo, a medical doctor, guilty of professional negligence and sentenced him to three years in prison in a politically motivated trial.

  • Nigeria: Show Commitment on Child Lead Poisoning
    May 6, 2012
    High-level Nigerian government participation is needed at an upcoming international conference to make progress in ending a lead poisoning epidemic among children in Zamfara State, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • You Can’t Correct a Wrong with a Wrong
    May 5, 2012
    On a sizzling Saturday in January, I visited the home of Dakan G., down a dusty path off the main gravel road running through Wajir, at the heart of Kenya’s North Eastern province. Dakan’s grandchildren milled around outside the tukul’s narrow entryway. Her daughter lingered in the doorway.
  • Burundi: Effort to Block a Report About Political Killings
    May 4, 2012
    The Burundian Interior Minister ordered Human Rights Watch to cancel a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura, on May 2, 2012, that was planned to release a report on political violence in Burundi. The police also ordered Human Rights Watch to stop distribution of the report in Burundi.
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