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Children’s Rights Child Soldier Global Report 2008 Summary The Child Soldier Global Report documents military recruitment legislation, policy and practice in more than 190 countries worldwide – in conflict and in peacetime armies – as well as child soldier use by non-state armed groups. This summary provides an overview of facts and figures. May 20, 2008 Printer friendly version Executive Summary: The Rest of Their Lives Life without Parole for Youth Offenders in the United States in 2008 In this update to Human Rights Watch’s work on eliminating the sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders, a number of findings are presented that illustrate the troublesome nature of the sentence and how it is applied to youthful offenders. Among those findings are that the United States is alone in the world in applying this harsh sentence to juveniles, that an estimated 59 percent of youth who receive the sentence had no prior adjudications or convictions, and that there are currently nearly 2,500 offenders who are serving life without parole for crimes committed while they were a juvenile. Additionally, data reveal that there are stark racial disparities in the imposition of the sentence, with black youth serving life without parole at a per capita rate that is 10 times the rate of white youth. May 13, 2008 Coercion and Intimidation of Child Soldiers to Participate in Violence Child soldiers are often compelled by their commanders to engage in combat operations, participate in human rights abuses against civilians, and carry out punishments against fellow soldiers under threat of severe punishment or execution. In this backgrounder, Human Rights Watch describes methods of coercion and intimidation used against child soldiers serving in armed conflicts in Angola, Burma, Colombia, Liberia, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. April 16, 2008 Discrimination against Ethnic Nepali Children in Bhutan Submission from Human Rights Watch to the Committee on the Rights of the Child In this submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Human Rights Watch provided information to the Committee on violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Bhutanese government against ethnic Nepali children in Bhutan and Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. October 3, 2007 The Omar Khadr Case A Teenager Imprisoned at Guantanamo In this backgrounder, Human Rights Watch said that although Khadr was just 15 when he was arrested, the United States has completely ignored his juvenile status throughout his detention. The US government incarcerated him with adults, reportedly subjected him to abusive interrogations, failed to provide him any educational opportunities, and denied him any direct contact with his family. June 1, 2007 Violence against Child Domestic Workers Violence against Child Domestic Workers Physical Abuse Sexual Harassment and Assault Psychological Abuse Forced Labor Trafficking Recommendations February 20, 2007 Printer friendly version A Long Way from Home: FNL Child Soldiers in Burundi During the thirteen years of civil war in Burundi, children were recruited and used as combatants and general help by all sides in the conflict. But the one rebel group that continues to fight against the government, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), continues to use children as combatants and for various logistical duties; the Burundian government is detaining rather than rehabilitating former child soldiers associated with FNL. June 16, 2006 Also available in 
Printer friendly version Ecuador: Petition Regarding Ecuador's Eligibility for ATPA Designation September 2005 In September 2003 and September 2004, Human Rights Watch argued for partial or total suspension of tariff benefits when we submitted Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) petitions to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). In those petitions, we detailed Ecuador’s failure to meet the ATPA and ATPDEA workers’ rights criteria. However, USTR has yet to rule on these petitions, and Ecuador has made little progress in addressing the violations of workers’ rights that we identified. This petition serves to reinforce and update our prior petitions, particularly our September 2004 submission. September 19, 2005 Recruitment of Ex-Child Soldiers in Cote d’Ivoire Liberians interviewed by Human Rights Watch in towns and villages close to the Ivorian border described two periods of intense recruitment: in October, just prior to an Ivorian government offensive against the rebel-held north, and in the beginning of March, in anticipation—according to their reports—of future attacks on rebel-held positions. All four mid-level commanders and one of the children said they were actively involved in recruiting other Liberians, most of whom had fought in the recently ended Liberian civil war (1999-2003). They said numerous Liberian children who had not previously fought in any war had also been recruited and recently crossed into Côte d’Ivoire to fight. According to their reports, the Liberians are being recruited from the south-eastern counties of Grand Gedeh, River Gee, and Maryland – areas which border government controlled areas of Côte d’Ivoire. March 30, 2005 Printer friendly version Child Domestics: The World's Invisible Workers A Human Rights Watch Backgrounder Child domestic workers are nearly invisible among child laborers. They work alone in individual households, hidden from public scrutiny, their lives controlled by their employers. Child domestics, nearly all girls, work long hours for little or no pay. Many have no opportunity to go to school, or are forced to drop out because of the demands of their job. They are subject to verbal and physical abuse, and particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. They may be fired for small infractions, losing not only their jobs, but their place of residence as well. June 10, 2004 Printer friendly version Liberia: Greater Protection Required for Civilians Still at Risk This information is based on interviews conducted by a Human Rights Watch researcher in Liberia from August 23 - September 9, 2003. The interviews were conducted in Monrovia and Buchanan with displaced persons, child soldiers, rape victims, and humanitarian and human rights workers, among others. September 9, 2003 The Regional Crisis and Human Rights Abuses in West Africa A Briefing Paper to the U.N. Security Council The United Nations Security Council's mission to the West African region comes at a critical juncture. There have been some significant positive developments in the region in the past year, namely progress in the restoration of peace and accountability in Sierra Leone. At the same time, the West African sub-region has experienced two serious setbacks: the outbreak of conflict in Côte d'Ivoire and the resurgence of the Liberian war. June 20, 2003 Printer friendly version The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders Briefing to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights Human Rights Watch calls on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to condemn the execution of juvenile offenders in those few states that retain the practice in an omnibus children's resolution, a resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions, and any resolution on the death penalty. The Commission should clearly state that the imposition of the death penalty on juvenile offenders is expressly prohibited by international human rights treaties and that the prohibition on such executions is so widely observed that it has attained the status of a peremptory norm of international law. February 14, 2003 Briefing to the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the Special Envoy for the Abducted Children in Northern Uganda Human Rights Watch calls on the Commission on Human Rights to request the Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy for Northern Uganda with a mandate to work for the release into safety of children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. We urge the Commission to make this request through its resolution on the abduction of children from Northern Uganda (most recently E/CN.4/Res/2002/53). February 14, 2003 Labor Rights and Trade: Guidance for the United States in Trade Accord Negotiations Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper Free trade alone cannot ensure greater respect for workers' rights nor prevent millions of people from being excluded from the benefits of globalization. Human Rights Watch believes that measures to protect workers' rights should be built into trade agreements to ensure that globalization does not come at the expense of human rights. October 30, 2002 Child Labor in Agriculture In investigations in Egypt, Ecuador, India, and the United States, Human Rights Watch has found that the children working in agriculture are endangered and exploited on a daily basis. Human Rights Watch found that despite the vast differences among these four countries, many of the risks and abuses faced by child agricultural workers were strikingly similar. June 11, 2002 Questions and Answers on the UN Special Session on Children The United States and the Rights of Children What is the UN General Assembly Special Session for Children? What does Human Rights Watch hope the session will accomplish? What role has the United States taken during these negotiations? Why is the Convention on the Rights of the Child important to the Special Session? Why hasn't the United States ratified the Convention? May 2, 2002 Child Soldiers and the West Asian Crisis Amidst the intensive coverage of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the west’s preparations for a military response, there have been suggestions in the media that Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaida organisation may have recruited and trained children for military actions. CNN, for instance, carried archive footage purportedly taken from a training camp in which boys who appeared to be 10 or 11 were participating in military training exercises with Al Qaida fighters. September 27, 2001 The Pastrana-Bush Summit When Colombian President Andrés Pastrana meets with President George W. Bush next Tuesday (February 27), the two leaders will discuss U.S. military aid to Colombia, including the issue of Colombia's progress on improving human rights. This background briefing outlines the key human rights problems in Colombia and includes sample questions to be put to the two presidents at their joint press conference. February 19, 2001 Rwanda - President Paul Kagame's Washington Visit President Paul Kagame will be in Washington today to present his government's program of democratization, justice and reconciliation. He and his supporters claim substantial progress in restoring a nation devastated by a genocide that killed at least half a million Tutsi and thousands of Hutu opponents of the genocide. In fact, the situation is less impressive than it seems and any advances on the domestic front must also be put in the context of the government's record of egregious violations of the laws of war. February 1, 2001 |
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