During the 2011 air campaign in Libya, NATO aircraft attacked targets at the Mizdah military depot south of Tripoli a total of 56 times between April and July, creating an extensive explosive remnants of war (ERW) problem. Human Rights Watch has confirmed two deaths and seven injuries from ERW in six separate incidents at the Mizdah depot between August and December 2011. Almost all the ERW casualties were local residents of Mizdah, who were visiting the site to collect scrap metal or inspect the damaged facilities. The NATO alliance has recently taken some steps to provide strike data from the 2011 combat operation in Libya. This information will facilitate survey, clearance, and risk education.

The Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has been working to convert Saadiyat Island into an international tourist destination, with access to universities, museums, as well as golf courses, hotels, and luxury residences. Based on interviews, Human Rights Watch found that in spite of commitments by both the developers and their foreign partners to take steps to avoid abuse of migrant workers on Saadiyat Island, and in spite of some improvements in the working conditions of migrant workers, abuses are continuing. Workers continue to report indebtedness for recruitment fees paid to obtain their jobs in the UAE. Workers also reported a lack of or misleading information, illegal salary deductions, in some instances overcrowded and unhygienic housing conditions. Contrary to commitments of the developers, only one worker of the 47 interviewed reported that he retained custody of his passport, while the rest said that their employers retained their passports. Human Rights Watch urges developers and their foreign partners to do more to ensure that adequate accountability measures are put in place to protect migrant workers.

The government of Azerbaijan has forcibly evicted homeowners and demolished their homes for urban development projects in the capital of Baku. Dozens of families have been evicted from the neighborhood where the arena for the May 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is being built. Human Rights Watch has documented the authorities’ illegal expropriation of properties and forcible evictions of dozens of families in four Baku neighborhoods, at times without warning or in the middle of the night. The authorities subsequently demolished homes, sometimes with residents’ possessions inside. The government has refused to provide homeowners fair compensation for the properties, many of which are in highly desirable locations even though Azerbaijani law stipulates that market value should be paid in compensation for a forced sale. In many cases, including in the National Flag Square area, the government has cut services or begun dismantling apartment buildings in which some residents remained. These measures make the buildings uninhabitable and compel residents to leave.

Aging men and women are the most rapidly growing group in US prisons, and prison officials are hard-pressed to provide them appropriate housing and medical care. Human Rights Watch has found that the number of state and federal prisoners age 65 or older grew at 15 times the rate of the overall prison population between 2007 and 2010. Among the reasons for the increase are long (including life) sentences that reflect “tough-on-crime” policies. Many older prisoners remain incarcerated even though they are too old and infirm to threaten public safety if released. Unless sentencing and release policies change, US prisons will increasingly resemble old age homes behind bars.