• Barack Obama: Dump These 8 Unsavory Allies
    Commentary
    Jan 2, 2013
    If Obama wants to bolster his legacy in his second term, he can and should get tough on some of the United States' most unsavory friends and allies. Here are eight leaders to start with.
  • Ending the cycle of abuse in Congo
    Commentary
    Jan 2, 2013
    On Nov. 19, armed men from a rebel group called the M23 were looking for a prominent civil society leader in a village outside Goma, a provincial capital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He'd been in hiding for several weeks after receiving text messages threatening him for his public denunciations of M23 abuses. When the rebels didn't find him, they shot his colleague, killing him.
  • Rwanda’s Rampaging Rebel Force
    Commentary
    Dec 28, 2012

    Despite supporting a brutal rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda is about to take a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Few countries dare challenge the Security Council the way Rwanda does; even fewer get away with it. Yet on Tuesday, despite backing an abusive rebel group that has attacked U.N. peacekeepers in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda will take a two-year seat on the council.  

  • DR Congo: US Should Urge Rwanda to End M23 Support
    Press release
    Nov 20, 2012

    The United States government should publicly support sanctions against Rwandan officials backing the armed group M23, which has been responsible for widespread war crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. M23 rebels, whose commanders have been implicated in serious abuses, captured the city of Goma on November 20, 2012.

  • Human Rights Watch Submission to UK International Development Committee (IDC)
    Written statement
    Nov 16, 2012
    Human Rights Watch submission to the UK International Development Committee (IDC) inquiry on UK aid to Rwanda.
  • Relations with Rwanda must be urgently reviewed
    Commentary
    Nov 8, 2012
    The international development select committee (IDC) is questioning Andrew Mitchell on his controversial decision to disburse £8m of UK budget support to the government of Rwanda, in his final hours as international development secretary and just six weeks after deciding to withhold this support, following allegations of Rwandan military backing for the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
  • Rwanda: Eight-Year Sentence for Opposition Leader
    Press release
    Oct 30, 2012

    The guilty verdict on October 30, 2012, in the case of opposition party leader Victoire Ingabire is the culmination of a flawed trial that included politically motivated charges. The High Court in Kigali found her guilty of conspiracy to undermine the established government and denying the genocide, and sentenced her to eight years in prison.
     

  • DR Congo: M23 Rebels Committing War Crimes
    Press release
    Sep 11, 2012

    M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment. Thirty-three of those executed were young men and boys who tried to escape the rebels’ ranks.

  • Letter to World Bank Vice President for Africa On Rwanda
    Letter
    Sep 5, 2012

    I am writing to urge the World Bank to review its programing in Rwanda in light of detailed evidence of human rights abuses by the Rwandan government and the Rwandan military’s support for armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) responsible for serious human rights violations.

  • Rwanda is hindering justice for Congo's atrocity victims
    Commentary
    Jul 11, 2012

    The sentencing on Tuesday of Thomas Lubanga, a rebel leader from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was a rare victory for Congolese victims of atrocities. There have been few occasions during my 13 years of documenting abuses in Congo by Lubanga and others in which justice was done. This was one of those moments.