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Angola “They Pushed Down the Houses” Forced Evictions and Insecure Land Tenure for Luanda’s Urban Poor This 103-page report documents 18 mass evictions in Luanda that the Angolan government carried out between 2002 and 2006. In these evictions, which affected some 20,000 people in total, security forces destroyed more than 3,000 houses, and the government seized many small-scale cultivated land plots. These large-scale evictions violated both Angolan and international human rights law, and have left many Angolans homeless and destitute with no access to a legal remedy. HRW Index No.: A1907 May 15, 2007 Also available in 
Download PDF, 750 KB, 101 pgs Purchase online Download E-Book Still Not Fully Protected Rights to Freedom of Expression and Information under Angola’s New Press Law In this 25-page report, Human Rights Watch analyses Angola’s new Press Law, which was issued in May. The report concludes that, despite improvements over previous Angolan law, the new law still contains elements that undermine press freedom. In addition, many of its crucial provisions will remain inoperable unless implementing legislation is enacted immediately. November 16, 2006 Also available in
Download PDF, 154 KB, 25 pgs Purchase online Download E-Book Coming Home Return and Reintegration in Angola This 39-page report documents how most families have returned to locations that still lack minimal social services, such as health care and education, let alone employment. Elderly and disabled persons, widows and female-headed households experience the worst shortfalls in government assistance, particularly in rural areas. HRW Index No.: A1702 March 17, 2005 Download PDF, 310 KB, 40 pgs Purchase online Angola: Child Soldier Use 2003 A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict Some child soldiers recruited during the civil war remained within the Angolan armed forces (FAA), although many will have reached the age of majority. Some under-age soldiers may remain in the FAA. January 16, 2004 Some Transparency, No Accountability The Use of Oil Revenue in Angola and Its Impact on Human Rights More than four billion dollars in state oil revenue disappeared from Angolan government coffers from 1997-2002, roughly equal to the entire sum the government spent on all social programs in the same period. Meanwhile, although the 27-year civil war ended in 2002, an estimated 900,000 Angolans are still internally displaced. Millions more have virtually no access to hospitals or schools. According to United Nations estimates, almost half of Angola’s 7.4 million children suffer from malnutrition. This 93-page report details how much money was generated by oil, how much disappeared from public coffers, and how this shortfall undermined Angolans’ civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. HRW Index No.: A1601 January 13, 2004 Download PDF, 568 KB, 95 pgs Purchase online Struggling Through Peace Return and Resettlement in Angola The Angolan government and the United Nations are failing to ensure the safe and voluntary return of millions of Angolans to their homes. This 29-page report documents several incidents of government authorities using violence, or the threat of violence, to drive people out of camps where they had been living sometimes for years. The report also raises concerns about reported incidents of rape and other sexual violence against internally displaced women and returning refugees. Hundreds of Angolan refugees have spontaneously returned to their homes since the ceasefire of April 2002, but millions of internally displaced people, refugees and ex-combatants remain in exile, in transit or in temporary resettlement sites within Angola. Rather than paying special attention to children, women, and vulnerable groups, the Angolan government has granted preference to ex-combatants for resettlement. The government has also failed to provide people with identity documents that would help them get access to humanitarian assistance, which is in any case inadequate. The report urges the Angolan government and international agencies to ensure reasonably uniform conditions in the areas to which the internally displaced, refugees, and former combatants will return, and to pay special attention to the needs of women, children and other vulnerable groups. Most importantly, the Angolan government must respect international and domestic law requiring the voluntary basis on which displaced people should be resettled. HRW Index No.: A1516 August 15, 2003 Also available in
Download PDF Purchase online Forgotten fighters: Child Soldiers in Angola Child soldiers who fought in the Angolan civil war have been excluded from demobilization programs, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. April marks the one-year anniversary of the agreement that brought peace to mainland Angola in 2002. Both the largest opposition group, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the government used child soldiers in the war. Children's rights groups have estimated that as many as 11,000 children were involved in the last years of the fighting. Some children received weapons and arms training and fought in the conflict. Many others acted as porters, cooks, spies and laborers. One year after the conflict ended in mainland Angola, some UNITA soldiers who are 18 or older have been incorporated into the national army and police. Others were demobilized in a national program and have received needed assistance. But child soldiers, many of whom performed the same duties as adults, were denied these benefits. The use of children in armed conflict is in violation of Angolan and international law. Angola also has obligations to provide for the recovery and reintegration of all children affected by conflict. HRW Index No.: A1510 April 29, 2003 Download PDF Purchase online Angola: Child Soldier Global Report 2001 From the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers Children have been recruited and used as soldiers throughout the Angolan conflict by all forces involved. In 1998 the UN reported that "Between 1980 and 1988, in Angola, every third child has been involved in military operations and many have fired a gun at another human being." The demobilisation of some 8,500 registered child soldiers in accordance with the 1994 peace agreement has progressed slowly, with more than half that number deserting the quartering areas and only 2,925 children demobilised to date. It is estimated that with the resumption of armed conflict since 1998 some 7,000 child soldiers are currently participating in the conflict, with forcible recruitment of children increasing during 2000. June 12, 2001 Angola: Landmine Monitor Report 2000 Key developments since March 1999: Both Angolan government troops and UNITA rebel forces have continued to use antipersonnel mines. Mine action funding in 2000 totals .4 million. Mine action programs have continued despite the ongoing conflict. As of May 2000, some 10 square kilometers of land and 5,000 kilometers of road have been cleared, and 15,000 mines destroyed. Funding for the government's mine action office, INAROEE, has dried up, and its operations are largely suspended. NGOs continue to operate, though at reduced levels due to reduced funding. The number of mine victims was up sharply in 1999 (from 103 in 1998 to 185 in 1999 in Luena alone). August 1, 2000 Angola Unravels: The Rise and Fall of the Lusaka Peace Process Angola returned to all-out war in December 1998, the fourth period of open warfare in living memory. The human cost since fighting resumed is impossible to determine with precision, but the United Nations estimates that nearly one million people have become internally displaced persons because of the renewed conflict, 10 percent of Angola's population. This return to war also represented the end of the uneasy peace process that began with the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia in November 1994. The Lusaka Protocol provided for a cease-fire, the integration of UNITA generals into the government's armed forces (which were to become nonpartisan and civilian controlled), demobilization (later amended to demilitarization) under U.N. supervision, the repatriation of mercenaries, the incorporation of UNITA troops into the Angolan National Police under the Interior Ministry, and the prohibition of any other police or surveillance organization. As a backdrop to the protocol, a Security Council embargo on arms and oil transfers to UNITA had been in place since 1993, while both the government and UNITA had agreed to halt new arms acquisitions as part of the accords. But the embargo on UNITA was not enforced, and both sides openly continued major arms purchases throughout the process. HRW Index No.: 2335 September 1, 1999 Purchase online Between War & Peace: Arms Trade and Human Rights Abuses since the Lusaka Protocol In updating our 1994 report, Arms Trade & Violations of the Laws of War in Angola, we found that despite the signing of the Lusaka Protocol between the Angolan government and UNITA that led to a cease-fire, sporadic fighting continued in 1995. Widespread human rights abuses by both parties included restrictions on freedom of movement, conscription of child soldiers, and the intimidation, detention and killing of journalists. While there was an overall decline in arms shipments, new weaponry continued to arrive in Angola from Russia, Ukraine, and Zaire. HRW Index No.: A801 February 1, 1996 Children in Combat Throughout the world, thousands of children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts.1 Although international law forbids recruiting children under fifteen as soldiers, such young children may be found in government armies and, more commonly, in armed rebel groups. Armed forces, both governmental and non-governmental, often claim that the children in their camps are there for their own protection and welfare. In fact, however, the involvement of the children in the conflict puts them in grave danger and is detrimental to their physical and mental health and development. This report concerns the ways in which children are recruited, the possible reasons for their recruitment and participation, the roles children play in combat and in violence against civilians, and their treatment by the groups that recruit them. It does not deal with all of the countries in which child soldiers are used, but only with countries in which Human Rights Watch has investigated the practice. Legal standards for the prevention of the recruitment of children and problems in applying and enforcing them are covered as well. January 1, 1996 Download PDF, 219 KB, 26 pgs Printer friendly version Arms Trade and Violations of the Laws of War since the 1992 Elections Angola’s “forgotten war,” fueled by a steady supply of weapons to both sides, has claimed an estimated 100,000 civilian lives since the conflict resumed following the September 1992 elections. The government and the UNITA rebels are responsible for an appalling range of violations of the laws of war. Angolan government forces have engaged in indiscriminate aerial bombardments, torture, disappearances, summary executions, looting, and recruitment of child soldiers. Government forces have tortured and killed thousands of civilians suspected of being UNITA supporters. Thousands more civilians have been killed or injured in the indiscriminate bombing of population centers in UNITA zones. UNITA forces have engaged in indiscriminate shelling, long-term sieges that starve civilians, summary executions, torture, mutilation of the dead, hostage-taking, and attacks on international relief operations. An estimated 20-30,000 people died in UNITA's siege of Kuito and 10,000 in the siege of Huambo, as UNITA rained 1,000 shells per day on both cities. The government of Angola is the largest arms purchaser in sub-Saharan Africa, mortgaging its future oil production to finance an estimated $3.5 billion worth of weapons imports in 1993 and 1994 from Russia, Brazil, North Korea, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. UNITA is also buying large amounts of weaponry from both private arms dealers and foreign governments, including South Africa, Zaire and Namibia. HRW Index No.: 1452 November 1, 1994 Landmines in Angola Landmines have rendered large areas of arable land and pasture, many roads, bridges, river banks, villages, and some important economic installations unfit for the people of Angola. This report shows that attempts to restrict their use in Angola have failed and that anti-personnel landmines present a serious and chronic threat to civilians, far in excess of any short-term military advantage that may be gained. January 1, 1993
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