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Published in 1999 The Destruction of Odi and Rape in Choba December 22, 1999 On November 4, 1999, an armed gang killed seven Nigerian policemen in the community of Odi, Bayelsa State, in the oil producing Niger Delta region in the far south east of the country. Five other police were killed in subsequent days. These murders were committed by a group with no apparent political agenda, but took place against a rising clamor from those living in the oil producing areas for a greater share of the oil wealth. December 22, 1999 Background Briefing Human Rights Defenders In Egypt Under Attack As the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being celebrated around the world, Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned about the harsh steps that Egyptian authorities have taken in recent days against the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), an independent Cairo-based nongovernmental organization. The actions are clear violations of the internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression and association. They appear designed to intimidate human rights activists throughout the country, and to silence investigation and reporting about the pattern of grave human rights abuses in Egypt. December 6, 1999 Background Briefing Uzbekistan Parliamentary Elections Backgrounder On December 5, Uzbekistan's voters will go to the polls for the second time since independence in 1991 to elect 250 deputies to the Olii Majlis, or parliament. Despite government claims that elections will be free and pluralistic, the parliamentary and local council elections will be a highly-controlled exercise in Potemkin democracy. With no opposition parties, no free media and a tight rein on independent candidates, voters do not have the ability to freely choose their representatives. December 3, 1999 Background Briefing Uzbekistan Parliamentary Elections Backgrounder On December 5, Uzbekistan's voters will go to the polls for the second time since independence in 1991 to elect 250 deputies to the Olii Majlis, or parliament. Despite government claims that elections will be free and pluralistic, the parliamentary and local council elections will be a highly-controlled exercise in Potemkin democracy. With no opposition parties, no free media and a tight rein on independent candidates, voters do not have the ability to freely choose their representatives. December 3, 1999 Background Briefing Printer friendly version Croatia's Democracy Deficit: A Pre-Electoral Assessment In the run-up to important parliamentary elections, civil and political rights are seriously restricted in Croatia, Human Rights Watch said in this report. The report describes this political repression as the "human rights legacy" of the late President Franjo Tudjman, who died earlier this month. Parliamentary elections in Croatia are scheduled for January 3, 2000. The Croatian government limits freedom of the press, especially in the case of television, which gives a disproportionate amount of airtime to the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), both on the main evening news and across all programming. HRW Index No.: D1116 December 1, 1999 Report Purchase online East Timor: Forced Expulsions to West Timor and the Refugee Crisis This report is based on interviews with more than one hundred East Timorese returnees in transit centers in Dili, the capital of East Timor. It documents the continuing obstacles to return for East Timorese refugees in West Timor and other parts of Indonesia. The obstacles include death threats against families seeking to leave, attacks on convoys heading back for East Timor, militia-spread disinformation portraying East Timor as a desperate and dangerous place, and the presence in the camps of militia leaders believed to be responsible for attacks on civilians earlier in the year.In the report, Human Rights Watch also sets forth new testimonial and documentary evidence that the expulsions were the result of a planned, systematic campaign coordinated by the Indonesian military. HRW Index No.: C1107 December 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Ethiopian Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam headed the junta which in 1974 overthrew the government of Emperor Haile Selassie in a bloody coup. Known as the "Derg" or "Dergue," the "committee," the junta consisted of about a hundred junior officers drawn from all regions of Ethiopia. November 29, 1999 Background Briefing Printer friendly version Human Rights and Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean Multi-party democracies remain stable throughout most of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the notable exception of Cuba, where the government of Fidel Castro celebrated its fortieth anniversary in power with no sign of a significant political opening on the horizon. But while elected government may be a precondition for human rights to be respected, the region's dismal record shows that it is by no means sufficient. Indeed, serious human rights violations plague the region, effecting countries as diverse as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. In far too many places, massacres, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, police brutality, and inhumane prison conditions endure. November 15, 1999 Background Briefing Tajikistan: Freedom of Expression Still Threatened Despite legislation protecting freedom of speech and the press in Tajikistan, in practice freedom of expression is severely limited. For six years major opposition parties and their newspapers were banned. The government of Tajikistan continues to employ a variety of tactics to limit political content in the remaining media. HRW Index No.: D1114 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Prison Bound: The Denial of Juvenile Justice in Pakistan Children accused of committing criminal offenses in Pakistan are routinely tortured by police, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of these children go on to spend months or even years in overcrowded detention facilities awaiting the conclusion of their trials. The treatment of children in detention violates Pakistani law, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly ten years ago this Saturday and ratified by Pakistan a year later. Despite a law that requires police to bring criminal suspects before a judge within twenty-four hours of arrest, children may spend as long as three months in detention before seeing a judge. Children share their cells with adults while in police custody, and like adult detainees, are routinely subjected to various forms of torture or ill-treatment, including being beaten, hung upside down, or whipped with a rubber strap or specially-designed leather slipper. Human Rights Watch calls on the Pakistani authorities to establish independent bodies to hear and investigate complaints of abuse by police and prison personnel, and to ensure the strict separation of adults and children deprived of their liberty. Authorities should also provide sufficient teaching staff and modern vocational training in each facility housing juveniles, and prohibit imposition of the death penalty on children under the age of eighteen. HRW Index No.: ISBN 1-56432-242-2 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Confessions At Any Cost: Police Torture in Russia The Russian police routinely torture people in custody in order to force them to confess, Human Rights Watch charges in this report. Russian courts commonly accept these forced confessions as grounds for conviction, and federal and local governments do not recognize police torture as a problem, the report says. HRW Index No.: 2440 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Northern Ireland A New Beginning to Policing Human Rights Watch has prepared this assessment of the Patten Commission report-issued on September 9, 1999-as a means of following up on its participation in the commission's consultation process and as a contribution to the government's three month post-report consultation period. Human Rights Watch views the Report as a positive contribution to the work of reforming the police force but feels strongly that measures in addition to the report's recommendations must be taken to bring law enforcement in Northern Ireland into conformity with international human rights standards. HRW Index No.: D1115 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online No Minor Matter: Children in Maryland's Jails With frequent references to "juvenile predators," "hardened criminals," and "young thugs," U.S. lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have increasingly abandoned efforts to rehabilitate child offenders through the juvenile court system. Instead, many states have responded to a perceived outbreak in juvenile violent crime by moving more children into the adult criminal system.Human Rights Watch calls upon Maryland to end the practice of detaining children in adult detention facilities, and ensure that conditions of detention for youth comply with federal and state law and international standards. HRW Index No.: 1-56432-243-2 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Human Rights Watch World Report 2000 Sovereignty loomed less large in 1999 as an obstacle to stopping and redressing crimes against humanity. Governmental leaders who committed atrocities faced a greater chance of prosecution and even military intervention. In East Timor, intense diplomatic and economic pressure convinced Jakarta to permit the belated deployment of a multinational force to halt the scorched-earth campaign of Indonesian army-backed militia. In Kosovo, NATO's controversial bombing campaign made Belgrade acquiesce in the deployment of international troops to stop widespread ethnic slaughter and forced displacement. HRW Index No.: 2386 November 1, 1999 Report Purchase online Reforming Bulgaria's Arms Trade A Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, November 1999 The Bulgarian government has made attempts to reform its arms export practices, for example by joining the Wassenaar Arrangement encouraging transparency and restraint in the international weapons trade. Yet they continue to approve export of weapons that violate Wassenaar principles as well as the EU Code of Conduct. November 1, 1999 Background Briefing Printer friendly version Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children's Rights 10th Anniversary of the Convention Every recognized country in the world, except for the United States and the collapsed state of Somalia, has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, pledging to uphold its protections for children. Today the convention stands as the single most widely ratified treaty in existence. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989, the promises of this historic document include children's rights to life; to be free from discrimination; to be protected in armed conflicts; to be protected from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberty; to special treatment within the justice system; and the rights to education, health care, an adequate standard of living, and freedom from economic exploitation and other abuse. November 1, 1999 Background Briefing Prison Bound The Denial of Juvenile Justice in Pakistan Though nine years have passed since Pakistan ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Pakistani children in conflict with the law continue to be denied the juvenile justice protections of the convention. Juvenile justice, as conceptualized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international instruments, is predicated on the adjudication of children's cases with a view to their rehabilitation and early reintegration into their communities. It entails separate custodial arrangements for children, a right to counsel, the timely processing of their cases, and the liberal use of alternative sentencing measures, such as release on probation or education and vocational training. The convention prohibits the imposition of capital punishment as well as torture and any other form of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Of the 2,700 juvenile prisoners in Punjab province during February 1998, 91 percent were awaiting the conclusion of their trials, a process that can take months or even years. While their trials are pending, children languish in overcrowded, often harsh detention facilities that offer few educational or recreational opportunities. November 1, 1999 Report Download PDF, 817 KB, 209 pgs Printer friendly version No Minor Matter Children in Maryland's Jails With frequent references to Ajuvenile predators, Ahardened criminals, and Ayoung thugs, U.S. lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have increasingly abandoned efforts to rehabilitate child offenders through the juvenile court system. Instead, many states have responded to a perceived outbreak in juvenile violent crime by moving more children into the adult criminal system. Between 1992 and 1998, at least forty U.S. states adopted legislation making it easier for children to be tried as adults; a similar measure for youth charged with federal crimes is pending in the U.S. Congress. These measures neither reduce crime nor lead to rehabilitation. But they often do lead to serious abuses when children are held in adult jails, sometimes in appalling conditions of confinement, occasionally sharing cells with adult detainees, and frequently provided inadequate education, medical and mental health care, or age-appropriate recreational opportunities. November 1, 1999 Report Download PDF, 969 KB, 239 pgs Printer friendly version Background on Tajikistan's Presidential Elections The November 6 presidential election is, in effect, limited to one candidate--the incumbent President Emomali Rakhmonov. Two of three opposition presidential candidates, Saifiddin Turaev from the Party of Justice and Sulton Kuvvatov from the Democratic Party (Tehran Platform), have been denied registration by the Supreme Court, despite their claims that authorities obstructed them from collecting sufficient signatures for registration. October 28, 1999 Background Briefing A Village Destroyed War Crimes in Kosovo In the early morning of May 14, 1999, in the midst of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia, Serbian security forces descended on the small village of Cuška--Qyshk in Albanian--near the western Kosovo city of Pec (Pejė). Fearing reprisals, many men fled into the nearby hills while the rest of the population was forcibly assembled in the village center. An estimated twelve men were killed during the roundup in various parts of the village. October 25, 1999 Report |
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