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Published in 2001 Rwanda: Observing the Rules of War? Both Rwandan government troops and adversary rebel forces of the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) have given civilians greater protection in the conflict in Rwanda’s northwest in 2001, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. As these forces continue to confront each other in the eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch called on both sides to impose the same discipline on their combatants in any new clashes. In contrast to previous combat in northwestern Rwanda where thousands of civilians were slain by both government army and rebel forces, the most recent episode inside Rwanda of the ongoing central African war cost relatively few civilian lives. The report, “Rwanda: Observing the Rules of War?” documents the findings of field research into combat in the northwest of Rwanda from May to July, based on interviews with civilians, combatants, and former combatants. Evidence shows that both government and rebel forces imposed new rules restricting attacks on civilians in the internal conflict, enforcing these through disciplinary measures. In stark contrast, the new rules did not apply to fighting by the Rwandan army and its proxies in eastern Congo’s Kivu region or to ALIR’s forces there. ALIR forces inside Rwanda also persisted in past patterns of looting and the use of child soldiers. 17pp, 3.00 HRW Index No.: (A1308) December 20, 2001 Report Download PDF Purchase online Afghanistan: Return of Foreign Fighters and Torture Concerns In recent weeks Northern Alliance and other anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan have captured hundreds of foreign fighters with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The United States has announced that it would detain upwards of 500 captured fighters and has been screening persons taken into custody by Afghan forces. Those implicated in criminal acts, including violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity, should be prosecuted by tribunals in Afghanistan or elsewhere that meet international fair trial standards. December 20, 2001 Background Briefing Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: A Deafening Silence Concern for human rights in Saudi Arabia has ranked extremely low on the agenda of the U.S., although Washington has long been well aware that the country remains a veritable wasteland when it comes to respect for the fundamental human rights of its 22 million residents, including some six to seven million foreign workers and their families. Saudi Arabia's diversity, in terms of geographic regions and various schools of Islamic law, is not represented in the governing structure of the country. December 19, 2001 Background Briefing Download PDF Printer friendly version Jos: A City Torn Apart The Nigerian government could and should have prevented mass killings in Jos in September, Human Rights Watch said in a detailed report released today. As many as one thousand people are believed to have been killed in just six days as Jos, capital of Plateau State, was rocked by unprecedented violence between Christians and Muslims. The government should ensure investigations into the September massacres are thorough and impartial, and bring those responsible to justice, Human Rights Watch said. The 25-page report, entitled "Jos: City Torn Apart," is based on eyewitness testimonies gathered during a visit to Jos in October 2001. Human Rights Watch describes how between September 7 and 13, 2001, the city of Jos became the scene of mass killing and destruction for the first time in its history. Christians and Muslims were both perpetrators and victims. In addition to the killings, thousands of houses and buildings were smashed or burnt; homes and businesses were looted; and some villages, such as Dilimi on the outskirts of Jos, were virtually razed to the ground. 26pp, 3.00 HRW Index No.: (A1309) December 18, 2001 Report Download PDF Purchase online To Protect the People: The Government-sponsored "Self-defense" Program in Burundi Government-sponsored paramilitary forces known as “Guardians of the Peace” have committed many killings, rapes, and other crimes over the last four years in Burundi, Human Rights Watch charged today. In an eighteen-page report entitled “To Protect the People: The Government-Sponsored ‘Self-Defense’ Program in Burundi,” Human Rights Watch called on the Burundian government to disband the paramilitary force, which has been responsible for many violations of international humanitarian law. The Guardians, as well as similar patrols in urban areas, were established by the previous government as part of a “civilian self-defense” program to combat rebel forces in the eight-year-old civil war. A recently installed transitional government has so far continued the program. 18pp, 3.00 HRW Index No.: (A1307) December 14, 2001 Report Download PDF Purchase online Human Rights Watch Analysis of the 2001 Regular Report on Turkey The report on Turkey, its fourth (including the Progress Reports that pre-dated Turkey's formal candidacy), has become an important annual measure of progress on the political elements of the Copenhagen Criteria for membership, which require "stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities." December 14, 2001 Background Briefing Reluctant Partner: The Argentine Government's Failure to Back Trials of Human Rights Violators A decade ago, Argentina seemed to have closed the books on the grave and systematic human rights violations committed under the military juntas that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. But now, Argentina has a rare opportunity to finally provide truth and justice for thousands of relatives of victims who have suffered for decades with neither. December 12, 2001 Report Military Injustice: Mexico's Failure to Punish Army Abuses In this new report, Human Rights Watch called on Mexico to end military jurisdiction over all cases involving human rights violations. The Mexican justice system currently leaves the task of investigating and prosecuting army abuses to military authorities. Because of this arrangement, serious violations go unpunished. Mexico's army has played an increasingly active role in policing the Mexican countryside in recent years, especially in regions with large indigenous populations. Last January, President Vicente Fox declared his intention to wage a "war without quarter" against drug trafficking, raising concerns that aggressive policing practices by the armed forces could take insufficient account of the protection of human rights. 22pp, 3.00 HRW Index No.: (B1304) December 5, 2001 Report Also available in 
Download PDF Purchase online Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools, is based on Human Rights Watch investigations at twenty-six Arab and Jewish schools and on nationwide statistics compiled by the Israeli government. Nearly one-quarter of Israel's 1.6 million schoolchildren are Palestinian Arab citizens and are educated in schools run by the Israeli government, but operated separately from those of the Jewish majority. The report found striking differences in virtually every aspect of the education system. The Education Ministry does not allocate as much money per head for Palestinian Arab children as it does for Jewish children. Their classes are 20 percent larger on average. They get far fewer enrichment and remedial programs-even though they need them more-in part because the Ministry uses a different scale to assess need for Jewish children. Their school buildings are in worse condition, and many communities lack kindergartens for three and four-year-olds. Palestinian Arab schoolchildren do not have the same access to counseling and vocational programs. One of the largest gaps is in special education, where disabled Palestinian Arab children get less funding and fewer services, have limited access to special schools, and lack appropriate curricula. ISBN: 1-56432-266-1, 187pp, 20.00, HRW Index No.: (2661) December 1, 2001 Report Also available in 
Purchase online Justice Undermined: Balancing Security and Human Rights in the Palestinian Justice System People detained by the Palestinian Authority are frequently subjected to torture and denied access to fair trials, Human Rights Watch said in this new report. The 50-page report documents how the Palestinian Authority executive branch - including President Yasser Arafat, his ministers, police, and various security forces - has seriously undermined the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. The report estimates that as of September 2001, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was holding about 450 people in detention without charge or trial. Most were suspected of being informants for Israeli security forces; others were alleged to have sold Palestinian land to Israelis. The PA has done virtually nothing to identify the perpetrators of about thirty vigilante-style executions, the report says. The report, charges the PA with failing to bring to justice militants who have attacked Israeli civilians. The report also says that Israeli responses to the current "intifada," including severe restrictions on freedom of movement and the destruction of Palestinian law-enforcement infrastructure, have aggravated the deterioration of the Palestinian justice system. 50pp, 7.00 HRW Index No.: (E1304) November 30, 2001 Report Download PDF Purchase online India Human Rights Press Backgrounder The Indian parliament is currently debating the enactment of legislation that would reinstate a modified version of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) of 1985 (amended 1987). November 21, 2001 Background Briefing Morocco/Western Sahara: Freedom of Assembly on Trial On 21 November 2001 the Court of Appeal in Rabat acquitted 36 human rights defenders who had been sentenced earlier in the year to three months in prison for “participating in the organization of an unauthorized demonstration” on 9 December 2000. November 21, 2001 Background Briefing Also available in
No Questions Asked: The Eastern Europe Arms Pipeline to Liberia Following the release of a new United Nations report on sanctions violations in Liberia, the U.N. Security Council is weighing what further steps, if any, to take to address the violations. The report, prepared by a five-person independent panel of experts, presents fresh evidence of violations of an arms embargo and travel and diamond bans imposed on Liberia by the Security Council. November 20, 2001 Background Briefing Commentary on the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill 2001 While we understand the need to enhance internal security in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States and in the context of on-going armed conflict in Afghanistan, we are dismayed by U.K. proposals that would permit the arbitrary detention of persons suspected of terrorist activity, as well as the denial of the right to seek asylum, the exclusion, and indefinite detention of certain individuals without adequate safeguards contrary to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Public statements by the Home Secretary suggest that a public emergency was declared in the U.K. to avoid compliance with certain human rights obligations—threatening basic rights in the U.K. and providing a dangerous model for other states. November 16, 2001 Background Briefing Questions and Answers on Human Rights in Colombia This week President Andrés Pastrana will visit the United States on a trip that includes a scheduled meeting on November 11 with President George W. Bush. His agenda will include discussions about the new war on terrorism as well as continued U.S. funding for counternarcotics efforts in Colombia. November 6, 2001 Background Briefing Cluster Bombs in Afghanistan The United States-led alliance began its air campaign in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. While the Pentagon has been reluctant to talk of specific weapons used in the bombing, U.S. military sources have told Human Rights Watch that the Air Force began dropping cluster bombs within a matter of days. During the first week of the campaign, it is believed that Air Force B-1 bombers dropped 50 CBU-87 cluster bombs in some five missions. October 31, 2001 Background Briefing Download PDF Printer friendly version Questions and Answers Regarding Peru's Criminal Prosecution of Fujimori On September 5, Peruvian Attorney General Nelly Calderón formally accused former president Alberto K. Fujimori of murder, causing grave injuries, and "disappearances." The criminal charges against Fujimori were filed in the wake of the unanimous August 27 decision of the Peruvian Congress to lift his immunity as former head of state. On September 13, Supreme Court Justice José Luis Lecaros issued an international warrant to Interpol for the arrest of Fujimori, who is now residing in Japan. October 30, 2001 Background Briefing Humanity Denied Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan Women in Afghanistan have suffered a catastrophic assault on their human rights during more than twenty years of war and under the repressive rule of the Taliban. Now, as women face further peril with the intensification of conflict following the September 11 attacks on the United States, the international community must make a firm commitment to uphold women's human rights in any post-conflict settlement. The impunity that has characterized Afghanistan's civil war must not also come to characterize Afghanistan's post-conflict reconstruction and development. Throughout Afghanistan's civil war, the major armed factions - primarily the Taliban and the United National Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (commonly known as the "United Front" or by its previous name, the Northern Alliance), a coalition of mainly Tajik, Uzbek, and ethnic Hazara parties - have repeatedly committed serious abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law. Women have borne the brunt of this violence and discrimination. In the civil war, women have suffered massive, systematic, and unrelenting human rights abuses that have permeated every aspect of their lives. Both Taliban forces and forces now grouped in the United Front have sexually assaulted, abducted, and forcibly married women during the armed conflict, targeting them on the basis of both gender and ethnicity. Thousands of women have been physically assaulted and have had severe restrictions placed on their liberty and fundamental freedoms. 25pp, 3.00 HRW Index No.: (C1305) October 29, 2001 Report Download PDF Purchase online Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo This report documents torture, killings, rapes, forced expulsions, and other war crimes committed by Serbian and Yugoslav government forces against Kosovar Albanians between March 24 and June 12, 1999, the period of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia. The report reveals a coordinated and systematic campaign to terrorize, kill, and expel the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo that was organized by the highest levels of the Serbian and Yugoslav governments in power at that time. Naturally, these crimes did not occur in isolation. HRW Index No.: (2645) October 26, 2001 Report Also available in 
Purchase online Backgrounder on Afghanistan: History of the War The U.S- led military intervention in Afghanistan marks the fourth phase in the country's twenty-three-year-old civil war. In every phase foreign powers have intensified the conflict by supporting one side against another. October 23, 2001 Background Briefing |
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