Human Rights Watch World Report 1999

Country Reports
 

GENERAL
AFGHANISTAN
AFRICA
ALBANIA
ALGERIA
ANGOLA
ARGENTINA
ASIA
AZERBAIJAN
BAHRAIN 
BANGLADESH
REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
BOLIVIA
BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA
BOTSWANA
BRAZIL
BULGARIA
BURMA
BURUNDI
CAMBODIA
CAMEROON
CANADA
CHILE
CHINA
COLOMBIA
COMMONWEALTH
COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
CROATIA
CUBA
CZECH REPUBLIC & FORMER CZECHOSLOVAKIA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
EGYPT
EL SALVADOR
ERITREA
ESTONIA
ETHIOPIA
FRANCE
GEORGIA
GERMANY
GHANA
GREECE
GUATEMALA 
HAITI
HONDURAS
HONG KONG
HUNGARY
INDIA
INDONESIA/EAST TIMOR
IRAN
IRAQ
ISRAEL & ISRAELI-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
JAMAICA
JORDAN
KAZAKHSTAN
KENYA
KUWAIT
LATVIA
LEBANON
LIBERIA
MACEDONIA
MALAWI
MALAYSIA
MAURITANIA
MEXICO
MOLDOVA
MOROCCO
MOZAMBIQUE
NAMIBIA
NEPAL
NICARAGUA
NIGERIA
PAKISTAN
PANAMA
PARAGUAY
PERU
THE PHILIPPINES
POLAND
ROMANIA
RUSSIA AND CHECHNYA
RWANDA
SAUDI ARABIA
SERBIA MONTENEGRO
SIERRA LEONE
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
SOMALIA
SOUTH AFRICA 
SOUTH KOREA
SPAIN
SRI LANKA
SUDAN
SURINAME
SYRIA
TAJIKISTAN
THAILAND
TIBET
TUNISIA
TURKEY
TURKMENISTAN
UGANDA
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
URUGUAY
FORMER USSR
UZBEKISTAN
VENEZUELA
VIETNAM
WESTERN SAHARA
YEMEN
FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 
ZAIRE
ZAMBIA
ZIMBABWE

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Selected Recent Reports from Human Rights Watch
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1998 Reports
1999 Reports

Mexico -- A Job or Your Rights: Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico’s Maquiladora Sector
December 1998          (B1001) 
In this report Human Rights Watch documents the Mexican government's failure to enforce its own labor laws in the export processing (maquiladora) sector. In violation of Mexican labor law, maquiladora operators oblige women to undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of work. Women thought to be pregnant are not hired. Among the corporations engaging in this practice, which violates both Mexican and international law, are such international corporations as Landis & Staefa, Samsung Group, Matsushita Electric Corp., Sunbeam-Oster, Sanyo, Thomson Corporate Worldwide, Siemens AG, and Pacific Dunlop. However, the vast majority of companies engaging in this practice are U.S.-owned, including Lear, Johnson Controls, and Tyco International. The Human Rights Watch report, "A Job or Your Rights: Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico's Maquiladora Sector," documents how companies demand that women produce urine specimens for pregnancy exams and how maquiladora doctors and nurses examine women's abdomens or require them to reveal private information about menses schedule, birth control use, and sexual activity as a means to determine pregnancy. 
(B1001)  12/98, 79pp., $7.00
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United States -- Detained and Deprived of Rights: Children in the Custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service 
December 1998          (G1004) 
In this report, Human Rights Watch charges the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) with violating the rights of unaccompanied children in its custody. The report finds that roughly one-third of detained children are held in punitive, jail-like detention centers, even though most children in INS custody are being detained for administrative reasons while their case is pending, not as a punishment for criminal behavior. Approximately 5000 unaccompanied children are detained by the INS each year. Human Rights Watch focused its report on a Pennsylvania facility that the INS claims is one of the best in the country. However, the report found that too many children are locked up in prison-like conditions with juveniles accused of murder, rape and drug trafficking, where they are forbidden to speak their native language, instructed not to laugh, and, according to several interviewees, even forced to ask permission to scratch their noses. Human Rights Watch found that some children are strip searched and restrained by handcuffs during transport, and denied basic rights to privacy.
(G1004) 12/98, 28pp., $5.00
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Indonesia: Human Rights and Pro-Independence Actions in Irian Jaya 
December 1998          (C1008) 
In the aftermath of President Soeharto's resignation in May 1998, political tension in Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, has increased. The province, called West Papua by supporters of independence, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. Unlike the rest of Indonesia which gained independence in 1949, Irian Jaya was under Dutch control until 1963 and only became part of Indonesia after a fraudulent, U.N.-supervised "Act of Free Choice" in 1969. Over the last three decades, support for independence, fueled by resentment of Indonesian rule, loss of ancestral land to development projects, and the influx of migrants from elsewhere in the country, has taken the form of both an armed guerrilla movement, the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM), and generally non-violent attempts to raise the West Papuan flag. Guerrilla activity has led in most cases to military operations in which civilians have suffered a wide range of abuses; flag-raisings and other demonstrations have led to the arrests of those involved, often on charges of subversion or rebellion. 
(C1008) 12/98, 15 pp., $3.00
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Abandoned to the State: Cruelty and Neglect in Russian Orphanages
December 1998          (1916) 
This report documents how, from the moment the state assumes their care, orphans in Russia---of whom 95 percent still have a living parent---are exposed to shocking levels of cruelty and neglect. Infants classified as disabled are segregated into "lying-down" rooms, where they are changed and fed but are bereft of stimulation and essential medical care. Those who are officially diagnosed as "imbetsil" or "idiot" at age four are condemned to life in little more than a warehouse, where they may be restrained in cloth sacks, tethered by a limb to furniture, denied stimulation, training, and education. Some lie half-naked in their own filth, and are neglected, sometimes to the point of death. The "normal" children---those deemed to be "educable"---are subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by institution staff. They may be beaten, locked in freezing rooms for days at a time, abused physically, denied adequate education and training. It is deplorable that the very state that is charged with the care and nurture of more than 600,000 children "without parental care," condemns untold numbers to an archipelago of grim institutions. Abandoned children suffer a lifelong stigma that ultimately robs them of fundamental economic, social, civil and political rights guaranteed by international treaties. Human Rights Watch calls on the Russian Federation, which has long prided itself on the education of its children, to stop all medical personnel from pressing parents to institutionalize newborns with various disabilities, and reallocate resources spent on institutions to develop humane, non-discriminatory alternatives. 
(1916) 12/98, 228 pp.,
ISBN 1-56432-191-6, $15.00
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Behind Bars in Brazil
December 1998          (1959) 
Beatings, torture and even summary executions are commonplace in the Brazilian penal system, according to this Human Rights Watch report. The 150-page report, Behind Bars in Brazil, says that severe overcrowding and institutionalized violence are chronic and widespread in Brazilian prisons and police stations. In the decade since Human Rights Watch first examined prison conditions in Brazil, the inmate population has increased at a rapid pace. Beside exacerbating prison overcrowding-a problem that Human Rights Watch originally documented during its 1988 mission to the country-the fast growth of the inmate population has coincided with years of flagrant prison abuses. Thus, our first Brazil prisons report was succeeded by a 1989 newsletter that focused on conditions in a notorious São Paulo jail, followed by a 1992 report on a massive prison massacre in São Paulo. Our annual summary of global human rights conditions, moreover, has consistently condemned Brazil for severe prison overcrowding, horrendous conditions of detention, and summary executions of inmates. Human Rights Watch's sustained attention to conditions of confinement in Brazil reflects our sense that the mistreatment of prisoners is one of the country's most serious and chronic human rights violations. 
(1959) 12/98, 120 pp., 
ISBN 1-56432-195-9, $15.00
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Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Detentions and Abuse in Kosovo
December 1998          (D1010) 
At least 1,000 ethnic Albanians are currently believed to be in Serbian prisons and police stations, according to Human Rights Watch. In Detention and Abuse in Kosovo, released today, Human Rights Watch charges that many have been subjected to beatings and torture to extract confessions or to obtain information about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and are being tried on charges of "terrorism." On October 14, the Serbian government announced a general amnesty for "crimes related to the conflict in Kosovo." The Serbian parliament declared that no one would be prosecuted for crimes related to the conflict, "except for crimes against humanity and international law." Despite these promises, large numbers of ethnic Albanians remain in custody and Human Rights Watch has no information that anyone arrested during the conflict has been released as a result of this amnesty. 
(D1010) 12/98, 29 pp., $5.00
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Chemical Warfare in Bosnia: The Strange Experiences of the Srebrenica Survivors
November 1998          (D1009) 
In the summer of 1995, shortly after the fall of the United Nations "safe area" of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Hercegovina, survivors emerged from a long trek to safety with tales suggesting that Serb forces had attacked them during their flight with some type of chemical incapacitating agent. In 1996, Human Rights Watch carried out an investigation of the claim that Serb forces used JNA-supplied BZ against the people fleeing Srebrenica the year before. Following interviews with some thirty-five survivors, as well as U.N. and other international personnel in the former Yugoslavia, and a review of available documentation relating to events at Srebrenica in 1996-97, Human Rights Watch has found the evidence inconclusive on whether a chemical agent was used. In the view of Human Rights Watch, the question whether chemical weapons were used during the Bosnian war -- by Serb forces in Srebrenica in July 1995 or by any of the parties to the conflict at other times during the war -- must be answered satisfactorily. 
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Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar-I Sharif
November 1998          (C1007) 
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan. Within the first few hours of seizing control of the city, Taliban troops killed scores of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, shooting noncombatants and suspected combatants alike in residential areas, city street sand markets. Witnesses described it as a "killing frenzy" as the advancing forces shot at "anything that moved." Retreating opposition forces may also have engaged in indiscriminate shooting as they fled the city. Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds of civilians were among those killed as the panicked population of Mazar-i Sharif tried to evade the gunfire or escape the city. 
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Limits of Tolerance: Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile
November 1998          (1924) 
At present freedom of expression and information is restricted in Chile to an extent possibly unmatched by any other democratic society in the Western hemisphere. Current restrictions form part of a long established authoritarian tradition, which reached its apogee under the military government. Although restrictions on expression were taken to extreme limits by that government, they certainly did not originate with the military coup of September 1973 and had, in fact, coexisted with democratic institutions for decades prior to it. Restrictions on freedom of expression operate at different levels, and in each branch of government. In general they are not attributable to repressive action by the executive branch. The problem, then, is not one of abusive action by the current government, but of a failure to take long overdue steps to ensure that freedom of expression is protected and encouraged. 
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Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States
October 1998          (G1003) 
The expansion of suffrage to all sectors of the population is one of the United States' most important political triumphs. Once the privilege of wealthy white men, the vote is now a basic right held as well by the poor and working classes, racial minorities, women and young adults. Today, all mentally competent adults have the right to vote with only one exception: convicted criminal offenders. In forty-six states and the District of Columbia, criminal disenfranchisement laws deny the vote to all convicted adults in prison. The racial impact of disenfranchisement laws is particularly egregious. Thirteen percent of African American men -- ;1.4 million -- are disenfranchised, representing just over one-third (36 percent) of the total disenfranchised population.  If current trends continue, the rate of disenfranchisement for black men could reach 40 percent in the states that disenfranchise ex-offenders. 
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Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo
October 1998           (1940) 
This report documents serious breaches of international humanitarian law, the rules of war, committed in Kosovo from February to early September 1998. The vast majority of these abuses were committed by Yugoslav government forces of the Serbian special police (MUP) and the Yugoslav Army (VJ). Under the command of Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloševic, government troops have committed extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, systematically destroyed civilian property, and attacked humanitarian aid workers, all of which are violations of the rules of war. The Albanian insurgency, known as the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA, or UÇK in Albanian), has also violated the laws of war by such actions as the taking of civilian hostages and by summary executions. Although on a lesser scale than the government abuses, these too are violations of international standards, and should be condemned. 
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War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law
October 1998           (1878) 
Violations of international humanitarian law --the laws of wa r-- are not abstract concepts in Colombia, but the grim material of everyday life. War bursts into the daily activities of a farm, a village, a public bus, or a school with the speed of armed fighters arriving down a path or in four-wheel drive vehicles. Sometimes, armed men carefully choose their victims from lists. Other times, they simply kill those nearby, to spread fear. Indeed, a willingness to commit atrocities is among the most striking features of Colombia's war.  The inauguration of a new president and the growth of a broad-based civic movement that has called for a just and fair peace have given Colombians new hope for an end to political violence.  Some communities thrust into the conflict have attempted to negotiate local accords with combatants as a way of protecting their civilian populations. Nevertheless, none of the parties to the conflict have fully respected these decisions. Indeed, negotiations have been doomed in large part by the failure to address fundamental issues, including impunity for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. 
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Burma/Thailand -- Unwanted and Unprotected: Burmese Refugees in Thailand
October 1998           (C1006) 
At almost no time since Burmese asylum seekers started arriving on Thai soil in 1984 has the need for protection of this group been greater. Human rights violations inside Burma continue almost a decade after the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) seized power in Burma in September 1988. The announcement on November 15, 1997 that SLORC had been dissolved and replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has done nothing to improve the situation, and refugees continue to flow into Thailand. As of September 1998, there were over 110,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burmese border and hundreds of thousands more in Thailand who were unable or unwilling to stay within the refugee camps but who had suffered clear abuse at the hands of the Burmese government. Deportations of undocumented Burmese migrants, some of whom would have a clear claim to refugee status had they been permitted to make one, were also on the increase. 
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United States -- Nowhere to Hide: Retaliation Against Women in Michigan State Prisons
September 1998           (G1002) 
This report documents how women inmates who have been raped by guards in Michigan prisons are suffering retaliation from their attackers."In Michigan, a woman risks being sexually assaulted if she's imprisoned, and being terrorized by guards if she dares report the assault," said Regan Ralph, executive director of theWomen's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "If this were happening in another country, no one would hesitate to call it what it is: a terrible abuse of human rights."  Thirty-one women have filed a class action lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections, charging that prison management has failed to prevent sexual assault and abuse by guards and staff. The suit, which is being jointly prosecuted by private lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, also charges that women face retaliation when they report rape: everything from verbal abuse, to being placed in solitary confinement, to being raped again. One plaintiff was placed on a permanent visitation ban and has not seen her daughter for nearly two years. She is now on a hunger strike to protest her treatment. 
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United States -- Locked Away: Immigration Detainees in Jails in the United States
September 1998           (G1001) 
Human Rights Watch charges that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now holding more than half of its detainees in jails where they are subjected to punitive treatment and may be mixed with criminal inmates. With its own detention facilities overwhelmed, the INS is placing its administrative detainees in jails, even though they are not serving criminal sentences. Those detained include asylum seekers, undocumented individuals picked up by the INS on the street or during workplace raids, and individuals with previous convictions who are now awaiting deportation. The 84-page report, Locked Away: Immigration Detainees in Local Jails in the United States, reflects research conducted over an eighteen-month period, including visits to fourteen jails in seven states and interviews with more than 200 INS detainees. 
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Academic Freedom in Indonesia: Dismantling Soeharto-Era Barriers
August 1998           (186X) 
A nationwide student protest movement played an  instrumental role in forcing the resignation of President Soeharto on May 21, 1998 and in opening the door to democratic reform in Indonesia. Students and faculty  emerged at the forefront of the reform movement in large measure because they publicly spoke their minds, courageously and consistently ignoring a variety of repressive laws, regulations, decrees, and abusive practices that have long limited political and intellectual freedom on Indonesia’s campuses and in Indonesian society. Although the change of  leadership in Indonesia has been meant changes, significant barriers to citizens' exercise of basic rights continue to exist.
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Algeria's Human Rights Crisis
August 1998           (E1003) 
In this report, Human Rights Watch disputes the government’s claim that Algeria's crisis is solely "a terrorist  phenomenon." It endorses the recent findings of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, an expert body which concluded that allegations of involvement or collusion by the security forces themselves in the mass atrocities were widespread and persistent enough to require independent investigation. The U.N. experts made their findings public in early August, after examining the government's fifty-five page report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and following two days of meetings with Algerian officials. The findings constitute the most severe indictment by any U.N. body of the government's practices since civil strife escalated in Algeria in 1992. 
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Russian Federation: Ethnic Discrimination in Southern Russia
August 1998           (D1008) 
Ethnic discrimination in the Russian Federation has persisted and perhaps even worsened since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The government has failed to combat discrimination and is in many ways responsible for perpetuating discriminatory practices. While this is evident in much of Russia, it is striking in Stavropol and Krasnodar, two provinces in southern Russia that make up part of the North Caucasus region. A common form of state-sponsored discrimination in these provinces is police harassment of ethnic Caucasians through selective enforcement of residence requirements (propiska) and mandatory registration of visitors. Police selectively enforce these rules, sometimes together with Cossack units -- paramilitary organizations composed of ethnic Slavs that in southern Russia operate with government sanction -- through arbitrary identity checks on the street, on highways, and in homes, during which victims are often forced to pay bribes and sometimes are beaten and detained. 
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Sudan Global Trade Local Impact 
 Arms Transfers to all Sides in the Civil War in Sudan
August 1998           (A1004) 
More than one million people may have died, with millions more forcibly displaced, since today’s ongoing civil war broke out in Sudan in 1983. This conflict is spreading to other regions of the country and is linked to guerrilla wars in neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. A steady flow of arms into the Horn of Africa for the past half century has fueled the fighting and multiplied its lethal impact on the civilian population. Human Rights Watch began its investigation of the arms trade feeding the Sudanese civil war in 1996, concentrating on types of armaments, sources of arms supply, channels of arms distribution, and the connection between arms flows and already identified human rights abusers. 
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Israel's Record of Occupation: Violations of Civil and Political Rights
August 1998           (E1002) 
On July 15 and 16, 1998 Israel presented its initial report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the U.N. body of independent experts responsible for monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its two Optional Protocols. Already more than five years overdue, the 369-page report should have included detailed information on the measures Israel had adopted to give effect to the rights recognized in the covenant, and on the progress made in the enjoyment of those rights. Instead, as Human Rights Watch argued in its submission to the Human Rights Committee, Israel's report failed to give sufficient information on the implementation of the covenant in practice, left out any discussion of Israel's implementation of the covenant in the territories it controlled in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and South Lebanon, and misrepresented Israeli practice on important issues including torture and administrative detention. 
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Sowing Terror : Atrocities against Civilians in Sierra Leone
August 1998           (A1003) 
Since losing political power in February 1998, members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) have been engaging in a war of terror against civilians in Sierra Leone. With no recognizable political platform, the AFRC/RUF rebel alliance is committing widespread and egregious atrocities against unarmed civilians in an attempt to regain power. As the violence in Sierra Leone continues, grave abuses continue to take place. Human Rights Watch interviewed civilian men, women, and children who had been  intentionally mutilated or shot as recently as June 12, 1998 in eastern Sierra Leone. 
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Bosnia and Hercegovina: "A Closed, Dark Place":
Past and Present Human Rights Abuses in Foca  (273k) 
July 1998           (D1003) 
Foca lies in the territory controlled by French troops of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR). Until the June 15 arrest of Milorad Krnojelac, those troops had failed to arrest any of the indicted suspects living in Foca. In its report, Human Rights Watch urges the arrest of other indicted war criminals in Foca, and the investigation of individuals who were allegedly involved in wartime abuses.  Human Rights Watch also calls upon international donor governments and institutions to withhold reconstruction aid from Foca until those allegedly responsible for abuses are brought to justice. Donors and investors in the Foca area include the European Union, the Italian government, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 
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Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability 
in the United States
July 1998           (1835) 
Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses.This report examines common obstacles to accountability for police abuse in fourteen large cities representing most regions of the nation. The cities examined are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Research for this report was conducted over two and a half years, from late 1995 through early 1998. 
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Cambodia: Fair Elections Not Possible   (112k) 
June 1998           (C1003) 
The present political environment in Cambodia, in which opposition parties are not able to operate freely and safely, is in no way conducive to the holding of free, fair, and credible elections scheduled for July 26, 1998. The primary obstacle is neither logistical nor technical, but rather the determination of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to control the electoral process and restrict basic freedoms. Human Rights Watch recommends postponement of elections until the conditions conducive to a free and fair poll are in place. 
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Justice in the Balance 
Recommendations for an Independent and Effective International Criminal Court 
June 1998           (1843) 
The impunity enjoyed by architects of this century's worst atrocities underscores the urgent need for an international criminal court (ICC). The recent creation of the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda signals the end of international tolerance for heinous crimes, and a growing determination to punish perpetrators. This determination will be tested at the Diplomatic Conference in Rome, beginning June 151998, when over 180 states will gather to establish a permanent ICC. An ICC with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes has the potential to dramatically transform the human rights landscape in the next century, providing critical redress to victims and deterring the commission of egregious crimes. Critical issues hang in the balance, however, which will determine whether the ICC will be an independent, fair, and effective institution capable of realizing this potential. This volume provides a critical analysis of the key issues before the ICC Diplomatic Conference. It makes specific recommendations for the Court's statute, and comments on the impact of key provision son the future of the International Criminal Court. 
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Bosnia and Hercegovina: Beyond Restraint--
Politics and the Policing Agenda of the United Nations
International Police Task Force (150k) 
June 1998           (D1005) 
In this report, Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations to strengthen its monitoring of the human rights performance of the local police in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The IPTF is the most ambitious civilian police operation ever established by the United Nations, with over 2,000 international police monitors. It has a mandate to screen all applicants for posts in local police, and to assure that individuals who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or other serious human rights abuses, during the conflict or since, are prevented from holding any  police posts. 
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Republic of Uzbekistan -- Crackdown in the Farghona Valley:
Arbitrary Arrests and Religious Discrimination (116K) 
May 1998           (D1004) 
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Uzbekistan has made little progress in moving away from Soviet-style repression of human rights. A government policy of intolerance toward what it perceives as the primary threat to state stability -- Muslims whom the government generally refers to as "Wahhabis" -- makes a travesty of the government's assertion that the stability born of repression is necessary to achieve democracy. A Human Rights Watch fact-finding investigation conducted from March 14 to March 21, 1998, in Toshkent, Namangan, and Andijan revealed numerous human rights violations committed during recent crackdown on dissent. 
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Zambia: No Model for Democracy:
Continuing Human Rights Violations  (235k) 
April 1998           (A1002) 
In this report, Human Rights Watch documents serious abuses by the Zambian government such as police brutality and torture of detainees. Former president Kenneth Kaunda and opposition leader Rodger Chongwe were injured in August 1997 when police opened fire with live ammunition to disperse an opposition rally and are lucky to be alive. In addition, a number of opposition leaders were targeted and as many as eighty-two were detained. A number of these detainees were tortured.The Zambian government has said it wants to hold a 'trial within a trial' for the alleged torturers when the High Court starts its hearing of those supposedly implicated in the October coup. Human Rights Watch condemns such a proposal as insufficient to address these serious allegations of abuse and calls for an independent inquiry. 
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Justice for All?: An Analysis of the Human Rights Provisions 
of the 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement  (41k) 
May 1998           (D1003) 
Human Rights Watch welcomes the presentation of an historic peace accord to the people of Ireland, north and south. Human Rights Watch is particularly pleased to note that the new agreement reflects an understanding of the relationship between the protection and promotion of universal human rights and the probabilities for a lasting, just, and durable peace. The human rights provisions of the agreement address a number of issues of critical concern to human rights organizations that have been working in Northern Ireland for many years. Some measures, which would have enhanced human rights protections, are absent from the agreement. This paper analyzes the human rights provisions of the new accord and also makes recommendations concerning points in the accord which appear too vague to afford maximum protection. 
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Tajikistan -- Leninabad: Crackdown in the North  (131k) 
April 1998           (D1002) 
Five years of civil war in Tajikistan were formally brought to a close on June 27, 1997, when a peace accord was signed between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). A major force, however, was left out of the peace negotiations: the political opposition based in Tajikistan's northern region, Leninabad. Beginning in 1996, when the Leninabadi opposition sought a prominent role in the peace process, the Tajikistan government responded with a campaign to discredit that opposition's legitimacy and influence by cracking down on the region's political parties, arresting and harassing activists or suspected activists, and censoring from the media most information about the Leninabad political movement. 
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Macedonia: Police Violence in Macedonia  (103k) 
April 1998           (D1001) 
Police abuse is threatening social stability in Macedonia and could worsen the turmoil in the South Balkans, Human Rights Watch said today. In this report, the New York-based human rights organization charges that the Macedonian government is ignoring a pattern of police brutality, while the international community turns a "blind eye. " 
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Bearing the Brunt of the Asian Economic Crisis: the Impact on Labor Rights and Migrant Workers in Asia  (110k) 
April 1998           (C1002) 
The collapse has of the Asian economic market has given rise to massive layoffs of workers and wage and benefit cuts, not only in those countries worst affected by the economic crisis, but region-wide. Human Rights Watch is concerned about the likelihood of increasing violations of workers' rights as a direct consequence of the crisis in countries where labor conditions already fell well below the International Labor Organization's (ILO) core standards. 
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"Prohibited Persons": Abuse of Undocumented Migrants, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees in South Africa  (43k+) 
March 1998           (1819) 
Although South Africa, since the first democratic elections in 1994, has made remarkable progress towards establishing a free and democratic society based on respect for the human rights of its own citizens, foreigners have largely failed to benefit from these developments and remain subject to serious abuse. Anti-foreigner feelings have also increased alarmingly. Politicians, the press, and the South African public commonly blame foreigners for exacerbating social problems. 
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Clinton Administration Policy And Human Rights In Africa  (81k) 
March 1998           (A1001) 
The Clinton White House deserves a lot of credit for developing a 
fresh approach toward Africa, and giving the continent some high-level attention. But economic development can't be sustained in the face of repression and humanitarian disaster. Despite their commitment to open commerce, the continent's "new leaders" will soon look a lot like the old leaders if they continue brutalizing civilians and monopolizing political power. Stable societies everywhere rest on the same foundation: democracy and human rights. Africa is no exception to that rule. 
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Public Scandals -- Sexual Orientation & Criminal Law in Romania  (53k+) 
January 1998           (1789) 
Today in Romania, gays and lesbians are routinely denied some of the most basic human rights guaranteed by international law. Despite amendments in 1996 to the criminal code provisions relating to homosexual conduct--portrayed by the Romanian government as a total repeal of legislation criminalizing consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex--gays and lesbians continue to be arrested and convicted for such relations if they become public knowledge. Moreover, they face frequent physical abuse and harassment by law enforcement officials, as well as systematic discrimination in many walks of life. 
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