• Human Rights and International Justice

    Human Rights Watch considers international justice—accountability for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—to be an essential element of building respect for human rights. We actively engage with the work of the International Criminal Court and other international tribunals as well as the efforts of national courts, including in Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Bosnia, to bring perpetrators of the worst crimes to justice. Human Rights Watch also supports the efforts of national courts to use their domestic laws to try those charged with serious crimes in violation of international law, regardless of where the crimes occurred.

  • Opposition supporters flee Conakry’s main stadium on September 28, 2009, after security forces stormed and opened fire on rally participants.
    [This photo is taken from footage given to Human Rights Watch.]
    Guinea: Step Up Efforts to Ensure Justice for Stadium Massacre

    The Guinean government should increase support to the domestic investigation of the September 28, 2009 massacre, rapes, and other abuses to enable fair, credible prosecutions of the crimes without further delay, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The conclusion is based on extensive research and analysis of the factors holding up the investigation. International partners – including the European Union (EU), United States, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – also should increase pressure and support for justice to be done.

     

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International Justice

  • Ending the cycle of abuse in Congo
    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
    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.  

  • Syria: Strong Coalition Message Against Targeting Civilians
    Dec 21, 2012

    The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) sent a clear signal that targeting civilians violates the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said today. The coalition’s statement on December 19, 2012, condemned attacks on civilians, regardless of their nationality. 

  • A Letter to the Italian Prime Minister about Palestine and the ICC
    Dec 21, 2012
    We write to express Human Rights Watch’s deep concern regarding your December 17 statement made during a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, in which you call on the Palestinian Authority not to use Palestine's new non-member observer-state status at the United Nations to pursue the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
  • Senegal: Proceedings Against Hissène Habré Draw Near
    Dec 19, 2012

    The adoption by the Senegalese National Assembly on December 19, 2012,of laws establishing special chambers within the existing Senegalese court structure heralds the start of criminal proceedings against the former president of Chad, Hissène Habré.

  • ICC: Congolese Rebel Leader Acquitted in Court’s Second Case
    Dec 18, 2012

    The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) acquittal on December 18, 2012, of a Congolese rebel leader on all charges should re-energize efforts to prosecute others for atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • Rome Statute Ratifications
    Dec 14, 2012
  • Living Up to the Nobel: EU Must Act on Syria
    Dec 10, 2012
    Catherine Ashton's mandate is to provide leadership on foreign policy and human rights. She has failed, however, to ensure a collective EU voice for bringing the crimes in Syria before the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 10 December, as the EU receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, EU foreign ministers meeting back in Brussels should decide to move beyond vague references to “accountability” for crimes in Syria and make clear that they support a UN Security Council referral of the situation to the ICC.
  • Joint Letter to UN Security Council on an International Military Force for Mali
    Dec 5, 2012

    As the UN Security Council considers the authorization of an international military force for Mali, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FIDH, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect share concerns about the possible human rights challenges such a force could encounter if it is not accompanied by the proper safeguards for civilian protection and human rights monitoring capability.  

  • Guinea: Step Up Efforts to Ensure Justice for Stadium Massacre
    Dec 5, 2012

    The Guinean government should increase support to the domestic investigation of the September 28, 2009 massacre, rapes, and other abuses to enable fair, credible prosecutions of the crimes without further delay, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The conclusion is based on extensive research and analysis of the factors holding up the investigation. International partners – including the European Union (EU), United States, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – also should increase pressure and support for justice to be done.

     

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