• 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.

  • Bosco Ntaganda poses for a photograph in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on October 5, 2010.
    © 2010 Reuters
    DR Congo: Congolese Warlord Should Face Justice
    The Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs today announced that Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese rebel leader wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, surrendered himself to the United States embassy in Kigali, Rwanda.
More news »

Featured Content

    • Remembering Srebrenica and Reacting to Mladic's Arrest
      May 26 2011 - 18:06

      You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.
    The Economist's Online Debate on Peace and Justice
Subscribe to content feed

Reports

More >>

International Justice

  • Syria’s River of Death
    Apr 30, 2013
    Syrian men don’t usually cry. But for Yasser, the memory of his son, Mohammed, hurt too much. Sitting in the dark inside his shop on a bustling market street in Aleppo, the 63-year-old, hunched over in his chair, kept asking me: “Why did he deserve to die that way?” Yasser’s grief over his son who was apparently executed is shared by far too many Syrians caught up in this grisly war.
  • US: Supreme Court Limits Suits against Rights Abusers Abroad
    Apr 29, 2013

    A decision by the US Supreme Court could severely limit the use of a federal statute that for more than 30 years has permitted foreign victims of atrocities abroad to obtain civil remedies in federal courts and has denied rights abusers a safe haven in the United States. It undercuts case law that had made the US courts a mainstay for redress for victims of serious human rights abuses.

  • Syria: New Air, Missile Strikes Kill Civilians
    Apr 26, 2013
    New Syrian government air and missile strikes are causing high civilian casualties in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo in violation of the laws of war. A Human Rights Watch team in northern Aleppo province has investigated recent attacks that killed scores of civilians and destroyed dozens of civilian homes without damaging any apparent opposition military targets.
  • Chad: Don’t Welcome ICC Fugitive
    Apr 25, 2013
    The government of Chad should arrest Abdelraheem Mohammed Hussein, the defense minister of Sudan. He is expected to attend a conference in Chad on April 25 and 26, 2013, according to news reports
  • Kenya: New Leaders Should Put Rights First
    Apr 23, 2013
    Kenya’s new administration should take urgent steps in four key areas to address longstanding human rights challenges, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The administration should ensure that abusive security forces are held to account, protect independent voices, accelerate key police and land reforms, and cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
  • Building a House on a Sand Pile: The Cost of Ignoring Justice in Côte d’Ivoire
    Apr 22, 2013

    Nearly two years have passed since the end of Côte d’Ivoire’s brutal five-month long post-electoral crisis, which resulted in the slaughter of at least 3,000 civilians and the rape of 150 women.

  • Guatemala: Genocide Trial Suspension
    Apr 19, 2013
    The abrupt suspension of the genocide trial of former de facto head of Guatemala, Efraín Ríos Montt, raises serious concerns about victims’ access to justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
  • Why So Many Syrians Wish For Rain
    Apr 16, 2013
    Life in Aleppo is not easy. People here have suffered from shortages of food, electricity and running water, and there has been little humanitarian assistance. The long, cold winter months were particularly rough. The only possible consolation was that there were fewer air strikes because of the cloudy, rainy weather. The government’s jets only seem to fly – and drop bombs – when the sky is blue.
  • Will Kenya's new president respect international court?
    Apr 12, 2013
    Kenya's new president missed the opportunity on day one to declare unequivocal commitment to the International Criminal Court and his administration should do so as soon as possible, says campaign group
  • Côte d’Ivoire: Soldiers on Trial for Abuses
    Apr 11, 2013

    The opening in Côte d’Ivoire on April 11, 2013, of trials against soldiers allegedly implicated in crimes against civilians is a positive development, but little progress has been made in investigating the most politically sensitive cases involving government forces.

more documents on this topic »