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Human Rights Watch ---- The Human Rights Watch monthly email update highlights the impact of our work around the world, as well as our recent campaigns. It does not list everything we produce or on which we work. For the latest information from Human Rights Watch, please visit our home page at http://www.hrw.org. Past monthly updates are archived at http://www.hrw.org/update. ---- With active hostilities in Iraq on the wane, Human Rights Watch is beginning a new phase of our research and advocacy on the conflict - addressing issues of post-war reconstruction, and analyzing how the war itself was conducted so as to draw lessons for the future. Prior to the war, we alerted the media and policymakers to key human rights problems that might arise, including the need to take proactive steps to avoid possible slaughter by Iraqi government or opposition troops, to adopt specified precautions to minimize harm to civilians, to reduce the prospect of ethnic and communal conflict, to address the humanitarian needs of those displaced by the war, and to establish a justice system to bring to justice those responsible for past abuses. We helped to encourage President Bush to make repeated vows that anyone who carried out atrocities during the war would be prosecuted - an important step for convincing Iraqi troops not to carry out any orders for mass murder that might have been delivered. Unfortunately, we did not succeed in convincing the U.S. government not to proceed to war without sufficient troops to maintain the peace and prevent the looting and lawlessness that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government. Once the war started, Human Rights Watch maintained a presence in Iraqi Kurdistan and on the borders of Iraq, where we monitored the conduct of the war as well as issues of forced displacement, the treatment of prisoners, and ethnic and communal conflict. We issued numerous background briefings on the requirements of the laws of war and posted them on our Web site in multiple languages - all in an effort to pressure the parties to the conflict to comply with these obligations. We condemned such Iraqi practices as disguising fighters as civilians and hiding military equipment and personnel in civilian areas. As for the United States and its allies, we were the first to report on their misuse of cluster bombs. We also issued numerous statements on the duties of the United States as an occupying power, the human rights considerations involved in the management of Iraq's oil reserves, and the conditions that must be met for the establishment of a credible justice system. Human Rights Watch will remain an objective source of information about developments in Iraq. We have a long history of documenting the crimes of Saddam Hussein; we were not "embedded" as journalists with the military; and we did not take a position on the U.S. military action. Maintaining this impartial stance continues to be the foundation of our research and advocacy. Human Rights Watch currently has three teams of researchers in and around Iraq. The team in Baghdad is investigating civilian deaths and the work being done by the occupying powers to assume their responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The team in Basra is focused on trying to prevent potential violence and reprisal killings among the large number of competing religious and political groups in southern Iraq. The third team is currently in Basra and will be traveling around the country on a detailed study of civilian casualties resulting from military operations on all sides of the conflict. All three teams will also collect newly emerging information on the horrendous atrocities of Saddam Hussein's reign. A recently completed investigation in northern Iraq focused on trying to prevent ethnic and communal violence between Kurds and Arabs around the oil-rich town of Kirkuk. Kirkuk is where Saddam Hussein's forced Arabization policy had displaced tens of thousands of Kurds from their homes; their desire to return to houses now often occupied by Arabs makes Kirkuk an obvious tinderbox. Meanwhile, on April 10, Human Rights Watch testified before the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on the need to have an international tribunal prosecute past human rights abuses committed in Iraq. Several days later, the U.S. Congress passed a supplemental appropriations bill. One provision of the bill sets aside $10,000,000 for an international tribunal, as well as related investigations, on the Iraqi government's genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Read the text of the testimony at http://hrw.org/press/2003/04/iraq041003tst.htm Human Rights Watch would like to thank the many individuals who responded to our emergency appeal on Iraq. Your contributions have made possible this urgent, ongoing work. For more news and information on Iraq, visit http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq ---- HRW recently received a letter from the office of the President of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa, stating that following his review of our report on sexual abuse of girls in Zambia and how this exposes them to HIV infection, he ordered the establishment of an interministeral program on the sexual abuse of girls. HRW will be closely following up on this commitment by monitoring if, when and how the program will be established. Read the report at http://hrw.org/reports/2003/zambia/ ---- Chilean television panelist Eduardo Yáñez was unanimously acquitted by the Santiago Appeals Court on April 2. Yáñez was facing a suspended prison sentence for allegedly insulting the judiciary on a television chat show. Human Rights Watch had condemned Yáñez's prosecution, citing the case frequently in its campaign for the repeal of Chile's law on "insult to authority" (article 263 of the Criminal Code). A bill for the law's repeal is currently before the Chilean Congress. Read more about human rights in Chile at http://hrw.org/americas/chile.php ---- Human Rights Watch remains concerned about people detained - and in some cases severely beaten - in sweeps directed against anti-war demonstrators in Egypt. Hundreds have apparently been arrested since March 20, 2003. The Egyptian media reported on March 30 that, by order of the Public Prosecutor, seventy-one persons charged before prosecutors were to be released on bail, although all charges would still stand. After pressure from Human Rights Watch, the report for the Senate version of the supplemental appropriations bill, granting Egypt $300,000,000 in bilateral economic assistance, included language that expressed concern regarding the "recent crackdown on Egyptian demonstrators, including the reported use of torture by police officials." In addition, the State Department was required to submit a report to the Appropriations Committees on Egypt's progress in meeting its obligations as a party to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment of Punishment. WHAT YOU CAN DO Please send letters to Egyptian authorities calling on them to release information about all those detained in connection with anti-war demonstrations since March 20, 2001, as well as any charges against them; free any persons arrested in connection with the demonstrations who are still detained unless they are promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offence; conduct a full investigation into charges of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and bring to justice those responsible. For more information, talking points, and sample letters, visit http://hrw.org/campaigns/egypt/protest/
For the first time ever, the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was meeting in Geneva, adopted a resolution condemning abuses in North Korea and calling for access by UN and private human rights monitors. HRW pushed for this resolution over a period of months, beginning with the publication of HRW's report last November on North Korean refugees in China. The report included action in Geneva as one of its key recommendations. HRW worked with the EU, chief sponsor of the resolution, South Korea, Japan, the United States and other key players to suggest text and urge adoption of a strong, constructive measure. The resolution passed 28-10 with 14 abstaining (and South Korea present but not voting). Read the report and HRW briefing paper on North Korea for the Commission on Human Rights at http://hrw.org/asia/dprkorea.php Human Rights Watch also pressed successfully for the Commission to adopt a first-ever resolution on Turkmenistan, another closed and repressive regime. The resolution was adopted 23-16 with 14 abstaining. It expressed "grave concern" about serious abuses of human rights in Turkmenistan, and pressed the Turkmen government to undertake systemic reforms to fully comply with its international human rights obligations. It "deplore[d]" the due process violations and other serious abuses suffered by those detained in relation to the November 25 assassination attempt of the country's president, and called on the Turkmen government to urgently grant independent bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, access to those detained. It also called on the Turkmen government to ensure that those found guilty of human rights violations be brought to justice; to lift restrictions on the operation of civil society groups; to cooperate with and implement recommendations from various international rights officials. Read the HRW briefing paper on Turkmenistan for the Commission on Human Rights at http://www.hrw.org/un/chr59/omnibus.htm The Commission on Human Rights session was disappointing, however, on many other important issues. For further information, including HRW's assessment, please read: http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/04/unchr042503.htm ---- In response to HRW advocacy, the Governor of California has assigned a deputy chief of staff to help coordinate implementation of the Student Safety and Violence Prevention Action of 2000. The Act protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth from discrimination and harassment in California schools. Human Rights Watch documented violence and harassment against LGBT youth in its 2001 report, "Hatred in the Hallways." In addition, a follow-up pilot program is underway in the Los Angeles Unified School District to train teachers and administrators about their responsibility to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from discrimination and violence. The project trained eight-five administrators and counselors whose student populations total nearly 16,000 students. The second phase, now underway, will provide the same training to nearly 1,000 teachers. Read the report at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/uslgbt/ ---- On April 2, Ugandan government officials indicated that the government would drop treason charges against two former child soldiers, ages fourteen and sixteen. The two boys had been forcibly recruited by the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has abducted approximately 20,000 children from Northern Uganda for use as soldiers, laborers, and sex slaves. In a letter to the Ugandan Minister of Justice, Human Rights Watch argued that treason is a serious charge that should not be used against children, particularly when children have been abducted by force and compelled to commit acts of violence. The government newspaper, New Vision, credited HRW pressure with the government's decision to drop the charges. Read HRW's March 2003 report "Stolen Children: Abduction And Recruitment In Northern Uganda" at http://hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0303/ WHAT YOU CAN DO Write to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, your Foreign Minister or Secretary of State, and United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan urging them to support the appointment of a UN Special Envoy to seek the release of the abducted children in Northern Uganda, and to take all feasible steps to protect children from abduction and recruitment by Ugandan military forces. For sample letters and contact information visit: http://hrw.org/campaigns/uganda/ ----
Millions of women in sub-Saharan Africa are robbed, beaten, raped, and evicted-often by their own in-laws-because women are deemed unworthy of equal property rights. A recent Human Rights Watch report, "Double Standards: Women's Property Rights Violations in Kenya," documents how women in Kenya are often precluded from inheriting property, expelled from their homes when they divorce or their husbands die, stripped of their belongings, and forced into customary sexual behaviors (such as "wife inheritance" and ritual "cleansing") in order to keep their property. In January 2003, a new government took office in Kenya for the first time in twenty-four years, ushering in the potential for progress on women's property rights. The new ruling party has declared women's equality a priority; a new constitution protecting women's property rights should be adopted this year; and donor agencies have now increased aid to Kenya. Human Rights Watch met with Kenyan officials in March to urge them to prevent and remedy women's property rights abuses. Officials responsible for gender issues, land, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, and legal affairs expressed concern and pledged to take action. WHAT YOU CAN DO Urge your elected officials to condemn violations of women's property rights, to press the leaders of countries where women's property rights are violated to change their laws and practices to better protect women's property rights, and to ensure that donor assistance is targeted to end these violations. For sample letters, fact sheets, and links to resources on women's property rights, visit http://hrw.org/campaigns/women/property/ Read "Double Standards: Women's Property Rights Violations in Kenya" at http://hrw.org/reports/2003/kenya0303/ Writers, webmasters, and students who have been jailed by their governments for simply expressing their views via the Internet. Tunisia, China, and Vietnam all promote electronic communication as a vehicle of modernization, yet subject it to draconian regulation in an effort to quash the dissemination of popular political dissent and protest. These people need your help now. Some have been subjected to torture, some are ill, and all suffer substandard prison conditions for no reason other than peacefully expressing their views, if sometimes irreverently. WHAT YOU CAN DO Read about seven Internet dissidents and write letters on their behalf to the people who are in a position to secure their release. Visit http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/internet/dissidents/ for sample letters and information about the cases. ---- In April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a strongly worded resolution stating that Russian government structures have "failed dismally to provide... protection from human rights abuses" to civilians in Chechnya and identifying a climate of impunity as a primary cause for continuing abuses by Russian and Chechen forces. The resolution called on the international community to consider setting up an ad hoc tribunal to try war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Chechen Republic should impunity for abuses persist. Human Rights Watch has long called for an international commission of inquiry to investigate abuses in Chechnya, where Russian authorities have allowed violations to go unpunished, virtually guaranteeing that the cycle of abuse will continue. A new briefing paper, based on the findings of our most recent mission to the region in late March, describes the forced disappearances of forty-four men, twenty-six of whom "disappeared" between late December 2002 and late February 2003-an average of about three "disappearances" per week. In all cases, the individuals "disappeared" after being taken into custody by federal forces. Human Rights Watch also documented five extrajudicial killings and twelve cases of torture, all of which occurred after December 2002. Human Rights Watch found that Russian authorities continue to pressure internally displaced people currently living in Ingushetia to return to Chechnya, using a combination of illusory incentives and very real threats. Many fear that tent camps and other settlements will soon be dismantled, forcing their inhabitants to return to the danger and abuse of Chechnya. In a deeply disappointing move that stood in contrast to PACE, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights rejected a resolution condemning the Russian government for its abuses in Chechnya. The no vote marked the second year in a row that the Commission failed to adopt a resolution tabled by the European Union on human rights violations in Chechnya. Read the Human Rights Watch briefing paper on Chechnya at http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechnya/index.htm Human Rights Watch's concerns regarding the isolation of those detained during the ongoing state of emergency in Serbia and Montenegro prompted senior government officials to publicly recognize the need to allow for international scrutiny of the conditions under which detainees are held. Justice Minister Vladan Batic said on April 9, two days after a Human Rights Watch press release calling for an end to the isolation of detainees, that the government was open to international and other organizations visiting detention facilities; that same day, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would invite international observers to carry out such visits. On April 10, the Serbian daily "Vecernje Novosti" published an interview with Deputy Premier Zarko Korac, who said that the concerns expressed by Human Rights Watch were "legitimate" and reaffirmed that international organizations should be granted access to those facilities where detainees were being held. Also on April 10, Human Rights Watch itself was invited to visit the Central Prison in Belgrade. The government has not responded to Human Rights Watch's follow-up request to arrange the visit, but on April 14 permitted a visit by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Read the Human Rights Watch press release at http://hrw.org/press/2003/04/serbia070403.htm For more on Human Rights Watch's concerns about the state of emergency in Serbia and Montenegro, see http://hrw.org/press/2003/03/serbia032503.htm and http://hrw.org/press/2003/03/serbia032503-ltr.htm ---- Your contribution to Human Rights Watch will allow us to continue to investigate human rights conditions in more than 70 countries and to generate pressure to end abuses. HRW does not accept financial support from any government or government agency. Every investigation we undertake, every advocacy campaign we embark on, and every report we produce is funded solely by generous private contributions. To find out more about membership, or to make a donation online, by phone, or by postal mail, visit http://www.hrw.org/donations// |
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