March 2006

• Libya: Report Sparks Investigation into Women's Detention
  
• United States: U.N. Confirms Abuses at Guantánamo
  
• Singapore: Government Begins to Address Domestic Worker Abuse
  

Libya: Report Sparks Investigation into Women's Detention
Ahead of the release of a Human Rights Watch report on the arbitrary detention of women and girls in "social rehabilitation" facilities, the Libyan government in meetings with executive director Kenneth Roth promised to investigate these abuses. Aisha al-Qadhafi, daughter of Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, also promised to follow up on our findings. The managing director of the Wa'tassimo charity, which oversees Tripoli's "social rehabilitation" facilities, told Human Rights Watch that the government has established a specialized council to study conditions in all of Libya's rehabilitation facilities, which will include examining the physical and psychological well-being of the women and children who are detained.

Human Rights Watch's report was released February 28, 2006 in London and is based on our first-ever investigative mission to Libya. We found numerous human rights abuses in "social rehabilitation" facilities, where women and girls who have committed no crime, or who have completed a sentence, are held in indefinite detention. Some are there because they were raped and are cast out of the home for "staining their family's honor." In these facilities, women and girls are subjected to solitary confinement and are forced to endure invasive virginity examinations. They are allowed to leave only when a male relative takes custody of them or they agree to marry. Human Rights Watch continues to call on the Libyan government to release all women and girls not serving criminal sentences and establish voluntary shelters for those at risk of violence. Read More.

United States: U.N. Confirms Abuses at Guantánamo
A report by U.N. human rights experts confirms what Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations have long documented-that the United States is violating international human rights law and the Geneva Conventions by indefinitely detaining, without charges, the more than 500 men held at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. The experts also determined that the physical abuse of the detainees, including unnecessarily brutal forced feeding, violates the international prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Human Rights Watch has been monitoring and speaking out against the confinement of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay since the first detainees were sent to the facility. We have criticized the absence of any legal basis for the confinement of detainees, their mistreatment, and the lack of fair trial guarantees in the military commissions the United States has created to try some of those detained. Our investigations were used as source material for the U.N. report. Human Rights Watch is hopeful that the findings of the report will revive concern in the United States and abroad about the U.S. government's failure to set out a legal basis for the detentions and help to prosecute those responsible for the mistreatment of detainees. Read More.

Singapore: Government Begins to Address Domestic Worker Abuse
Human Rights Watch's report on inadequate labor protections for migrant domestic workers in Singapore set off an explosive round of press coverage in the national media. Two weeks after the report release, the government announced changes to Singapore's Employment Agency Act. Under the new provisions, the government's labor ministry can impose fines on abusive labor agencies, and can prosecute an agency if it continues to operate once its license has been revoked. Our report, released in Singapore in December 2005, documented grave abuses against women domestic workers, including confinement in the workplace, death from unsafe working conditions, food deprivation, and physical and sexual violence. Domestic workers in Singapore routinely work for 6-8 months without any salary to repay excessive labor agency fees, and are excluded from the country's main labor laws. Human Rights Watch applauded the government's initial steps to improve the Employment Agency Act, but continues to advocate for the regulation of charges imposed by labor agencies, greater freedom of movement for domestic workers, and standard labor protections, such as a minimum wage, one weekly rest day, and paid annual leave. Read More.

Congolese Victims Wait for Justice
In the Independent, London Director Steve Crawshaw urges the international community and the International Criminal Court to hold perpetrators accountable for massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pakistan Fails to Rein in Religious Extremists
In the International Herald Tribune, Pakistan Researcher Ali Dayan Hasan faults the Pakistan government for its failure to control extremists, which has led to a rise in sectarian violence.

A Day at the HRW Moscow Office
The BBC Online highlights a typical day in the life of Sasha Petrov, the deputy director of our office in Moscow.