October 2006
Guinea: HRW Report Sparks Inquiry into Police Abuse
After Human Rights Watch released a report on police torture and inadequate conditions of detention by Guinean security forces, the Guinean Ministry of Justice responded by organizing a four-day seminar examining some of the abuses we exposed. A significant number of Guinean judges, police officers, and prison administrators, as well as other officials from the Ministry of Justice, including the Minister of Justice himself, met last month to discuss some of the key issues we raised in the report, as well as the need for better compliance with the Guinean Penal Code and international conventions ratified by Guinea. At the opening ceremony, the Minister of Justice reportedly acknowledged the government's failure to guarantee important protections provided under Guinea's constitution, including the prohibition of torture. Since beginning our work on Guinea in January 2006, Human Rights Watch has conducted three missions to the country, produced one extended press release covering a brutal crackdown on student demonstrators, and published our report just last month. Building on this work, we will continue our advocacy with the Guinean government to press for better accountability for abuses perpetrated by police and security forces. Read More.
Middle East and North Africa: Palestinian Groups Condemn both Israel and Hezbollah
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and the Lebanon-based Palestinian Organization for Human Rights (PHRO) recently submitted an unprecedented joint statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council in advance of its special session on the war in Israel and Lebanon. The statement was notable for condemning not only Israeli attacks on civilians in Lebanon, but also Hezbollah's targeting of civilians. Human Rights Watch has long made it a priority to combat the pervasive culture of acceptance for attacks against civilians committed by insurgent groups in the Middle East. However, rather than simply denouncing such attacks ourselves (which we have done as well in numerous press releases, reports, and op-eds, we engage in substantive discussions with Palestinian opinion leaders, encouraging them to publicly speak out against the targeting of civilians. In fact, CIHRS was the site of group meetings that we convened earlier this year, and we met in Beirut with the PHRO just a week before the war started. Our raising the issue may have encouraged these groups to denounce Israeli and Hezbollah attacks alike. A few years ago, this sort of statement would likely have referenced only Israeli crimes and violations. We will continue to push influential community leaders to criticize the targeting of civilians with the hope that insurgent groups will be moved to change their tactics, ultimately resulting in fewer attacks on civilians in the region.
Read More.
Russia: Countering Hazing in the Military
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently pressed high-level army officials to stamp out abusive behavior in the military, including rampant corruption and hazing. This month, the Russian Duma is set to consider a bill that would give military courts greater authority to address breaches of discipline in the army. Four years ago, Human Rights Watch joined the decades-long campaign led by the Soldiers' Mothers Committees of Russia against abuses perpetrated by the Russian army. Through reports, op-eds, and meetings with high-level officials, we condemned violent hazing in the Russian military, which results in the deaths and severe injury of hundreds of young soldiers every year, all in the face of deliberate inaction and even tacit approval by commanding officers. Earlier this year, we published an op-ed on the case of private Andrei Sychev, who was beaten so badly that his legs had to be amputated. This case drew national attention and made it impossible for the army to continue to turn a blind eye to the issue of hazing in the military. On September 27, a military court sentenced the soldiers responsible for Sychev's injuries to prison terms, striking a blow against the entrenched culture of impunity for such abuses. Going forward, we will continue to work toward justice for victims of hazing by spearheading an effort to help soldiers' mothers seek justice for abuse against conscripts in the European Court of Human Rights. Read More.
Bush Supports Cruel Methods of Interrogation
Advocacy Director Tom Malinowski draws parallels in the Washington Post between U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed "alternative" interrogation techniques and methods that the Soviets themselves acknowledged were intended to brutalize their enemies and to extract false confessions.
Hezbollah's Indiscriminate Attacks
In CounterPunch, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of our Middle East and North Africa Division, counters the assertion that Hezbollah never targeted civilians during its war with Israel by arguing that Hezbollah forces launched unguided rockets directly into populated areas and must have known that civilian casualties would result.
Israel Responsible for Civilian CasualtiesBoard Member Kathleen Peratis, writing in the
Washington Post, defends Human Rights Watch's
report documenting Israeli forces' systematic failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians, resulting in the deaths hundreds of Lebanese, the vast majority civilians.
United Nations Must Tackle Crisis in Sri Lanka
In Open Democracy, Asia Researcher Meenakshi Ganguly calls on the international community to take action against the renewed military conflict and political violence in Sri Lanka, which threaten the return of full-scale civil war.
Three-Drug Protocol InhumaneU.S. Program Researcher Sarah Tofte, writing in the
Rapid City Journal, argues that the standard three-drug protocol for lethal injections in the United States puts condemned prisoners at needless risk of excruciating pain.
