 
Short Reports
AFGHANISTAN
Humanity Denied:
Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan
Women in Afghanistan have suffered a catastrophic assault on their
human rights during more than twenty years of war and under the repressive
rule of the Taliban. Now, as women face further peril with the intensification
of conflict following the September 11 attacks on the United States, the
international community must make a firm commitment to uphold women's human
rights in any post-conflict settlement. The impunity that has characterized
Afghanistan's civil war must not also come to characterize Afghanistan's
post-conflict reconstruction and development. Throughout Afghanistan's
civil war, the major armed factions primarily the Taliban and the United
National Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (commonly known
as the "United Front" or by its previous name, the Northern Alliance),
a coalition of mainly Tajik, Uzbek, and ethnic Hazara parties have repeatedly
committed serious abuses of international human rights and humanitarian
law. Women have borne the brunt of this violence and discrimination. In
the civil war, women have suffered massive, systematic, and unrelenting
human rights abuses that have permeated every aspect of their lives. Both
Taliban forces and forces now grouped in the United Front have sexually
assaulted, abducted, and forcibly married women during the armed conflict,
targeting them on the basis of both gender and ethnicity. Thousands of
women have been physically assaulted and have had severe restrictions placed
on their liberty and fundamental freedoms.
(C1305), 10/01, 25pp, $3.00
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Crisis of Impunity:
The Role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran
in Fueling the Civil War in Afghanistan
The United Nations Security Council should
impose a comprehensive embargo on all military assistance against all warring
factions in Afghanistan. In this report, Human Rights Watch accused Pakistan,
Iran, and Russia of providing military support to Afghan factions with
a long record of committing gross abuses of human rights. Other states
in the region have also contributed to the ongoing war. The 55-page report
details the nature of military support provided to the warring parties;
the major transit routes used to move arms and other equipment; the suppliers;
the role of state and nonstate actors; and the response of the international
community. Human Rights Watch conducted research on military assistance
to the Taliban and the United Front over a two-year period, traveling to
both Kabul and areas of Afghanistan under United Front control, as well
as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, and interviewing government
officials, members of the diplomatic community, military officers, civil
servants, journalists, academics, and others.
(C1303), 07/01, 58pp, $7.00
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Massacres of Hazaras in
Afghanistan
This report documents two massacres committed
by Taliban forces in the central highlands of Afghanistan, in January 2001and
May 2000. In both cases the victims were primarily Hazaras, a Shia Muslim
ethnic group that has been the target of previous massacres and other serious
human rights violations by Taliban forces. These massacres took place in
the context of the six-year war between the Taliban and parties now grouped
in the United National Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (the
"United Front"), in which international human rights and humanitarian law
have been repeatedly violated by the warring factions. Ethnic and religious
minorities, and the Hazaras in particular, have been especially vulnerable
in areas of conflict, and Taliban forces have committed large-scale abuses
against Hazara civilians with impunity. In this report Human Rights Watch
alls upon the United Nations to investigate both massacres and to systematically
monitor human rights and humanitarian law violations by all parties to
Afghanistan's civil war.
(C1301), 02/01, 12pp, $3.00
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BURUNDI
Emptying the Hills:
Regroupment Camps in Burundi
Although the government of Burundi has promised
Nelson Mandela that it will close its squalid "regroupment" camps, that
promise has not yet been fulfilled, Human Rights Watch charged in this
report. The former South African president is leading a new round of the
Burundi peace talks, opening tomorrow. Burundian rebel groups, who are
of critical importance to any efforts to end the six-year civil war, have
said they will attend the talks only if the regroupment camps are closed.
The 35-page report, "Emptying the Hills," says that the Burundian government
forced as many as 350,000 civilians into the camps. Although Burundi president
Pierre Buyoya promised Mandela to close the camps by July 31, some tens
of thousands of people are still living in them. The report also details
abuses of the National Liberation Forces (Forces Nationales pour la Libération,
FNL), a rebel group fighting
the Burundian government.
(A1204), 7/00, 38pp, $5.00
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CANADA/MEXICO/UNITED STATES
Trading Away Rights:
The Unfulfilled Promise Of Nafta's Labor
Side Agreement
On the eve of the Quebec summit of Western
hemisphere leaders, Human Rights Watch called for the creation of an independent
oversight agency to spur remedial action for workers' rights violations.
"Trading Away Rights: The Unfulfilled Promise of NAFTA's Labor Side Agreement,"
analyzes the twenty-three complaints filed under the accord since it came
into force in 1994. The complaints allege systematic workers' rights violations
in all three countries - fourteen in Mexico, seven in the United States,
and two in Canada. Companies named as violators include General Electric,
Honeywell, Sony, General Motors, McDonald's, Sprint, and the Washington
State apple industry. The NAFTA labor provisions, known formally as the
North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), are the most ambitious
link between trade and labor rights ever implemented, Human Rights Watch
said. They include eleven "labor principles" including freedom of association,
discrimination, and minimum wage. The accord also requires the signatories
to have high labor standards and provide access to fair labor tribunals.
(B1302), 04/01, 73pp, $7.00
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CHILE
Progress Stalled:
Setbacks In Freedom Of Expression Reform
Chile's record on freedom of expression
has improved little since the end of military rule, Human Rights Watch
charged in this report. Although the country has made great progress in
prosecuting the abuses of the Pinochet dictatorship, the same repressive
defamation laws that the military regime regularly employed against its
critics are still in use. Chile is unique among Latin American democracies
in considering "contempt of authority" to be a crime against state security,
meriting up to five years' imprisonment. The 45-page Human Rights Watch
report, Progress Stalled: Setbacks in Freedom of Expression Reform in Chile,
calls on the Chilean legislature to repeal provisions of the State Security
Law that criminalize speech, as well as to pass other much-needed free
expression reforms. Although it has been over a decade since the end of
military rule in Chile, reform legislation still languishes in Congress.
The criminal codes of eighteen Latin American countries have similar provisions
criminalizing "contempt of authority" (known in Spanish as "desacato").
Yet Chile's laws are more repressive in nature and scope, and are used
more frequently, whereas in other countries the laws are rarely if ever
applied.
(B1301), 03/01, 46pp, $5.00
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CHINA
"Nipped in the Bud":
Suppression of the China Democracy Party
In this thirty-five page report released
today, Human Rights Watch called on China's President Jiang Zemin to release
more than thirty people imprisoned for their role in the China Democracy
Party and all others who have been detained in China for peaceful political
activities. The Chinese President will be in the U.S. on September 7 to
meet world leaders at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. The new
report, "Nipped in the Bud: Suppression of the China Democracy Party,"
documents China's systematic crushing of attempts by a group of activists
to form the first legally registered opposition party since the founding
of the People's Republic in 1949. The activists, who announced the founding
of the party on the eve of President Bill Clinton's state visit to China
in June 1998, used the provisions of international human rights treaties
as evidence of their right to organize. Some members had already been arrested
when China finally signed - but did not ratify - one of those treaties,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in October 1998.
More arrests and harsh sentences followed.
(C1205) 9/00, 36pp., $5.00
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COLOMBIA
Beyond Negotiation:
International Humanitarian Law and its Application to the Conduct
of the FARC-EP
Whether they live in Bogotá or in remote rural areas, Colombian
civilians bear the brunt of the country’s violent armed conflict. Thousands
have been killed in recent years, and thousands more have been kidnaped
for ransom. Their children, some as young as thirteen or fourteen, have
been recruited into the irregular forces guerrillas and paramilitaries
– that play a primary role in the conflict. Fleeing their homes to protect
themselves and their families, some two million Colombians have become
internally displaced or have left their country as refugees. Human Rights
Watch abhors the conflict’s heavy civilian toll and supports ongoing efforts
to achieve peace. Yet we insist on the protection of civilians even in
the absence of peace. The international humanitarian law norms applicable
to the conflict were designed to shield civilians from war, and to protect
sick and wounded combatants as well as those who have sur-rendered. In
Colombia, to the great discredit of the warring parties, these norms are
largely ignored. This report, which is based on first-hand research in
Colombia, including a visit in May-June 2000 to the Zone, describes the
range of inter-national humanitarian law violations committed by FARC-EP.
Both in format and substance, it closely follows a July 2001 letter to
Commander Marulanda addressing these issues.
(B1303), 08/01, 21pp, $3.00
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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Reluctant Recruits:
Children and Adults Forcibly Recruited
For Military Service in North Kivu
The major rebel group in eastern Congo continues
to recruit children to wage war against the Congolese government, Human
Rights Watch chargesd in this report. The report details recruitment efforts
since late 2000 by the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma) and
the Rwandan army troops who support it. RCD-Goma has repeatedly pledged
to demobilize its child soldiers, but has not fulfilled these promises,
the report says. As part of the 1999 Lusaka Accords, RCD-Goma agreed to
halt the use of children as soldiers. In May 2000, RCD-Goma said it would
create a commission to supervise emobilization of child soldiers, but a
year later the commission is not functioning effectively. In April 2001,
authorities of the rebel movement promised to deliver several hundred children
in training at military camps to representatives of the United Nations.
But several days later, they reportedly allowed some 1800 new recruits
between the ages of 12 and 17 to graduate from training at one of these
camps.
(A1303), 05/01, 19pp, $3.00
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Uganda in Eastern DRC:
Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife
Ugandan authorities have fueled political
and ethnic strife in eastern Congo with disastrous consequences for the
local population. In this fifty-page report, "Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling
Political and Ethnic Strife," documents how Ugandan authorities meddled
in rivalries among factions of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy
(RCD). Some of these quarrels degenerated into military skirmishes in which
civilians have been killed and injured. The report shows how Ugandan soldiers
intervened in a long-standing dispute between Hema and Lendu peoples, in
many cases lending firepower to Hema, sometimes in return for payment.
During more than two years of Ugandan occupation, the Hema-Lendu war claimed
more than 7,000 lives and displaced an estimated 200,000 people. Uganda
has pulled some of its troops out in recent weeks, but not from the areas
most affected by the abuses described in the report.
(A1302), 03/01, 46pp, $5.00
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Côte d’Ivoire
The New Racism:
The Political Manipulation of Ethnicity
in Côte d’Ivoire
Leading government officials in Côte
D’Ivoire have incited a violent xenophobia that is threatening to destabilize
the country, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.
The World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance,
which begins in Durban on August 31, should condemn the Ivorian leaders
who have promoted intolerance based on ethnic and religious differences.
The 70-page report, The New Racism: The Political Manipulation of Ethnicity
in Côte d’Ivoire, describes atrocities committed during presidential
and parliamentary elections in October and December 2000, and is based
on extensive interviews of victims and witnesses in Abidjan in late 2000
and early 2001. The report documents more than 200 killings, as well as
torture, rape, and arbitrary detention. The political and social climate
remains volatile today as intolerance and xenophobia continue to shape
daily life.The election violence began with security forces target-ing
civilians on the basis of these political affiliation. Following Gbagbo’s
victory, security forces began targeting civilians solely and explicitly
on the basis of their religion, ethnic group, or national origin. The overwhelming
majority of victims come from the largely Muslim north of the country,
or are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants to Côte d’Ivoire.
About one-quarter of the population of Cote d’Ivoire was born abroad or
is descended from immigrants. Opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and his
party, the Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), largely draw their support
from these groups.
(A1306), 08/01, 70pp, $7.00
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EGYPT
Underage And Unprotected:
Child Labor In Egypt's Cotton Fields
Egyptian children employed by cotton-farming
cooperatives work long hours, routinely face beatings at the hands of foremen,
and are poorly protected against pesticides and heat, human rights watch
said in a this new report. Most of the children are also well below the
country's legal minimum age of twelve for seasonal agricultural work, the
report charged. the children are employed under the authority of the agriculture
ministry, and the Egyptian government has a responsibility to ensure compliance
with the country's 1996 child law. The report also documents conditions
faced by more than one million rural children who are hired each year from
may to july, largely during the school recess, to control cotton leafworm
infestations. Working eleven hours a day, seven days a week, the children
inspect cotton plants for leafworm eggs and manually remove infected portions
of leaves. An agricultural engineer assigned to one of the cooperatives
told Human Rights Watch that children were cheaper to hire, more obedient,
and had the "appropriate height" for inspecting cotton plants.
(E1301) 01/01, 20pp., $3.00
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GEORGIA
Backtracking on Reform:
Amendments Undermine Access to Justice
In a report released today, Human Rights
Watch documents Georgia's repeal of reforms that would have widened access
to the courts to hear torture and other complaints of abuses by the police,
procuracy, and security forces.The Georgian parliament repealed these important
reforms just weeks after Georgia was voted into the Council of Europe in
April 1999. Since then, Georgia's abysmal record on torture has shown no
improvement, and the report shows how the backtracking on legal reforms
last year has contributed to continuing widespread, unchecked abuses. The
reforms affected the criminal procedure code, which governs criminal investigations
and trials. Council of Europe experts had reviewed and the Georgian parliament
had adopted the reformed criminal procedure code prior to Georgia's April
1999 admission to the organization. The Council is made up of the forty-one
countries that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights. Countries
that join the Council of Europe pledge to ensure that their national legislation
and practice conform to convention standards. For some countries in Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union, membership in the Council is seen as
the first step toward integration into other European institutions such
as the European Union and NATO.
(D1211), 10/00, 64pp., $7.00
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GUINEA
Refugees Still At Risk
Continuing Refugee Protection Concerns
in Guinea
Hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leonean
and Liberian refugees along Guinea's border were relocated from the embattled
border area in early 2001 to camps in the interior of the country. While
the organized movement from the border is a welcome and long overdue step,
the long-term safety of the refugees is still under threat. The refugees
are generally faced with the difficult choice of remaining unprotected
in Guinea, or returning to Sierra Leone or Liberia, where serious threats
to their safety persist. Some refugees say they are being asked to choose
whether to die in Guinea or at home. If they stay in Guinea, refugees fear
a repeat of last year's outbreak of harassment and violence at the hands
of Guineans who blame them for the violence at the border. If they returnhome,
they face an uncertain future, since both Sierra Leone and Liberia remain
in a fragile balance between war and peace. Either choice raises serious
protection concerns for the long-term safety of the refugees. The likelihood
of renewed and escalating violence in Guinea and the sub-region remains
high, as does the risk of refugees falling victim yet again to this insecurity:
a situation that they are acutely aware of. Many of these refugees have
already suffered violence and abuse repeatedly.
(A1305), 07/01, 21pp, $3.00
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INDONESIA
The War in Aceh
In this report, Human Rights Watch called
on both the Indonesian government and armed rebels in Aceh to protect civilians,
saying both sides had been responsible for human rights violations. Human
Rights Watch also called for the government to allow local human rights
organizations to carry out fact-finding investigations without intimidation
and to cease persecution of non-violent supporters of polit-ical change.
Human Rights Watch called on the new government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri
to move quickly to set up human rights courts to prosecute cases of serious
human rights violations. The new report notes that the Acehnese rebel organization,
Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, the Free Aceh Movement) has tried to restrict
free expression by threatening journalists who do not report GAM’s version
of events. It also looks at killings and unlawful detentions by GAM, as
well as GAM’s forced expulsions of ethnic Javanese. The report also examines
the Indonesian security forces’ role in extrajudicial executions, “disappearances,”
torture, and collective punishment.
(C1304), 08/01, 41pp, $5.00
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IRAN
Stifling Dissent:
The Human Rights Consequences Of Inter-Factional
Struggle In Iran
The factional struggle behind the current
presidential elections in Iran is having a devastating impact on human
rights, human rights watch said in this new report released today. The
20-page report says that conservative-dominated institutions in Iran have
used arbitrary detention, unfair trial, political violence, and restrictions
on basic freedoms in order to prevent the reform movement from enacting
its programs. these conservative institutions, which are not elected, include
the judiciary, the council of guardians and the office of the leader of
the islamic republic. They have launched a wave of repression against the
independent media, opposition political activists, independent intellectuals,
and reform-minded government officials. The report says that fundamental
changes are urgently needed to bring iran's legal and administrative policies
and practices in line with its obligations under international law.
(E1303), 05/01, 20pp, $3.00
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ISRAEL, OCCUPIED WEST BANK AND GAZA
STRIP AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES
Investigation into Unlawful
use of Force in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and
Northern Israel,October
4 through October 11
Human Rights Watch today released results
of a week-long investigation that condemns Israeli police and security
forces for a pattern of using excessive, lethal force in clashes with demonstrators
over the past two weeks. In the report, Human Rights Watch also strongly
criticized the failure of the Palestinian police to act consistently to
prevent armed Palestinians from shooting at Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
from positions where civilians were present and thus endangered by the
Israeli response. Human Rights Watch said its week-long investigation of
clashes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and northern Israel showed repeated
use by Israeli security forces of lethal force in situations where demonstrators
posed no threat of death or serious injury to security forces or others.
In situations where Palestinians did fire upon Israeli security forces,
the IDF showed a troubling proclivity to resort to indiscriminate lethal
force in response. At least 100 Palestinians have been killed and 3,500
injured in clashes with Israeli security forces. Human Rights Watch also
expressed concern at the IDF's use of medium caliber munitions, which are
meant for penetrating concrete and other hard surface barriers, against
unarmed demonstrators in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The military munitions
were particularly devastating when they hit civilians.
(E1203), 10/00, 13pp., $3.00
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KENYA
In The Shadow Of Death:
HIV/AIDS And Children's Rights In Kenya
The government of Kenya is failing to care
for millions of children who have been orphaned by AIDS or whose family
members suffer from the disease.HIV/AIDS has orphaned about a million children
in Kenya and at least 13 million in Africa,and left millions more impoverished
and marginalized in many African countries. The disease has also weakened
the extended family and other communities to which orphans have traditionally
turned.This report charges that the Kenyan government has failed to take
responsibility for children who are at higher risk of human rights abuse
when the disease ravages their families. As children are forced to become
breadwinners, they are pulled out of school and often forced to take on
potentially dangerous labor that is inappropriate for children. Leading
Kenyan government officials have not spoken out forcefully enough to reduce
the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said. It
called on President Daniel arap Moi to break the "conspiracy of silence"
that has fostered discrimination against children affected by the HIV/AIDS
crisis. Many children are also unable to inherit property to which they
are entitled because they are unable to navigate
legal processes that are cumbersome and
ill-suited to claimants who are minors.The report focuses on Kenya as an
illustrative case of a phenomenon that affects much of Africa.
(A1304), 06/01, 35pp., $5.00
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KUWAIT
Promises Betrayed:
Denial of Rights of Bidun, Women, &
Freedom of Expression
Human Rights Watch today called on Kuwait
to revoke laws that discriminate against women and long-term non-citizens
of Kuwait. In a report issued before the opening of the Kuwaiti National
Assembly on October 28, Human Rights Watch also called on Kuwait to amend
its Penal Code and Printing and Publications Law to protect freedom of
expression. The 38-page report, "Promises Betrayed: Denial of Rights of
Bidun,Women, and Freedom of Expression," details Kuwaiti laws and practices
which systematically discriminate against women and stateless Bidun, and
laws which criminalize free expression by journalists, academics, and writers.
These laws contravene Kuwait's international treaty obligations, including
the six human rights treaties that Kuwait has signed since 1968. Human
Rights Watch said that Kuwaiti women face severe discrimination in both
public and private life. Under Kuwaiti penal law, men who kill female relatives
in so-called "honor crimes" serve a maximum three-year sentence and are
not prosecuted for murder. Women are banned from voting and standing for
election, cannot contract their own marriage or divorce without the agreement
of a male guardian or judge, and are barred in practice from many public
positions, including serving as judges.
(E1202), 10/00, 43pp., $5.00
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MACEDONIA
Crimes Against Civilians:
Abuses by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten,
August 10-12, 2001
Macedonian government troops committed grave
abuses during an August offensive that claimed ten civilian lives in the
ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten, Human Rights Watch charged in a new
report released today. The report, titled Crimes Against Civilians: Abuses
by Macedonian Forces in Ljuboten, August 10-12, 2001, charges that Macedonian
police troops shot dead six civilians and burned at least twenty-two homes,
sheds, and stores in the course of their August 12 house-to-house attack
on the vil-lage. The rights group pressed for an immediate investigation,
including an inquiry into the role of Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube
Boskovski, who was present in the village on August 12, the day the worst
violations occurred. Human Rights Watch called on the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe to make public the results of its investigation
into the events in Ljuboten. Human Rights Watch pressed for a separate
investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,
which has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Macedonia conflict.
Based on a two-week in-depth investigation, including a visit to Ljuboten,
interviews with victims and witnesses, and examination of photographic
evidence, the report also documented indiscriminate shelling that claimed
another three lives in Ljuboten.
(D1305), 08/01, 24pp, $3.00
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MALAYSIA/BURMA
Living in Limbo:
Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia
After fleeing systematic discrimination,
forced labor, and other abuses in Burma, ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia face
a whole new set of abuses in Malaysia. These include beatings, extortion,
and arbitrary detention. The refugees are forced to live in poverty and
constant fear of expulsion from the country. The 78-page report, "Living
in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia," details the treatment of Rohingya
exiles in Malaysia. Denied legal recognition as refugees, Rohingya children
are often not permitted to attend school, and many are denied health care.
They are also at constant risk of arrest. Malaysian government officials
detain and deport even those persons the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) has recognized as refugees. In Malaysia's immigration
detention camps, out of the eye of domestic and international monitors,
detainees have been robbed and beaten. Former detainees interviewed by
Human Rights Watch claimed that food and medical care is grossly inadequate
in some detention centers, and that some detainees had died as a result.
Children have been detained with unrelated adults, separated from their
families, and deported alone to the Thai border. From the moment of their
arrest to their expulsion, the Rohingya are vulnerable to demands for bribes
by government officials.
(C1204), 8/00, 78pp., $7.00
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RUSSIA/CHECHNYA
Burying the Evidence:
The Botched Investigation into a Mass
Grave in Chechnya
Russian authorities have literally buried
evidence of extra-judicial executions in Chechnya, said Human Rights Watch.
In this 24-page report, the organization documents the Russian government's
botched investigation of a mass grave site discovered in late February
2001. This week senior European Union and United Nations officials are
preparing for meetings with President Putin in Moscow. Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov will be meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington
on Friday, May 18. Human Rights Watch called on the international community
to press Russia at these meetings for a new investigation and for the implementation
of last month's U.N. resolution on Chechnya. In late February, fifty-one
bodies were found in Dachny, an abandoned village less than one kilometer
from the main Russian military base in Chechnya. According to the report,
of the nineteen victims whose corpses were identified by relatives, sixteen
were last seen as Russian federal forces took them into custody. Two weeks
later, the authorities buried the rest of the bodies without prior notice
and without performing adequate autopsies or collecting crucial evidence
that would have helped to identify the perpetrators.
(D1303), 0%/01, 24pp, $3.00
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The 'Dirty War' in Chechnya:
Forced Disappearances, Torture and Summary
Executions
European Union governments must press the
issue of the "disappeared" in Chechnya when Russian President Vladimir
Putin visits Stockholm this week, Human Rights Watch urged in releasing
a new report on Chechnya today. The 40-page report, "The 'Dirty War' in
Chechnya: Forced Disappearances, Torture and Summary Executions," details
the cases of fifty-two "disappeared" individuals who were last seen in
the custody of Russian federal forces. Human Rights Watch believes the
actual number of "disappeared" is much higher. The mutilated bodies of
some of the "disappeared" were later found in unmarked graves in Chechnya,
most bearing unmistakable signs of torture. Human Rights Watch said that
European governments should act decisively at the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights, currently convening in Geneva, to ensure that an international
commission of inquiry is formed to investigate human rights abuse in Chechnya.
(D1301), 03/01, 42pp, $5.00
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SOUTH AFRICA
A Question of Principle:
Arms Trade and Human Rights
South Africa is not living up to its own
high standards with respect to arms exports, Human Rights Watch charged
today. In this report, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights,"
Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons
to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry
could significantly worsen ongoing abuses. Human Rights Watch noted that
after 1994, South Africa announced more restrictive policies on arms transfers.
But the report charges that those policies are not always being followed.
In 1994, a scandal erupted involving the sale by Armscor, the apartheid-era
governmental arms export agency, of weapons to Yemen for probable on-shipment
to the former Yugoslavia, then under U.N. embargo. The Human Rights Watch
report cited examples of weapons sales since 1994 to governments engaging
in repression against their own people or to countries involved in their
own or others' civil wars. These sales clearly violated South Africa's
own stated policies. Purchasers of South African arms include Algeria,
Angola, Colombia, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), India, Namibia,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
(A1205), 10/00, 48pp., $5.00
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TUNISIA
A Lawsuit Against the Human
Rights League, an Assault on All Rights Activists
An impending appeals court ruling in Tunisia
threatens to undermine the Arab world's oldest independent human rights
organization, according to a report released today by Human Rights Watch
and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The Observatory
is a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights and
the World Organization against Torture. The 28-page report, "A Lawsuit
against the Human Rights League, An Assault on All Rights Activists," also
accuses the government of Tunisia of waging an all-out campaign against
human rights critics, including heavy-handed police actions to block meetings
of human rights organizations, physical assaults on men and women activists,
passport confiscations, and interruptions in phone service. Human Rights
Watch and the Observatory urged the governments of France, and of all the
European Union, to monitor the appeals court case against the league that
opens April 30, and to pressure the Tunisian government to stop its harassment
of human rights monitors.
(E1303), 04/01, 28pp, $3.00
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TURKEY
Small Group Isolation in
F-type Prisons and the Violent Transfers of Prisoners to Sincan, Kandira,
and Edirne Prisons on December 19, 2000
The Turkish government must bring an end
to the isolation regime in the new high security prisons and investigate
reports of torture and other abuses by gendarmes during the December transfer,
Human Rights Watch said in this report. More than 300 prisoners have been
on anextended hunger strike to protest the isolation regime in the new"F-type"
prisons, and many are believed to be near death.Human Rights Watch also
expressed concern about the isolation regime in place in these new prisons.
At the four F-type prisons that are currently in operation-at Edirne, Kandira,
Sincan, and Tekirdag-prisoners may leave their cells only once a week if
a member of their immediate family visits. Otherwise, they are held permanently
either in single-person or three-person cells in what has been termed "small
group isolation." These new cell-based facilities are a stark contrast
to the large ward-based system that is typical in older Turkish prisons.
Human Rights Watch emphasized that the F-type regime contravenes international
prison standards and has been criticized by intergovernmental bodies such
as the Council of Europe.
(D1302), 04/01, 23pp, $3.00
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Human Rights and the European
Union Accession Partnership
At its summit in Helsinki in December 1999,
the European Union (E.U.) recognized Turkey as a candidate for membership
in the union, subject to the understanding that actual negotiations for
membership will not commence until Turkey meets the political criteria
for E.U. membership established in Copenhagen in 1993. Once adopted by
the Commission and the E.U. Council of Ministers in late 2000, the Accession
Partnership document, which will also include economic and institutional
requirements, will become the E.U.'s formal list of tasks that Turkey must
complete in order to accede to the union. Turkey will then produce a national
program for accession that mirrors the Accession Partnership, and progress
will be monitored by means of the annual 'Regular Report from the European
Commission on progress towards accession' on the basis of the Copenhagen
criteria, as is done for all applicant states. Turkey's history of gross
and widespread human rights violations has been thoroughly documented by
non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, and by international
governmental organizations including the United Nations (U.N.) and the
Council of Europe. As a consequence of Turkey's persistent failure to follow
the recommendations of such bodies, serious violations persist today.
(D1210) 9/00, 31pp., $5.00
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UGANDA
Not a Level Playing Field:
Government Violations in the Lead-Up
to the Election
There are serious human rights concerns
in the lead-up to Uganda's March 12, 2001 presidential elections that shed
doubt on whether the election will be free and fair. Not only is President
Yoweri Museveni relying on a biased legal framework, but he is also using
the state machinery to obstruct a transparent and fair electoral process.
In addition to its financial and structural advantage, arbitrary arrests,
attacks, and intimidation have been directed against the political opposition
and its supporters, and campaign agents. Since the start of the electoral
campaign on January 11, reported cases of violence and arbitrary arrests
implicate army soldiers, military intelligence officers, the police, and
the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU), as well as local defense units
that are trained and armed by the government.
Members of the local administration are
also involved in harassment and intimidation of the opposition and its
supporters.
(A1301), 02/01, 12pp, $3.00
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UNITED STATES
Hidden In The Home:
Abuse of Domestic Workers with Special
Visas in the United States
The special visas granted to foreigners
who work as household domestics in the U.S. leave them vulnerable to serious
abuse, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today. Thousands
of these workers, typically women, enter the United States every year to
work for diplomats, officials of international organizations, foreign business
people, and U.S. citizens temporarily back in the U.S. from their homes
abroad. In the fifty-six-page report, Human Rights Watch documents the
cases of dozens of workers but believes that many more are exposed to some
form of abuse. The most effective recourse for workers in abusive employment
relationships is to change jobs. But under U.S. law, these workers' visas
are tied to their employers and in most cases they cannot legally change
employers. If they leave, they lose immigration status and can be deported.
In about ten percent of the cases that Human Rights Watch reviewed, workers
were trafficking victims. Employers lured the workers to the United States
with false promises about their employment conditions and then held them
in servitude. These women worked long hours, up to nineteen per day, and
were often paid less than $100 per month. They were rarely allowed outside
and were prohibited from speaking to strangers. Some were physically or
sexually abused.
(G1302), 06/01, 56pp, $7.00
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Beyond Reason:
The Death Penalty and Offenders with
Mental Retardation
Twenty-five U.S. states still permit the
execution of offenders with mental retardation and should pass laws to
ban the practice without delay, Human Rights Watch said in releasing today
the first comprehensive human rights-based analysis of such executions.
The United States appears to be the only democracy whose laws expressly
permit the execution of persons with this severe mental disability. At
least thirty-five mentally retarded people have been executed in the United
States since 1976. An estimated two to three hundred currently await execution
on death row.In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution of
persons with mental retardation was not unconstitutional. The court concluded
there was no national consensus against such executions because only two
states prohibited them. Since then, the number of states that legislatively
exempt mentally retarded persons from the death penalty has grown to thirteen,
in addition to the federal government. Beyond Reason provides numerous
examples of persons who have been sentenced to death despite the profound
intellectual limitations they have suffered since birth.
(G1301), 03/01, 50pp, $7.00
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UZBEKISTAN
Sacrificing Women to Save
the Family?
Domestic Violence in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan's post-Soviet development, like
that in most of the former Soviet Union, has entailed enormous and disproportionate
obstacles to women's realization of their human rights. During the past
ten years, Uzbekistan's government has attempted to institute some safeguards
for women's rights, mainly in the area of social welfare support. Nevertheless,
domestic violence remains a serious problem, against which the government
has failed to take effective measures. On the contrary, state policies
intended to keep families together and foster community assistance to those
families experiencing conflict have compounded the situation of women facing
abuse in the home, and often prevent them from obtaining either relief
or redress. Human Rights Watch found that women victims of domestic violence
suffer doubly, both at the hands of husbands who physically and otherwise
abuse them, and at the hands of the state. Local officials routinely refuse
to take violence against women seriously, blaming the victims and blocking
women's attempts to escape brutality and violence in their marriages. Those
who commit physical abuse rarely face criminal prosecution. Instead, local
authorities, under orders from central government officials, attempt to
reconcile married couples, often sacrificing the women's safety for low
divorce statistics. The main aim of these government-directed interventions
is to "save the family."
(D1304), 07/01, 54pp, $7.00
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GENERAL
Caste Discrimination:
A Global Concern
Caste-based discrimination blights the lives
of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and the World Conference
Against Racism should have the issue squarely on its agenda, Human Rights
Watch urges in a new report. The 60-page report focuses on the Dalits or
so-called untouchables of South Asia including Nepal, Bangladesh, India,
Sri Lanka, and Pakistan as well the Buraku people of Japan, the Osu of
Nigeria, and certain groups in Senegal and Mauritania who also suffer from
caste-based discrimination. The prominence of caste among South Asian diaspora
communities is also revealed. The report, which is being released at the
nongovernmental forum before the racism conference taking place in Durban
from August 28- August 31, clearly shows that caste discrimination is a
significant bar to basic human rights worldwide. Over 160 Dalit activists
from India will be attending the conference, as well as numerous lower-caste
advocacy groups from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, and Senegal.
(G1303), 08/01, 59pp, $7.00
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