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MISSIONS
Human Rights Watch/ Africa
January-February/ Rwanda: Investigated the 1994 genocide and current human rights abuses.
January-February/ Belgium and France: Conducted an advocacy trip to Brussels and Paris to press for greater attention by European governments to human rights abuses in Africa.
February/ Rwanda: Set up a field office to document the 1994 genocide and to monitor current human rights violations.
February-March/ Mozambique and Zimbabwe: Joint mission with the Arms Project to research landmines legacy in southern Africa.
March /South Africa: Investigated violence in the KwaZulu-Natal and its effects on the new democracy.
March/ Angola: Joint mission with the Arms Project to investigate continued arms flows and human rights abuses since the November 1994 Lusaka Protocol.
March/ Nigeria: Conducted a mission to southeast Nigeria to investigate the military crackdown in Ogoniland.
March/ Sudan: Conducted research in southern Sudan and Kenya concerning human rights abuses by the government of Sudan.
April/ Rwanda: Investigated the 1994 genocide and current human rights abuses.
April /South Africa: Conducted a joint mission with the Women's Rights Project to investigate domestic violence.
May-June/ Sudan: Investigated human rights conditions in northern Sudan, and documented abuses against children, especially street children, child soldiers, and the use of slavery.
June/ Rwanda: Investigated the 1994 genocide and current human rights abuses.
June/ South Africa and Mozambique: Conducted a joint mission with the Arms Project to further research into the landmines legacy and jointly organized a conference on landmines with the University Eduardo Mondlane.
July/ Ethiopia: Investigated the progress of the trials of the former Mengistu regime.
August/ Rwanda: Investigated the 1994 genocide and current human rights abuses.
October/ Austria: Conducted a joint mission with the Arms Project to attend the Review Conference on Conventional Weapons (CCW) as an observer.
October/ Rwanda: Investigated the 1994 genocide and current human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch/ Americas
December-January/ Brazil: Investigated police and military violence in the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro.
February/ Cuba: (in cooperation with the Free Expression Project) Investigated violations of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of association.
February/ Mexico: Conducted preliminary research on labor rights violations, particularly violations of the right to organize labor unions.
March/ Guatemala: Investigated the work of the U.N. human rights mission and cooperation between the government and guerrillas.
March/ Haiti: Investigated the selection, training, and performance of interim and permanent Haitian police.
March/ Brazil: Opened the Human Rights Watch/Americas office in Rio de Janeiro. Held a press conference in Sao Paulo to release Human Rights Watch/Americas' agenda for the administration of newly elected Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Traveled to Boa Vista to monitor the status of the government investigation into the July 1993 massacre of sixteen Yanomani Indians. Investigated police raids and the extrajudicial execution of a detainee by off-duty police officers in Rio Grande do Sul.
March and April/ Bolivia: (in cooperation with the Drug Project) Investigated human rights abuses committed in the context of the "war on drugs."
March-April/ Haiti: Advocacy on interim and permanent police and the change from a multinational force to a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Released Haiti: Security Compromised: Recycled Haitian Soldiers on the Police Front Line in Port-au-Prince.
March-April/ Mexico: Investigated human rights violations in Chiapas. Interviewed government and military officials.
April/ Colombia (in cooperation with the Arms Project): Investigated crimes committed by members of paramilitary groups in Colombia and connections between those groups and the Colombian armed forces.
April/ Guatemala: Met with government officials regarding human rights conditions.
April/ Brazil: Together with other human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations, Human Rights Watch/Americas' Brazil director met with Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the U.S.
April-May/ Cuba: (with the Foundation France Libertés, the Federation Internationale des Droits de l'Homme [FIDH], and Médecins du Monde) Interviewed prisoners and met with President Fidel Castro and other government officials.
April-May/ Haiti: Investigated violence and procedural irregularities relating to the impending June parliamentary and local elections.
June/ Haiti: Advocacy on electoral concerns and research on accountability issues, particularly the Haitian truth commission. Released Haiti: Human Rights Concerns Prior to the June 1995 Elections in Port-au-Prince.
June/ Brazil: Conducted fact-finding on rural violence and development in Brasília.
July/ Peru: Met with government officials and the press, following up on the July publication, Peru: The Two Faces of Justice.
July/ Brazil: Participated in a conference in Porto Alegre on women's rights, presenting a paper on the use of international human rights instruments to advance women's human rights.
July-August/ Bolivia: (in cooperation with the Drug Project) Met with Bolivian and U.S. officials and held press conferences to release spanish version of the report, Bolivia: Human Rights Violations and the War on Drugs.
July-August/ Chile: Conducted an advocacy mission regarding the amnesty law and the Contreras case.
August/ Argentina: Conducted an advocacy mission regarding issues of truth and justice in Argentina; met with press and human rights organizations.
August/ Brazil: Conducted an advocacy mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Sao Paulo; met with senior government officials and human rights organizations. Testified in Brasília before the federal congress on Brazil's international obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish cases of forced disappearance committed by state agents.
August/ Guatemala: Investigated civil patrol violence against repatriating refugees in the Ixcán region.
August-September/ Mexico: Investigated the June massacre of peasants in Guerrero; updated information on alleged Zapatistas detained in February, and began research into labor-related human rights violations.
September/ Costa Rica: Presented preliminary objections before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Castillo Paez v. Peru and María Elena Loayza v. Peru.
September/ Brazil: Appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington in cases against the Brazilian government.
September-October/ Brazil: Investigated police violence in Rio de Janeiro's favelas.
November/ Colombia: Conducted an advocacy mission and met with press and government officials.
Human Rights Watch/Asia
January-February/ Burma: Investigated abuses linked to the offensive against the Karen ethnic rebels following the fall of their headquarters; also investigated attacks on the 10,000 new refugees who arrived in Thailand.
May/ Burma: Conducted an advocacy mission from the London office to Brussels and Amsterdam following the release of our report in March.
May/ Cambodia: Attended a regional conference on human rights and development in the Mekong River basin in May; met with regional and local human rights advocates to discuss the plans and priorities of NGOs in Cambodia specifically, and in Southeast Asia more generally.
May/ India: Met with government officials, local human rights groups and members of the official National Human Rights Commision.
May/ Sri Lanka: Attended a regional NGO conference on human rights and development designed to set priorities for advocacy for groups throughout Asia in the upcoming year; met with local colleagues to discuss human rights concerns in Sri Lanka.
June/ Burma: Traveled to Paris, to meet with Foreign Ministry officials regarding the French position, as chair of the European Union, toward Burma; also met with French human rights groups.
June/ South Korea: Investigated labor rights violations in the Republic of Korea.
July-September/ Thailand: Began an investigation into abuses against migrant workers from Burma and elsewhere.
August-September/ Burma: Visited Burmese refugee camps in Thailand, including the "safe area" for political dissidents; traveled to Japan to continue discussions with the ministry of foreign affairs on Japanese policy toward Burma.
August/ China: (in cooperation with the Women's Rights Project) Sent two delegates to Beijing for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women.
September/ Hong Kong: Investigated the intensification of religious repression in China.
September/ Japan: Continued dialogue with government officials, Diet members and others on Japan's human rights policies.
November/ Hong Kong: Conducted a mission to investigate the human rights situation in the lead-up to the July 1997 transition to Chinese sovereignty.
November/ Japan: Participated in NGO conferences on human rights and worker rights in relationship to the APEC summit in Osaka.
November/ Sri Lanka: Attended two conferences. The first was a consultation of Asian NGO representatives to discuss international and domestic advocacy strategies for the upcoming year, the second was an international meeting of NGOs concerned about deteriorating conditions in Sri Lanka.
Human Rights Watch/ Helsinki
January/ Georgia: Conducted additional advocacy work against torture and advocacy work for the protection of due process.
January/ Chechnya: Investigated abuses by both sides in the war.
February/ Chechnya: Continued investigations of abuses by both Russians and Chechens in the war.
February-March/ Moscow, Brussels and Vienna: Conducted advocacy on Chechnya with the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Addressed all the ambassadors to the OSCE in Vienna (the first time that an NGO was allowed to do so).
March/ Vienna and Austria: Met with the OSCE as a group and several member states on a bilateral level to do more advocacy work on Georgia.
April/ Khasavyurt, Dagestan: Interviewed refugees to gain information about continued and intensifying humanitarian law violations, mostly by Russian forces, in the war in Chechnya.
April-May/ Albania: (in cooperation with the Free Expression Project) Investigated freedom of the press issues.
May/ Croatia: Investigated violations of the rules of war and other human rights abuses following the Croatian Army offensive in western Slavonia.
May-June/ Moscow: Gathered information on police brutality and state-sponsored violence against dark-skinned people in Moscow and violations of freedom of movement, as well as violations of the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons in the Russian Federation.
June-July/ England: Investigated xenophobic violence and police brutality against foreigners.
June/ Prague, Czech Republic: Attended a meeting on Roma in Eastern Europe.
June/ Armenia: Gathered information on the Armenian government's crackdown on the opposition since December 1994.
June/ Turkey: Investigated PKK abuses and the conditions of forced Kurdish migrants in Adana, a western Turkish city. The mission was called off due to a manipulative press conference called by the Interior Ministry that misstated the goals of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki as an organization.
July-August/ Macedonia (Albania and Kosovo): Investigated the situation of civil and political rights in the country including the rights of ethnic minorities and the state of inter-ethnic relations; freedom of the press and expression; police violence and prison conditions; and the role of the international community in the country.
July-September/ France: Investigated xenophobic violence; treatment of asylum seekers; treatment of immigrants in detention centers; police brutality and harassment at the border; and racial discrimination.
July/ Geneva and Vienna: Conducted an advocacy trip to discuss Chechnya with the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the OSCE.
July-August/Tuzla, Bosnia-Herce-govina: Interviewed the displaced from Srebrenica and Zepa.
August-September/ Serbia: Investigated the displacement of Serbs from the Krajina area in Croatia; the expulsions of Croats and Hungarians from the Serbian province of Vojvodina; and the drafting of Krajina refugees into military and paramilitary forces.
September-November/ United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium and Turkey: Investigated cases of Turkish citizens who have applied to the European Commission on Human Rights and have been harassed by police, tortured, or in at least one case killed; also investigated torture and Turkey's progress on ending torture in light of the European Committee to Prevent Torture's harsh December 1992 report condemning torture in Turkey as a systematic problem.
November/ Croatia: Investigated further violations of the rules of war and human rights in the Krajina region of Croatia.
November-December/ Tajikistan and Afghanistan: Investigated conditions in Tajik refugee camps and conditions for returnees from those camps.
November/ Uzbekistan: Conducted first follow-up field investigation since the organization was banned in early 1993, and met for the first time with government officials.
November/ Chechnya: Investigated the human rights situation in Chechnya one year after the beginning of the conflict there.
November/ Oslo, Norway: Presented a paper at a conference on "Conflict in the Caucasus" regarding NGOs and conflict.
Human Rights Watch/Middle East
February/Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: Briefed officials on new report on human rights in the Palestinian self-rule areas and released the report.
February/Egypt: Investigated government intimidation of civilians mentioned in recent reports on Egypt.
March/Egypt: Held meetings with Egyptian human rights organizations and other NGOs; collected information about the harassment of defense lawyers.
March/Jordan: Collected information about Jordanians held in Syrian prisons.
March-May/Syria: Observed state security court trials; investigated prison conditions; the treatment of released political prisoners; and the treatment of the Kurdish minority.
April/Egypt: Conducted a mission to mark the anniversary of the death in detention of an Egyptian lawyer, and participated in a press conference criticizing further arrests of lawyers.
May-June/Morocco: Investigated human rights abuses including due process violations, torture, the status of political prisoners and the "disappeared."
June-July/ France: Conducted interviews on Algeria and initiated research for a Helsinki division report on the treatment of immigrants in France.
July/Saudi Arabia: Conducted investigation on the repression of Islamist dissidents and limits on peaceful expression.
July/Egypt: Collected information about the increasing harassment of Egyptian NGOs, including human rights group.
July/Syria: Met with diplomats in Damascus to discuss the report on Syria released the same month.
August/Jordan: Conducted research on human rights conditions in Iraq.
August/Algeria-Western Sahara: Interviewed Sahrawi refugees and Moroccan prisoners of war in Algeria, and investigated the U.N. operation organizing the referendum to be conducted in the Western Sahara.
August/ Bahrain: Investigated government harassment of pro-democracy activists.
August-September/ Lebanon: Investigated civilian casualties in south Lebanon from indiscriminate attacks by Israeli forces and the South Lebanon Army; collected information about the treatment of the Palestinian refugee population; and met with Lebanese human rights groups and lawyers.
The Arms Project
January-March/ Rwanda/Zaire: Investigated arms flows to the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide in Zaire; uncovered evidence of weapons shipments by France, Zaire and others in violation of a United Nations arms embargo.
March/ Georgia/Abkhazia: (in cooperation with Human Rights Watch/Helsinki): Released report on laws of war violations and conducted follow-up research on recent developments, including non-repatriation of internally displaced persons, the problem of landmines, and continuing hostilities along the frontline.
April and August-October/ Colombia: Conducted investigation into the nature and scope of the relationship between the Colombian military and paramilitary groups, which are particularly abusive of human rights, and United States assistance to the Colombian military.
June-July/ Turkey: Investigated use of NATO-supplied weapons in Turkey's war in the southeast, in particular the use of such weapons in gross violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. Found evidence of critical role of U.S. equipment, such as fighter planes, helicopters and automatic rifles, in the village depopulation campaign and attendant abuses, such as extrajudicial executions and torture.
The Children's Rights Project
March and May/ United States: Investigated conditions in Louisiana correctional institutions for children.
October/ United States: Held press conferences to release report on Louisiana correctional institutions for children; met with state officials and nongovernmental organizations on follow-up to the report.
October/ Italy: Took part in international conference on child labor in Pisa.
November-December/ India: (in cooperation with Human Rights Watch/Asia) Began investigation into the use of bonded child labor.
November-December/ India: (in cooperation with Human Rights Watch/Asia) Began investigation into the treatment of street children by police.
November/ Geneva: Took part in theme day on juvenile justice of U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Prison Project
June/ United States: Interviewed prisoners at the Maximum Security Complex, a "maxi-maxi" facility in Westville, Indiana.
November/ Geneva: Participated in U.N. Working Group on the Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.
The Women's Rights Project
March/ Mexico: Investigated gender discrimination in the export oriented factories along the U.S./Mexico border.
April /South Africa: Conducted a joint mission with Human Rights Watch/Africa to investigate domestic violence.
May/ Japan: Investigated government sponsored or tolerated abuse against Thai women trafficked into Japan for the purpose of prostitution.
May and June/ Singapore and Hong Kong: Examined abuse of migrant domestic women workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
August/ China: (in cooperation with the Human Rights Watch/Asia) Sent delegates to Beijing for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women.
October/ Morocco: Investigated sex discrimination under the Moroccan Family Code.
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