|
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ----- ----- The decades-long Afghan refugee emergency did not end with the fall of the Taliban. Three and a half million refugees remain in Pakistan and Iran, the vast majority of whom arrived before the current armed conflict. Although 140,000 Afghans have returned home from Pakistan and Iran in the past six weeks, fifty thousand new refugees fled Afghanistan to Pakistan during the same period. Human Rights Watch's report "Closed Door Policy: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and Iran" cautions against a hasty repatriation of Afghan refugees while conditions in Afghanistan remain unstable. HRW researchers in the field interviewed hundreds of refugees from various ethnic groups, including women and girls, who fear continuing abuses inside Afghanistan. In addition, with borders closed, most refugees had to resort to dangerous, unofficial routes into Pakistan, and many were beaten at irregular checkpoints when they could not afford to pay extortionate bribes. At official crossing points, families were beaten back, or languished in squalor without food, water or latrines -- hoping to be let in. Once inside Pakistan, refugees were harassed and imprisoned because they lacked identity documents. They also endured beatings by Pakistani police when lining up for food in camps. Read the report online at
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/pakistan/index.htm ----- Since September 11, the U.S. government has extended new military assistance to governments engaged in serious abuse, including torture, political killings, illegal detention, religious persecution, and attacks on civilians during armed conflict. Released on February 15, the report, "Dangerous Dealings: Changes in U.S. Military Assistance After September 11," concludes that Congress and the Bush administration have degraded human rights policy by lifting sanctions on arms transfers to countries with poor rights records and by cutting required approval times for such transfers. Read the report online at http://hrw.org/reports/2002/usmil/ ----- Tens of thousands of Guatemalan women working as domestic workers and in the maquila sector (apparel factories) face widespread discrimination that is sponsored or tolerated by the government. The government denies domestic workers basic labor rights, including the otherwise recognized right to an eight-hour workday and the minimum wage. These workers also suffer significant levels of sexual harassment. Employers in the maquila sector often require women seeking jobs to declare whether they are pregnant, and often deny pregnant workers full maternity benefits. Workers in both spheres encounter obstacles accessing reproductive health care. Read the report online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/guat/ ----- On February 1, Human Rights Watch wrote to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir condemning Sudan's justice system for handing down such barbaric punishments as amputations and death by stoning. The letter highlighted the case of eighteen-year-old Abok Alfau Akok, a Christian woman from the Dinka tribe. On December 8, 2001, a criminal court in Nyala, southern Darfur, sentenced Ms. Akok to death by stoning after finding her guilty of adultery. Ms. Akok did not have legal representation during the trial and was pregnant at the time of her conviction. The trial was conducted in Arabic, which is not her language, and there was no translation of the proceedings to ensure that she fully understood the case against her. The man with whom she allegedly had sex was not tried. HRW researcher Jemera Rone also raised the case in a meeting with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismael during his visit to Washington DC on February 6. On February 9, the appellate court reversed the death sentence and sent the case back to the trial court where on February 12 the young woman was sentenced to seventy-five lashes. These were administered immediately (in the interim, she had given birth). She is appealing the denial of her right to appeal this second sentence. She has been released from jail and is with her infant and relatives. Find out more at http://hrw.org/press/2002/02/sudan-0201.htm ----- General José Francisco Gallardo was jailed in 1993 after writing an article calling for the creation of a military human rights ombudsman's office. A military tribunal convicted him on minor corruption charges and sentenced him to 28 years in prison--a sentence totally out of proportion with the crimes he allegedly committed. Gallardo claimed that military superiors had invented the charges to silence him. Find out more about human rights in Mexico at http://www.hrw.org/americas/mexico.php ----- Human Rights Watch and partner NGOs scored a victory for free expression in Turkey with the February 13 acquittal of Turkish publisher Fatih Tas. Tas had been charged with dispensing "separatist propaganda" for publishing a book by Noam Chomsky that described human rights violations in southeastern Turkey, where a large population of Kurds lives. The essay in question, called "Prospects for Peace," includes a comment about the repression of the Kurds which Chomsky said "was largely drawn, with quite a few direct quotes, from HRW reports." Find out more about human rights in Turkey at http://www.hrw.org/europe/turkey.php ----- "Swept Under: Torture, Forced Disappearances, and Extrajudicial Killings during Sweep Operations in Chechnya," documents systematic human rights abuses committed by Russian forces against the civilian population in Chechnya. A delegation from HRW, the Russian human rights group Memorial, and Medecins Sans Frontieres held meetings with representatives of the U.S. Administration and Congress urging them to make the most of the forthcoming session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights as well as President Bush's May visit to Russia to press the Russian government to improve its human rights record. The New York Times devoted a full article to the report. Read the report online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/russchech/ ----- The government of Spain is violating the rights of migrants and asylum seekers who arrive illegally on Spanish shores. The report, "The Other Face of the Canary Islands: Rights Violations Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers," criticizes substandard detention conditions and the inadequate procedural rights afforded migrants and asylum seekers upon their arrival on the Spanish islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The report triggered a roaring debate on migrants' rights in Spain. On February 26, Enrique Fernández-Miranda y Lozana, Secretary of State for Immigration, appeared before Parliament to address our report and the situation of migrants in the Fuerteventura facility. He said that our report was "inapplicable and ill-focused." On the same day the Ombudsman made a visit to the facility and confirmed the report's accuracy. Read the report online at http://hrw.org/reports/2002/spain/ WHAT YOU CAN DO Write to the Spanish authorities to urge them to ensure humane, fair En español - http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/spain/actionsp.htm ----- In 1999, the Chinese government banned Falungong, a variant of an ancient exercise and meditation system. The government labeled Falungong an "evil cult" and began an aggressive and often violent campaign against its practitioners which continues unchecked. The crackdown is symptomatic of the government's campaign to eliminate all social and religious organizations viewed as threatening to Communist Party power and to bring all others under strict bureaucratic control. The report, "Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falungong," provides a comprehensive account of the emergence of Falungong in China and the government's response. View the report online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/china/ WHAT YOU CAN DO China's aggressive campaign to host the Olympic games in 2008 was accompanied by tightened controls on fundamental freedoms, even as members of the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials themselves argued that the games would be good for human rights. Please write the president of the International Olympic Committee urging him to establish a human rights monitoring committee. Join HRW's campaign to lobby the Coca-Cola Company, one of the Olympics' largest U.S. corporate sponsors, to use its influence with the Chinese authorities and the IOC to promote human rights in China. Take action at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/02/china0208.htm ----- Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of its cruel and inhumane nature. In California, we are joining Californians for a Moratorium on Executions to gather evidence of Californians' commitment to a moratorium. Californians for a Moratorium on Executions plans to present Governor Gray Davis with 100,000 petition signatures on May 1, 2002. California has the sixth-highest error rate in capital verdicts in the nation. The Los Angeles and San Francisco HRW Young Advocates have been supporting the campaign by gathering petition signatures and organizational endorsements. You can help by signing our online petition and encouraging your friends to sign. Visit http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/ca/ Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, at least 35 people with mental retardation have been executed. The United States is one of the few countries in the world that still permits the execution of mentally impaired offenders. Contact state governors urging them to prevent the execution of prisoners with mental retardation. Take action at Urge your state representative to pass legislation prohibiting the execution of people with mental retardation. Visit http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/stateleg.htm Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/index.htm ----- Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other members of the US Campaign to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers organized an event on the steps of the US Capitol on February 12 to mark the entry into force of the child soldiers protocol. Members of the campaign held giant red hands - the symbol of the campaign to stop the use of child soldiers - as well as smaller hands made by schoolchildren in Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington, DC. At the event Senator Barbara Boxer announced that she would chair a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to consider the protocol on March 7, which will be an important step towards US ratification. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Southwick also spoke to affirm the Bush administration's support of the protocol. This event was one of a series that took place in more than 20 countries to mark the protocol's entry into force. In California, the HRW Student Task Force also organized a series of events at area high schools and universities. An event at UCLA featured Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/02/childsoldiers0212.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/ |