Reports

“Die Here or Go to Poland”

Belarus’ and Poland’s Shared Responsibility for Border Abuses

The 26-page report, “‘Die Here or Go to Poland’: Belarus’ and Poland’s Shared Responsibility for Border Abuses,” documents serious abuses on both sides of the border. People trapped on the Belarus border with Poland said that they had been pushed back, sometimes violently, by Polish border guards to Belarus despite pleading for asylum. On the Belarusian side, accounts of violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and coercion by Belarusian border guards were commonplace.

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  • Worldwide Production and Export of Cluster Munitions

    The potential future dangers of widespread production and continued proliferation of cluster munitions demand urgent action to bring the humanitarian threat under control. At least seventy countries stockpile cluster munitions and the aggregate number of submunitions in these stockpiles is staggering.

  • Worse Than a War

    “Disappearances” in Chechnya—a Crime Against Humanity

    Enforced disappearances in Chechnya are so widespread and systematic that they constitute crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch urges the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to take urgent measures commensurate with the extreme gravity of the phenomenon.

  • Torture Reform Assessment

    Uzbekistan’s Implementation of the Recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on Torture

    Three years ago, the government of Uzbekistan took the important step of issuing an invitation to the United Nations (U.N.) Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman degrading treatment or punishment, the first government of the five Central Asian states to do so.

  • “Still critical”

    Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey

    This 37-page report details how the Turkish government has failed to implement measures for IDPs the United Nations recommended nearly three years ago. Since the European Union confirmed Turkey’s membership candidacy in December, the Turkish government appears to have shelved plans to enact those measures.

  • U.K.: Commentary on Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2005

    The control orders envisioned in the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2005 (hereafter “the Bill”) offer a seriously flawed alternative to the disastrous policy of indefinite detention under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001, a policy ruled contrary to human rights law by the House of Lords Judicial Committee.

  • Setting an Example?

    Counter-Terrorism Measures in Spain

    This 65-page report analyzes aspects of Spain’s criminal law and procedures that fall short of its commitments under international human rights law.

  • A Crossroads for Human Rights?

    Human Rights Watch’s key concerns on Turkey for 2005

    At its December 16-17 summit in Brussels, the European Council is expected to decide whether or not to open negotiations for Turkey’s full membership of the European Union.

  • The Wrongs of Passage

    Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of New Recruits in the Russian Armed Forces

    This 86-page report documents the serious human rights abuses involved in dedovshchina, or “rule of the grandfathers,” which results in the deaths of dozens of conscripts every year, and serious—and often permanent—damage to the physical and mental health of thousands others.

  • Justice at Risk:

    War Crimes Trials in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro

    This 31-page report examines domestic war crimes trials that have taken place since 2000 for crimes committed during the armed conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Human Rights Watch has also monitored various of these trials.

  • Last Chance for Turkey's Displaced?

    Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

    Turkish state forces violently and illegally displaced upwards of 380,000 Kurdish villagers in the 1990s during a conflict with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.

  • Eradicating Torture in Turkey's Police Stations: Analysis and Recommendations

    Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

    Turkey has made significant progress in reducing torture and other ill-treatment by the security services through successive legislative reforms since 1997. There are continuing problems implementing these laws, however, as the Turkish government itself concedes.

  • Failure to Protect

    Anti-Minority Violence in Kosovo, March 2004

    This 66-page report documents the widespread attacks against Serbs, Roma, Ashkali (Albanian-speaking Roma) and other minorities that took place in Kosovo on March 17-18.