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.

Search

Filter by

  • Unfinished Business

    Return of Displaced Persons and Other Human Rights Issues in Bijeljina

    More than four and a half years after the war ended in Bosnia and Hercegovina, many ethnic minorities are still unable to repossess their homes in the Bosnian Serb town of Bijeljina, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

  • Curtailing Political Dissent

    Serbia's Campaign of Violence and Harassment Against Government Critics

    The Serbian and Yugoslav governments have consistently used repressive measures-unfair trials, harassment, and violence-against opposition politicians, street demonstrators, and independent domestic critics.

  • "No Happiness Remains"

    Civilian Killings, Pillage, and Rape in Alkhan-yurt, Chechnya

    Russian soldiers went on a rampage in the Chechen village of Alkhan-Yurt in December 1999, looting and burning dozens of homes and summarily executing at least fourteen civilians, according to the 32-page report.

  • Leaving No Witnesses

    Uzbekistan's Campaign against Rights Defenders

    Local human rights defenders play a crucial role in promoting the rule of law. They are a lifeline of information, tying victims of government abuse to the rest of society, and providing the first recourse for victims in their search for redress and justice.

  • Kosovo: Rape as a Weapon of "Ethnic Cleansing"

    Human Rights Watch began investigating the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence by all sides in the conflict in 1998 and continued to document rape accounts throughout the refugee crisis in 1999.

  • Tajikistan's Parliamentary Elections

    Six parties will contest elections to the lower chamber of a new bicameral parliament in Tajikistan on February 27, 2000. The vote will mark the first multiparty elections since the June 1997 peace agreement that ended Tajikistan's civil war, and are seen as the culmination of the peace process.

  • What is Turkey's Hizbullah?

    A Human Rights Watch backgrounder

    In the early 1990s, when the Turkish government's conflict with Kurdish separatists was at its most fierce, a right-wing organization called "Hizbullah" began attacking suspected sympathizers of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Young assassins operated in broad daylight in the mainly Kurdish cities of southeast Turkey.

  • Backgrounder on Russian Fuel Air Explosives ("Vacuum Bombs")

    On December 27, 1999, Interfax reported Russian forces were using fuel-air explosive bombs in the fighting in Chechnya.(1) The use of fuel-air explosives (FAEs), popularly known in Russia as "vacuum bombs," represents a dangerous escalation in the Chechnya conflict--one with important humanitarian implications.

  • Croatia's Democracy Deficit

    A Pre-Electoral Assessment

    In the run-up to important parliamentary elections, civil and political rights are seriously restricted in Croatia, Human Rights Watch said in this report. The report describes this political repression as the "human rights legacy" of the late President Franjo Tudjman, who died earlier this month.

  • Tajikistan: Freedom of Expression Still Threatened

    Despite legislation protecting freedom of speech and the press in Tajikistan, in practice freedom of expression is severely limited. For six years major opposition parties and their newspapers were banned.

  • Reforming Bulgaria's Arms Trade

    A Human Rights Watch Backgrounder

    For the last two years, the government of Bulgaria has pledged to control the country's notorious arms trade as part of its strategy to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (E.U.).

  • Confessions At Any Cost: Police Torture in Russia

    The Russian police routinely torture people in custody in order to force them to confess, Human Rights Watch charges in this report. Russian courts commonly accept these forced confessions as grounds for conviction, and federal and local governments do not recognize police torture as a problem, the report says.