The 84-page report, “‘You’re Only Getting Out Deported or Dead’: Abusive US Immigration Detention at Ft. Bliss,” documents conditions at the largest immigration detention facility in the United States. The detention camp has the capacity to hold up to 5,000 people and consists of five “soft-sided” tent-like structures that house detained people in penned enclosures. Inside, detainees said they were forced to live in filthy and cramped conditions with up to 72 people housed in each pod. Human Rights Watch found evidence of punitive immigration enforcement practices, including cruel, degrading, and inhumane detention conditions; excessive force by guards; failures to provide medical and mental health care; coercive deportation practices; and systemic barriers to legal representation.
The most brutal U.S.-backed dictator you’ve never heard of—Hissène Habré of Chad—has just been indicted in Belgium on charges of mass murder and torture. His indictment was a decisive breakthrough in a judicial chess game pitting the former central African dictator against a Chadian torture victim and a New York “dictator hunter” at Human Rights Watch.
Abuse of Internal Security Act Detainees in Malaysia
This 34-page report is based on interviews with family members of current ISA detainees, their lawyers and handwritten statements of ISA detainees. It documents the physical abuse, ill-treatment and humiliation of more than 25 detainees in Kamunting Detention Center in December 2004. None of these detainees have been charged or tried.
Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division
This report provides soldiers' accounts of abuses against detainees committed by troops of the 82nd Airborne stationed at Forward Operating Base Mercury (FOB Mercury), near Fallujah.
Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda
This 76-page report documents how the ongoing lack of accountability and civilian protection in the north has fueled atrocities by both sides. In each of the displaced persons camps visited, Human Rights Watch found cases of abuse by Ugandan government forces as well as rebel combatants.
In September 2003 and September 2004, Human Rights Watch argued for partial or total suspension of tariff benefits when we submitted Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) petitions to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). In those petitions, we detailed Ecuador’s failure to meet the ATPA and ATPDEA workers’ rights criteria.
Uzbekistan Rewrites the Story of the Andijan Massacre
This report provides numerous first-hand testimonies of a brutal police campaign forcing people to “confess” that they belong to extremist religious organizations, that the protests in Andijan were violent, and that the protesters were armed.
This report documents an underlying climate of fear among many voters and candidates, especially in remote, rural areas—an atmosphere that has negatively impacted the political environment in the lead-up to the elections.
This 60-page report is based on interviews with hundreds of children in all regions of the world. Human Rights Watch investigations in more than 20 countries found that school fees and related education costs, the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, discrimination, violence and other obstacles keep an estimated 100 million children out of school, the majority of whom are girls.
The scale of destruction is unprecedented in Zimbabwe. Indeed, there are few, if any precedents of a government so forcibly and brutally displacing so many of its own citizens in peacetime. The victims are mainly the poor and vulnerable in Zimbabwe's cities and towns, many of the households already devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
On September 7, Egypt will hold its first-ever multi-party presidential election, as distinct from the single-candidate plebiscites that have so far characterized the “re-elections” of President Husni Mubarak.
Algerian President’s Peace Plan Faces National Vote September 29
On August 15, the government of Algeria published the text of a long-promised “Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation” in the Journal Officiel. This came a day after a major speech by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announcing that Algerians will be asked to approve the Charter in a referendum on September 29.
Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Papua New Guinea
This report documents boys and girls being shot, knifed, kicked and beaten by gun butts, iron bars, wooden batons, fists, rubber hoses and chairs. Some are forced to chew and swallow condoms. Eyewitnesses describe gang rapes in police stations, vehicles, barracks and other locations. Children are also routinely detained with adults in sordid police lockups and denied medical care.
This document is based on dozens of interviews with women candidates and election workers during the past month. Human Rights Watch details the challenges confronting Afghanistan’s 582 women candidates, who make up approximately 10 percent of the total 5,800 candidates.
