Reports

US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration

The 112-page report, “Remedies Abandoned: US Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Trump Administration,” documents the administration’s efforts to unravel the work of four key agencies between January 2025 and the spring of 2026: the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which lost about 75 percent of its attorneys; the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which moved to lay off nearly half its staff in one day and closed 7 of its 12 regional offices; the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Fair Housing Office, which shrank dramatically; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which reached its lowest staffing levels in over 40 years.

A man in a wheelchair holds a protest sign at a demonstration
A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" in front of a line of soldiers

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  • August 1, 1998

    Dismantling Soeharto-Era Barriers

    A nationwide student protest movement played an instrumental role in forcing the resignation of President Soeharto on May 21, 1998 and in opening the door to democratic reform in Indonesia.
  • August 1, 1998

    Violations of Civil and Political Rights

    On July 15 and 16, 1998 Israel presented its initial report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the U.N. body of independent experts responsible for monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its two Optional Protocols.
  • July 29, 1998

    Atrocities Against Civilians in Sierra Leone

    In a report released today, Human Rights Watch condemns the war of terror now underway against civilians in Sierra Leone, and calls on the international community to take emergency measures to end the killings, amputations, and abductions taking place in that civil war.
  • July 23, 1998

    Human Rights Watch background Paper On The 1998 Famine In Bahr El Ghazal

    Massive human rights abuses by muraheleen raiders in exactly the same locations were primary causes of the 1988 famine, in which an estimated 250,000 (mostly Dinka) perished.
  • July 1, 1998

    President Aleksandr Lukashenka continues to steer Belarus back toward Soviet-era repression by leading a government that is engaged in violations of a broad spectrum of basic civil and political rights. His four years in office have witnessed the reversal of modest improvements in respect for human rights that followed the perestroika period and the break-up of the Soviet Union.
  • July 1, 1998

    Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

    Police brutality is one of the most serious, enduring and divisive human rights violations in the United States. Unjustified shootings by police, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment of detainees occur in cities throughout the country.

  • July 1, 1998

    Past and Present Human Rights Abuses in Foca

    The Foca municipality was the site of some of the most brutal crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Bosnian Serb civilian, police, and military officials established a wartime government called the "Crisis Committee," much like those established in many towns in Bosnian Serb-controlled territory, to plan and carry out the expulsion of the non-Serb population.
  • June 1, 1998

    The present political environment in Cambodia, in which opposition parties are not able to operate freely and safely, is in no way conducive to the holding of free, fair, and credible elections. The primary obstacle is neither logistical nor technical, but rather the determination of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to control the electoral process and restrict basic freedoms.
  • June 1, 1998

    The pattern of systematic human rights violations that characterized former President Suharto's thirty-two year rule is perhaps best symbolized by the people he imprisoned for political activities.
  • June 1, 1998

    Politics & the Policing Agenda of the UN International Police Task Force

    The United Nations mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina-with over 2,000 international police monitors-has the opportunity to make an important contribution to lasting peace and respect for human rights in the country. The U.N.
  • May 1, 1998

    Continuing Human Rights Violations

    Political tensions began to rise in Zambia soon after the conclusion of the June 1997 Consultative Group (CG) meeting on Zambia. Two weeks after the meeting closed, the opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP) found its Lusaka headquarters besieged by police and filled with tear gas.
  • May 1, 1998

    Arbitrary Arrests and Discrimination

    Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Uzbekistan has made little progress in moving away from Soviet-style repression of human rights.
  • April 18, 1998

    In the past year, the Haitian National Police (HNP) Force has committed serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, beatings in detention, and killings resulting from an excessive use of force.
  • April 18, 1998

    In the past year, the Haitian National Police (HNP) Force has committed serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, beatings in detention, and killings resulting from an excessive use of force.