Reports

“We Need U”

How the U Visa Builds Trust, Counters Fear, and Promotes Community Safety

The 50-page report, “‘We Need U’: How the U Visa Builds Trust, Counters Fear, and Promotes Community Safety,” finds that the administration’s deportation policies undermine federal visa programs that provide a pathway for crime victims to obtain legal residency when they cooperate with law enforcement. Changed enforcement guidance, such as allowing Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to apprehend people in previously safe places like courthouses and health centers, is a strong deterrent for immigrants who might otherwise report crime to police or seek a protective order.


 

Federal agents detain a woman exiting an immigration court hearing
A woman looks out of the window of a damaged building

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  • June 1, 1994

    Torture and Ill-Treatment

    Israel’s Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

    Despite the historic peace process that is under way in the Middle East, Israel’s interrogation agencies in the occupied territories have continued to engage in a systematic pattern of torture and ill-treatment. Well over 100,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the intifada in 1987.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De León Carpió’s First Year

    The people of Guatemala have suffered savage repression at the hands of security forces, civil patrols, and guerrillas waging a thirty-year civil war. Their villages were razed and tens of thousands disappeared — presumably murdered — their bodies occasionally discovered in clandestine graves throughout the highlands.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De Leon Carpio's First Year

    The breathtaking political changes of 1993, which brought a well-respected governmental human rights advocate into the presidency of Guatemala, have one year later degenerated into turmoil and dashed hopes, with little to show for the promise that the new government appeared to bring.
  • June 1, 1994

    War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina

    U.N. Cease-Fire Won't Help Banja Luka

    Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia-Hercegovina after Sarajevo, is the scene of much of the most severe and systematic “ethnic cleansing”: torture, murder, rape, beatings, harassment, de jure discrimination, intimidation, expulsion from homes, confiscation of property, bombing of businesses, dismissal from work, outlawing of all scripts except the Cyrillic in public institutions, and
  • June 1, 1994

    A Matter of Power

    State Control of Women’s Virginity in Turkey

    An investigation of the prevalence of forcible virginity control exams and the role of the government in conducting or tolerating such exams, this report cites several separate incidents in the spring of 1992 when young females committed suicide after authorities ordered them to submit to examinations of their hymens.
  • June 1, 1994

    Restrictions on Press Freedom in the Slovak Republic

    Heightened political tension has been characterized by physical attacks on journalists critical of the former Meciar government. HRW/Helsinki urges the interim government to give special consideration to the concerns outlined in this report and to disassociate itself from the media policies of its predecessor in order to create an environment in which the independent press can flourish.
  • May 1, 1994

    Unsettled Business

    Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency

    Under former President Aylwin's four-year “transitional” administration, Chile took notable steps toward consolidating democracy, reestablishing civil and individual rights, and healing the wounds caused by decades of political strife and gross human rights violations under military rule.
  • May 1, 1994

    Denying Ethnic Identity

    The Macedonians of Greece

    Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up a large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally-recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted; several Macedonians have been prosecuted and convicted for the peaceful expression of their views.
  • May 1, 1994

    The Medan Demonstrations and Beyond

    In April 1994, tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in Medan, Indonesia, demanding higher wages, improved benefits and freedom of association. Notable for their size and anti-Chinese violence, the protests underscored the Indonesian government's urgent need to address worker's rights issues.
  • May 1, 1994

    Dead Silence

    The Legacy of Abuses in Punjab

    The bloody conflict in the Indian state of Punjab drew to a close in 1993, but the restoration of an elected government has not meant the restoration of the rule of law. To the contrary, the Punjab police continue to torture, kill or cause their victims to disappear with impunity.
  • May 1, 1994

    Genocide in Rwanda

    The mysterious death of President Habyarimana of Rwanda in April 1994 was the pretext for Hutu extremists from the late president's entourage to launch a campaign of genocide against the Tutsi, a minority that made up about 15 percent of the population. The extremists also killed Hutu willing to cooperate with Tutsi in forming a more democratic government.
  • May 1, 1994

    Iraq’s Crime Of Genocide

    The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds

    Iraq’s 1988 Anfal campaign of extermination against the Kurdish people living within its borders resulted in the death of at least 50,000 and as many as 100,000 people, many of them women and children. This book, co-published with Yale University Press, investigates the Anfal campaign and concludes that this campaign constituted genocide against the Kurds.