The 72-page report, “Start with the Youngest Children: China Uses Preschools to ‘Integrate’ Tibetans,” documents that a 2021 Ministry of Education directive—the Children’s Speech Harmonization plan—mandates the use of standard Mandarin Chinese for all preschool instruction in ethnic minority areas. While the kindergartens in theory can still offer supplementary sessions for minority children in their own language, minorities no longer have the legal authority to do so. By severely limiting Tibetan-language education in early childhood, a stage critical for language acquisition and identity formation, the Chinese government is speeding up its erasure of Tibetan language and culture.
The war in Congo has been misdescribed as a local ethnic rivalry when in fact it represents an ongoing struggle for power at the national and international levels, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
How Human Rights Abuses are Fueling the AIDS Epidemic in Kazakhstan
Human rights abuse against injection drug users and sex workers in Kazakhstan is fueling one of the fastest growing AIDS epidemics in the world, Human Rights Watch said in this new report.The 54-page report, “Fanning the Flames: How Human Rights Abuses are Fueling the AIDS Epidemic in Kazakhstan,” documents instances of violent police brutality, lack of due process, harassment and stigmatizati
The U.S. government is moving closer to convening the military commissions authorized by President Bush in November 2001 to try suspected terrorists. Despite President Bush's oft-repeated insistence that the war on terror is a war to affirm and protect basic human rights, the rules for the proposed commissions fall far short of international due process standards.
June 20, 2003 will mark international refugee day - a day when governments should reaffirm their obligations to protect some of the world's most vulnerable people. Instead, European governments will meet on June 20 to debate the United Kingdom's (U.K.) proposal that promises to undermine those obligations.
With major military operations continuing in al-Falluja, U.S. authorities should investigate the apparent use of excessive force against Iraqi protesters there on April 28 and 30, Human Rights Watch urged in a new report released today. This challenges the U.S. military's assertion that its troops came under direct fire from individuals in the crowd of protesters on April 28.
Political Expression and Freedom of Assembly under Assault
This backgrounder summarizes the major human rights issues in the run-up to National Assembly elections scheduled for July 2003, and includes recommendations to the Cambodian government, the National Election Committee (NEC), the political parties, and Cambodia's international donors.
This background briefing, based on over three weeks of research by Human Rights Watch, finds that Zimbabwe has suffered a serious breakdown in law and order, resulting in major violations of human rights. This environment has been created largely by actions of the ranking government officials and state security forces.
After the collapse of peace talks on May 19, 2003, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri signed Presidential Decree 28, authorizing Indonesia's security forces to launch full-scale military operations against the armed, separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).1 Aceh province was placed under martial law.
Analysis of the U.S. State Department's Certification of Uzbekistan
On May 14, the State Department certified that Uzbekistan made “substantial and continuing progress” in meeting its human rights and democracy commitments under the “Declaration on the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Framework,” signed in March 2002. This certification is required to release U.S. assistance to the Uzbek government.
This report, based on four weeks of field research by Human Rights Watch researchers in southern Iraq, shows that more than six weeks after the fall of Basra, the security situation remained poorly addressed by coalition forces.
This report attempts to tell the story of the mass graves around al-Hilla. It identifies the victims, the circumstances of their arrest, and their ultimate execution and mass burial.
Since the mid-1990s, Armenian authorities have used administrative detention as a tool of repression, locking up protesters and activists at times of political tension. The 2003 presidential election and its aftermath mark the most sustained, extensive abuses in the last seven years.
State-Sponsored Homophobia and its Consequences in Southern Africa
Many leaders in southern Africa have singled out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as scapegoats for their countries' problems, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) state in this report.
