Abuses, Unanswered Questions, and US-Ecuador Security Cooperation
The 94-page report, "A Dangerous Partnership: Abuses, Unanswered Questions, and US-Ecuador Security Cooperation," documents serious human rights violations in a rural community on the Colombia-Ecuador border, as well as attacks on and the disappearance of fishermen at sea near the Galápagos Islands. Each incident either clearly implicates the US-Ecuador security partnership or surfaces questions about responsibility. Ecuadorian forces tortured and arbitrarily detained four farm workers, and later burned and struck a dairy farm, during what the United States called a “partnered operation.” And drones of unknown origin attacked two fishing vessels, injuring several crew members. A third vessel remains missing.
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.
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.
Despite positive movement toward the consolidation of political freedoms, human rights violations in Mexico continue to be extremely serious. State and federal police and members of the army continue to engage in torture, arbitrary detention, and other widespread abuses. Prosecutors frequently accept such abuses and judges often fail to question them.
Despite positive movement toward the consolidation of political freedoms, human rights violations in Mexico continue to be extremely serious. State and federal police and members of the army continue to engage in torture, arbitrary detention, and other widespread abuses. Prosecutors frequently accept such abuses and judges often fail to question them.
Immigration practices, police abuse, the death penalty, prison conditions, and issues of discrimination continue to be some of the most serious human rights violations in the United States.
Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based international nongovernmental human rights organization, welcome the presentation of an historic peace accord to the people of Ireland, north and south.
This report documents human rights abuses related to the work of the police and other law enforcement officials in Macedonia, with an emphasis on police violence and violations of the right to due process. It reveals a pattern of abuse that is ignored by Macedonia's political leaders and tolerated by the international community.
Five years of civil war in Tajikistan were formally brought to a close on June 27, 1997, when a peace accord was signed between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). A major force, however, was left out of the peace negotiations: the political opposition based in Tajikistan's northern region, Leninabad.
Human Rights Watch condemned an attack made by Burmese government and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) troops upon a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand.
The Clinton administration deserves commendation for its recent efforts to develop a fresh approach toward Africa. The continent is finally receiving high-level attention from the U.S. government, including a trip by Secretary of State Albright in December 1997 and a historic visit from President Clinton in 1998. The emphasis of the administration's new Africa policy is on trade and security.
The collapse of the Asian economy has given rise to massive layoffs of workers and wage and benefit cuts, not only in those countries worst affected by the economic crisis, but region-wide.
The civilian population of Burundi feels trapped between the two sides in the civil war, as both the armed forces and the rebels have used civilians as proxy targets. The civil war raging in Burundi since October 1993 has above all been a war against civilians. When Major Pierre Buyoya took power in a July 1996 coup, he claimed that he was intervening to prevent an expansion of ethnic violence.
Abuse of Undocumented Migrants, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees in South Africa
Unpunished attacks on foreigners in South Africa are disturbingly common; and foreigners are regularly victimized by the South African police,the army, and by guards at detention facilities. Detention conditions for migrants awaiting deportation are substandard and overcrowded. South Africa's treatment of refugees is also troubling, and fails to conform with international standards.
