Inadequate Protection and Assistance for Migrants and Asylum Seekers Crossing the Darién Gap
The 110-page report, “Neglected in the Jungle: Inadequate Protection and Assistance for Migrants and Asylum Seekers Crossing the Darién Gap,” is the second in a series of Human Rights Watch reports on migration via the Darién Gap. Human Rights Watch identified specific shortcomings in Colombia’s and Panama’s efforts to protect and assist people – including those at higher risk, such as unaccompanied children – as well as to investigate abuses against them.
In March and May 1995, the Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project conducted an investigation in Louisiana into the conditions in which children are confined in that state, examining the human rights aspects of their incarceration.We found that substantial numbers of children in the state training institutions are regularly physically abused by guards, are kept in isolation for long periods o
Letter from Human Rights Watch and the New Cambodian Press Law
Over the last year, the Royal Cambodian Government has waged a campaign to silence its critics, targeting independent newspapers and political figures for prosecution and harassment. On more than a dozen occasions, it has suspended, shut or confiscated newspapers or brought criminal complaints against journalists.
Russian society has been hit hard in recent years by destabilizing changes. An unprecedented wave of crime, population shifts, and crises related to economic transition raised the urgent need for a sense of control and for someone to blame. Increasingly, the scapegoat in both public perception and state policy is people of color.
The children of Sudan, north and south, have been denied their basic rights by all parties to the conflict, and by the government of Sudan even in areas such as Khartoum where there is no war. Many who are considered street children, mostly southerners and Nuba, are removed from their families without notice.
Kuwait practices a system of institutionalized discrimination against its residents known as Bedoons, longtime inhabitants who have been denied Kuwaiti citizenship and are now being rendered stateless.
This report is a culmination of five years of work gathering evidence of the epidemic levels of violence against women and rampant sex discrimination around the world.
Law and Dissent in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Vietnam has entered an era of rapid economic and social transformation, heralded by the opening of its economy, its entry into ASEAN and the resumption of diplomatic relations with the U.S. At the same time, the government and the Vietnam Communist Party have sought to maintain firm political control.
Report by Defense Lawyers Charges Inmates Were Deliberately Massacred
The Algerian government covered up how approximately 100 inmates died during thesuppression of an uprising at Serkadji prison in February 1995, the bloodiest incident during the first three years of civil strife in the country.
The Croatian Army Offensive in Western Slavonia and its Aftermath
On May 1, 1995, Croatian Army troops launched an offensive aimed at regaining control of Serb-held lands in western Slavonia, an area designated as a "United Nations Protected Area" (UNPA). By May 4, Croatian government troops had recaptured the area.
Following the outbreak of the third phase of the Sri Lankan civil war on April 19, 1995, the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE engaged in acts of violence that had by July claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians. Among these were a massacre of 42 Sinhalese villagers in eastern Sri Lanka by the LTTE on May 26; the killing of five Muslim civilians in northern Trincomalee district by soldiers on May 6; and on July 9, the deaths of over 100 persons, including at least 13 infants, in a bombing of a church crowded with refugees displaced by “Operation Leap Forward,” a major military offensive launched on the Jaffna Peninsula that day.
The creation of a system of faceless courts to prosecute those accused of terrorism—justified as a temporary emergency measure—stands out as anti-democratic and in violation of basic human rights principles. Together with the impunity granted to government forces who torture, rape, and murder citizens, justice under Fujimori is two-faced: benevolent to soldiers, punitive to civilians.
Millions of workers in Pakistan are held in contemporary forms of slavery. Throughout the country employers forcibly extract labor from adults and children, restrict their freedom of movement, and deny them the right to negotiate the terms of their employment. Employers coerce such workers into servitude through physical abuse, forced confinement, and debt-bondage.
This report focuses on Syria’s state security court and the continuing trials of individuals accused of membership in unauthorized political groups. It also examines the practice of torture in Syria, and the pressure and punishment placed on political prisoners after release.
On May 1, 1995, Croatian Army troops launched an offensive aimed at regaining control of Serb-held lands in western Slavonia, an area designated as a "United Nations Protected Area." By May 4, Croatian government troops had recaptured the area. During the week of May 8, we traveled to Croatia to assess the behavior of Croatian troops during and immediately after the offensive.
