Explosive Weapons’ Effects in Armed Conflict and Measures to Strengthen Protection
The 80-page report, “Destroying Cultural Heritage: Explosive Weapons’ Effects in Armed Conflict and Measures to Improve Protection,” details both the immediate and long-term harm from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas on cultural heritage, such as historic buildings and houses of worship, museums and archives, public squares, and performance centers. It shows that the Declaration on explosive weapons could serve as a valuable tool for addressing the problem.
Despite a decade of promises by government officials to bring to justice those responsible for gross violations of human rights in El Salvador, the impunity of military officers and death squads members remains intact.
For ten days in May of this year, Ethiopia saw its first significant open civilian opposition for fifteen years, in a series of protests led by students. A wave of strikes was sparked by the government execution of 12 army generals on May 19. Earlier in March, the government had promised political tolerance and pluralism.
The rule of law is only fitfully respected in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest country. This fact is vital to understanding the conditions of Indonesian prisons. Many of the senior staff of the Directorate of Corrections, the unit of the Ministry of Justice responsible for prisons, are able and concerned people with a clear commitment to prison reform.
Police Acquitted in Killing of Students in Quezaltenango
A Guatemalan appeals court has freed six National Police officers jailed for the 1987 kidnapping and murder of two university students. The appellate court ruling, which overturned the only conviction to date of security force officers for a crime of political violence, underlines the complete impunity with which the Guatemalan authorities commit gross violations of human rights.
The policy of the Greek government with regard to the Turkish minority seems to be, as described by the Minority Rights Group, a "deliberate policy of discrimination with a long-term aim of assimilation." The findings of the Helsinki Watch mission certainly confirm this analysis.
Policies that Contribute to the Killings (A Middle East Watch Report)
This report examines three aspects of Israeli policy that have contributed to the frequency of unlawful killlings of Palestinians during the intifada. These are the open-fire regulations issued to Israeli troops operating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip that are more permissive than what the internationally recognized standards of necessity and proportionality allow; the inadequate procedures followed by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) to investigate and punish troop misconduct against Palestinians; and the restrictions imposed by the IDF on independent bodies attempting to monitor its conduct in the occupied territories.
An array of violent human rights abuses committed by public security units have become institutionalized in Mexican society. Americas Watch concludes that this pattern of excessive violence can only mean that either the Mexican government has adopted a policy of tolerating such behavior, or it has lost control over its police, security and prosecutorial agencies.
A comprehensive investigation of brutal human rights violations told in chillingly dispassionate style, Human Rights in Iraq describes how the Ba’ath regime subjects Iraqi citizens to forced relocation and deportation, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, “disappearance,” and summary political execution.
The Ghanaian government, the Provisional National Defence Council(PNDC), has attempted to crack down on churches and other religious organizations through the imposition of a controversial new law. PNDC Law 221 requires all religious bodies to register with the Ministry of the Interior, so as to make them "accountable" to the government.
A small group of rebel insurgents attacked the Liberian border town of Butuo in late December 1989, killing an undetermined number of soldiers and immigration officials. The government of Liberia responded to the attack with a show of force, sending two battalions to Nimba County, where Butuo is located.
As Cuba approaches the 36th anniversary of its revolution, it is engaged in an extended crackdown on independent peaceful activity and its human rights practices continue to be subject to the whim of the executive. Among the targets of this crackdown are newly-emerged human rights groups, whose establishment in recent years had given the appearance of greater openness in Cuba.
Afghanistan has been the scene of some of the most serious human rights violations on record. About one half of the country's prewar population is either in emigration, or internally displaced, or dead. Most of the biolations documented in three previous Helsinki/Asia Watch reports continued in 1987, despite the fact that prospects for peace in 1988 seem brighter than ever before.
