Reports
“No Forgiveness for People Like You”
Executions and Enforced Disappearances in Afghanistan under the Taliban
The 25-page report, “‘No Forgiveness for People Like You,’ Executions and Enforced Disappearances in Afghanistan under the Taliban,” documents the killing or disappearance of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) – military personnel, police, intelligence service members, and militia – who had surrendered to or were apprehended by Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31. Human Rights Watch gathered credible information on more than 100 killings from Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, and Kunduz provinces alone.
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Broken Promises
Torture and Killings Continue in TurkeyA year has passed since Prime Minister Demirel’s coalition government, committed to human rights reforms, took office in Turkey — a period long enough to produce significant change. -
THROWING AWAY THE KEY Indefinite Political Detention in Syria
Political detainees in Syria have the distinction of being some of the most isolated in the world. Most have no contact whatsoever with their families; security services for their part, seldom acknowledge having them in their custody. -
Accounting for the Past
The lessons for South Africa from Latin AmericaThe question of accountability has become increasingly important around the world in recent years, as different states attempting to make a transition to democracy have struggled to achieve a balance between retribution and forgetfulness in the interests of national reconciliation. -
Human Rights Abuses in Kosovo 1990-1992
With the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, world attention has focussed on the brutal warfare that erupted first in Croatia and, more recently, in Bosnia-Hercegovina. -
Bloody May
Excessive Use of Lethal Force in BangkokOne year after a bloodless coup toppled Thailand’s government and the military took control, protestors staged a rally and demanded freedom. The government responded with violence.
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Tunisia: Military Courts that Sentenced Islamist Leaders Violated Basic Fair-Trial Norms
At the end of August, Tunisian military courts pronounced verdicts against 279 Islamists in the most closely watched trials to take place since 1987, when many of the same persons had been put on trial. -
A Troubled Year
Haitians in the Dominican RepublicThe Dominican government's human rights practices on its state-owned sugarcane plantations in 1992 were shaped by two events in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in 1991. -
Foreigners Out
Xenophobia and Right-Wing Violence in GermanyThe following report sets out the background to the latest violence in Germany. It focuses primarily on violent attacks in the former German Democratic Republic, but some information is included on West Germany as well. -
Peace and Human Rights
Successes and Shortcomings of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (Onusal)After twelve long, exhausting years, the war in El Salvador has come to an end. -
Bloodshed in the Caucasus
Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno-KarabakhThe four-year struggle for control over Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated in recent months to full-scale conflict, leaving in its wake hundreds of civilian casualties. Both parties to this tragic conflict have systematically violated the most basic rules of international humanitarian law. -
Political Control, Human Rights & the UN Mission in Cambodia
The United Nations has embarked on its most ambitious project ever in terms of both expense and scope in Cambodia, and the exercise will undoubtedly exert great influence on how the U.N. is used in the settlement of other conflicts around the world. -
Indivisible Human Rights
The Relationship Of Political And Civil Rights To Survival, Subsistence And PovertyThe advocacy of civil and political rights is often perceived as neglect of social and economic rights. Many governments argue that their primary concern must be to address concerns such as hunger, poverty and illiteracy, implying that rights such as freedom of expression and association are somehow secondary. -
The Trial of Bao Tong
On July 21, in the most important political trial in China in twelve year, a three-judge panel of the Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Bao Tong had been taken into custody on May 28, 1989 and held without charge, incommunicado for much of the time, for over three years. The trial took less than six hours. -
War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina (Volume I)
Full-scale war, marked by appalling brutality inflicted on the civilian population and extreme violations of international humanitarian law, has been raging in Bosnia-Hercegovina since early April 1992. Mistreatment in detention, the taking of hostages and the pillaging of civilian property is widespread. -
Struggling for Ethnic Identity
Czechoslovakia's Endangered GypsiesThe Roma people, commonly known in English as Gypsies, have been misunderstood ever since their migration from Northern India sometime around the 10th century. Ignorance of their origin initially led to a widespread belief that they were spies, arsonists, and hooligans.