Reports

Stymied Reforms in the Maldives

The 56-page report, “‘I Could Have Been Next’: Stymied Reforms in the Maldives,” finds that the Solih administration, more than halfway into its five-year term, has not fulfilled election promises to reform the criminal justice system to address threats to free expression. The government has reduced its repression of free speech and the media, so reporters say they no longer fear state censorship or worry about facing criminal cases or fines for doing their jobs. Yet, the government has often relented to pressure from politicians and powerful religious groups, instead of upholding free speech and association

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  • July 4, 2010

    Stop and Search under the Terrorism Act 2000

    This 64-page report examines the use of the stop-and-search power under section 44 of the act. The power is intended to prevent terrorism. But despite almost 450,000 section 44 stops and searches throughout the United Kingdom between April 2007 and April 2009, no one was successfully prosecuted for a terrorism offense as a result.
  • June 29, 2010

    Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture

    The 62-page report analyzes the ongoing cooperation by the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom with foreign intelligence services in countries that routinely use torture. The three governments use the resulting foreign torture information for intelligence and policing purposes. Torture is prohibited under international law, with no exceptions allowed.
  • April 19, 2010

    Abuses by al-Shabaab, the Transitional Federal Government, and AMISOM in Somalia

    This 62-page report finds that al-Shabaab forces have brought greater stability to many areas in southern Somalia, but at a high cost for the local population - especially women. Based on over 70 interviews with victims and witnesses, the report describes harsh punishments including amputations and floggings, which are meted out regularly and without due process.

  • November 24, 2009

    British Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of Terror Suspects in Pakistan

    This 46-page report provides accounts from victims and their families in the cases of five UK citizens of Pakistani origin - Salahuddin Amin, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Rangzieb Ahmed, Rashid Rauf and a fifth individual who wishes to remain anonymous - tortured in Pakistan by Pakistani security agencies between 2004 and 2007.
  • August 10, 2009

    Religious Counseling, Indefinite Detention, and Flawed Trials

    This 27-page report documents Saudi Arabia's response to threats and acts of terrorism since 2003, including the indefinite detentions of thousands of people, some of them peaceful political dissidents. The domestic intelligence agency, the mabahith, which runs its own prisons, has prevented effective judicial oversight.
  • March 28, 2009

    Returns from Guantanamo to Yemen

    This 52-page report criticizes US and Yemeni proposals to transfer the detainees to a detention center in Yemen where they could continue to be held indefinitely, ostensibly for rehabilitation.
  • November 16, 2008

    Recommendations for President-Elect Barack Obama

    Over the past seven years, the US government’s consistent disregard for human rights in fighting terrorism has diminished America’s moral authority, set a negative example for other governments, and undermined the goal of reducing anti-American militancy around the world.
  • October 22, 2008

    The UK’s Dangerous Reliance on Diplomatic Assurances

    This 36-page report focuses on two important appeals in the House of Lords this month that will test the reliability of no-torture promises from the governments of Algeria and Jordan. In the pending appeals, Britain’s highest court will grapple for the first time with the government’s “deportation with assurances” policy, an important component of its counterterrorism strategy.
  • October 1, 2008

    The 2007 Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of Those Still Missing

    This 54-page report examines the 2007 rendition operation, during which at least 90 men, women, and children fleeing the armed conflict in Somalia were unlawfully rendered from Kenya to Somalia, and then on to Ethiopia.
  • July 1, 2008

    Counterterrorism Laws and Procedures in France

    This 84-page report looks at how France uses a vaguely defined ‘terrorism association offense’ to arrest large numbers of people based on minimal evidence. Human Rights Watch documented credible allegations that terrorism suspects are subjected to oppressive questioning in police custody, linked to a policy that delays a suspect’s access to a lawyer. Many suspects go on to spend long periods in pre-trial detention. Human Rights Watch talked to two dozen people caught up in terrorism investigations and trials, and conducted interviews with counterterrorism officials and judicial authorities.

  • June 12, 2008

    War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia’s Somali Region

    This 130-page report documents a dramatic rise in unchecked violence against civilians since June 2007, when the Ethiopian army launched a counterinsurgency campaign against rebels who attacked a Chinese-run oil installation.

  • June 9, 2008

    Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo

    This 54-page report documents the conditions in the various “camps” at the detention center, in which approximately 185 of the 270 detainees are housed in facilities akin to “supermax” prisons even though they have not yet been convicted of a crime.

  • April 7, 2008

    CIA Renditions to Jordan

    This 36-page report documents how Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID) served as a proxy jailer and interrogator for the CIA from 2001 until at least 2004. While a handful of countries received persons rendered by the United States during this period, no other country is believed to have held as many as Jordan.

  • December 18, 2007

    Pakistan’s Crackdown on Lawyers and Judges

    This 84-page report presents eyewitness accounts of police violence, arbitrary arrests, and mistreatment of detained lawyers across Pakistan since November 3, 2007. The report details police beatings of lawyers peacefully protesting government policies from within the grounds of Pakistan’s high courts. It is the most detailed account to date of the November crackdown, showing how Musharraf used the emergency as an excuse to disempower the judiciary, the legal profession and civil society in the name of fighting terrorism and Islamic extremists.