UK and US Forced Displacement of the Chagossians and Ongoing Colonial Crimes
The 106-page report, “‘That’s When the Nightmare Started:’ UK and US Forced Displacement of the Chagossians and Ongoing Colonial Crimes,” documents the treatment of the Chagossians, an Indigenous people whom the UK and US forced from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s so that a US military base could be built on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. The UK, with US support, has prevented the Chagossians from returning home. Even though the UK and Mauritius surprisingly announced negotiations on the future of Chagos in November 2022, there has been no clear commitment to meaningful consultation with the Chagossians and to guarantee their right to reparations, including their right to return, in any settlement.
The war in Congo has been misdescribed as a local ethnic rivalry when in fact it represents an ongoing struggle for power at the national and international levels, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
The draft agreement between the United Nations and the Cambodian government for the establishment of a "mixed tribunal" based in Cambodia is deeply flawed.
Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu of the Democratic Front for Burundi (Front pour la Dmocratie au Burundi, Frodebu), will take over the presidency of Burundi from Major Pierre Buyoya, on April 30. The new government must deliver on promises to end a nine-year long war and to deliver justice for the many violations of international humanitarian law committed during the war.
Consequences of Genocide and War for Rwanda's Children
Rwandan children still suffer the devastating consequences of the 1994 genocide and the war that preceded and followed it, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the 80-page report, “Lasting Wounds: Consequences of Genocide and War for Rwanda’s Children,” Human Rights Watch documents the widespread abuse and exploitation of children in 1994 and since.
Children are being abducted in record numbers in northern Uganda by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The children are subjected to brutal treatment as soldiers, laborers and sexual slaves. Since June of 2002, an estimated 5,000 children have been abducted-a striking increase from 2001, when fewer than 100 children were abducted.
On January 20, 2003, the Belgrade district court began an important war crimes trial against four Serbs accused of kidnapping, torturing, and killing seventeen Muslims from Serbia in 1992. The crime occurred in an area of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by Bosnian Serbs, near the border with Serbia.
The Belgian Parliament is currently considering amendments to Belgium's 1993 war-crimes legislation, known as the "anti-atrocity" or "universal jurisdiction" law. The Belgian law, which permits prosecutions in Belgium for atrocities committed abroad, has been severely curtailed by restrictive judicial decisions. The amendments passed today would restore the law to its original scope.
Indonesia's Sham Prosecutions, the Need to Strengthen the Trial Process in East Timor, and the Imperative of U.N. Action
The world watched in horror in September 1999 when the Indonesian National Army (TNI) and Timorese militias went on a campaign of murder, arson, and forced expulsion after the people of East Timor voted for independence in a United Nations administered referendum.
This policy paper discusses: the need for justice; principles that should be met regarding any future form of justice to redress the most serious crimes committed by the Iraqi authorities; justice mechanisms that best further those principles; complementary measures to promote justice and accountability in Iraq; and other considerations relevant to justice and accountability.
The Bush Administration is attempting to negotiate bilateral impunity agreements with numerous countries around the globe. The goal of these agreements is to exempt U.S. military and civilian personnel from the jurisdiction of the ICC. The U.S. argues that such agreements are contemplated under Article 98(2) of the Rome Statute.
A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper on Sierra Leone
After ten years of brutal civil war, the people of Sierra Leone went to the polls on May 14 and re-elected President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and his Sierra Leone People’s Party for a further five-year term.
Women's rights activists throughout the world - of every political stripe, faith, sexual orientation, nationality, and ethnicity - mobilized at each step of the International Criminal Court (ICC) process. They have worked to create an independent court to afford women greater protection from violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
The Argentine Government's Failure to Back Trials of Human Rights Violators
A decade ago, Argentina seemed to have closed the books on the grave and systematic human rights violations committed under the military juntas that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. But now, Argentina has a rare opportunity to finally provide truth and justice for thousands of relatives of victims who have suffered for decades with neither.
International Humanitarian Law and its Application to the Conduct of the FARC-EP
Whether they live in Bogotá or in remote rural areas, Colombian civilians bear the brunt of the country's violent armed conflict. Thousands have been killed in recent years, and thousands more have been kidnaped for ransom.
Serbian and Yugoslav Forces in the Kosovo Conflict The two principal military forces in Yugoslavia in 1998 and 1999 were the Yugoslav Army (Vojska Jugoslavije, or VJ) and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministarstvo Unutrasnjih Poslova, or MUP). The police of the Montenegrin Republic remained loyal to the Montenegrin government and were not active in Kosovo.
