Reports

Attacks on Schools and Military Use of Schools in Ukraine

The 71-page report, “Tanks on the Playground,” documents the damage and destruction of schools and kindergartens in four Ukrainian regions during the first months of the fighting. Most of the damage to educational facilities resulted from aerial attacks, artillery shelling, rocket strikes, and, in some cases, attacks using cluster munitions – causing significant damage to roofs, the collapse of walls, and major debris in classrooms. Russian forces frequently looted and pillaged schools they occupied, a war crime.

The destroyed playground of a kindergarten

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  • February 19, 2001

    When Colombian President Andrés Pastrana meets with President George W. Bush next Tuesday (February 27), the two leaders will discuss U.S. military aid to Colombia, including the issue of Colombia's progress on improving human rights.
  • January 31, 2001

    In the past two years, Ugandans have recruited and trained both Hema and Lendu to serve in the forces of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML), a rebel group which is backed by Uganda and which nominally controls this area. Within the last year, however, at least some Ugandan officers have reportedly favored the Hema.
  • November 1, 1999

    10th Anniversary of the Convention

    Every recognized country in the world, except for the United States and the collapsed state of Somalia, has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, pledging to uphold its protections for children. Today the convention stands as the single most widely ratified treaty in existence.
  • July 1, 1999

    The Expulsion of Civilians from Israeli-Occupied Lebanon

    For more than a decade, Israel and its auxiliary Lebanese militia have been expelling innocent civilians from their homes and villages in south Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. In this report, Human Rights Watch says that entire families have been expelled from the occupied zone in a summary and often cruel manner, without due process law.
  • July 1, 1999

    Sierra Leonean Refugee Children in Guinea

    Sierra Leonean refugee children in Guinea are among the most vulnerable children in the world. They have lived through an extremely brutal war -most have witnessed or suffered unspeakable atrocities including widespread killing, mutilation, and sexual abuse.
  • June 1, 1999

    The Global Use of Child Soldiers: An estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than thirty countries on nearly every continent. While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as seven years old.
  • July 29, 1998

    Atrocities Against Civilians in Sierra Leone

    In a report released today, Human Rights Watch condemns the war of terror now underway against civilians in Sierra Leone, and calls on the international community to take emergency measures to end the killings, amputations, and abductions taking place in that civil war.
  • September 1, 1997

    Children Abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda

    In northern Uganda, thousands of children are victims of a vicious cycle of violence, caught between a brutal rebel group and the army of the Ugandan government.
  • January 1, 1996

    Throughout the world, thousands of children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts. Although international law forbids recruiting children under fifteen as soldiers, such young children may be found in government armies and, more commonly, in armed rebel groups.
  • September 1, 1995

    Slaves, Street Children and Child Soldiers

    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.
  • November 1, 1994

    Child Soldiers and Unaccompanied Boys in Southern Sudan

    This report focuses on the use of child soldiers by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The government’s ill treatment of children is described in another report (see 1290). The use of child soldiers bodes ill for the future of the country. Boys as young as 11 have been recruited to fight in Sudan’s civil war.
  • November 1, 1994

    Repression Continues in Northern Sudan

    Gross human rights violations continue in Sudan five years after a military coup overthrew the elected civilian government in June 30, 1989, and brought to power a military regime dominated by the National Islamic Front (NIF), a minority party that achieved only 18.4 percent of the popular vote in the 1986 elections.1 The Sudanese have suffered under military rule and single-party dictatorship for
  • September 1, 1994

    Child Soldiers in Liberia

    Children who have been used as soldiers are among the most tragic victims of the war in Liberia.
  • October 26, 1990

    Violations of the Laws of War by All Parties to the Conflict

    In the course of less than a year, Liberia has become a human rights disaster. Over half its population has been displaced from their homes, including over 500,000 who are refugees in West Africa. All parties to the conflict have committed grave abuses of human rights against civilians, violating the humanitarian standards governing non-international armed conflict.