In October, 2011, the Obama administration said it would send 100 US military advisers to central Africa to help the region’s armies combat the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a vicious Ugandan rebel group. Human Rights Watch has pressed the US government…

On October 30, 2008, justice for victims of atrocities committed during the course of Liberia's long and brutal years of armed conflict took a major step forward in a very unlikely location: Miami, Florida. On that afternoon, an American jury issued its…

On June 20, the special war crimes court for Sierra Leone handed down its first three convictions of members of a rebel group, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. In her sentencing statement, the judge noted that the three convicted were “responsible…

In an important step toward justice for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, on February 27, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo named Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kosheib, the first suspects accused of committing war crimes and…

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was captured as he attempted to escape Nigeria on March 29, and he was transferred to the U.N.-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone. Human Rights Watch played a leading role in pressing government and U.N.…

On March 13, the Guatemalan government and human rights advocates reached a historic agreement to establish a three-member commission of inquiry to investigate clandestine groups that are responsible for attacks on human rights defenders, justice…