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Ituri
by Human Rights WatchIturi is often described as the bloodiest corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite three peace agreements purportedly ending the five year-old Congolese war, fighting in northeastern DRC intensified in late 2002 and early 2003. In early May 2003, hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in the town of Bunia and tens of thousands of others were forced to flee. Some sought shelter near the United Nations compound desperately looking for protection from the violence. While the international community focused on the town of Bunia, massacres continued in other parts of Ituri away from media attention. As one witness described it, "Ituri was covered in blood." Based on information gathered by its researchers and on other reports, Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 5,000 civilians died from direct violence in Ituri between July 2002 and March 2003. These victims are in addition to the 50,000 civilians that the United Nations estimates died there since 1999. These losses are just part of an estimated total of 3.3 million civilians dead throughout the Congo, a toll that makes this war more deadly to civilians than any other since World War II.
Divorced from Justice
by Human Rights WatchThe Egyptian government has created two widely disparate systems for divorce, one for men and one for women. Egyptian men have a unilateral and unconditional right to divorce. They never need to enter a courtroom to end their marriages. Egyptian women, on the other hand, must resort to Egypt's notoriously backlogged and inefficient courts to divorce their spouses. In the courts, women face procedural and evidentiary hurdles to divorce that are inherently discriminatory. Men, who can divorce their spouses at will with an oral renunciation later registered by a religious notary, can simply sidestep these procedures. Obtaining a divorce can also take years as men manipulate the many defenses and tactics Egyptian law reserves only for them. As a result, many Egyptian women, like Amira Ahmad, avoid the courts and are left with two equally distressing options: either remain in an unwanted marriage and possibly endure physical and psychological abuse, or beg their husbands to divorce them, giving up everything they own and cherish in return. The consequences of this two-tiered system are often financially and emotionally devastating for women. In some cases, they can be life-threatening.
The O'odua People's Congress
by Human Rights WatchNigeria has witnessed an increase in the activities of ethnic and regional militia, vigilantes, and other armed groups in the last few years. One of the better-known of these groups is the O'odua People's Congress (OPC), an organization active in the southwest of Nigeria which campaigns to protect the interests of the Yoruba ethnic group and seeks autonomy for the Yoruba people. The OPC is a complex organization, which has taken on several different roles as it has adapted to the changing political and security environment in Nigeria. One of several Yoruba self-determination groups, it was established in 1994 with the aim of overcoming what it alleged was the political marginalization of the Yoruba. It has since evolved in several different directions. Its activities have ranged from political agitation for Yoruba autonomy and promotion of Yoruba culture to violent confrontation with members of other ethnic groups, and, more recently, vigilantism and crime-fighting. In its two main spheres of activity-ethnic militancy and vigilantism-the OPC has been responsible for numerous human rights abuses and acts of violence, and its members have killed or injured hundreds of unarmed civilians. However, OPC members have been victims as well as perpetrators of human rights abuses. Hundreds of real or suspected OPC members have been killed by the police; many others have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and detained without trial for extended periods.
Forgotten Fighters
by Human Rights WatchAn agreement reached between government armed forces and the largest opposition group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, UNITA), brought peace to mainland Angola in April 2002. Some 100,000 adult combatants from UNITA moved with their families into quartering areas. Five thousand of these were integrated into the national police and armed forces; the rest into a formal demobilization program. Most adult fighters eighteen and older received demobilization and photo identification cards, a travel authorization certificate, a five-month salary based on military rank, and food assistance. They are also to receive a transport allowance and a reinstallation kit upon return to their home communities. But boy and girl soldiers, seventeen and younger, were not included in the demobilization program and received only an identification card and food aid distributed by the international community to family units attached to the soldiers.
Presumption of Guilt
by Human Rights WatchA report on abuses that occurred after September 11, 2001.
Locked Doors
by Human Rights WatchWidespread discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is fueling the spread of the epidemic in China. This 94-page report is based on more than 30 interviews with people with HIV/AIDS, police officers, drug users, and AIDS outreach workers in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Yunnan province. Many people living with HIV/AIDS have no access to health care because hospitals refuse to treat them. Human Rights Watch found that at one hospital, the door to the AIDS clinic was actually padlocked. National laws discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS, and some local laws ban them from using swimming pools or working in food service. The police send drug users to detoxification centers, where they are forced to labor without pay to make trinkets for tourists. Instead of receiving help for their problem, they are driven underground, making it harder for the government to combat the AIDS virus.
Lessons Not Learned
by Human Rights WatchThis 62-page report documents how harsh drug policies and routine police harassment of injection drug users--the population hit hardest by AIDS in Russia--impedes their access or makes them afraid to seek basic HIV-prevention services such as syringe exchange, which is available in other countries around the world. Now that AIDS is rapidly spreading into the general population, these misguided policies have widespread consequences.
Discrimination, Denial, and Deportation
by Human Rights WatchThis 22-page report describes how discrimination and human rights abuses faced by migrant populations result in increased vulnerability to HIV infection and barriers to care and treatment.
Rehabilitation Required
by Human Rights WatchIn this 110-page study, Human Rights Watch found that the treatment offered at state drug treatment clinics in Russia was so poor as to constitute a violation of the right to health. The report concluded that drug dependent people in Russia who want to overcome their dependence are left virtually to their own devices in their battle with this serious and chronic disease.
Fanning the Flames:How Human Rights Abuses are Fueling the AIDS Epidemic in Kazakhstan
by Human Rights WatchHuman rights abuse against injection drug users and sex workers in Kazakhstan is fueling one of the fastest growing AIDS epidemics in the world, Human Rights Watch said in this new report.The 54-page report, "Fanning the Flames: How Human Rights Abuses are Fueling the AIDS Epidemic in Kazakhstan," documents instances of violent police brutality, lack of due process, harassment and stigmatization that drive drug users and sex workers underground and impede their access to life-saving HIV prevention services.Routine and sometimes violent harassment of injection drug users and sex workers by the police adds to their already marginal status in Kazakhstan. Drug users may be arrested for possession of very tiny amounts of narcotics, police find it easy to pin false charges on them, and they are convenient targets when arrest quotas need to be filled.
Rhetoric and Risk
by Human Rights WatchThis report documents how draconian drug laws and routine police abuse of injection drug users - the population hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in Ukraine - keep them from receiving lifesaving HIV information and services that the government has pledged to provide.
Ignorance Only
by Human Rights WatchPrograms teaching teenagers to "just say no" to sex before marriage are threatening adolescent health by censoring basic information about how to prevent HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today. The forty-seven page report focuses on federally funded "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs in Texas, where advertising campaigns convey the message that teenagers should not use condoms because they don't work. Some school-based programs in Texas do not mention condoms at all. Federal health agencies share the broad scientific consensus that condoms, when used correctly, are highly effective in preventing the transmission of HIV. Yet the U.S. government currently spends more than $ 100 million each year on "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs, which cannot by law "promote or endorse" condoms or provide instruction regarding their use. The Bush administration is advocating a 33 percent increase in funding for these programs.
Injecting Reason
by Human Rights WatchGovernment interference with sterile syringe programs is thwarting HIV prevention efforts in California. State laws and local enforcement are preventing drug users from obtaining the sterile syringes they need to protect themselves from HIV. This 61-page report documents police stopping, arresting, and harassing participants in needle exchange programs established by some California counties under state law. Even where needle exchange programs are legal, police remain authorized to arrest program participants under an antiquated law prohibiting the possession of "drug paraphernalia." Over a quarter of new AIDS cases in the United States can be traced to infected syringes. Sharing syringes is also a major risk factor in the spread of hepatitis B and C. California is home to nearly one eighth of reported AIDS cases in the United States. The Human Rights Watch report recommends legalization of needle exchange programs and nonprescription pharmacy sales of syringes. It also calls on police departments to cease stops and seizures of participants in clean needle programs, a practice courts have recently prohibited in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
Suffering in Silence
by Human Rights WatchSexual abuse of girls in Zambia fuels the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the strikingly higher HIV prevalence among girls than boys, Human Rights Watch said today. Concerted national and international efforts to protect the rights of girls and young women are key to curbing the AIDS epidemic's destructive course.
Witness to Abuse
by Human Rights WatchThe 101-page report, documents how the Justice Department denied the witnesses fundamental due process safeguards. Many were not informed of the reason for their arrest, allowed immediate access to a lawyer, nor permitted to see the evidence used against them. The Justice Department evaded fundamental protections for the suspects and the legal requirements for arrested witnesses. Their court proceedings were conducted behind closed doors, and all the court documents were sealed.
Policy Paralysis
by Human Rights WatchThis 90-page report documents human rights abuses that women and girls suffer at each stage of their lives and that increase their risk for HIV infection. Girls face sexual abuse and violence, in and out of school. Women in long-term relationships risk violence if they insist on condom use or refuse sex. Widows are discriminated against in property and inheritance rights. And women and girls are raped in war and civil conflict, where rape is used strategically as a weapon.
No Bright Future
by Human Rights WatchThis 72-page report documents how the abusive policies and practices of the Zimbabwean government are fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, increasing vulnerability to infection, and obstructing access to treatment.
Blood, Sweat, and Fear
by Human Rights WatchWorkers in the U.S. meat and poultry industry endure unnecessarily hazardous work conditions, and the companies employing them often use illegal tactics to crush union organizing efforts. In meat and poultry plants across the United States, Human Rights Watch found that many workers face a real danger of losing a limb, or even their lives, in unsafe work conditions.
A Dose of Reality
by Human Rights WatchGovernments around the world have done far too little to combat the entrenched, chronic abuses of women's and girls' human rights that put them at risk of HIV. Misguided HIV/AIDS programs and policies, such as those emphasizing abstinence until marriage, ignore the brutal realities many women and girls face. By failing to enact and effectively enforce laws on domestic violence, marital rape, women's equal property rights, and sexual abuse of girls, and by tolerating customs and traditions that subordinate women, governments are enabling HIV/AIDS to continue claiming the lives of women and girls. Human Rights Watch has interviewed hundreds of women and girls living with HIV around the world. This briefing paper focuses on the links between HIV/AIDS and abuses of women's and girls' human rights.
In the Shadow of Death
by Human Rights WatchHuman immuno-deficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a national disaster for the people of Kenya, children and adults alike. Kenya is estimated to have the ninth-highest prevalence of HIV in the world with about 14 percent of the adult population infected. An estimated 1 million orphans in the country represent only a fraction of the population of children affected by AIDS, which includes children withdrawn from school to care for a sick relative, those in families caring for orphans, and those who have had to become breadwinners to replace the income of a sick parent. Kenya is far from alone in needing to strengthen protections of the rights of AIDS-affected children. Governments around the world have neglected the consequences of AIDS on children and have failed to provide the necessary protections of their rights to survival and development. This failure is one of the most pervasive and lasting crises of the HIV/AIDS catastrophe, and it must be addressed with the greatest urgency.
Unprotected
by Human Rights WatchIn this 70-page report, Human Rights Watch says that the Philippine government bans the use of national funds for condom supplies. Some local authorities, such as the mayor of Manila City, prohibit the distribution of condoms in government health facilities. School-based HIV/AIDS educators told Human Rights Watch that schools often prohibited them from discussing condoms with students.
“Please, do not make us suffer any more…”
by Human Rights WatchIn this 47-page report Human Rights Watch said that countries could significantly improve access to pain medications by addressing the causes of their poor availability. These often include the failure to put in place functioning supply and distribution systems; absence of government policies to ensure their availability; insufficient instruction for healthcare workers; excessively strict drug-control regulations; and fear of legal sanctions among healthcare workers.
World Report 2006
by Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is increasingly recognized as the world's leader in building a stronger awareness for human rights. Their annual World Report is the most probing review of human rights developments available anywhere. Written in straightforward, non-technical language, Human Rights Watch World Report prioritizes events in the most affected countries during the previous year. The backbone of the report consists of a series of concise overviews of the most pressing human rights issues in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with particular focus on the role--positive or negative--played in each country by key domestic and international figures. Highly anticipated and widely publicized by the U.S. and international press every year, the World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and all citizens of the world.
World Report 2007
by Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is increasingly recognized as the world's leader in building a stronger awareness for human rights. Their annual World Report is the most probing review of human rights developments available anywhere. Written in straightforward, non-technical language, Human Rights Watch World Report prioritizes events in the most affected countries during the previous year. The backbone of the report consists of a series of concise overviews of the most pressing human rights issues in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with particular focus on the role--positive or negative--played in each country by key domestic and international figures. Highly anticipated and widely publicized by the U.S. and international press every year, the World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and all citizens of the world.
World Report 2011
by Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is increasingly recognized as the world's leader in building a stronger awareness for human rights. Their annual World Report is the most probing review of human rights developments available anywhere. Written in straightforward, non-technical language, Human Rights Watch World Report prioritizes events in the most affected countries during the previous year. The backbone of the report consists of a series of concise overviews of the most pressing human rights issues in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with particular focus on the role--positive or negative--played in each country by key domestic and international figures. Highly anticipated and widely publicized by the U.S. and international press every year, the World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and all citizens of the world.