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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH --- With a team of researchers in Pakistan monitoring the conduct of the war in Afghanistan, and advocates in Bonn and capitals around the world, Human Rights Watch has sought to ensure that human rights are at the center of the world's response to the crimes of September 11. As the U.S. government introduces measures that erode the fundamental due-process rights of non-citizens, HRW has also joined with U.S. domestic groups to defend the rule of law. Human Rights Watch sent recommendations to the U.S. State Department,
U.N. Security Council members, and participants at the Afghanistan
meeting in Bonn outlining key issues for Afghanistan's future. The
recommendations include: creating an international commission of experts
to gather information on current and past human rights abuses and to
make recommendations on justice-building measures; refusing amnesties
for those responsible for the most serious abuses and excluding them
from a future government; screening out human rights violators from
future Afghan military and police forces; ensuring women's rights and
women's participation in Afghanistan's future government; and including
the issues of refugees and repatriation in political planning. Human Rights Watch published detailed criticism of proposed "anti-terror" legislation in the United States, India, the United Kingdom, and European Union, as well as the proposed anti-terror treaty at the United Nations. HRW also wrote to U.S. President Bush urging him to rescind his Executive Order permitting the trial of non-citizens by special military commissions, and reiterated its call for the government to respect the fundamental rights of the hundreds of people who remain in custody in connection with investigations into the September 11 attacks. The government has to date refused Human Rights Watch access to detention centers to monitor the conditions of confinement of persons detained in connection with the September 11 investigations. Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/september11/ Nearly 5,000 unexploded and highly volatile cluster bomblets may be littered across areas targeted by U.S. warplanes. These unexploded bomblets have in effect become antipersonnel landmines and are an extreme hazard to civilians, not just now but for years to come. Human Rights Watch called on air forces to discontinue the use of cluster munitions and to remove the unexploded ordnance once the fighting stops. Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/11/CBAfgh1116.htm Human Rights Watch also urged the United States and Britain to provide logistical support for the humane treatment of captured fighters and to take immediate measures to ensure that Afghan Taliban commanders alleged to have committed international crimes be held by an outside independent authority until they can be prosecuted before an impartial tribunal. Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/ The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival presented "Jung(War): In the Land of the Mujaheddin" to sell-out crowds in Maine, Utah, Illinois, and New York. Shot in 1999 and 2000, the film shows the conditions of daily life faced by the people of Afghanistan as it follows the story of a surgeon and a war correspondent who join forces and set up a hospital in a country fraught with war for the last twenty years. For more information on Jung and how you can host a screening in your city, visit http://www.hrw.org/iff/traveling/jung/index.html To receive by email HRW's breaking news and backgrounders on the September 11 crisis and its aftermath send a blank email message to afghanistan-subscribe@topica.com To contribute to our emergency work and help us meet the extraordinary expenses we are now forced to incur, visit http://www.hrw.org/donations//default.asp?dtype=sept11 ------ On February 12, 2002, a new treaty banning the use of child combatants
will enter into force, having achieved the ten ratifications necessary
on November 12. Human Rights Watch has played a leading role in the
campaign for a global ban on the use of child soldiers since 1998. Our
research helped to bring this urgent issue to international attention.
We worked to influence the negotiation of the treaty, and have lobbied
for broad ratification. The treaty prohibits the forced recruitment,
conscription, or use in armed conflict of children under the age of 18. WHAT YOU CAN DO For more on HRW's work on children's rights visit http://www.hrw.org/children ------ Individuals detained by the Palestinian Authority are frequently subjected to torture and denied fair trials. Human Rights Watch's new report "Justice Undermined: Balancing Security and Human Rights in the Palestinian Justice System" documents cases of arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without charge or trial, and interrogation without access to a lawyer. Five people have died in custody over the 14 months covered by the report. The Palestinian Authority executive branch - including President Yasser Arafat, his ministers, police, and various security forces - has seriously undermined the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law, and failed to bring to justice militants who have attacked Israeli civilians. Israeli responses to the current "intifada," including severe restrictions on freedom of movement and the destruction of Palestinian law-enforcement infrastructure, have aggravated the deterioration of the Palestinian justice system. The report includes detailed recommendations for measures that the Palestinian Authority, the government of Israel, and donor governments should take to improve the situation. The report's release was covered by the BBC, Ha'aretz, The Financial Times, The Jerusalem Post (front page), and other leading Arabic and Hebrew news outlets. Read the report online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/pa/ ------ Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel make up nearly one-quarter of Israel's schoolchildren. Yet, in virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children. Educated in schools run by the Israeli government but separated from Jewish children, Palestinian Arab citizen's schools are more crowded with fewer teachers per child, and in worse physical condition. Some schools lack libraries, counselors, and recreation facilities. Palestinian Arab school children get fewer enrichment and remedial programs, and special education services, than Jewish children receive. Many communities have no kindergartens for three- and four-year-olds. HRW's new report "Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools" is based on investigations at twenty-six Arab and Jewish schools and on nationwide statistics compiled by the Israeli government. HRW launched the report in Israel and met with local NGO's and government officials including the Director General of the Education Ministry, the Chair of the Knesset Child Committee and a member of the Knesset Education Committee. The report was covered in Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, and on Hebrew and Arabic radio. Read the report online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ WHAT YOU CAN DO ------ On Saturday night, November 10, Theys Eluay was abducted and murdered outside Jayapura, the capital of Papua, while on his way home from a Heroes Day ceremony at the local headquarters of the Indonesian army. Theys was the chair of the Papua Presidium Council, a forum for the peaceful achievement of independence. HRW staff in Washington DC helped draft and circulate a letter signed by several U.S. Congresspeople expressing deep concern over the Theys' death. Signatories included Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on House International Relations Committee, and John Conyers, Chair of House Judiciary Committee. The letter called on President Megawati and the Indonesian government to set up an independent team of investigators to look into the circumstances leading to Theys' murder, expressing fear that the death could be a serious threat to a peaceful solution of the conflict in the easternmost province of Indonesia. The letter was covered in Tempo, an influential news magazine in Indonesia. Find our more at http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/11/indonesia1111.htm ------ In July 1997, paramilitaries working with the Colombian Army killed more than thirty residents of Mapiripán, Meta. Army general Jaime Uscátegui was implicated in the massacre and sentenced by a military tribunal to serve only forty months in prison. In a February 2001 press release, Human Rights Watch criticized the general's sentence as far too lenient and reiterated the call for human rights violations committed by security force officers to be investigated and tried in civilian courts, not military tribunals. Previously, Human Rights Watch had documented extensive evidence demonstrating how soldiers under Uscátegui's command had helped paramilitaries plan, carry out, and cover up the massacre. On November 14, Colombia's Constitutional Court struck down the military tribunal's sentence and ordered a civilian retrial for General Uscátegui. HRW has long criticized the military courts as one of the cornerstones of impunity in Colombia and has made accountability a central part of its advocacy in Washington, Geneva, Brussels and Bogotá. Read the press release at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/02/colombia0213.htm ------ Together with other groups, Human Rights Watch successfully pressed for the release of Mexican environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera García. Montiel and Cabrera were jailed for drug and weapons crimes in 1999 after protesting the ecological damage being inflicted in their home state of Guerrero. In July 2000, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission concluded that Montiel and Cabrera had been illegally detained and apparently tortured by soldiers, who fabricated evidence that was used to convict them. In July 2001, however, a federal court upheld their conviction. President Fox released them on November 8. HRW had written two letters to the Fox administration this year about their case. ------ The Mexican justice system currently leaves the task of investigating
and prosecuting army abuses to military authorities. Because of this
arrangement, serious human rights violations go unpunished. On December
5, HRW released the report "Military Injustice: Mexico's Failure to
Punish Army Abuses" at a press conference in Mexico City. The report
gives a detailed examination of five cases in which civilians from
Guerrero reported atrocities committed by soldiers. Despite credible
evidence supporting their claims, military authorities brought charges
in only one of the cases - and only after local residents surrounded a
military camp and refused to leave until the government promised a
thorough investigation. The report calls on Mexico to end military
jurisdiction over all cases involving human rights violations. The
report was covered in Mexico in La Reforma and with long articles in El
Universal and La Jornada. Internationally it was covered by the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse, AP, and Reuters Latin
American News Service. Read the report online http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/mexico/ ------ You can show your support for human rights and Human Rights Watch by adding a banner to your Web page. HRW banners are available in different colors and sizes at http://www.hrw.org/banner/ ------ As we near the end of what has been an immensely challenging year, Human
Rights Watch would like to thank you for your support of our work. You
make possible our reliable research, our effective advocacy, and our
ability to serve as an unbiased and principled voice of reason. If you
have not already done so, we ask you to make or renew your gift to Human
Rights Watch this year. We appreciate your commitment to our efforts. |
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