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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ----- ----- On August 15, HRW released "Presumption of Guilt: Human Rights Abuses of Post-September 11 Detainees." The report is based on interviews with scores of detainees and their attorneys, documenting cases of arbitrary detention, due process violations, and secret arrests and proceedings. It concludes that the Department of Justice has misused immigration charges to dodge legal restraints on its power to detain and interrogate persons as it pursues its terrorist investigation. The Justice Department has exercised virtually unchecked power over those it has detained by restricting judicial oversight, providing only limited information to Congress, and blocking public scrutiny. Read the report at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/us911/ ----- In July, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees drafted guidelines for governments on categories of Afghans who still require protection and should not be returned to Afghanistan. The document referred extensively to Human Rights Watch research on anti-Pashtun violence in northern Afghanistan and continuing violations of the rights of women in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch remains deeply concerned about these violations and conditions for returning refugees and displaced persons in Afghanistan. Earlier in July, UNCHR had issued a press release encouraging the return of Afghans because of "improvements in the situation in Afghanistan over the past five months." It said, "Today, a legitimate government is in place, and there is no longer a civil war raging in the central and northern parts of the country." Immediately following this announcement, HRW issued a press release critiquing the new policy as misleading and contradicted by conditions on the ground. Read the HRW report, "Paying for the Taliban's Crimes: Abuses Against Ethnic Pashtuns in Northern Afghanistan," at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/afghan2/ ----- On July 18, the Bulgarian parliament approved important changes to the country's law on the foreign trade in weapons. Since issuing a 1999 report on Bulgaria's role as a key weapons supplier to governments and armed groups that abuse human rights, Human Rights Watch has called for reform to tighten arms trade controls. HRW encouraged NATO and European Union officials to use their leverage to press for needed changes in Bulgaria, which is seeking membership in both organizations. Read the briefing paper and statement (in English and Bulgarian) at http://www.hrw.org/arms/cee.php ----- Widespread police harassment of HIV/AIDS outreach workers in India, especially those working with women in prostitution and men who have sex with men, is undermining efforts to contain one of the worst epidemics in the world. HRW released a report, "Epidemic of Abuse: Police Harassment of HIV/AIDS Outreach Workers in India," at the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain in July. The report drew extensive press attention throughout India and the world, both at the time of its launch and when former President Bill Clinton described the results of the report in his closing speech to the Barcelona Conference. It is too early to judge the impact of this report in India, but NGOs plan to use the report in a hearing in the Delhi High Court on their petition to repeal the antiquated sodomy law in the Indian Penal Code. Read the report at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india2/ ----- On July 30, in an historic and long-awaited vote, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12 to 7 to send the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to the full Senate for consideration. This important step toward U.S. ratification of the treaty came after years of advocacy by a coalition of activists including HRW. ----- Human Rights Watch continues to press Belgrade to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the impact of our work has begun to be felt in policy and media circles there. HRW's Belgrade-based researcher, Bogdan Ivanisevic, appeared on Radio Free Europe along with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, challenging Svilanovic to defend Yugoslavia's record on cooperation with the ICTY. HRW's July Briefing Paper on Yugoslavia's readiness for membership in the Council of Europe also provoked a public statement from Dragoljub Micunovic, the President of a Chamber of the Yugoslav Parliament and Chair of Yugoslavia's delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Bogdan also recently published two provocative op-eds on the Milosevic trial in Belgrade's leading daily, Politika, stimulating discussion among relevant media and policy actors in Belgrade and The Hague. In the most recent piece, published in late July, Bogdan argued that the government and media are not portraying the trial accurately and are giving Milosevic's arguments about tribunal bias more credence than they deserve - undermining the potential of the trial to advance the political transformation of Yugoslavia. Read the July 11 briefing paper and accompanying press release at: http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/yugo-bck0711.htm and http://hrw.org/press/2002/07/yugo0711.htm Read Bogdan Ivanisevic's most recent op-ed at: http://hrw.org/editorials/2002/iwpr071802.htm For more on accountability and human rights in Yugoslavia, visit http://www.hrw.org/europe/fry.php ----- On August 8, the BBC reported that the Nigerian police arrested more than 30 people and "closed down what they described as torture centres belonging to the group known as the Bakassi Boys.... The police action follows growing concern that such vigilante organisations may be used as hired thugs by local politicians in the forthcoming Read HRW's report, "The Bakassi Boys: The Legitimization of Murder and Torture," at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/nigeria2/ ----- Human Rights Watch's concerns about the Turkish government's flawed return program for those forcibly displaced in the southeast of the country were well reflected in a recent statement issued by Francis Deng, United Nations Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. Human Rights Watch's research has revealed a range of problems with the program, including that to the extent villagers were returning, it was often to centralized villages and exclusively to those controlled by so-called village guards. These guards were frequently implicated in the abuses that had forced the villagers to flee in the first place. Human Rights Watch has been advocating the Turkish government to convene a meeting with relevant international agencies and non-governmental experts to redesign its return program and bring it into a form that donor agencies would feel confident supporting - a recommendation that Deng endorsed after a mission to Turkey in late May. A Human Rights Watch report addressing the plight of the internally displaced in Turkey will be published next month. Find out more about human rights in Turkey at http://www.hrw.org/europe/turkey.php ----- On August 2, 2002, President Bush signed legislation making assistance to the Uzbek government conditional on that country's efforts to improve its human rights record and institute political and institutional reform. The legislation, an emergency spending bill approved by Congress on July 24, allocates $45 million to Uzbekistan, a close U.S. ally in its war on terrorism. On the recommendation of Human Rights Watch, the law includes a provision sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy that requires the U.S. State Department to certify that Uzbekistan is making "substantial and continuing" progress in meeting commitments made to the United States in the Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed during Uzbek President Islam Karimov's visit to Washington in March, 2002. Read about the deaths of Muzafar Avazov and Husnidin Alimov at: http://hrw.org/press/2002/08/uzbek081002.htm Read about the detention of human rights defender Yuldash Rasulov at: http://hrw.org/press/2002/05/uzbek0529.htm and at http://hrw.org/press/2002/06/uzbek0626.htm Read about the forced psychiatric treatment of human rights defender Elena Uraleva at: http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/uzbek0830.htm Read the August 2 press release at http://hrw.org/press/2002/08/uzbek080202.htm ----- An August 16 front-page news article in the New York Times gave prominence to Human Rights Watch's longstanding concerns about the pattern of violent attacks against religious minorities in Georgia, arguing that the "wave of religious violence...is increasingly calling into question the country's willingness - or ability - to protect democracy and human rights." Read the New York Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/international/europe/17CAUC.html?pagewanted=print&position=top UN Human Rights Committee's "Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Georgia:" http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CCPR.CO.74.GEO.En?Opendocument Find out more about human rights in Georgia at http://www.hrw.org/europe/georgia.php ----- Human Rights Watch was the first organization to speak out against Libya's recent nomination as chair of the next United Nations Commission on Human Rights by the regional group of African states. Unwilling to abide by the long tradition of accepting such matters as the exclusive province of the regional bloc whose turn it is to select a chair, HRW highlighted Libya's long record of human rights abuses and obstructive approach to the Commission, and argued that its nomination ran counter to the new commitments African leaders had made to promote human rights and good governance through the New African Partnership for Development (Nepad). We sent letters to Presidents Mbeki of South Africa, Obasanjo of Nigeria, and Wade of Senegal, who form part of the Nepad steering committee, calling for the withdrawal of Libya's nomination and the proposal of another African country with a positive record on human rights. Read the letter to African leaders at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/mbekiltr0806.pdf Read the press releases at http://www.hrw.org/mideast/libya.php ----- At the end of July, Iran made an announcement that it had issued standing invitations to United Nations human rights monitoring mechanisms. These invitations allow U.N. officials monitoring issues such as arbitrary detention, disappearances, or the right to development to freely conduct their fact-finding investigations and report back to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. HRW had been lobbying to grant the Special Rapporteur on Iran access to the country. He was blocked from visiting the country for several years, and the renewal of his mandate was voted down at this year's Commission on Human Rights. To date, 39 countries have issued standing invitations, mostly from Europe but also including several Latin American countries and Australia. HRW has been actively promoting standing invitations as a condition of membership on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Find out more about HRW's work on the UN Commission on Human Rights at http://www.hrw.org/un/ ----- WOMEN'S RIGHTS DIVISION GLOBAL ISSUE PAGES FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS TRAVELING FILM FESTIVAL ----- Your contribution to Human Rights Watch will allow us to continue to investigate human rights conditions in more than 70 countries and to generate pressure to end abuses. HRW does not accept financial support from any government or government agency. Every investigation we undertake, every advocacy campaign we embark on, and every report we produce is funded solely by generous private contributions. To find out more about membership, or to make a donation online, by phone, or by postal mail, visit http://www.hrw.org/donations// |
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