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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH -----
---- In a year in which terrorism and the war in Afghanistan dominated the news, Human Rights Watch maintained pressure on governments around the world to keep human rights on the policy agenda. - In Afghanistan, our advocacy helped to convince the U.S. government to support expansion of the International Security Assistance Force beyond the city of Kabul and to begin the deployment of its own troops to protect civilians from continuing abuses at the hands of the warlords who control most of the country. - Human Rights Watch was the key group pushing for the U.S. indictment of Colombian paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño, who has been resopnsible for massacres, killings, and the kidnapping of human rights defenders (see below). - After a Human Rights Watch report exposed instances of killings, torture, and unlawful detention by the Bakassi Boys, a government-supported vigilante group in Nigeria, the government announced that it would disband the group. - In Sudan, we met repeatedly with representatives of the Canadian oil company Talisman regarding the deplorable human rights conditions caused by oil exploration in the midst of that country's civil war. Our work was part of a broad coalition pressuring Talisman. Late this year, Talisman finally agreed to sell off all of its assets in Sudan. - In July, the world's first permanent international criminal court became a reality. The court is authorized to try those accused of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity when national governments cannot or will not prosecute such cases. Human Rights Watch played a central role in the establishment of the court, helping negotiate the treaty, promoting its ratification, and defending the court against detractors, particularly the U.S. government. - In the United States, Human Rights Watch was at the forefront of efforts to convince the Bush administration to respect human rights as it fought terrorism. Our advocacy played a central role in the administration's decisions to apply the Geneva Conventions to the Taliban detainees in Guantanamo and to provide basic due process protection that had been omitted in the presidential order establishing military commissions. These and many other successes would not have been possible without the generous support of Human Rights Watch donors. As we face the prospect of a war in Iraq, Human Rights Watch is gearing up to send an emergency teams to neighboring countries and Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq to protect the rights of civilians caught in the conflict. At the same time, we continue to monitor violations on every continent, pressing all governments to respect the universal values of human rights. Please consider making a special year-end contribution to Human Rights Watch to ensure that this crucial work can continue. To become a member or make a contribution, visit http://www.hrw.org/donations/ ----- On November 8, in Bogota, Colombia, Human Rights Watch released "A Wrong Turn: The Record of the Colombian Attorney General's Office." The report documented how Colombia's Attorney General, Luis Camilo Osorio, has undermined or derailed key human rights investigations carried out by his office's human rights unit. During the week they spent in Colombia, Human Rights Watch's Americas Director Jose Miguel Vivanco, Senior Researcher Robin Kirk, and Washington Advocacy Director Tom Malinowski met with newly elected President Alvaro Uribe, his vice president, and the Interior, Foreign and Defense Ministers, as well as members of the Constitutional Court, the police and military leadership, and human rights NGOs. They also held successful meetings with members of the diplomatic corps, including the U.S. Ambassador and her staff, European ambassadors, and Latin American ambassadors. The press conference generated extensive media coverage, including a long article in the New York Times, and has increased pressure on the Colombian government to show real results in breaking links between military units and paramilitary groups, and in prosecuting outstanding cases of abuse. After a long campaign, Human Rights Watch was also able to build pressure on Colombia to finally oust an admiral with a long record of human rights abuses. Rodrigo Quiñones was at the top of our "bad guys" list for many years due to his involvement with a death squad in the early 1990s and, more recently, at least two large massacres. Due to pressure from HRW, the State Department canceled his US visa (for drug trafficking, also a feature of Quiñones' resume). On November 27, the Colombian government announced that he had resigned. Human Rights Watch also successfully lobbied for the US to withdraw military aid from a Colombian air force unit implicated in the 1998 deaths of 19 people in the village of Santo Domingo, Arauca, including 7 children. This is the first time that the US has withdrawn aid to a unit in Colombia that previously been cleared to receive it under the terms of US legislation. See Human Rights Watch's research on Colombia at http://www.hrw.org/americas/colombia.php ---- For the second time this year, Egypt's Court of Cassation quashed the guilty verdicts handed down by the Supreme State Security Court against university professor and democracy activist Saadeddin Ibrahim. Human Rights Watch has closely monitored the Egyptian government's persecution of Ibrahim and his colleagues from the Ibn Khaldun Center and condemned the government's charges as politically motivated. In January 2002, Human Rights Watch published "The State of Egypt Vs. Free Expression: The Ibn Khaldun Trial," which documented irregularities before and during the trial. HRW also sent letters to Egyptian officials and met with US and EU officials to put pressure on the Egyptian government. The appeals court overturned the verdicts on the basis of trial irregularities. A new trial has been scheduled for January 7, 2003. Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/egypt/ ----- In June and July 2002, Human Rights Watch investigated abuses of Egyptian children arrested for being "liable to perversion" -- a category that includes children who are homeless, begging, truants, or mentally ill. We submitted our preliminary findings to the United Nation's Committee Against Torture's November 2002 review of Egypt. Based on our submission, the Committee expressed concern about "[t]he many reports of abuse of under-age detainees, especially sexual harassment of girls, committed by law enforcement officials, the lack of monitoring machinery to investigate such abuse and prosecute those responsible, and the fact that minors are kept in places of detention in contact with adult detainees." It recommended that Egypt "[h]alt and punish all practices involving abuse of minors in places of detention, and ban the holding of under-age detainees with adult detainees." Human Rights Watch was the only NGO present at the session to raise police abuse of children, and the Committee's rapporteur referred to us by name in his questions to the government. We are not making our submission public, but the findings will be part of our forthcoming report. Second, the Committee expressed concern about "[t]he reports received concerning ill-treatment inflicted on men because of their real or alleged homosexual inclinations, apparently encouraged by the lack of adequate clarity in penal legislation." It recommended that Egypt "[r]emove all ambiguity in legislation which might underpin the persecution of individuals because of their sexual orientation. Steps should also be taken to prevent all degrading treatment on the occasion of body searches." In 2001, HRW made several interventions on behalf of 55 men and one boy prosecuted for alleged homosexuality. The committee's findings will give weight to HRW's future work on these issues. ---- On November 6, the Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution to James Colburn, a severely mentally ill Texas inmate. Human Rights Watch had written to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry asking that Mr. Colburn be granted clemency. Texas and U.S. law prohibit the execution of those found not mentally competent. Mr. Colburn had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic during his teenage years, and was left so sedated by the anti-psychotic medications he was given that he slept throughout his own trial. However, Mr. Colburn's claims of incompetence had been denied by appeals courts. International norms and standards also reject the idea that the mentally ill be subject to the death penalty. Mr. Colburn's attorney was given 90 days to file a writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court can accept or deny. Learn more about the death penalty in the United States at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/ ----- 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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