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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH -----
----- In January, Human Rights Watch successfully pressed the U.N. Security Council to demand accountability from governments and armed groups that use child soldiers. At Human Rights Watch’s request, 16 members of the US Senate joined our efforts by sending a letter to the US ambassador to the United Nations, urging strong Security Council action on the issue. Following an all-day debate on January 14, the Security Council adopted a new resolution on children and armed conflict on January 30. Among its provisions, the Security Council: After reviewing the Secretary General’s report, the Security Council will consider additional steps if sufficient progress is not made. These steps were left unspecified, but could include arms embargoes or other targeted sanctions. For more on the Security Council decision, see our January 30 press release at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/01/childsoldiers013003.htm ----- Over the past year, Guatemalan human rights defenders have been subject to repeated and serious attacks and threats. On April 29, 2002, a member of the Rigoberta Menchœ Foundation, Guillermo Ovalle de Le—n, was shot to death in a restaurant next to the foundation's office in Guatemala City. In July, two men assaulted one of the foundation's lawyers in front of the same office. There is a widespread consensus that such actions are being carried out by clandestine groups with possible links to unnecessary public security forces and organized crime. Last August, Human Rights Watch met with President Alfonso Portillo in Guatemala and urged him to establish a commission to investigate these crimes. On January 16, Guatemala's Ombudsman, with the support of local and international rights groups, delivered a formal proposal to President Portillo to create such a commission. The Government of Guatemala endorsed the idea and called on local rights groups, the ombudsman, and the government human rights commission to work out the mandate, duration, composition, and other parameters of the proposed investigative commission. Human Rights Watch was asked to participate in the process and is sending a delegation to Guatemala in February to help design a viable and effective commission. Read more about HRW’s work in Guatemala at http://www.hrw.org/americas/guatemala.php ----- Human Rights Watch effectively urged the US Congress to continue to require the State Department to certify Colombia's compliance with human rights conditions twice annually (not the reduction to once proposed by Republicans in the House of Representatives). This decision was made at a Senate-House conference in February convened to merge both versions of the Foreign aid bill for 2003. Read more about human rights in Colombia at http://www.hrw.org/americas/colombia.php ----- On February 3, Turkey’s president Ahmet Necdet Sezer ratified the most recent "adjustment law," aimed at bringing the country closer to meeting European Union membership requirements pertaining to human rights. According to the new law, when the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a person has been the victim of a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights as a consequence of a court judgment, that person shall have the automatic right to retrial. As a result, Turkey's longest-serving political prisoners, Kurdish former parliamentary deputies Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan, and Selim Sadak (imprisoned since 1994) can now be retried. Their lawyer, Yusuf Alatas, reportedly predicted an early release for the four, pending retrial. HRW and others have long pushed for the release and retrial of the officials, who were imprisoned for their non-violent activities. For more details, see our August 7, 2002 press release at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/turkey080702.htm ----- On January 27, foreign ministers of the fifteen E.U. member states and their Uzbek counterpart gathered in Brussels for the E.U.-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council, the single most important bilateral meeting of the year between the E.U. and Uzbekistan. Conclusions of past E.U. Cooperation Councils with Uzbekistan, and E.U. action to promote human rights in Central Asia overall, have been disappointingly weak, but recent months have seen a significant change as the E.U. increasingly uses its leverage in the region to press for progress in human rights. The conclusions issued following the meeting were unprecedented in their frankness and detail in identifying the numerous shortcomings that continue to mar the Uzbek government’s human rights record. The conclusions also called for specific measures to address these shortcomings. They made clear that "any possible development of closer political relations between the E.U. and Uzbekistan would depend upon respect for shared values"; "affirm[ed] the vital necessity of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (including freedom of speech) in the fight against terrorism"; and "expressed... strong concerns about cases of torture in detention centers, and asked for impartial investigation of deaths of prisoners or other people in custody." Noting the forthcoming annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) scheduled to take place in Tashkent in May, the E.U. made clear that it expected the Uzbek authorities to "demonstrate to the international community further political and economic changes" in advance of the meeting. The E.U. in the conclusions gave credit where due for progress but made sure to note that more progress was needed. For example, while welcoming the visit of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture to Uzbekistan last fall, the E.U. "requested that Uzbekistan implement his recommendations and those of the U.N. Committee against Torture." In a similar vein, it "expressed appreciation" for the agreement signed between the Uzbek government and the ICRC in 2001, but also "urge[d]" the Uzbek authorities "to promote full implementation" of it so as to sustain the conditions necessary for ICRC visits to places of detention to continue. The E.U. also welcomed the registration of the first ever independent national human rights organization, the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan, in early 2002, but called on the Uzbek leadership "to take further steps towards development of civil society in Uzbekistan based upon the rule of law, including registration of other NGOs and political parties." In a letter sent to E.U. foreign ministers in November 2002, and in follow-up meetings in Brussels, London, Paris, and Tashkent, Human Rights Watch called on the E.U. to use the January meeting to extract concrete human rights concessions from the Uzbek government and encouraged the E.U. to link these improvements to the annual meeting of the EBRD. Read the November letter at http://hrw.org/press/2002/11/uzbek1126ltr.htm ----- Summaries of over a decade of Human Rights Watch research are now available on the Web. The Human Rights Watch Web site now features all of our World Reports from 1989 to 2003. Each World Report gives an overview of human rights for the previous year, organized by country and theme. For an index of past World Reports, visit http://www.hrw.org/reports/world/reports/ Chapters of the World Reports are also linked from our country and thematic pages. For the list of country pages visit http://www.hrw.org/countries.html. For thematic pages visit http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/ ----- 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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