September 2007
European Court Finds Russia Responsible for Chechnya Killings
On July 26, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously found the Russian government responsible for 11 killings that took place in a suburb of the Chechen city of Grozny in February 2000. The killings were part of a massacre by Russian riot police and contract soldiers during a sweep operation several days after Russian forces had taken control of the neighborhood. Human Rights Watch first documented the killings in 2000 and has since repeatedly brought them to the attention of the authorities and the international community as a stunning failure by the Russian government to ensure justice for atrocities committed in Chechnya. The court's ruling used unusually strong language to condemn this failure, declaring that "the astonishing ineffectiveness of the prosecuting authorities in this case could only be qualified as acquiescence in the events." In a separate case issued the same day, the court found the Russian government responsible for two forced disappearances that occurred in Chechnya in August 2000. Human Rights Watch documented and exposed both cases in our 2001 report on the widespread use of disappearances, torture, and summary executions in Chechnya. Read More.
Progress on Trial of Former Chadian Dictator
Senegal announced on July 12 that it had finalized a plan and a budget to investigate and try Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad who lives in exile in Senegal. Human Rights Watch has been working for eight years with Habré's victims to bring him to trial. In July 2006, after a landmark request by the African Union, Senegal agreed to prosecute him. After a year passed with little progress, we conducted a media blitz in Dakar and Paris, with our Chadian and Senegalese partners, to press for action. We have also been urging international donors to provide financial and technical support to ensure a prompt and fair trial. On July 24, following similar pledges by Belgium and Switzerland, France also vowed to help. French President Nicolas Sarkozy made the announcement in Dakar days after we briefed his new Minister for Human Rights, who said that she had convinced Sarkozy after hearing from us. Only three weeks earlier, France had said the trial was an internal matter for Senegal. "The Dictator Hunter," a film about Human Rights Watch Senior Counsel Reed Brody's work on the case, is being featured at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Read More.
Sri Lanka to Investigate Child Soldier Recruitment
On August 29, Sri Lanka appointed a committee to investigate allegations of child recruitment by the Karuna group, a Tamil armed group allegedly linked to the government. In our January 2007 report, Human Rights Watch exposed patterns of abductions and the recruitment of child soldiers by the Karuna group with the complicity or willful blindness of the Sri Lankan government. We released press statements and op-eds, testified publicly, and held face-to-face meetings to press for an official investigation and urge the government to halt its involvement in the use of child soldiers. Since the resumption of major hostilities last year between the government of Sri Lanka and the armed secessionist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), we have documented ongoing abuses by the LTTE and the Karuna group, as well as a dramatic increase in abuses by government forces with a disturbing rise in abductions and "disappearances." Going forward, we will keep pressure on the government, the Tamil Tigers, and the Karuna group to curb abuses, and we will press for accountability for all who have been responsible for committing abuses. Read More.
UK Moves to Protect its Iraqi Interpreters
Following high-profile media reports about Iraqi interpreters whose lives are threatened because they worked for British forces, the British government announced on August 7 that it will review its policy of non-preferential treatment for Iraqi employees seeking refuge who are at risk or in exile. In April, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UK Refugee Council wrote to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, alerting him to the plight of Iraqi interpreters and to the wider Iraqi refugee crisis. Since then, we have worked intensively to generate media coverage about British responsibility for its Iraqi employees. We published opinion pieces in major newspapers, including The Independent and The Sunday Times, urging the UK to admit Iraqi refugees, and contributed to several prominent articles, including a front-page story in the Times. After the article appeared, Prime Minister Gordon Brown personally intervened in the case. Our reporting has exposed the escalating Iraqi refugee crisis, and the challenges faced by Iraqis seeking refuge in neighboring countries. Going forward, we will urge the UK to begin admitting Iraqi refugees, particularly those who worked for the British in Iraq, grant asylum requests for Iraqis inside the UK, and increase financial assistance to the countries bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis in the Middle East. Read More.
US Should End Psychological Torture
In The Huffington Post, Legal and Policy Director Jim Ross writes that psychological torture is just as severe as physical torture, and urges the Bush administration to categorically reject its use.
Sri Lanka Steps Backward on Human Rights
In the International Herald Tribune, South Asia Researcher Charu Hogg urges Sri Lanka's president, a former human rights activist, to confront the rampant rights abuses taking place on his watch.
China Must Protect Rights as Olympics ApproachAsia Advocacy Director Sophie Richardson, writing in the
Wall Street Journal, presses China to lift increasing restrictions on freedom of expression before next year's Olympics in Beijing.
Allies Should Press Ethiopia on Abuses
Writing in the Guardian Unlimited, London Director Tom Porteous urges the international community to address the escalating crackdown by Ethiopian security forces in the Ogaden region, and to use its leverage with Ethiopia, a major Western ally and aid recipient, to curb abuses by its troops.
