Reports

“If the Soldier Dies, It’s on You”

Attacks on Medical Care in Ethiopia’s Amhara Conflict

The 66-page report, “‘If the Soldier Dies, It’s On You’: Attacks on Medical Care in Ethiopia’s Amhara Conflict,” documents how Ethiopian federal forces and a government-affiliated militia have attacked medical workers, healthcare facilities, and transports in at least 13 towns since the outbreak of fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and Amhara militia known as Fano in August 2023. Ethiopia’s international partners should call for accountability and an end to attacks on healthcare and should resume increased scrutiny of the rights situation in the country.

 

A sign that reads "Emergency Room" in a hospital
Nadia, a Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, hugs her friend Khadidja, beside makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad on May 11, 2023. 

World Report 2024

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  • July 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Africa and US Policy

    The White House conference on Africa came at a time when the Clinton Administration’s cautious response to the monstrous crime of genocide in Rwanda was increasingly under attack at home and abroad and offered an opportunity for it to adopt a much-needed change of course. This report offers a summary of human rights developments and U.S. human rights policy in ten African countries.
  • July 1, 1994

    Multipartyism Betrayed in Kenya

    Continuing Rural Violence and Restrictions on Freedom of Speech and Assembly

    After winning the first multiparty election since 1963 in December of 1993, the government of Daniel arap Moi has increased its harassment of the political opposition, bringing spurious criminal charges against opposition politicians, forcing unwarranted restrictions on their freedom of association, and arresting them without charge.
  • July 1, 1994

    Rape in Haiti

    A Weapon of Terror

    The military coup d'état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on September 30, 1991, plunged Haiti into a maelstrom of state-inflicted and state-sanctioned human rights abuses. These abuses have included numerous political assassinations, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and the torture of prisoners.
  • June 1, 1994

    Restrictions on Freedom of the Press in Romania

    Despite the considerable progress that has been made to ensure an independent press both in practice and in law, there is troubling evidence of official harassment of journalists whose views are critical of the ruling powers, ranging from selective denial of press credentials to the imprisonment of a journalist who wrote an allegory considered defamatory of the President of Romania.
  • June 1, 1994

    Civilian Devastation

    Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan

    Since 1983, the civil war in southern Sudan has claimed the lives of some 1.3 million civilians as a result of targeted killings, indiscriminate fire, or starvation and disease. Both government and rebel forces are culpable as they wage war in total disregard for the welfare of civilians, violating almost every rule of war applicable in an internal armed conflict.
  • June 1, 1994

    Torture and Ill-Treatment

    Israel’s Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

    Despite the historic peace process that is under way in the Middle East, Israel’s interrogation agencies in the occupied territories have continued to engage in a systematic pattern of torture and ill-treatment. Well over 100,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the intifada in 1987.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De León Carpió’s First Year

    The people of Guatemala have suffered savage repression at the hands of security forces, civil patrols, and guerrillas waging a thirty-year civil war. Their villages were razed and tens of thousands disappeared — presumably murdered — their bodies occasionally discovered in clandestine graves throughout the highlands.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De Leon Carpio's First Year

    The breathtaking political changes of 1993, which brought a well-respected governmental human rights advocate into the presidency of Guatemala, have one year later degenerated into turmoil and dashed hopes, with little to show for the promise that the new government appeared to bring.
  • June 1, 1994

    War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina

    U.N. Cease-Fire Won't Help Banja Luka

    Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia-Hercegovina after Sarajevo, is the scene of much of the most severe and systematic “ethnic cleansing”: torture, murder, rape, beatings, harassment, de jure discrimination, intimidation, expulsion from homes, confiscation of property, bombing of businesses, dismissal from work, outlawing of all scripts except the Cyrillic in public institutions, and
  • June 1, 1994

    A Matter of Power

    State Control of Women’s Virginity in Turkey

    An investigation of the prevalence of forcible virginity control exams and the role of the government in conducting or tolerating such exams, this report cites several separate incidents in the spring of 1992 when young females committed suicide after authorities ordered them to submit to examinations of their hymens.
  • June 1, 1994

    Restrictions on Press Freedom in the Slovak Republic

    Heightened political tension has been characterized by physical attacks on journalists critical of the former Meciar government. HRW/Helsinki urges the interim government to give special consideration to the concerns outlined in this report and to disassociate itself from the media policies of its predecessor in order to create an environment in which the independent press can flourish.
  • May 1, 1994

    Unsettled Business

    Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency

    Under former President Aylwin's four-year “transitional” administration, Chile took notable steps toward consolidating democracy, reestablishing civil and individual rights, and healing the wounds caused by decades of political strife and gross human rights violations under military rule.