U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective
The 55-page report, “Out of Step: US Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective,” examines the laws of 136 countries around the world with populations of 1.5 million and above and finds that the majority—73 of the 136—never, or rarely, deny a person’s right to vote because of a criminal conviction. In the other 63 countries, the United States sits at the restrictive end of the spectrum, disenfranchising a broader swath of people overall.
Police Violence and Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
This 122-page report examined 51 cases in which police appeared to have executed alleged criminal suspects and then reported the victims had died in shootouts while resisting arrest.
Violence, Discrimination and Barriers to Health for Migrants in South Africa
This 89-page report describes how harassment, lack of documentation, and the credible fear of deportation prevent many newcomers from seeking medical treatment even though South African law and policy state that asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants have a right to care.
This 96-page report details emblematic cases of ongoing rights violations in five areas: attacks on women in public life; violence against women; child and forced marriage; access to justice; and girls' access to secondary education.
Improving Accountability for Electoral Violence in Uganda
This 28-page report documents recent cases in which high court judges ruling on electoral petitions determined that candidates and campaign staff had committed criminal acts, yet the alleged crimes were rarely investigated and prosecuted. Some of those alleged to have committed the crimes during the 2006 elections continue to hold high office, Human Rights Watch said.
The Transfer of Immigrants to Remote Detention Centers in the United States
This 88-page report presents new data analyzed for Human Rights Watch by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University. The data show that 53 percent of the 1.4 million transfers have taken place since 2006, and most occur between state and local jails that contract with the agency, known as ICE, to provide detention bed space.
The Human Rights Consequences of Illegal Logging and Corruption in Indonesia’s Forestry Sector
This 75-page report found that more than half of all Indonesian timber from 2003 through 2006 was logged illegally, with no taxes paid. Unreported subsidies to the forestry industry, including government use of artificially low timber market prices and currency exchange rates, and tax evasion by exporters using a scam known as "transfer pricing," exacerbated the losses.
Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria
This 63-page report documents the Syrian authorities' efforts to ban and disperse gatherings calling for Kurdish minority rights or celebrating Kurdish culture, as well as the detention of leading Kurdish political activists and their ill-treatment in custody. The repression of Kurds in Syria has greatly intensified following large-scale Kurdish demonstrations in March 2004.
British Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of Terror Suspects in Pakistan
This 46-page report provides accounts from victims and their families in the cases of five UK citizens of Pakistani origin - Salahuddin Amin, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Rangzieb Ahmed, Rashid Rauf and a fifth individual who wishes to remain anonymous - tortured in Pakistan by Pakistani security agencies between 2004 and 2007.
This report shows how Raúl Castro has kept Cuba’s repressive machinery firmly in place and fully active since being handed power by his brother Fidel Castro. Scores of political prisoners arrested under Fidel continue to languish in prison, and Raúl has used draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores more who have dared to exercise their fundamental rights.
This 53-page report documents how government officials, security forces, and their agents routinely abduct people off the streets of Beijing and other Chinese cities, strip them of their possessions, and imprison them. These black jails are often located in state-owned hotels, nursing homes, and psychiatric hospitals.
Violence against Minority Communities in Nineveh Province’s Disputed Territories
This 51-page report calls on the regional government to grant legal recognition to Shabaks and Yazidis as distinct ethnic groups instead of imposing Kurdish identity on them and to ensure that they can participate in public affairs without fear of retribution.
Between August and September 2009, Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 migrants who had been arrested on Samos, Symi, and Chios Islands, and the port towns of Patras and Igoumenitsa. The Greek authorities transferred them to detention centers close to the land border with Turkey and held them in the border police stations of Soufli, Tichero, and Feres, as well as in the Venna and Fylakio-Kyprinou (Fylakio) detention facilities. Two detained migrants described to us how Greek police forcibly pushed them across the river into Turkey from where Turkish authorities sent them back to Afghanistan.
Insufficient Protection for Unaccompanied Migrant Children at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport
In this 60-page report, Human Rights Watch concludes that France's system of detaining and deporting unaccompanied migrant children who arrive in Paris by air puts them at serious risk.
