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.
The government of President Alberto Fujimori has been seriously challenged by insurgent threat from Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA); both groups having been responsible for civilian casualties and other gross violations of the laws of war.
he Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA), headed by Dr. Nawal El-Saadawi, a well-known writer and leading figure in the Arab women's movement, has been ordered dissolved by the Egyptian authorities. AWSA will contest the dissolution order in legal proceedings scheduled to begin on October 31 before the State Council Court.
On August 6, 1993, the Kuwaiti government ordered the dissolution of all unlicensed organizations. Especially targeted were groups tracking the fate of Kuwaitis disappeared during the Iraqi occupation and believed held in Iraq, as well as human rights groups, including the Kuwaiti Association to Defend War Victims, Kuwait’s main human rights organization.
Ethnic hatred and violence directed against Gypsies in Romania has escalated dramatically since the 1989 revolution: rarely a month passed without another Gypsy village being attacked. Gypsy homes have been burned, their possessions destroyed, they have been chased from their villages, and often not allowed to return.
Following the liberation of Kuwait, the thirst to avenge the horrors of the Iraqi occupation spawned a new round of human rights victims this time at Kuwaiti hands. Despite calls to defend human rights in rallying support for the war against Iraq, the reinstated Kuwaiti government has trampled on those rights at nearly every turn, often with the use of violence.
On May 21, 1991, the Secretary General of the United Nations issued a public statement outlining in very broad terms the framework for a political settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Extradition Sought For Alleged Death Squad Participant
On August 16, 1991, a federal magistrate in San Antonio, Texas will rule on a request by the government of El Salvador to extradite César Vielman Joya Martínez, a former soldier in the intelligence unit of the First Infantry Brigade of the Salvadoran Army, for his alleged involvement in the murder of two young men in El Salvador in July 1989.
Ghana's ruling Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), chaired by Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings, has claimed -- for the third time in as many years -- that Ghana has no political prisoners. In a radio interview on May 31, Secretary for Foreign Affairs Obed Asamoah, argued that some detainees -- whom he characterized as "subversives" -- are being kept in custody for their own good.
An analysis of the Soviet army’s use of lethal force against initially peaceful protestors in the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tadzhikistan in mid-February 1990, this report is based on numerous interviews with local sources conducted in the republic in May and November 1991.
Violence between separatist Sikh militants and government forces in Punjab has escalated to unprecedented levels, claiming thousands of civilian lives. Since 1984, the security forces have adopted increasingly brutal methods to stem the militant movement, resulting in widespread human rights violations.
When Patricio Aylwin became President of Chile, on March 11, 1990, he had promised to resolve the human rights legacy of over sixteen years of military dictatorship, through a process of exposing the truth about past abuses and seeking justice. President Aylwin's efforts have been hampered by the Constitution of 1980 that defines a form of government that falls short of full democracy.
This comprehensive assessment of the current human rights situation in Kenya goes well beyond those aspects that are ordinarily the focus of international attention: the efforts of Nairobi-based journalists, lawyers, clergy and political figures to promote the rule of law and an open, accountable system of government. This book also details the arbitrary, punitive and cruel measures by the government of President Daniel arap Moi against rural and urban squatter communities; the miserable conditions of confinement in detention facilities and prisons for those charged with common crimes as well as for those held for political offenses; the violence with which Kenya annexed 14,000 square kilometers of disputed territory on the border between Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia in 1988; the brutality of the implementation of emergency powers in the North Eastern Province; and the discriminatory "screening" of ethnic Somalis and the ill- treatment of refugees from Kenya's war-torn neighbors.
Aceh, the "special region" of Indonesia on the northern tip of Sumatra, continues to be the target of an intensive counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Indonesian army against guerrillas of the Aceh Merdeka or Free Aceh movement.
Administration's `Alien Terrorist Removal' Plan Puts U. S. in Company of Repressive Regimes
The Bush Administration has proposed legislation in Congress that would authorize secret proceedings for the deportation of foreign nationals accused of terrorism. If enacted, this proposal would depart from two centuries of history and law in the U.S.
