Reports

This 13-page briefing paper highlights priority areas of concern on human rights and proposes a number of actions to help tackle the crisis in Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe has used methods against critics that range from intimidation, threats and harassment to physical attacks and torture.

This 113-page report is the first independent, on-the-ground investigation of the fighting that wracked Mogadishu in March and April 2007, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the displacement of 400,000 people. Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces are all responsible for rampant violations of the laws of war in Mogadishu.

This 40-page report documents how Chinese authorities have repeatedly obstructed the work of foreign journalists this year, even though China on January 1, 2007, adopted temporary regulations to comply with commitments it made to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) on guaranteeing journalists freedom. The report draws on interviews and information provided from 36 foreign and Chinese journalists in June 2007.

The Sri Lankan government is responsible for unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations since the resumption of major hostilities with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2006. This 129-page report uses accounts by victims and eyewitnesses to document the shocking increase in violations by government forces. Ethnic Tamils have borne the brunt of these violations, the report said, but members of the Muslim and majority Sinhalese population are not immune to government abuse.

Pro-government and rebel forces in Côte d’Ivoire have subjected thousands of women and girls to rape and other brutal sexual assaults with impunity. This 135-page report details the widespread nature of sexual violence throughout the five-year military-political crisis. The report, which is based on interviews with more than 180 victims and witnesses, documents how women and girls have been subjected to individual and gang rape, sexual slavery, forced incest and other egregious sexual assaults.

This 13-page briefing paper looks at Annex 22-B of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and how it flouts the spirit of the recently amended workers’ rights provisions. It also makes recommendations on how to amend Annex 22 in order to effectively protect, in law and practice, the basic labor rights of the workers producing goods under the existing agreement.

Violent Islamist groups in the Philippines have killed or injured more than 1,700 people in bombings and other attacks since 2000. The attacks, mostly in Mindanao, Basilan, Jolo, and other southern islands, have also included kidnappings, executions, and shootings.

This 115-page report documents how children stay in emergency centers for indefinite periods, in often overcrowded and poor conditions. The children told Human Rights Watch that they have been subjected to beatings by staff, and left unprotected from violence by their peers.

This 34–page report is accompanied by an extensive photo and audio slideshow, and documents the impact on civilian survivors of guerrillas’ use of antipersonnel landmines in Colombia, as well as the difficulties that such survivors face in obtaining needed assistance from the government.

Deaths in police custody have increased in Rwanda, where officers of the National Police have killed at least 20 detainees since November 2006. This 37-page report is based on dozens of interviews with families of victims, eyewitnesses and others.

The third party intervention by Human Rights Watch and the AIRE Centre in the case of Ismoilov and Others v. Russia analyzes states’ reliance upon diplomatic assurances against torture and ill-treatment in extradition context. The intervention includes relevant international, regional, and national jurisprudence regarding the use of assurances against torture.

This briefing paper examines the implications of military interference for human rights, as well as a number of other current human rights concerns, including restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, the harassment and prosecution of Kurdish political parties, ongoing problems of impunity for state officials, and police ill-treatment.

<table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><img src="http://hrw.org/images/home/2007/100/usdom16402.jpg&quot; align="left" border="0" /></td> <td valign="top">This 88-page report is the first comprehensive assessment of the deportation of non-citizens with criminal convictions and the impact on families and communities in the US.</td></tr></table>

This 81-page report is the product of more than a year of research. The report documents daily abuses by police officers and other security forces in the mountainous and isolated Central Highlands area of the Indonesian province of Papua, located on the western half of the island of New Guinea.