Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel
The 236-page report, “‘I Can’t Erase All the Blood from My Mind’: Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel,” documents several dozen cases of serious violations of international humanitarian law by Palestinian armed groups at nearly all the civilian attack sites on October 7. These include the war crimes and crimes against humanity of murder, hostage-taking, and other grave offenses. Human Rights Watch also examined the role of various armed groups and their coordination before and during the attacks. Previous Human Rights Watch reports have addressed numerous serious violations by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7.
Al-Majid earned the sobriquet “Chemical Ali” because of his role in the genocidal Anfal campaign between February and August 1988, and his use of chemical weapons against Kurdish villagers in northern Iraq beginning in April 1987.
On September 27, 2004, the leader of a powerful armed group threatened to launch an “all-out war” in the Niger Delta - sending shock waves through the oil industry – unless the federal government ceded greater control of the region’s vast oil resources to the Ijaw people, the majority tribe in the Niger Delta.
US: Life Without Parole Sentences for Children in Colorado
Across Colorado, residents are beginning to question whether children who commit a crime before the age of eighteen should ever be sentenced to life without parole. Historically, this harshest of prison sentences was restricted to adults.
This 65-page report analyzes aspects of Spain’s criminal law and procedures that fall short of its commitments under international human rights law. Problematic practices include the use of incommunicado detention and secret legal proceedings, limitations on the right to a lawyer during the initial period of detention, and lengthy periods of pre-trial detention.
Workers in the U.S. meat and poultry industry endure unnecessarily hazardous work conditions, and the companies employing them often use illegal tactics to crush union organizing efforts. In meat and poultry plants across the United States, Human Rights Watch found that many workers face a real danger of losing a limb, or even their lives, in unsafe work conditions.
Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody
This 94-page report documents how unlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees (including children) by Iraqi authorities have become routine and commonplace. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews in Iraq with 90 detainees, 72 of whom alleged having been tortured or ill-treated, particularly under interrogation.
Since February 2003, Darfur has been the scene of massive crimes against civilians of particular ethnicities in the context of an internal conflict between the Sudanese government and a rebel insurgency. Almost two million people have been forcibly displaced and stripped of all their property and tens of thousands of people have been killed, raped or assaulted.
Two years after the start of negotiations for the demobilization of paramilitary groups, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe plans to present a draft law to govern demobilization at an international donors’ conference in Cartagena, Colombia, on February 3-4, 2005.
This briefing paper describes new and disturbing information about recent large-scale arrests of Montagnard Christians living in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and the torture of Montagnard activists, house church leaders, and others, including individuals who have been deported or have voluntarily returned from Cambodia
Rwandan armed groups, like many other armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), kill, rape, and otherwise injure civilians and often loot or extort their property. Under the terms of the Lusaka Accords and the Pretoria Agreement ending four years of war in the Congo, the Congolese government agreed to disarm these groups, but has failed to do so.
Human Rights Watch’s key concerns on Turkey for 2005
At its December 16-17 summit in Brussels, the European Council is expected to decide whether or not to open negotiations for Turkey’s full membership of the European Union. The decision follows the October 2004 evaluation by the European Commission that “Turkey sufficiently fulfils the political criteria” and its recommendation that accession negotiations be opened.
The 70-page report documents that youths in Rio de Janeiro’s detention centers are often beaten and verbally abused by guards. Most complaints of ill-treatment are never investigated by the state’s Department of Socio-Economic Action (Departamento Geral de Ações Sócio-Educativas, or DEGASE), the authority responsible for juvenile detention facilities.
Out of Sync with SADC Standards and a Threat to Civil Society Groups
The government of Zimbabwe drafted the 2004 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Bill after a four-year period of deteriorating relations with oppositional civil society organizations, including NGOs, churches, trade unions, and the independent media. The Bill will adversely affect, and effectively eliminate, all organizations involved in promoting and defending human rights.
This 62-page report documents serious human rights abuses stemming from discriminatory family laws that have resulted in a divorce system that affords separate and unequal treatment to men and women.