Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Sudan’s Capital
The 88-page report, ““Khartoum is Not Safe for Women”: Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Sudan’s Capital,” documents widespread sexual violence, as well as forced and child marriage during the conflict, in Khartoum and its sister cities. Service providers treating and supporting victims also heard reports from women and girls of being held by the RSF in conditions that could amount to sexual slavery. The research also highlights the devastating health and mental health consequences for survivors and the destructive impact of warring parties’ attacks on health care and the Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) willful blocking of aid.
The current dire humanitarian crisis in Darfur has been caused by massive, systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law constituting crimes against humanity committed by the Sudanese Government and its ethnic militia, the Janjaweed.
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly tried to gain access to U.S. detention facilities in Iraq but U.S. military officials in Baghdad have denied requests for visitation rights. Human Rights Watch is able to have regular access to prisons and detention centers under Kurdish control in northern Iraq.
Ethnic Cleansing by Government and Militia Forces in Western Sudan
This 77-page report documents how Sudanese government forces have overseen and directly participated in massacres, summary executions of civilians, burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible depopulation of wide swathes of land long-inhabited by the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
In this 70-page report, Human Rights Watch says that the Philippine government bans the use of national funds for condom supplies. Some local authorities, such as the mayor of Manila City, prohibit the distribution of condoms in government health facilities. School-based HIV/AIDS educators told Human Rights Watch that schools often prohibited them from discussing condoms with students.
Human Rights Abuses and HIV/AIDS in the Russian Federation
This 62-page report documents how harsh drug policies and routine police harassment of injection drug users—the population hit hardest by AIDS in Russia—impedes their access or makes them afraid to seek basic HIV-prevention services such as syringe exchange, which is available in other countries around the world.
This 37-page report documents the killings and attempted murders of women by male family members who claim they are defending family "honor." The report also details the cases of women, threatened with "honor" crimes, who languish in prison for years while held in protective custody.
This 53-page report details government harassment of Kazakhstan's opposition through arbitrary criminal and misdemeanor charges and threats of job dismissal, in many cases aimed at preventing them from running for public office.
This 49-page report describes a government strategy of forced displacement targeting civilians of the non-Arab ethnic communities from which the two main rebel groups—the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)—are mainly drawn.
In this report, Human Rights Watch documents the failure of the Malaysian government to offer protection and assistance to Acehnese refugees fleeing persecution and armed conflict in Aceh. Malaysia’s treatment of Acehnese in Malaysia falls far short of internationally accepted standards for treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
This 319-page report details the arrest and torture of detainees in an ongoing campaign that has resulted in the incarceration of an estimated 7,000 Muslim dissidents. The government's targets are independent Muslims who practice their faith outside state-run mosques and madrassas or beyond the strict controls set out by the government's laws on religion.
This 76-page report documents cases of torture committed by military, intelligence, and security agents in the government’s pursuit of armed rebels. However, politicians challenging the de facto single-party state and the 18-year rule of Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, are often detained, severely beaten and threatened with death by the uncontrolled security apparatus.
In the ten years since the Rwandan genocide, leaders of national governments and international institutions have acknowledged the shame of having failed to stop the slaughter of the Tutsi population. Halting any future genocide will require not just exerting greater political will than seen in the past, but also developing a strategy built on the lessons of 1994.
Forced Evictions and the Tenants' Rights Movement in China
Chinese local authorities and developers are forcibly evicting hundreds of thousands of homeowners and tenants who have little legal recourse. China's rapid urban development, fueled in Beijing by preparations for the 2008 Olympics, is leading to the eviction of homeowners and tenants in violation of Chinese law and international standards on the right to housing.