The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles
The 337-page report, “‘You Have to Move!’ The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles,” documents the experiences of people living on the streets and in vehicles, temporary shelters, and parks in Los Angeles, as they struggle to survive while facing criminalization and governmental failures to prioritize eviction prevention or access to permanent housing. Law enforcement and sanitation “sweeps” force unhoused people out of public view, often wasting resources on temporary shelter and punishments that do not address the underlying needs. Tens of thousands of people are living in the streets of Los Angeles; death rates among the unhoused have skyrocketed.
Topical Digests of the Case Law of the ICTR and the ICTY
This 285-page book organizes the tribunals’ decisions by topic, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, individual criminal responsibility, command responsibility and sentencing.
A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper , February 2004
The purpose of this briefing paper is to outline Human Rights Watch's main concerns regarding the barrier as the International Court of Justice, at the request of the United Nations General Assembly, considers the barrier's legal consequences.
Background information on the detention and harassment of human rights defenders and organization in Tunisia in anticipation of President Ben Ali's visit to Washington D.C.
Stemming Slovakia's Arms Trade with Human Rights Abusers
The government of Slovakia must do more to bring its arms trade under control. Slovakia adopted some legal reforms in 2001 and 2002, but serious problems remain that allow arms to be exported or illegally trafficked to human rights-abusing countries in Africa and elsewhere. Human Rights Watch says that the country has served as both an exporter and transit hub for arms deals from other countries.
Human Rights Watch has received information about human rights abuses against Dalits in virtually every sphere of life in Nepal, including marriage, religious practice, access to land, and access to education. This submission to the government’s 15th and 16th periodic report to the Committee documents continued conditions of oppression and abuse.
This 108-page report by Human Rights Watch says that the persecution of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a highly-respected Tibetan lama facing a death sentence on unproven allegations of involvement in a bombing, highlights the ongoing strictures placed on Tibetans in China. In recent years, the Chinese government has consolidated secular control at the expense of monastic influence.
This 43-page report documents how more than 15,000 child soldiers fought on all sides of the Liberian civil war, and that many units were composed primarily of children. The report argues that establishing a firm peace in the West African nation will depend on the successful reintegration of child soldiers into civil society.
Human Rights Watch strongly believes that accountability for serious past crimes is the foundation for post-conflict reconstruction based on the rule of law and respect for human rights. This Briefing Paper looks at the challenges in addressing impunity for the horrific crimes that have been committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996.
A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict
Throughout 2003 thousands of children were deployed as combatants, to commit abuses against civilians, as sex slaves, forced labourers, messengers, informants and servants in continuing and newly erupting conflicts. Children were usually used to perform multiple roles, and girls in particular often acted as combatants as well as being sexually exploited.
The Commission on Human Rights should adopt a resolution encouraging the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to implement reforms in its judicial system and to begin investigation and prosecution of violations of international law committed during the recent wars (beginning in 1996 and 1998 respectively).
Court Should Reaffirm Absolute Prohibition against Returning People to Torture in Uzbekistan
Human Rights Watch, in cooperation with the Association for Inidvidual Rights in Europe (AIRE), was granted leave to intervene in the controversial case of Mamatkulov and Askarov v. Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights.
This 61-page report documents hundreds of arbitrary arrests, widespread beatings and torture, and politically motivated job dismissals of members and supporters of the opposition following the October 15 presidential election, which was widely condemned by the international community as fraudulent.
Despite significant changes in the political environment over the past six months, most notably the August 2003 signing of a peace agreement, the departure into exile of president Charles Taylor and the establishment of a newly-mandated United Nations peacekeeping mission, the plight of civilians in Liberia remains dire.
The trial of Bosnian Croat Dominik Ilijasevic-Como, age 38, before the Zenica Cantonal Court, began on December 16, 2002 in Zenica, in Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation BH).
Tens of thousands of girls in El Salvador work as domestics, a form of labor that makes them particularly vulnerable to physical abuse and sexual harassment. This 35-page report calls on the Salvadoran government to include domestic workers, who are almost exclusively girls and young women, in its program to address hazardous child labor.