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.
Violations of Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in the Georgia-South Ossetia Conflict
Tensions between Georgians and Ossetians began in late 1989 and by 1991 took the form of armed conflict between South Ossetian and Georgian paramilitary groups. At the root of the conflict is South Ossetia's desire to separate from Georgia and be part of Russia. Throughout 1991 Helsinki Watch received alarming reports about human rights violations in the violent conflict.
Tensions between Georgians and Ossetians began in late 1989 and by 1991 took the form of armed conflict between paramilitary groups. At the root of the conflict is South Ossetia's desire to separate from Georgia and be part of Russia. The armed conflict included the shelling (by both sides) of Georgian and Ossetian villages, blockades and hostage taking.
Haitianos Y Domínico-Haitianos En La República Dominicana
Durante la última década, el gobierno dominicano ha deportado a cientos de miles de haitianos a Haití, así como a un número desconocido de dominicanos de ascendencia haitiana.
Despite a series of promising political reforms in 1990 and 1991, the government of President César Gaviria Trujillo has been unable to stem the violence that accounts for more political murders in Colombia than any country in the hemisphere, with the possible exception of Peru.
This report, based on a five-week visit to Mindanao in January and February 1992, provides fresh evidence that the military has failed to control its militia, the Citizen Armed Force — Geographical Units (CAFGU).
Helsinki Watch urges the Spanish government to end its secretive policy with respect to prisons and describes problems ranging from overcrowding and periodic violence to forced idleness for inmates and very limited visiting privileges for a significant group of prisoners.
The Human Cost of the Conflict & The Struggle for Relief
"The worst humanitarian disaster in the world today," were the words used to describe Somalia by Andrew Natsios, the former director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).1 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is spending 20% of its entire worldwide budget on assistance to Somalia, has come to the same conclusion.
With the negotiated cease-fire agreement signed on January 16, 1992, in Mexico City, the twelve-year-old conflict in El Salvador has formally come to an end.
Israel's Supreme Court to Rule on Legality of Interrogation Guidelines
The death of Palestinian detainee Mustafa Akawi on February 4 illustrates the untenable nature of Israel's claim that its use of "moderate physical pressure" during interrogation does not lead to torture. This claim is being challenged in an important Israeli Supreme Court case that is scheduled for argument next month.
Middle East Watch (MEW) conducted a fact-finding mission to Egypt in January and February 1992, to investigate arrest and detention practices and allegations of torture of individuals held in the custody of the security forces. Participating in the mission were Virginia N. Sherry, associate director of MEW, and John Valery White, an attorney and Orville Schell Fellow with Human Rights Watch.
The Greek community in Turkey is dwindling, elderly and frightened. Its population has declined from about 110,000 at the time of the signing of the Lausanne Treaty in 1923 to about 2,500 today. Its fear stems from an appalling history of pogroms and expulsions suffered at the hands of the Turkish government.
This report provides an overview of human rights developments since the declation of a 12-month state of emergency on February 9, 1992, after factions of the Algerian participated in a military coup of the government.
As the international community condemned the massacre in East Timor on November 12, 1991 and pressed the Indonesian government to account fully for the killings, other human rights abuses attributed to the Indonesian military went largely ignored.
New lists of prisoners supplied by former inmates and smuggled out of the Tibet Autonomous Region substantially increase the known number of political prisoners in Tibet. In this report, Asia Watch and the Tibet Information Network present the cases of some 275 prisoners with all extant biographical material.
Across northern Iraq, Kurds, freed for now from President Saddam Hussein's grip, have begun revealing the horrors of nearly a quarter of a century of repressive rule. In former Iraqi police stations and prisons, Kurdish officials have discovered torture chambers and execution sites where they say thousands of political prisoners died under torture or were shot in the 1980s.