Reports

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.

A framed family photo hung up on the wall of a burned home

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  • February 23, 2010

    Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand

    This 124-page report is based on 82 interviews with migrants from neighboring Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. It describes the widespread and severe human rights abuses faced by migrant workers in Thailand, including killings, torture in detention, extortion, and sexual abuse, and labor rights abuses such as trafficking, forced labor, and restrictions on organizing.
  • February 11, 2010

    Post-election Abuses Show Serious Human Rights Crisis

    This 19-page report documents widespread human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings; rapes and torture; violations of the rights to freedom of assembly and expression; and thousands of arbitrary arrests and detentions during the nine months since the election on June 12, 2009.
  • February 8, 2010

    The Revival of Physical Coercion during Interrogations in Bahrain

    This 89-page report is based on interviews with former detainees and a review of forensic medical reports and court documents. It concludes that since the end of 2007, officials have repeatedly resorted to torture for the apparent purpose of securing confessions from security suspects.
  • February 3, 2010

    The New Face of Violence in Colombia

    This 122-page report documents widespread and serious abuses by successor groups to the paramilitary coalition known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC). The successor groups regularly commit massacres, killings, forced displacement, rape, and extortion, and create a threatening atmosphere in the communities they control.

  • February 2, 2010

    The Uncertain Fate of Detained LTTE Suspects in Sri Lanka

    This 30-page report is based on interviews with the detainees' relatives, humanitarian workers, and human rights advocates, among others. The Sri Lankan government has routinely violated the fundamental rights of the detainees, Human Rights Watch found. The government contends that the 11,000 detainees are former fighters or supporters of the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
  • February 1, 2010

    Palestinian-Origin Jordanians Deprived of their Nationality

    This 60-page report details the arbitrary manner, with no clear basis in law, in which Jordan deprives its citizens who were originally from the West Bank of their nationality, thereby denying them basic citizenship rights such as access to education and health care.
  • January 28, 2010

    Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland

    This 57-page report details how women struggle to overcome the financial, logistical, physical, and emotional burdens imposed by restrictive laws and policies that force them to seek care abroad, without support from the state. Every year thousands of women and girls travel from Ireland to other European countries for abortions.

  • January 25, 2010

    The Illegal Arrest, Arbitrary Detention and Torture of People Who Use Drugs in Cambodia

    In this 93-page report Human Rights Watch documents detainees being beaten, raped, forced to donate blood, and subjected to painful physical punishments such as "rolling like a barrel" and being chained while standing in the sun.

  • January 20, 2010

    Events of 2009

    The 612-page report, the organization's 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff.
  • January 15, 2010

    A Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

    This 500-page book is oriented to practitioners, nongovernmental organizations, and academics working in the field of human rights. It will also be a tool for staff at institutions established to try such crimes, such as the International Criminal Court, as well as domestic judiciaries, Human Rights Watch said. It is available online and in print.
  • January 11, 2010

    Failure to End Military Business Activity in Indonesia

    This 20-page report provides a detailed critique of a presidential decree and Defense Ministry regulations addressing military involvement in businesses that were issued in October 2009.

  • January 7, 2010

    Incarceration, Ill-Treatment and Forced Labor as Drug Rehabilitation in China

    This 37-page report based on research in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, documents how China's June 2008 Anti-Drug Law compounds the health risks of suspected illicit drug users by allowing government officials and security forces to incarcerate them for up to six years. The incarceration is without trial or judicial oversight.

  • December 29, 2009

    Arbitrary Detention of Refugees in the US Who Fail to Adjust to Permanent Resident Status

    This 40-page report examines the detention of refugees for failure to file for lawful permanent resident status, even though US immigration officials already put them through a thorough vetting process at the time they were recognized as refugees.
  • December 20, 2009

    Abuse and Refoulement of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Yemen

    This report documents the harsh treatment of refugees traveling to Yemen and calls on the Yemeni government to stop systematically arresting Ethiopian asylum seekers and forcibly returning them home.
  • December 17, 2009

    The September 28 Massacre and Rapes by Security Forces in Guinea

    This 108-page report describes in detail the killings, sexual assaults, and other abuses at an opposition rally in a stadium in Conakry, the capital, committed largely by members of Guinea's elite Presidential Guard, and the evidence suggesting that the attacks must have been planned in advance.