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.
Militia Attacks and Ethnic Targeting of Civilians in Eastern Chad
This 70-page report documents a drastic deterioration in the human rights situation in eastern Chad, where more than 300 civilians were killed and at least 17,000 people displaced in militia violence in November 2006 alone. In most instances, civilians were targeted on the basis of ethnic identity.
This 17-page briefing paper outlines the sweeping powers that Egypt's Political Parties Law grants to the Political Parties Committee, a body dominated by the president and the ruling party, to license and suspend political parties. The law gives President Mubarak and the ruling party broad authority to choose who may compete against them and under what terms.
The Impact of Turkey’s Compensation Law with Respect to Internally Displaced People
In this 40-page briefing paper, Human Rights Watch analyzes how the Turkish government is failing to provide fair compensation for hundreds of thousands of mainly Kurdish villagers displaced by the military’s brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in the southeast.
During the Israel-Hezbollah war, Israel was accused by Human Rights Watch and numerous local and international media outlets of attacking two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances in Qana on July 23, 2006.
Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force
This 79-page report describes how Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), established in 2004 to stop spiraling crime, has made a practice of killing criminal suspects in detention. Torture methods used by the force include beatings, boring holes in suspects with electric drills, and the application of electric shock.
New Regulatory Curbs on Lawyers Representing Protesters
This 71-page report details the “Guiding Opinions on Lawyers Handling Mass Cases,” which were introduced in March 2006, and discusses subsequently adopted local variants. The report explains how the Guiding Opinions let local authorities interfere in cases involving 10 or more plaintiffs, making it more difficult for the cases to get a fair hearing in court.
After fleeing violence and persecution in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis living in Jordan face a daily threat of arrest, fines and deportation because the Jordanian government treats them as illegal immigrants rather than refugees. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, more than 1 million Iraqis have fled, but none of Iraq’s neighbors, nor the United States, treats them as refugees.
This 95-page report is based on 10 months of observation and dozens of interviews with judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers, and is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the trial.
Rights to Freedom of Expression and Information under Angola’s New Press Law
In this 25-page report, Human Rights Watch analyses Angola’s new Press Law, which was issued in May. The report concludes that, despite improvements over previous Angolan law, the new law still contains elements that undermine press freedom. In addition, many of its crucial provisions will remain inoperable unless implementing legislation is enacted immediately.
Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper for the 37th Session UN Committee against Torture
This 16-page briefing paper is addressed to the Committee against Torture. It documents ill-treatment and torture by pro-Moscow Chechen forces under the effective command of Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as by federal police personnel.
The task of the intergovernmental working group on review of mandates is wide-ranging and important. In this paper, Human Rights Watch identifies the six key points that should help guide the working group's review.
This 77-page report documents cases of serious violations of the rights of street children in Hanoi. Police routinely round up street children in arbitrary sweeps and deposit them at state “rehabilitation” centers – euphemistically called “Social Protection Centers” – where they are detained for periods ranging from two weeks to as much as six months.
Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in the United Arab Emirates
Based on extensive interviews with workers, government officials and business representatives, this 71-page report documents serious abuses of construction workers by employers in the United Arab Emirates.
The second Congo war began in 1998 and involved the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government forces of Laurent Kabila, which were supported by Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, against several rebel movements backed by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
