Human Rights Watch - June UPDATE

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source: Human Rights Watch <hrw-news-africa@topica.email-publisher.com>
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
MONTHLY EMAIL UPDATE
June 2002


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IN THIS ISSUE:
  > Ethnic Violence in Afghanistan
  > Israel Announces End of Civilian Shields
  > Fight U.S. Attacks on the International Criminal Court
  > State-Sponsored Violence in Nigeria
  > State Abuse of Unaccompanied Migrant Children by
    Spain and Morocco
  > Human Rights, the United States, and Southeast Asia
  > Uzbekistan: Concern About EBRD Decision On Tashkent
  > UN Special Session on Children
  > Trafficking in Italy
  > The Death Penalty in the United States
  > Prison Rape Ad Taken Off the Air
  > Become a Member or Make a Contribution
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ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN AFGHANISTAN

In April, Human Rights Watch released "Paying for the Taliban's Crimes:
Abuses Against Ethnic Pashtuns in Northern Afghanistan." The UN, in turn,
has distributed translated copies of our report to warlords in the region. A
May 10 article in the Christian Science Monitor reports that, "northern
Afghanistan's most important power broker," General Abdul Rashid
Dostum, "admonished more than 90 commanders for alleged atrocities
committed by their soldiers after the fall of the Taliban. General Dostum,
seated next to his main rival, Gen. Ostad Atta Muhammed, and two other
warlords, forced commanders from Dostum's five-province domain to listen
to every excruciating detail of a 52-page [Human Rights Watch] report
given to him this weekend by the United Nations. The report alleges
atrocities committed by Dostum's own, mostly Uzbek, military forces, as
well as Hazara and Tajik soldiers." Dostum is described warning his
commanders about Human Rights Watch researchers: "You must be careful
in the future. These are dangerous men.... They can take you to an
international court of justice if they can prove your actions." He also
reportedly said: "I am dying of these accusations from the international
community. 'What is happening in Mazar with these mass killing? Why are
you so cruel?'... If any one of my commanders commits these kind of acts, I
will kill him tomorrow," not exactly Human Rights Watch's preferred
method of enforcement, but a strong message nonetheless.

Read the report at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/afghan2/
Order the report at http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/afpayfortalc.html



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ISRAEL ANNOUNCES END OF CIVILIAN SHIELDS

On May 3, Human Rights Watch released "Jenin: IDF Military Operations,"
which documented, among other abuses, the use of civilian shields during
the military operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Just days after we met with
the senior legal advisor of the Israeli Defense Force and in response to
litigation initiated by local human rights groups based largely on HRW
documentation, the IDF issued an order prohibiting the taking of hostages
and the use of human shields. The IDF also committed to examining the
practice of requiring civilians to assist IDF military operations, a practice
documented extensively in HRW's April report "In a Dark Hour." Human
Rights Watch will monitor these Israeli commitments.

Read "Jenin: IDF Military Operations" at
http://hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/
Order the report at http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/jenidfmilop.html
Read "In a Dark Hour: The Use of Civilians During IDF Arrest Operations"
at http://hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/
Listen to an interview with Peter Bouckaert, Senior Emergencies
Researcher for Human Rights Watch at
http://www.hrw.org/audio/2002/peter/
See last month's monthly update on the release of the Jenin report at
http://www.hrw.org/update/2002/05.html



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FIGHT U.S. ATTACKS ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL
COURT

The International Criminal Court is a permanent international tribunal that
will try individuals responsible for the most serious human rights crimes. The
Court is one of the most important international human rights developments
in more than 50 years. Yet, the United States continues to oppose it. On
May 6th, President George W. Bush effectively 'un-signed' the court's
treaty. In addition to this unprecedented act, the U.S. government is
seeking agreements with other countries and with the United Nations to
exempt U.S. citizens from the jurisdiction of the Court. Just as worrying, the
"American Servicemember's Protection Act" (ASPA) is moving forward in
Congress. The ASPA would prohibit U.S. cooperation with the ICC,
punish States that join the court, and even authorizes the President to "use
all means necessary and appropriate" to free U.S. and allied personnel held
by the court.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Join us in making your views known to the U.S. government. Contact your
Congressional representative or the U.S. embassy in your country. For
contact information and sample letters, visit
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/action.htm
    Find out more about the International Criminal Court at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/



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STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA

Vigilante groups in south-eastern Nigeria are responsible for serious  human
rights abuses which are tolerated, and sometimes actively  supported and
encouraged, by state government authorities. "The Bakassi  Boys: the
Legitimization of Murder and Torture," a joint report by Human Rights
Watch and the Lagos-based Centre for Law Enforcement Education
(CLEEN), documents scores of extrajudicial executions and hundreds of
cases of  torture and arbitrary detentions by the "Bakassi Boys," a vigilante
group set up in 1998 to combat armed robbery. State  governments have
provided the Bakassi Boys with offices, uniforms and  vehicles, as well as
paying their salaries. In Anambra State, a law was passed in August 2000
to recognize the group officially as the Anambra State Vigilante Services.
    The release of the report, which was launched with a press conference in
Lagos, was covered by BBC world service, Deutsche Welle, Radio NL,
RFI, Channel Africa, VOA, Reuters, AFP and AP, as well as by most
Nigerian national newspapers. Several Nigerian television stations
broadcast interviews with Innocent Chukwuma, Executive Director of
CLEEN, and Carina Tertsakian, researcher at HRW.
    Elsewhere in Nigeria, a commission of inquiry into the violence in Benue
and other central states has begun holding hearings in Abuja. We submitted
our April report on the massacres, "Military Revenge In Benue: A
Population Under Attack."

Read "The Bakassi Boys: the Legitimization of Murder and Torture" at
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/nigeria2/
Order the report at http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/nigbakboy.html



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STATE ABUSE OF UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN BY
SPAIN AND MOROCCO

Every year thousands of Moroccan children, some as young as ten, enter
Spain alone without proper documentation. Many arrive via the Spanish
port cities of Ceuta and Melilla, where they face beatings by Spanish police
and staff at residential centers for children; beatings and extortion by other
children at the centers; arbitrary denial of access to education and health
care; arbitrary age determination procedures; and summary expulsions to
Morocco. Children who have been expelled to Morocco typically face
beatings by police and detention in unsafe conditions before being turned
out on the streets to fend for themselves.
    On May 7, in Madrid, Human Rights Watch released "Nowhere to Turn:
State Abuses of Unaccompanied Migrant Children by Spain and
Morocco." The report received tremendous coverage in the Spanish press,
especially after local officials in Melilla convened an emergency council
session where they announced they would stop providing services for newly
arriving unaccompanied children, threatened to begin expelling children, and
called on the central government to take back powers it had devolved to
Melilla in 1997. The ensuing crisis has forced the central government to
restate its commitment to ensure care for unaccompanied children and
address its failure to coordinate repatriation with Morocco. At the same
time, the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children has become part of
the larger debate on Spanish and EU immigration policy.

Read the press release at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/05/spain0507.htm
Read the report at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/spain-morocco/
Order the report at http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/spainnowtotu.html
Press release and report summary are also available in Spanish, French,
Arabic at the above links
Read testimony from migrant children in Ceuta and Melilla at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/05/spain0507-testimony.htm

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write to government officials in Spain's national government, in Ceuta and
Melilla, and in Morocco. For contact information and sample letters, visit
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/spain/
Learn more about unaccompanied children at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/spain/learn_kids.htm
Learn more about the human rights of migrants in Western Europe at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/migrants/



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HUMAN RIGHTS, THE UNITED STATES, AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

During an advocacy mission to Indonesia in April, HRW Advocate Mike
Jendrzejczyk informed the press in Jakarta about a new proposal from the
State Department to provide US funding, training and equipment to the
Indonesian army that would circumvent existing human rights restrictions on
US-Indonesian military ties. This led to articles in the New York Times and
the Far Eastern Economic Review. Upon return to Washington, Mike
continued lobbying against the proposal and published an oped in the LA
Times. The bill containing this proposal is due to be voted on soon.
    Read the Op-Ed at http://www.hrw.org/editorials/2002/indonesia0520.htm
    Find out more about human rights in Indonesia at
http://www.hrw.org/asia/indonesia.php

When Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of Malaysia, visited Washington
on May 14, Human Rights Watch circulated a backgrounder on his
government's attempts to use terrorism to justify a draconian law, the
Internal Security Act, used to detain political opponents and others without
charge or trial. Our material was widely cited in press coverage surrounding
the visit, denying Mahathir some of the public relations benefits. HRW was
cited in the Washington Post, BBC, Australia Financial Review, Reuters,
AFP, and CNN, and found its way into Malaysia via the internet
(circumventing the officially controlled press).
    Read the backgrounder at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/malaysia-bck-0513.htm
    Find out more about human rights in Malaysia at
http://www.hrw.org/asia/malaysia.php



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UZBEKISTAN: CONCERN ABOUT EBRD DECISION ON
TASHKENT

Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, has been selected as the site of the
May 2003 annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD). The EBRD was established in 1991 to promote
private sector development in countries of the former Soviet bloc. The
Bank's founding document specifies that it is intended to engage those
countries of the region that are committed to the "fundamental principles of
multiparty democracy, the rule of law, human rights and market
economics." As an informed survey of Uzbekistan's human rights record
reveals, the Uzbek government falls well short of those standards.
    In May 2002, Human Rights Watch joined fifty-three other
non-governmental organizations in writing to EBRD President Jean
Lemierre to express concern about the detrimental impact of holding the
meeting in Tashkent on respect for human rights in Uzbekistan and on the
Bank's credibility as an institution committed to democracy, human rights,
and the rule of law. The letter is part of a year-long Human Rights Watch
campaign to promote reform in Uzbekistan in advance of the 2003 EBRD
meeting.
    The campaign launch was timed to coincide with this year's annual meeting,
held in Bucharest on May 19 and 20. A Human Rights Watch delegation
attended the meeting to highlight our concerns and to discuss the EBRD's
role in Uzbekistan with Bank representatives, including President Lemierre.
Human Rights Watch argued that unless the Bank insists on concrete
progress in human rights before the annual meeting, the Uzbek government
will be left to use it as an endorsement of its repressive policies. In his
statement at the close of the 2002 annual meeting, Lemierre noted that the
selection of Tashkent as the site for the 2003 meeting "was decided [...]
before I was President of the Bank," and that hosting an annual meeting "is
an incentive to make progress, and not an endorsement."

Find out more about the campaign, human rights in Uzbekistan, and view an
interactive map of Tashkent at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/uzbekistan/

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Find out if your ministers of finance or treasury are on the EBRD's Board of
Governors, the Bank's highest decision-making body. Contact journalists,
investors, members of parliament, and your ministers of finance and foreign
affairs expressing concern about the EBRD's decision to hold its 2003
annual meeting in Tashkent. Urge them to ensure that the Bank insists on
the Uzbek government making concrete progress in human rights before the
meeting.  Find out more at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/uzbekistan/action.htm



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UN SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN

>From May 8 to 10, world leaders, thousands of NGOs, and hundreds of
children gathered at the United Nations in New York for a UN Special
Session on Children, a follow-up to the 1990 World Summit on Children.
The Session was intended to review progress for children over the past
decade and adopt a new international plan of action for the next ten years.
Human Rights Watch played a leading role during the Session and its
2-year preparatory phase in pressing for a rights-focused plan of action for
children. HRW convened a Child Rights Caucus encompassing hundreds of
international and national NGOs which became the primary lobbying entity
for the Session. The Caucus succeeded in adding critical issues, such as
child soldiers, child labor, and violence against children, to the Session's
plan of action, and also generated substantial public criticism of the United
States for its failure to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The
only other country that has not ratified the Convention is Somalia.

Find out more at http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/05/unchildrenqa0502.htm



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TRAFFICKING IN ITALY

While attending a conference in Rome on the "Human Rights Dimensions of
Trafficking in Persons," Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human
Rights Watch's Women's Rights division, met with officials from the Italian
Foreign Ministry to express concern regarding reports HRW has received
of the summary deportation of victims of trafficking from Africa to Nigeria,
regardless of their country of origin. At the meetings, HRW received a
clarification of the Italian policy and received a commitment from the
government to review the implementation of those policies.

Read "A Human Rights Approach to the Rehabilitation and Reintegration
into Society of Trafficked Victims," delivered at the Rome Conference, at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/wrd/trafficked-victims.htm



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THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE UNITED STATES

MORATORIUM IN MARYLAND

On May 9, Governor Parris Glendening imposed a moratorium on
executions in Maryland until the state completes a study of racial bias in the
use of the death penalty. Of the 13 men awaiting execution in Maryland,
nine are African-American. All but one were convicted of murdering white
victims, even though the vast majority of murder victims in Maryland are
African-American. A grassroots coalition has been actively pressuring the
Governor and legislature to halt executions over the last several years. The
coalition won a significant victory in March when the Maryland House of
Delegates passed a moratorium bill 82-54. A filibuster in the Senate
precluded the anticipated majority vote in that house.
    In 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan declared the nation's first
moratorium, citing the release of 13 death-row inmates whose convictions
were flawed.

See HRW's press release on the Maryland Moratorium at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/05/maryland0509.htm
Find out more and take action on the Death Penalty in the United States at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/deathpenalty/


CALIFORNIA CAMPAIGN

California Committee South's efforts to help gather signatures for a
moratorium on executions in California culminated on May 1, 2002, when
700 marchers gathered in Sacramento to present 89,000 petition signatures
to Governor Gray Davis. On May 2, HRW's Los Angeles Young
Advocates participated in a call-in campaign to LA City Council members
encouraging their support for the moratorium. City Council members
reported being flooded with calls that day. Young Advocates and CCS
members also participated in an evening event celebrating the moratorium
campaign on May 2, with special guest Ed Asner.



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PRISON RAPE AD TAKEN OFF THE AIR

In response to protest, 7Up has decided to stop airing a national television
commercial that makes light of rape in prison. Human Rights Watch was
one of nearly 100 human rights, HIV/AIDS, prison rights, and sexual
violence organizations who signed on to a letter from the organization Stop
Prisoner Rape to Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Inc. The commercial, created by
Young & Rubicam, aired during youth-oriented programming on U.S.
broadcast and cable networks.

For more Human Rights Watch research on prisons in the United States,
visit http://www.hrw.org/prisons/
For more about Stop Prisoner Rape, visit http://www.igc.org/spr/



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