Human Rights Watch: Irán, Mali, Hoduras y Rusia

Iran: Ensure Equal Access to Higher Education.
(Beirut) – The Iranian government should immediately reverse policies that place unnecessary restrictions on academic freedom for university students, in particular women. Some of these “Islamicization” measures are to be introduced for the new academic year, which begins on September 22, 2012. Others have been put in place in recent years and adopted by universities across the country.

The measures include bans on female and male enrollment in specific academic fields in many universities, but with the greatest number of restrictions on women. They also include quotas that limit the percentage of women students in certain fields of study, and segregation in classrooms and facilities.


Mali: Islamist Armed Groups Spread Fear in North.
(Nairobi) – Three Islamist armed groups controlling northern Mali have committed serious abuses against the local population while enforcing their interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch in recent weeks has interviewed some one hundred witnesses who have fled the region or remain there.

The three rebel groups – Ansar Dine, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – have recruited several hundred children into their forces; carried out executions, floggings, and at least eight amputations as punishment; and systematically destroyed numerous religious shrines of cultural and religious importance.In April 2012, the rebel groups consolidated their control over the northern regions of Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao.

Honduras debe investigar homicidio de abogado de derechos humanos.
(Washington, D.C.) – Las autoridades de Honduras deberían asegurar que se efectúe una investigación oportuna, exhaustiva e imparcial del asesinato del abogado Antonio Trejo Cabrera, señaló hoy Human Rights Watch. Abogado de profesión, Trejo se dedicó a la defensa del derecho de los campesinos y se opuso públicamente a la creación de zonas autónomas especiales de desarrollo. El 22 de septiembre de 2012, Trejo murió al ser alcanzado por disparos tras asistir a una boda en el sur de Tegucigalpa.

“Las autoridades deben actuar sin demora para llevar ante la justicia a los responsables del homicidio de Trejo y enviar un mensaje firme de que la respuesta ante eventuales ataques contra defensores de derechos humanos será contundente”, señaló José Miguel Vivanco, director para las Américas de Human Rights Watch.


Russia's civil society crackdown continues.

(Moscow) – The Kremlin’s announcement last week that it was kicking USAID out of Russia is the latest step in a crackdown on foreign-funded civil society groups. It’s a trend that has intensified since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in May, with the parliament hastily adopting new restrictive rules for non-governmental organizations. Groups that get even a kopeck of foreign money in their budget will be required to officially register as “foreign agents.” In Russian, that is pretty much understood to imply “foreign spies,” making many here in Russia believe the law aims to marginalize and discredit groups that advocate policy change.

The new law won’t enter into force until late autumn, but you can already see it in action. At least, I did, during a recent trip to Russia’s provinces. While the Justice Ministry is still working out the new law’s implementing regulations, regional officials are apparently already trying to please their federal bosses by exhibiting exemplary exuberance for the new provisions.

Human Rights Watch: Ghana, Gaza and Abusive marriage

Ghana: Personas con discapacidad mental sufren graves abusos.
Numerosas personas con discapacidad mental sufren graves abusos en instituciones psiquiátricas y centros de sanación espiritual de Ghana, indicó Human Rights Watch en un informe difundido hoy. El gobierno de Ghana no ha adoptado suficientes medidas para combatir estos abusos o asegurar que estas personas puedan ejercer su derecho a vivir en comunidad, reconocido por el derecho internacional.

El informe de 84 páginas, “‘Like a Death Sentence’: Abuses against Persons with Mental Disabilities in Ghana” [Casi una sentencia de muerte: Abusos contra personas con discapacidad mental en Ghana],muestra que miles de personas con discapacidad mental son obligadas a vivir en este tipo de instituciones, muchas veces contra su voluntad y con escasas oportunidades de oponerse a esta reclusión. En los hospitales psiquiátricos, las personas con discapacidad mental viven hacinadas en instalaciones que no reúnen condiciones básicas de higiene. Y en algunos de los centros de sanación espiritual, más conocidos como centros de oración, a menudo son encadenadas a árboles, bajo un sol abrasador, y obligadas a ayunar durante semanas como parte del “proceso de curación”, a la vez que se les niega el acceso a medicamentos.


Gaza: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, Unfair Trials.

(Gaza City) – Palestinians face serious abuses in the Hamas criminal justice system, including arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, torture, and unfair trials. Since it took control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has executed at least three men convicted on the basis of “confessions” apparently obtained under torture.

The 43-page report, “Abusive System: Criminal Justice in Gaza,” documents extensive violations by Hamas security services, including warrantless arrests, failure to inform families promptly of detainees’ whereabouts, and subjecting detainees to torture. It also documents violations of detainees’ rights by prosecutors and courts. Military courts frequently try civilians, in violation of international law. Prosecutors often deny detainees access to a lawyer, and courts have failed to uphold detainees’ due process rights in cases of warrantless arrest and abusive interrogations, Human Rights Watch found.

Trapped in an Abusive Marriage.

When Namrata, a Bangladeshi Hindu, asked for a glass of water, her husband instead gave her a glass of acid. Today, with her mouth and throat destroyed, she eats through a feeding tube. Having already spent her life savings, her husband disappeared after the attack.

Yet Namrata cannot legally divorce her husband due to Bangladesh’s archaic Hindu family laws.

Bangladesh’s family laws, which govern marriage, separation, and divorce, were created decades ago – in some cases, more than a century. There are separate laws for Muslims, Hindus, and Christians, but all discriminate against women – often leaving them with virtually no income or assets and nowhere to live when marriages end.  

Syria: Sexual Assault in Detention

(New York) – Syrian government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and boys detained during the current conflict. Witnesses and victims also told Human Rights Watch that soldiers and pro-government armed militias have sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during home raids and military sweeps of residential areas.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 former detainees, including two women, who described being sexually abused or witnessing sexual abuse in detention, including rape, penetration with objects, sexual groping, prolonged forced nudity, and electroshock and beatings to genitalia.Many of the former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were imprisoned because of their political activism, including for attending protests. In other cases, the reason for the detention was unclear but detainees suffered the same abusive tactics.

“Syrian security forces have used sexual violence to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The assaults are not limited to detention facilities – government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.”

Human Rights Watch documented over 20 specific incidents of sexual assault, five of which involved more than one victim, that took place between March 2011 and March 2012 across Syria, including in Daraa, Homs, Idlib, Damascus, and Latakia governorates. The majority of cases were from Homs governorate. Interviewees described a range of sexual abuse by Syrian security forces, the army, and pro-government armed militias referred to locally as shabiha.


Continue reading in HRW.

Siria: Crímenes de guerra en Idlib durante las negociaciones de paz

Human Rights Watch. (English).

(Nueva York) – Las fuerzas del Gobierno sirio mataron al menos a 95 civiles e incendiaron o destruyeron cientos de casas durante una ofensiva de dos semanas en la provincia norteña de Idlib, poco antes del alto el fuego, Human Rights Watch señaló en un informe publicado hoy. Los ataques se produjeron a finales de marzo y principios de abril, cuando el enviado especial de las Naciones Unidas, Kofi Annan, estaba negociando el cese de los combates con el Gobierno sirio.

El informe de 38 páginas, “‘They Burned My Heart’: War Crimes in Northern Idlib during Peace Plan Negotiations” (“‘Me quemaron el corazón’: Crímenes de guerra en Idlib durante las negociaciones del plan de paz”), documenta docenas de episodios de ejecuciones extrajudiciales, asesinatos de civiles y destrucción de propiedades civiles que constituyen crímenes de guerra, así como detenciones arbitrarias y torturas. El informe se basa en la investigación sobre el terreno realizada por Human Rights Watch en los municipios de Taftanaz, Saraqeb, Sarmeen, Kelly y Hazano, de la provincia de Idlib, a finales de abril.

Continuar leyendo en la web de HRW.

The Imprisonment of Women and Girls for “Moral Crimes” in Afghanistan

Human Rights Watch. (Español).

Report in PDF.

This 120-page report is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of “moral crimes.” Almost all girls in juvenile detention in Afghanistan had been arrested for “moral crimes,” while about half of women in Afghan prisons were arrested on these charges. These “crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina, sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution.

The fall of the Taliban government in 2001 promised a new era of women’s rights. Significant improvements have occurred in education, maternal mortality, employment, and the role of women in public life and governance. Yet the imprisonment of women and girls for “moral crimes” is just one sign of the difficult present and worrying future faced by Afghan women and girls as the international community moves to decrease substantially its commitments in Afghanistan.

Justice for Serious Crimes before National Courts

Uganda’s International Crimes Division. Human Rights Watch.

This 29-page briefing paper provides a snapshot of progress from Uganda’s complementarity-related initiative: the International Crimes Division (ICD). The ICD is a division of the High Court with a mandate to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, in addition to crimes such as terrorism. Based on research by Human Rights Watch in Uganda in September 2011, this briefing paper analyzes the ICD’s work to date, the obstacles it has encountered, and challenges both for the future work of the ICD and for national accountability efforts more broadly.

Download the full report (PDF, 328.2 KB)

World Report - Informe Mundial 2012

Human Rights Watch (Events of 2011 - Eventos de 2011).

World Report 2012 (English, 4Mb, PDF) - Informe Mundial 2012 (Español, selección de capítulos, PDF).

 

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth releases the 2012 World Report in Cairo, Sunday January 22 2012. http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012

World Report 2012: Strengthen Support for 'Arab Spring'
Governments Should Support Rights, Not Abusive Allies

(Cairo, January 22, 2012) -- Many democracies have allowed their ties with repressive allies to temper their support for human rights in the Arab Spring protests, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. For reasons of principle and long-term interest, governments should stand firm with the people of the Middle East and North Africa when they demand their basic rights and work to ensure the transition to genuine democracies.

The 676-page report, Human Rights Watch's annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major rights issues in more than 90 countries, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2011 by Human Rights Watch staff. On events in the Middle East and North Africa, Human Rights Watch said that firm and consistent international support for peaceful protesters and government critics is the best way to pressure the region's autocrats to end abuses and enhance basic freedoms. A principled insistence on respect for rights is also the best way to help popular movements steer clear of the intolerance, lawlessness, and revenge that can threaten a revolution from within, Human Rights Watch said.

"The people driving the Arab Spring deserve strong international support to realize their rights and to build genuine democracies," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Loyalty to autocratic friends shouldn't stand in the way of siding with democratic reformers. International influence is also needed to ensure that the new governments extend human rights and the rule of law to all, especially women and minorities."

The World Report 2012 documents human rights abuses worldwide, including: violations of the laws of war in Libya and Afghanistan; the plight of political prisoners in Vietnam and Eritrea; the silencing of dissent in China and Cuba; internet crackdowns in Iran and Thailand; killings by security forces in India and Mexico; election-related problems in Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo; mistreatment of migrants in Western Europe; neglectful maternal health policies in Haiti and South Africa; the suppression of religious freedom in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia; torture in Pakistan and Uzbekistan; discrimination against people with disabilities in Nepal and Peru; and detention without trial in Malaysia and by the United States.

Cuba. Eventos de 2011

Human Rights Watch.

Cuba sigue siendo el único país de América Latina donde se reprimen casi todas las formas de disenso político. En 2011, el gobierno de Raúl Castro continuó imponiendo el consenso político a través de detenciones a corto plazo, golpizas, actos públicos de repudio, exilio forzado y restricciones de viaje.

En 2011, el gobierno cubano liberó a los últimos 12 presos políticos del denominado “grupo de los 75” disidentes —defensores de derechos humanos, periodistas y líderes sindicales que en 2003 fueron condenados mediante juicios sumarios por haber ejercido derechos fundamentales— y obligó a la mayoría a exiliarse a cambio de su liberación. También en 2011 el gobierno condenó al menos a otros siete disidentes a penas de prisión por ejercer sus derechos humanos, y diversas organizaciones de derechos humanos cubanas señalan que decenas más permanecen en la cárcel.

El gobierno recurrió progresivamente a arrestos arbitrarios y detenciones por períodos breves para restringir derechos fundamentales de sus críticos, incluido el derecho a reunirse y circular libremente. El gobierno de Cuba también ejerció presión sobre disidentes para que optaran entre el exilio o continuar siendo objeto de represión o incluso encarcelamiento, y con ello obligó a muchos de ellos a dejar el país junto con sus familias durante 2011.

Presos políticos

Numerosos cubanos que critican al gobierno son objeto de acusaciones penales. En sus casos, no se respetan las garantías de debido proceso, como el derecho de defensa y a que su caso sea oído públicamente y con las debidas garantías por un tribunal competente, independiente e imparcial. En la práctica, los tribunales están “subordinados” al poder ejecutivo y legislativo, y esto supone la negación de garantías judiciales efectivas.

Decenas de presos políticos aún permanecen en las prisiones cubanas, según han indicado respetadas organizaciones de derechos humanos en la isla. En junio de 2011, el Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba (CRDHC) publicó una lista de 43 presos que, conforme indicó, aún continuaban encarcelados por razones políticas. En mayo de 2011, cuatro disidentes de La Habana —Luis Enrique Labrador, David Piloto, Walfrido Rodríguez y Yordani Martínez— fueron acusados penalmente de comenter los delitos de “desacato” y “desorden público” tras participar en una manifestación en la Plaza de la Revolución de La Habana y lanzar volantes al aire que decían “Abajo los Castro”. Recibieron penas de entre tres y cinco años de prisión. El CRDHC cree que son muchos más los presos políticos cuyos casos no han sido documentados debido a que el gobierno no le permite a organizaciones independientes de derechos humanos nacionales o internacionales acceder a las cárceles.

Detenciones arbitrarias y encarcelamiento por períodos breves

Además de iniciar procesos penales, cada vez es más habitual que el gobierno de Raúl Castro recurra a detenciones arbitrarias con la finalidad de perseguir e intimidar a personas que ejercen sus derechos fundamentales. La Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional documentó 2.074 detenciones arbitrarias efectuadas por miembros de las fuerzas de seguridad durante 2010, y 2.224 entre enero y agosto de 2011. Con frecuencia, las detenciones se realizan de manera preventiva para evitar que ciertas personas participen en encuentros o eventos que se consideran críticos del gobierno.

Son muy pocos los casos en que miembros de las fuerzas de seguridad presentan órdenes de arresto al llevar a cabo una detención, y es común que se amenace a las personas detenidas con la posibilidad de un proceso penal si continúan participando en actividades “contrarrevolucionarias”. Numerosas víctimas de estos arrestos arbitrarios afirman haber sido mantenidas incomunicadas en estaciones de policía durante varias horas, o incluso días. Algunas reciben un aviso oficial, conocido como acta de advertencia, que luego los fiscales pueden usar en juicios penales para demostrar que existe un patrón de conducta delictiva. Los disidentes señalaron que estas advertencias tenían como finalidad disuadirlos de participar en el futuro en actividades que puedan considerarse críticas del gobierno.

Por ejemplo, el 24 de julio de 2011 un grupo de agentes de seguridad del Estado detuvo arbitrariamente a 28 activistas de derechos humanos durante un período de entre 4 y 30 horas en Palma Soriano, provincia de Santiago de Cuba, cuando intentaban participar en un servicio religioso para rezar por la liberación de presos políticos.

Exilio forzado

La muerte del preso político Orlando Zapata Tamayo en febrero de 2010 tras una huelga de hambre de 85 días, a la cual también se plegó posteriormente el disidente Guillermo Fariñas, incidió en la decisión del gobierno cubano de liberar al resto de los presos políticos del “grupo de los 75”, que habían sido detenidos durante los operativos represivos contra disidentes llevados a cabo en 2003. No obstante, si bien los últimos 12 presos del grupo fueron liberados en marzo de 2011, la mayoría fueron obligados a optar entre continuar en prisión o el exilio forzado.

Desde entonces, decenas de destacados disidentes, periodistas y defensores de derechos humanos han sido obligados a elegir entre el exilio o continuar sufriendo persecución o incluso encarcelamiento. Por ejemplo, Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, un ferviente activista de derechos humanos, ex preso político y presidente de un grupo de jóvenes disidentes de Guantánamo, fue arrestado en diciembre de 2010. Tras permanecer detenido durante meses a la espera de un juicio, contó que las autoridades le advirtieron que, a menos que optara por el exilio, sería condenado a cinco años de prisión. En abril de 2011, aceptó el exilio forzado en España.

Libertad de expresión

El gobierno mantiene el monopolio de los medios de comunicación en la isla, y con ello se asegura de que prácticamente no exista libertad de expresión. El gobierno controla todos los medios de comunicación de Cuba y el acceso a información proveniente del extranjero es sumamente restringido. A causa del acceso limitado a Internet, tan sólo una fracción ínfima de cubanos puede leer artículos o blogs publicados de manera independiente.

Si bien algunos periodistas y autores de blogs independientes logran escribir artículos para páginas Web extranjeras o mantienen blogs independientes, se ven obligados a publicar su trabajo por medios clandestinos, es decir, escriben desde computadoras en su hogar, guardan la información en dispositivos de memoria extraíbles y actualizan los artículos a través de conexiones ilegales de Internet, mientras que otros dictan los artículos que escriben a sus contactos en el exterior.

Los periodistas y autores de blogs independientes suelen ser detenidos por períodos breves, sufren persecución por policías y agentes de seguridad del Estado y viven bajo la amenaza de ser encarcelados si continúan con su trabajo. Por ejemplo, los periodistas independientes Magaly Norvis Otero Suárez y Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez fueron detenidos y golpeados en La Habana el 23 de febrero de 2011 cuando, junto con dos miembros de las Damas de Blanco —una respetada organización de derechos humanos integrada por esposas, madres e hijas de presos políticos—, se dirigían a pie a un evento organizado con motivo del aniversario de la muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo. Según contaron posteriormente, fueron trasladados a una estación de policía, donde fueron agredidos y mantenidos incomunicados cerca de 14 horas.

Numerosos autores de blogs y periodistas independientes también han sido víctimas de campañas de difamación pública, como sucedió en marzo de 2011, cuando en un programa de noticias producido por el gobierno —que se transmitió masivamente por la televisión pública— se calificó a autores de blogs independientes como “cibermercenarios” e instrumentos "fabricados" por Estados Unidos para “generar focos de conflictos internos”.

El gobierno cubano emplea el otorgamiento de credenciales de prensa y visas, que los periodistas extranjeros deben obtener para poder informar desde la isla, con la finalidad de controlar la cobertura sobre Cuba y sancionar a los medios que se consideran excesivamente críticos del régimen. En septiembre, por ejemplo, el gobierno se negó a renovar las credenciales de prensa a un periodista del diario español El País, con el argumento de que transmitía una imagen tendenciosa y negativa de Cuba.

Defensores de derechos humanos

Al rehusarse a reconocer al monitoreo de los derechos humanos como una actividad legítima, el gobierno niega estatus legal a las organizaciones locales de derechos humanos y recurre a la persecución, las golpizas y el encarcelamiento para castigar a defensores de derechos humanos que intentan documentar abusos. Por ejemplo, el 10 de marzo, Enyor Díaz Allen, Juan Luis Bravo Rodríguez y Óscar Savón Pantoja —miembros de una organización de derechos humanos de Guantánamo— intentaban ingresar a un hospital para visitar a un disidente que mantenía una huelga de hambre cuando fueron interceptados por miembros de las fuerzas de seguridad sin ningún tipo de justificación y trasladados a una estación de policía, donde permanecieron detenidos y aislados durante tres días, según contó Díaz Allen.

Restricciones para viajar y separaciones familiares

El gobierno cubano prohíbe a sus ciudadanos tanto salir de Cuba como regresar al país sin obtener antes un permiso oficial, el cual suele ser denegado. Por ejemplo, a Yoani Sánchez, autora de un conocido blog que ha criticado al gobierno, se le ha negado al menos en 16 oportunidades el derecho a salir de la isla para recibir premios y participar en conferencias durante los últimos 4 años. El gobierno aprovecha el temor generalizado a la separación forzada de familias para castigar a sus detractores y silenciar a los críticos, y niega frecuentemente a los ciudadanos con autorización para viajar la posibilidad de llevar a sus hijos al extranjero, y de este modo mantiene a los niños como rehenes para garantizar el retorno de los padres.

El gobierno restringe la circulación de ciudadanos dentro de Cuba mediante la aplicación de una ley de 1997 conocida como Decreto 217. Esta norma, cuyo propósito es limitar la migración a La Habana, exige a los cubanos obtener autorización del gobierno para mudarse a la capital. Se aplica frecuentemente para impedir que disidentes viajen a La Habana y asistan a mítines y para perseguir a disidentes originarios de distintos puntos de Cuba que residen en la capital.

Condiciones carcelarias

En las cárceles prevalecen las condiciones de hacinamiento, falta de higiene e insalubridad, que propician la malnutrición y las enfermedades Los presos que critican al gobierno, se rehúsan a participar en la “reeducación” ideológica o recurren a huelgas de hambre u otras formas de protesta a menudo sufren la imposición de un régimen de aislamiento por períodos prolongados, golpizas, restricción de visitas y denegación de atención médica. No existe un mecanismo efectivo a través del cual los presos puedan presentar denuncias, y esto permite que las autoridades penitenciarias gocen de absoluta impunidad.

Actores internacionales clave

El embargo económico aplicado por Estados Unidos a Cuba desde hace más de medio siglo continúa imponiendo privaciones indiscriminadas a los cubanos, y no ha contribuido en absoluto a mejorar la situación de los derechos humanos en el país. Durante la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas de octubre, 186 de los 192 estados miembros votaron una resolución de repudio al embargo estadounidense; solamente Estados Unidos e Israel votaron en contra de dicha resolución.

En enero de 2011, el Presidente de Estados Unidos Barack Obama hizo uso de sus facultades ejecutivas para morigerar las restricciones a viajes de encuentro de tipo “people-to-people”, que permiten que grupos religiosos, educativos y culturales de Estados Unidos realicen visitas a Cuba y que estadounidenses envíen remesas para ayudar a ciudadanos cubanos. En 2009, Obama eliminó las restricciones que afectaban la posibilidad de cubano-estadounidenses de viajar y enviar remesas a Cuba, las cuales habían sido impuestas por el gobierno de George W. Bush.

En marzo, el ciudadano estadounidense Alan Gross —subcontratista de la Agencia Estadounidense para el Desarrollo Internacional— fue condenado a 15 años de prisión por distribuir equipos de telecomunicaciones a grupos religiosos en Cuba. Gross fue detenido en diciembre de 2009 y acusado por la Fiscalía cubana de participar en un “proyecto subversivo para intentar derrocar la revolución”. El Tribunal Supremo de Cuba confirmó la sentencia en agosto. Gross continúa en prisión.

La Unión Europea mantiene su “posición común” sobre Cuba, adoptada en 1996, que supedita la plena cooperación económica con Cuba a la transición del país hacia una democracia pluralista y el respeto de los derechos humanos.

Hasta el momento de la redacción de este documento, el gobierno cubano aún no había ratificado los principales tratados internacionales de derechos humanos —el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos y el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales— que suscribió en febrero de 2008. Cuba cumple actualmente un mandato de tres años como miembro del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, tras ser reelecta en mayo de 2009. 

“THEY HUNT US DOWN FOR FUN”

Discrimination and Police Violence Against Transgender Women in Kuwait.

They hunt us down for fun. They don’t want me to dress like a woman so I don’t. I wear a dishdasha (traditional Kuwaiti male garment) now. I cut my hair short. After all that I was still arrested, beaten, and raped for having a smooth, feminine face. What can I do about my face?

–Amani, 24, Kuwait City, February 8, 2011

Read full report.

“WAITING HERE FOR DEATH”

Displacement and “Villagization” in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region.

The Ethiopian government is forcibly moving tens of thousands of indigenous people in the western Gambella region from their homes to new villages under its “villagization” program. These population transfers are being carried out with no meaningful consultation and no compensation. Despite government promises to provide basic resources and infrastructure, the new villages have inadequate food, agricultural support, and health and

education facilities. Relocations have been marked by threats and assaults, and arbitrary arrest for those who resist the move. The state security forces enforcing the population transfers have been implicated in at least 20 rapes in the past year. Fear and intimidation are widespread among affected populations.

By 2013 the Ethiopian government is planning to resettle 1.5 million people in four regions: Gambella, Afar, Somali, and Benishangul-Gumuz. The process is most advanced in Gambella; relocations started in 2010 and approximately 70,000 people were slated to be moved by the end of 2011. According to the plan of the Gambella regional government, some 45,000 households are to be moved over the three-year life of the plan. Its goals, as stated in the plan, are to provide relocated populations “access to basic socioeconomic infrastructures … and to bring socioeconomic & cultural transformation of the people.” The plan pledges to provide infrastructure to the new villages and assistance to those being relocated to ensure an appropriate transition to secure livelihoods. The plan also states that the movements are voluntary.

Read full report.

Is There Any Way To Help the People of North Korea?

By Tom Malinowski.

Write it down. Write it. With ordinary ink

on ordinary paper; they weren’t given food,

they all died of hunger. All. How many?

It’s a large meadow. How much grass

per head? Write down: I don’t know.

History rounds off skeletons to zero.

A thousand and one is still only a thousand.

That one seems never to have existed:

a fictitious fetus, an empty cradle,

a primer opened for no one,

air that laughs, cries, and grows,

stairs for a void bounding out to the garden,

no one’s spot in the ranks.

     - Wieslawa Szymborska, Starvation Camp Near Jaslo 

How does one get the measure of Kim Jong Il’s legacy in North Korea? His victims, like those of his father before him, are so many, in lives ended and lives stunted, that they become faceless and formless in our minds, like those tens of thousands of dancers in the mass performances Kim liked to stage. An Egyptian protester beaten, a Burmese dissident imprisoned, a Chinese blogger censored—such singular injustices are easier to grasp, and thus more likely to make us angry, and to spur us to act. The North Korean regime has been protected by the sheer enormity of its crimes, which discrete images cannot easily capture. Of course, picturing life and death in North Korea is also hard because the government isolated the country from the outside world, forbidding its people from leaving, or from speaking to the tiny handful of foreigners who were allowed in. But in recent years, life for North Koreans has gotten so miserable that many have risked torture and execution to escape the country. And they have brought their stories with them.

So now we know that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have perished there from preventable starvation. We know about the kwanliso camps for alleged enemies of the state, where an estimated 200,000 North Koreans continue to work and die in conditions of near starvation and brutal abuse. In this system, the sins of one person condemn his or her entire family to imprisonment; even children born inside such camps grow up to inherit their parents’ prisoner status. We know as well that millions of North Koreans have grown up and grown old with a government that seeks to control every aspect of their lives, demanding not just obedience in action but devotion in thought, denying them not just the right to demand an alternative way of life, but the ability even to imagine one. Past dictators have tried to do the same—Pol Pot in Cambodia, Stalin in the Soviet Union. But none sustained the experiment for 60 years, as the Kims have done in North Korea. Most North Koreans have no memory of living in a different kind of society. Theirs may be the most fully realized totalitarian state in human history.

The magnitude of the suffering begs the question: What more should we have been doing all these years to help the North Korean people?

It is my job at Human Rights Watch to try to answer this question with respect to many repressive countries around the world. I’ve always had a hard time coming up with a satisfactory answer for North Korea, which seems, at first glance, so utterly beyond any outsider’s capacity to influence. Some thought that economic failure and famine would force the regime’s collapse during the 1990s. This was wrong. If anything, hunger strengthens repressive states’ hold on their subjects. It saps people’s strength, forces them to focus on day to day survival, and makes them dependent upon their leaders, who control the distribution of food, and thus even more helpless before them. This is one reason, beyond the obvious humanitarian imperative, why withholding food aid from North Korea has always been unhelpful in improving respect for human rights (though we should obviously monitor how that aid is distributed).

So contrary to my usual instinct in such cases, I’ve believed that the more the West engages the North Korean government the better. North Korea’s self-isolation has been a deliberate defense mechanism against a political awakening by its people. Anything that brings information to them—whether radio broadcasts from the outside, or getting diplomats, aid workers, and journalists inside—anything, in other words, that helps to bring North Korea out of solitary confinement, can only help. 

The international community could also have done more over the years to call out Kim Jong Il for his brutality. The conventional wisdom is that he would not have cared, that talking more in public about human rights, or pressing North Korean leaders directly on issues like labor camps, would have done nothing for the country’s people, while making diplomacy even more difficult. This sense of futility became another reason to push North Korea’s horrors from the forefront of our minds. Kim Jong Il became more often a subject of ridicule from the outside world, with his bouffant haircut, and retro-Soviet propaganda slogans, than of condemnation—his wackiness was a distraction and thus also a source of protection (see the last decade’s worth of The Onion’s headlines on North Korea: “Kim Jong Il ends Nuclear Program for Lead in Next Batman Movie!” and the latest, “Kim Jong Un Privately Expresses Doubt he’s Crazy Enough to Run North Korea”).

And yet, if the North Korean regime truly is run by monsters or madmen who do not care what the world thinks, why does it deny the existence of its forced labor camps? Why does it project itself as a human rights paradise? It must understand, on some level, that evidence to the contrary is something to be ashamed of and therefore to be hidden.

North Korea proves the point that all regimes, even the most nihilistic, crave legitimacy. That is the reason for its mass rallies, for its forced displays of loyalty, for the care with which it manages transitions from one leader to the next. These efforts broadcast its recognition that force and fear alone will not ensure its survival; that it must manufacture a form of popular consent, based on the belief, or delusion, that it has the right to govern. Such a regime is plainly vulnerable, maybe not right away but certainly over time, to any effort that makes it appear less legitimate to its people and the world. Many long serving dictators who once appeared utterly invulnerable have learned this the hard way in the last year, falling victim to forces that seemed to come suddenly from nowhere, but which were in fact building silently for years.

Will Kim Jong Il’s death bring about such a moment of change in North Korea? It would be foolish to pretend we know. But it’s worth noting that the last time the North Korean government staged a dynastic transition, when Kim Jong Il replaced his father in 1994, North Koreans were far less aware of how anomalous their country was in the world. Today, thanks to movement across the border with China, more widespread ownership of radios that receive foreign broadcasts, and the spread of smuggled DVDs and flash drives, many more North Koreans are conscious that something different and better is possible. Will they accept as easily as before that a young man utterly unknown to them is entitled to perpetuate their suffering for another generation, simply by virtue of his family name? The legitimacy of this regime will only get harder to sustain if it continues in this form.

We can pray that the power brokers who have accepted the 28-year-old Kim Jong Un as their new leader will recognize this, and allow a gradual opening of their country, with no sudden regime collapse, no violence, no mass exodus of refugees overwhelming neighboring countries. But will the North Korean people patiently go along with such a scenario, if their shackles are loosened? We have seen elsewhere (think of Libya) that the more people are forced to love a brutal leader, the more visceral their hatred when the fear which binds them to that leader lifts. We have seen how officials in such regimes tend either to run for the exits or to fight till the end when they sense that change may be coming, instead of adapting to that change. Do we really think that China will be able to manage such a situation, or South Korea, or the United States?

I think it is safe to say that the time will come when leaders and diplomats lose control of events in North Korea, and when the desires and actions of its people—not as a shapeless mass, but as individuals—will come to matter decisively. The resolution of North Korea’s drama won’t then be determined by those six parties in a diplomatic conference room, to whom we have all been paying attention, but by the 24 million parties in North Korea whom we have mostly been ignoring.

Ironically, it took the demise of one man, whose face we all recognize, to get us all thinking about the plight of North Koreans again, but it was the wrong man. In a more perfect moral universe, we would pay far less attention to the death of Kim Jong Il than to any of the deaths he caused. The sooner we adjust our focus, the better.

Tom Malinowski is Washington Director of Human Rights Watch. 

Syria: ‘Shoot to Kill’ Commanders Named - Siria: Identificados los comandantes que dieron las órdenes de “disparar a matar”

Human Rights Watch.

(London) – Former Syrian soldiers identified by name 74 commanders and officials responsible for attacks on unarmed protesters, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report names commanders and officials from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies who allegedly ordered, authorized, or condoned widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests during the 2011 anti-government protests. Human Rights Watch has urged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and impose sanctions against the officials implicated in abuses.


The 88-page report, “‘By All Means Necessary!’: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria,” is based on more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. The defectors provided detailed information about their units’ participation in attacks, abuses against Syrian citizens, and the orders they received from commanders and officials at various levels, who are named in the report.


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(Londres) – Ex soldados sirios identificaron por nombre a 74 comandantes y oficiales responsables de ataques contra manifestantes desarmados, Human Rights Watch señaló en un informe publicado hoy. El documento nombra a comandantes y oficiales del Ejército y las agencias de inteligencia de Siria que presuntamente ordenaron, autorizaron o toleraron numerosos homicidios, torturas y detenciones ilegales durante las protestas de 2011contra el Gobierno. Human Rights Watch ha instado al Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) a que remita el caso de Siria a la Corte Penal Internacional (CPI) e imponga sanciones contra los funcionarios implicados en los abusos.

El informe de 88 páginas, “‘By All Means Necessary!’: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria”(“‘¡Por todos los medios necesarios!’: Responsabilidad individual y de mando por los crímenes contra la humanidad en Siria”), está basado en más de 60 entrevistas con desertores del Ejército y las agencias de inteligencia de Siria. Los desertores suministraron información detallada sobre la participación de sus unidades en ataques y abusos contra ciudadanos sirios y las órdenes que recibieron de jefes y oficiales de diferentes rangos, que son nombrados en el documento.

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Children Mining Gold in Mali

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At least 20,000 children work in Malian artisanal gold mines under extremely harsh and dangerous conditions. These children literally risk life and limb. They carry loads heavier than their own weight, climb into unstable shafts, and touch and inhale mercury, one of the most toxic substances on earth. Courtesy NBC Rock Center.