Reports

The government of Spain is violating the rights of migrants and asylum seekers who arrive illegally on Spanish shores, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

Women in Guatemala's largest female-dominated labor sectors face persistent sex discrimination and abuse, Human Rights Watch charges in this report. The 147-page report examines two sectors, export processing and private households, which employ tens of thousands of women sewing clothes for sale in the United States and working as live-in domestic workers.

The backlash against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants throughout the world is a serious side effect of the September 11 attacks. While governments have legitimate security concerns, there must be a balance with human rights and refugee protection standards.

Amidst the intensive coverage of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the west’s preparations for a military response, there have been suggestions in the media that Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaida organisation may have recruited and trained children for military actions.

The global scandal of violence against children is a horror story too often untold. With malice and clear intent, violence is used against the members of society least able to protect themselves—children in school, in orphanages, on the street, in refugee camps and war zones, in detention, and in fields and factories.

Proposed Amendments to the 12 July 2001 Draft Programme of Action For Equality and Non-Discrimination Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (A/CONF.189/PC.3/8) and the Draft Declaration (A/CONF.189/PC.3/7).

Human immuno-deficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a national disaster for the people of Kenya, children and adults alike. Kenya is estimated to have the ninth-highest prevalence of HIV in the world with about 14 percent of the adult population infected.

In this report, Human Rights Watch documents attacks on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth who are subjected to abuse on a daily basis by their peers and in some cases by teachers and school administrators.

This report, based upon a mission to the region in December 2000 and subsequent research, documents an intensive campaign of forcible recruitment of adults and children begun by RCD-Goma and its Rwandan allies in the last quarter of 2000.

In schools across South Africa, thousands of girls of every race and economic group are encountering sexual violence and harassment that impede their access to education, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.

When Colombian President Andrés Pastrana meets with President George W. Bush next Tuesday (February 27), the two leaders will discuss U.S. military aid to Colombia, including the issue of Colombia's progress on improving human rights.

In the past two years, Ugandans have recruited and trained both Hema and Lendu to serve in the forces of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML), a rebel group which is backed by Uganda and which nominally controls this area. Within the last year, however, at least some Ugandan officers have reportedly favored the Hema.

Each year over one million children between the ages of seven and twelve are hired by Egypt's agricultural cooperatives to take part in cotton pest management. Employed under the authority of Egypt's agriculture ministry, most are well below Egypt’s minimum age of twelve for seasonal agricultural work.

After fleeing systematic discrimination, forced labor, and other abuses in Burma, ethnic Rohingya in Malaysia face a whole new set of abuses in Malaysia. These include beatings, extortion, and arbitrary detention. The refugees are forced to live in poverty and constant fear of expulsion from the country.