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Direct Link to Full Report: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2010.pdf
Report Has Multiple Gender
Dimensions - Women Human Rights Defenders
January 20, 2010
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Special
Feature: World Report 2010
(
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. The
volume's introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth
argues that the ability of the human rights movement to exert pressure on
behalf of victims has grown enormously in recent years, and that this
development has spawned a reaction from abusive governments that grew
particularly intense in 2009.
"Attacks on rights defenders might be seen as a perverse tribute
to the human rights movement, but that doesn't mitigate the danger," Roth
said. "Under various pretexts, abusive governments are attacking the very
foundations of the human rights movement."
Attacks on human rights monitors are not limited to authoritarian
governments like Burma and China,
Human Rights Watch said. In countries with elected governments that are facing
armed insurgencies, there has been a sharp rise in armed attacks on human
rights monitors. Although the armed conflict in
Human Rights Watch noted that some governments are so abusive against
individuals and organizations that no domestic human rights movement can
function, citing Eritrea, North Korea,
and Turkmenistan.
The introduction to the report said that in addition to Russia
and Sri
Lanka, other countries where human rights monitors were murdered in
order to silence them in in cluded Kenya, Burundi,
and Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch cited Sudan and
Local and international human rights groups working in
Roth said that the only way that abusive governments will end their assault
on rights defenders is if other governments that support human rights make
rights a central part of their bilateral relations.
"Governments that support human rights need to speak out, to make
respecting human rights the bedrock of their diplomacy - and of their own
practices," Roth said. "They need to demand real change from abusive
governments."
Roth said that the Obama administration, in particular, faced the challenge
of restoring
The
Human Rights Watch also said in the introduction to its report that an
emerging system of international justice including the International Criminal
Court (ICC) has been the focus of attack. The assault unfolded after the court
issued an arrest warrant in March for President Omar al-Bashir
of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese
forces and allied militia against the civilian population of Darfur.
After the court issued the warrant, many African democracies initially
chose the comfort of regional solidarity rather than staking out a position of
principle in support of international justice, the introduction to the report
says.
Instead of applauding the ICC for taking action to redress the mass murder
and forced displacement of so many Africans in Darfur, when the African Union
resolved in July not to cooperate in executing the arrest warrant, a number of
African leaders went along with the decision to protect Bashir rather than
Darfurian victims of abuses.
Human Rights Watch research over the past year covered a wide range of
abuses in virtually every region of the world.
An additional essay in the report, entitled "Abusing
Patients," described government health policies that subject
patients to torture or ill-treatment and the failure of national and
international medical societies to prevent medical provider complicity in such
abuse. The essay drew upon Human Rights Watch research from
In many countries, Human Rights Watch documented the human rights
violations suffered by women and girls, including those related to pregnancy,
birth, and women's role as caregivers and providers. For example, preventable
maternal mortality and disability as a result of negligent policies and laws
kill and maim more women annually than the impact of armed conflict, Human
Rights Watch said.
In
In
In Cuba,
Human Rights Watch documented how Raśl Castro's government, instead of dismantling
the repressive machinery of the Fidel Castro years, has kept it firmly in
place, keeping scores of political prisoners in detention and arresting dozens
more dissidents.
In Zimbabwe,
researchers continued to monitor and report on rights violations by President
Robert Mugabe's former ruling party against its partners and their supporters
in a power-sharing government. Human Rights Watch also documented brutal
tactics by the army and police in the Marange diamond fields to control access
to the fields and take over unlicensed diamond mining and trading.
A report about
In
In Libya,
Human Rights Watch released a report critical of the government at a news
conference in
In Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch documented the
deliberate killing of more than 1,400 civilians, a pattern of vicious rapes,
and other abuses by government and rebel forces during two successive Congolese
army operations against a Rwandan Hutu militia in the east of the country.
Human Rights Watch also reported serious flaws in the UN peacekeeping operation
in
In Guinea,
Human Rights Watch produced a detailed report on killings, sexual assaults, and
other abuses at an opposition rally in the capital, committed largely by
members of the elite Presidential Guard. The evidence suggests that the attacks
were planned in advance and rose to the level of crimes against humanity.
Human Rights Watch said that despite the growth in the human rights
movement, human rights defenders remain vulnerable and greatly in need of
support by rights-respecting governments.
"Governments that consider themselves human rights supporters often
keep silent in the face of these abuses by allies, citing diplomatic or
economic priorities," Roth said. "But that silence makes them
complicit in the abuse. The only proper response to serious human rights
violations is to turn up the heat on the abusers."
World Report cover photo: Sri Lankan Tamils wait
behind barbed wire where the government interned several hundred thousand
people displaced in the final months of the war. © 2009 Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty
Images
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