That's BS, Nadine. They document torture wherever they can.
Here, for the record, is a recent article on Iran:
hrw.org
Iran: Journalists Receive Death Threats After Testifying
Presidential Commission Heard Their Testimony of Torture During Detention
(New York, January 6, 2005) -- After testifying to a presidential commission about their torture during detention, a group of Iranian journalists have received death threats from judicial officials under Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, Human Rights Watch said today.
And here is another on Iran:
Iran: Judiciary Uses Coercion to Cover Up Torture
On National TV, Journalists Forced to Deny They Were Tortured
The Iranian judiciary is using threats of lengthy prison sentences and coerced televised statements in an attempt to cover up its arbitrary detention and torture of internet journalists and civil society activists.
And here is one on Egypt:
Divorced from Justice
Women’s Unequal Access to Divorce in Egypt
This 62-page report documents serious human rights abuses stemming from discriminatory family laws that have resulted in a divorce system that affords separate and unequal treatment to men and women.
Here is one against the Iraqi "insurgents":
Iraq: Targeting of Civilians by Insurgents Must Stop
Insurgents in Iraq are committing war crimes by targeting Iraqi civilians perceived to be cooperating with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Human Rights Watch said today.
Here is an older one on Iran (2002):
Iran: Veto on Torture Bill Condemned
Human Rights Watch today condemned the decision by Iran's Council of Guardians to veto a parliamentary bill designed to discourage torture.
Here is a 2002 report on Saddam and Iraq:
Indict Saddam
The Bush administration's frustration with a decade of increasingly porous sanctions against Iraq has led to active consideration of military action. Yet one alternative has yet to be seriously tried -- indicting Saddam Hussein for his many atrocities, particularly the 1988 genocide against Iraqi Kurds.
And a 2002 report on Syria:
Syria: Clampdown on Free Expression
Despite initial hopes the new government of President Bashar al-Asad would shift course, Syria continues to impose sharp restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today.
Here is a 2001 report on your favorite group:
Justice Undermined in the Palestinian Authority
Individuals detained by the Palestinian Authority are frequently subjected to torture and denied fair trials. Human Rights Watch's new report "Justice Undermined: Balancing Security and Human Rights in the Palestinian Justice System" documents cases of arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without charge or trial, and interrogation without access to a lawyer.
And here are a few papers on Iraq, written prior to the Bush buildup in 2002 (the links aren't showing up here, they can be found in the original, here: hrw.org
Humanitarian Situation in Iraq
Open Letter to the Security Council
We welcome the Council's mandate to the Secretariat to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the humanitarian situation in Resolution 1302. We are hopeful that the Secretariat will, in fact, be able to complete this assessment by November 26 of this year.
August 4, 2000 Letter
Iraq: Landmine Monitor Report 2000
Key developments since March 1999: The United Nations expressed concern in mid-2000 about incidences of freshly laid mines being found in previously cleared minefields in Northern Iraq. It did not identify the mine user. Iraq has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, nor is it a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Iraq became a member of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in 1996, and in 1997 the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN urged the CD to launch negotiations on a global landmine ban.
August 1, 2000 Multi Country Report
Northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan): Landmine Monitor Report 2000
Key developments since March 1999: As of May 2000, the UN reports nearly 3.1 square kilometers of land cleared and returned to productive use, impacting forty-nine villages. The survey program has conducted a socio-economic impact survey of 95% of the villages in the three northern governorates. Supplies and funds valued at about $8 million were provided for mine action from April-October 1999. The UN in mid-2000 expressed concern about incidences of freshly laid mines being found in previously cleared minefields.
August 1, 2000 Multi Country Report
U.N. Security Council Must Ease Iraq Crisis
Humanitarian Emergency Should be Focus of Friday Debate
In a letter sent yesterday, Human Rights Watch and five other organizations asked the United Nations Security Council to take decisive steps to address the humanitarian emergency in Iraq.
Iraq's Brutal Decrees
Amputation, Branding and the Death Penalty
eginning in June 1994, the government of Iraq issued at least nine decrees that establish severe penalties, including amputation, branding and the death penalty for criminal offenses such as theft, corruption, currency speculation and military desertion. These new decrees greatly impinge on individual human rights and constitute violations of several international human rights conventions and standards. The government of Iraq attempts to deflect international criticism of this cruelty by maintaining that the decrees were enacted to combat rising crime which, it says, is due to the poverty and desperation brought on by international economic sanctions. By implying that if sanctions are lifted and the situation improves the decrees could be repealed, Iraq appears to use these abuses as leverage for the lifting of sanctions. While arguing that the decrees serve as a deterrent to crime, the government has offered no information that they are serving this purpose.
June 1, 1995 Report
And here is one of their reports on Anfal, done back in 1994:
Iraq’s Crime Of Genocide: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds
Iraq’s 1988 Anfal campaign of extermination against the Kurdish people living within its borders resulted in the death of at least 50,000 and as many as 100,000 people, many of them women and children. This book, co-published with Yale University Press, investigates the Anfal campaign and concludes that this campaign constituted genocide against the Kurds. The book is the result of research by a team of Human Rights Watch investigators who analyzed eighteen tons of captured Iraqi government documents (10 of these documents are reproduced in the appendix) and carried out field interviews with more than 350 witnesses, most of them survivors of the Anfal campaign. It confirms that the campaign was characterized by gross violations of human rights, including mass summary executions and disappearances of many tens of thousands of noncombatants; the widespread use of chemical weapons, among them mustard gas and nerve agents that killed thousands; the arbitrary jailing and warehousing of tens of thousands of women, children, and elderly people for months, in conditions of extreme deprivation and without judicial order; the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of villagers to barren resettlement camps after the demolition of their homes; and the wholesale destruction of some two thousand villages along with their schools, mosques, farms, and power stations. The book is a searing indictment of the Iraqi government’s carefully planned and executed program to destroy a people, harrowing in its detailed and objective recounting of crimes against innocents.
HRW Index No.: ISBN 0-300-06427-6
May 1, 1994 Report |
