organization:human rights watch

US: Prosecuting Migrants is Hurting Families

(Washington, DC) – The skyrocketing criminal prosecutions of migrants for illegally entering or reentering the United States carry huge human and financial costs, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Imprisoning migrants with minor or no criminal records before deporting them often affects people seeking to reunite with their families in the US or fleeing persecution.

http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale-300x/media/images/photographs/cover_photo_presser.jpg

https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/22/us-prosecuting-migrants-hurting-families

#HRW #rapport #USA #Etats-Unis #migration #criminalité #mineurs

Bangladesh’s other workplace catastrophes- ►http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/20/bangladeshs-other-workplace-catastrophes

Asked what she thought of the possibility that Hazaribagh’s tanneries might eventually move out of the city, the woman told me, “It would be very good…They could start garment factories. This would be cleaner work with a better salary.”

Last week, a deadly fire tore through a garment factory in Dhaka, killing eight workers. This followed the collapse of the Rana Plaza building on more than 1,000 workers, which made it the deadliest ever catastrophe in the history of the garment industry. Last November, a garment factory fire killed more than 100 people. So the tannery worker’s assessment sounds like a sick joke. But the truth is it was a realistic assessment of the deplorable health and safety conditions in Bangladesh.

Made in Bangladesh - A day with Kalpona Akter, the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/05/17/world/asia/100000002231544/made-in-bangladesh.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130519

« Toutes les multinationales qui font fabriquer les vêtements qu’elles vendent à l’Ouest rejettent toujours la responsabilité sur les épaules des autres... »

Quatre millions de travailleuses et travailleurs en danger.

Made in Bangladesh

May 17, 2013By Vikram Singh

In the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse, Kalpona Akter, the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, talks about conditions in garment factories.

#bangladesh #sweatshop

La vidéo d’un rebelle syrien arrachant un coeur provoque l’indignation
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/proche-orient/la-video-d-un-rebelle-syrien-arrachant-un-coeur-provoque-l-indignation_1248

Une des pires vidéos du conflit syrien circule sur la Toile. On y voit un homme arracher le coeur et le foie d’un soldat mort : selon l’ONG Human Rights Watch, il s’agirait d’Abu Sakkar, chef du mouvement d’opposition Brigade indépendante Omar al-Farouq. L’accès restreint au pays et les conditions de sécurité rendent toutefois l’authentification de ce type de vidéo par les organismes indépendants difficile. 

Après la mutilation du corps vêtu comme un soldat de l’armée syrienne, il s’exprime devant la caméra : « Je vous promets devant Dieu, vous les soldats de Bachar, vous les chiens, que nous mangerons vos coeurs et vos foies ». Il porte ensuite l’organe à sa bouche. La vidéo est également marquante par l’incitation sectaire, explique la BBC : Abu Shakkar exhorte ses partisans à découper et manger le coeur des Alaouites, le groupe ethnique dont est issu Bachar al-Assad.

Speaking of Abrams, What Did He Know About Genocide in Guatemala ? « LobeLog.com
http://www.lobelog.com/speaking-of-abrams-what-did-he-know-about-genocide-in-guatemala

#Rios_Montt, http://seenthis.net/messages/137841 un client d’#Israël au même titre que les auteurs libanais du massacre de Sabra et Chatila.

Also likely to be somewhat embarrassed is the government of Israel which moved into the vacuum created by Carter’s and Congress’s cut-off of military and intelligence assistance and subsequently expanded its involvement with Rios Montt’s counter-insurgency efforts with the Reagan administration’s encouragement. In 1982, just before Reagan’s visit, Ríos Montt told ABC News that his success in allegedly defeating the guerrillas was due the fact that “our soldiers were trained by Israelis.” It was the same year as the Sabra and Shatila massacres by Israel-backed Phalange militiamen in Beirut. Now, its Central American client has been convicted of genocide.

“Newseum” comes under pressure from Israel supporters for honoring Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/supporters-palestinian-journalists.html

On May 13th, the Newseum in Washington, DC will be holding an event to honor “newspeople who died or were killed in the pursuit of news” in the past year. Among the 84 journalists who died are Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who were killed in Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip this past winter. Their inclusion in the ceremony has sent parts of the Israel lobby into overdrive as both worked for Al-Aqsa television which is affiliated with Hamas. The neocon think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is threatening pull an annual policy summit out of the venue in protest.

Birmanie : inquiétante escalade de la violence antimusulmane - Politis
http://www.politis.fr/Birmanie-inquietante-escalade-de,22043.html

... les responsables de ces violences restent impunis dans l’écrasante majorité des cas. La justice se montre au contraire sévère envers les musulmans.

Trois Birmans musulmans, accusés d’avoir provoqué une bagarre à l’origine des violences de Meikhtila, ont notamment été condamnés à 14 ans de prison ferme et 7 autres risquent la peine de mort pour le meurtre d’un moine bouddhiste.

Myanmar Charges 6 Muslims for Sectarian Violence- http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/myanmar-president-vows-protect-muslim-rights-19117592

At least 43 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Meikhtila, some of them hunted down and burnt to death by Buddhist mobs. Authorities have detained Buddhists allegedly involved in the attacks, but so far none have been charged with crimes.

...

All six men charged Monday face the death penalty if convicted, said Advocate-General Ye Aung Myint. He said the men were among 50 people detained in connection with several days of violence in Meikhtila that also displaced more than 12,000 people, most of them Muslim.

Nouveau groupe de défense des droits de l’hommes en Arabie. HRW

Four Saudi activists are under investigation after forming a human rights group on April 3, 2013, and could face prosecution for “establishing an illegal organization,” Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should immediately cease harassing the four founding members of the group, the Union for Human Rights (UHR), and give it an operating license, Human Rights Watch said.[...]

During the May 4 interrogation session, investigators accused al-Otaibi and another co-founder of creating an illegal organization and demanded to know who had conceived it, who issued its media statements, and who financed the group. Investigators also accused them of publishing false information about an Eritrean air force fighter pilot who defected and flew his plane to Saudi Arabia in April although the members said their information had come entirely from the reporting of Saudi pro-government media.

Pour Human Rights Watch, l’armée nigériane tente de dissimuler ce qui s’est passé à Baga - Nigeria - RFI

http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20130502-hrw-baga-armee-nigeria-dissimule?ns_campaign=nl_AFRIQUE020513&ns_mc

L’organisation de défense des droits de l’homme Human Rights Watch (HRW) a publié mercredi 1er mai des images satellite montrant la destruction massive probable de bâtiments d’habitations dans la localité de Baga, au nord-est du Nigeria. HRW soupçonne l’armée nigériane d’avoir eu la main lourde et d’avoir perpétré des massacres à la suite des combats avec les membres du groupe armé radical Boko Haram

#nigeria #massacre #boko-haram

Trafic d’êtres humains dans le Sinaï : ça continue

By the count of Human Rights Watch, thousands of sub-Saharan asylum seekers and migrants have fallen victim to abusive traffickers and other criminals in the Sinai. The organization has called on the Egyptian government to use its increased law enforcement operations in the area to rescue victims of trafficking and end the abuses. The Israeli government says some 58,000 sub-Saharan African nationals have crossed into Israel via the Sinai. Rights advocates say Eritrean migrants interviewed in Israel report having been subjected to serious abuses in the Sinai, including beating, whipping, branding, electric shock, being buried, exposed to the sun, sexual abuse, threat of execution, shooting, and threats of organ removal.

http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/Pages/articleDetails.aspx?aid=334

Myanmar’s communal violence : When praying is not enough | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2013/04/myanmar%E2%80%99s-communal-violence?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/prayingnotenough

AN IMPORTANT new report from Human Rights Watch on the violence last year in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state has particular resonance for this blog. Two days last October in Mrauk-u in Rakhine marked for me a low point in a long career in journalism. After some time reporting in Sittwe on the aftermath of the terrible violence in June between the Buddhist, ethnic-Rakhine majority and the Muslim Rohingya minority, we had taken the five-hour boat trip upriver to the ancient capital of what used to be known as Arakan.

#birmanie

IRIN Français | Sécurité et travail humanitaire dans un Afghanistan contrôlé par les milices | Afghanistan | Paix et sécurité | Sécurité
http://www.irinnews.org/fr/Report/97812/Sécurité-et-travail-humanitaire-dans-un-Afghanistan-contrôlé-par-les-milic

(« Surtout, ne les appelez pas milices »)

...

D’après une demi-douzaine d’organisations humanitaires à Kunduz interrogées par IRIN, ces groupes rendent difficile l’acheminement de l’aide et sont synonymes d’insécurité pour les citoyens qui sont souvent déboussolés devant le nombre de bandes ethniques armées, de forces de protection de villages et de milices semi-officielles.

...

Ces groupes comprennent des milices de village appelées ‘arbaki’ qui ne sont généralement pas en uniforme ni entraînées, ainsi que la Police afghane locale (ALP) et des milices localement implantées qui ont reçu un entraînement des forces spéciales américaines et qui sont officiellement sous le contrôle du ministère de l’Intérieur.

La guerre en Afghanistan est souvent perçue comme une lutte entre les groupes d’insurgés talibans, le gouvernement et les forces internationales mais, en réalité, des groupes armés locaux opèrent fréquemment entre ces deux camps dans une sorte de zone d’ombre.

Les milices, souvent liées à des hommes influents, assurent la sécurité face aux insurgés talibans dans les régions où le gouvernement n’est pas présent et se sont alliées au gouvernement et aux forces internationales à plusieurs occasions. Certains membres ont souvent changé de camp et d’allégeance entre les différents groupes en conflit.

Après la chute des talibans en 2001, les troupes internationales se sont mises à recruter comme forces de sécurité temporaires certaines milices qui les avaient aidés à combattre les talibans.

Le gouvernement avait mis en place un programme de désarmement, démobilisation et réinsertion (DDR) début 2003 pour démanteler les milices et aider leurs membres à se réinsérer dans la société, mais les progrès étaient lents selon International Crisis Group (ICG).

Devant la détérioration du climat sécuritaire, les forces internationales ont commencé à financer beaucoup de ces milices pour étendre leur champ d’action. Ces forces semi-officieuses ont joué un rôle important pour le maintien de la sécurité lors des élections de 2009.

Les évènements ont pris une tournure plus officielle en 2010 lorsque l’APL a été officiellement reconnue comme la première force de défense locale de libération des communautés reculées contre les insurgés talibans.

Le Bahreïn accueillera le GP la semaine prochaine, en attendant, l’Iremmo (que je vous invite à découvrir si vous ne connaissez pas encore*) s’interroge : les Arabes ont-ils oublié ce pays ?

http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/association-iremmo/090413/les-arabes-ont-ils-oublie-bahrein

*http://www.iremmo.org/spip/spip.php?page=accueil

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/bahrain-arrests-20-activists-ahead-grand-prix-race

Bahrain: Targeted Raids and Arbitrary detentions (HRW)

Bahraini authorities are carrying out home raids and arbitrarily detaining opposition protesters in advance of the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend of April 19 to 21, 2013, according to information from a variety of local sources.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/10/bahrain-targeted-raids-and-arbitrary-detentions

Côte d’Ivoire : le rapport de Human Rights Watch qui éclabousse Ouattara- http://www.slateafrique.com/141685/cote-divoire-rapport-human-rights-watch-eclabousse-ouattara

Pour l’ONG, Alassane Ouattara n’a tout simplement pas tenu sa promesse d’une justice équitable et impartiale, perturbant ainsi le processus de réconciliation. Dans tous les cas, le rapport de Human Rights Watch vient conforter les positions des proches de l’ex-président Laurent Gbagbo qui parlent depuis la fin de la guerre d’une « justice des vainqueurs » et réclament à cor et à cris la libération de leur leader et de son épouse, Simone Gbagbo, et celle de tous les responsables du FPI (Front populaire ivoirien, ex-parti au pouvoir).

Le rapport est intitulé Transformer les discours en réalité : l’heure de réclamer des comptes pour les crimes internationaux graves commis en Côte d’Ivoire. Un ton qui ne souffre d’aucune ambiguïté,...

UAE: Don’t Deport Tamil Refugees to Sri Lanka
19 Sri Lankans, Including 6 Women, at Grave Risk of Torture if Returned

United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities should not deport 19 Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka because they would be at serious risk of torture and persecution upon return, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has recognized all 19 as refugees, but the UAE authorities have told the group they must leave the country by April 11, 2013.

“For the UAE to return recognized Tamil refugees to a grave risk of torture in Sri Lanka would signal a total disregard for their well-being – and the most basic principle of international refugee and human rights law,” said Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch. “Sri Lanka’s treatment of Tamils they deem politically suspect is dismal and under no circumstances should the UAE deport this group there.”

Camp Nama: British personnel reveal horrors of secret US base in Baghdad | World news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/01/camp-nama-iraq-human-rights-abuses

Codenamed Task Force 121, the joint US-UK special forces unit was at first deployed to detain individuals thought to have information about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Once it was realised that Saddam’s regime had long since abandoned its WMD programme, TF 121 was re-tasked with tracking down people who might know where the deposed dictator and his loyalists might be, and then with catching al-Qaida leaders who sprang up in the country after the regime collapsed.

Suspects were brought to the secret prison at Baghdad International airport, known as Camp Nama, for questioning by US military and civilian interrogators. But the methods used were so brutal that they drew condemnation not only from a US human rights body but from a special investigator reporting to the Pentagon.

A British serviceman who served at Nama recalled: “I saw one man having his prosthetic leg being pulled off him, and being beaten about the head with it before he was thrown on to the truck.”

Chris Hedges Resigns From Human Rights Organization PEN - Truthdig
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/chris_hedges_resigns_from_human_rights_organization_pen_20130401

The Truthdig columnist was scheduled to speak at events sponsored by PEN American Center next month, but he has resigned his membership in the writers’ organization over its executive director, Suzanne Nossel, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who may have coined the term “soft power.”

(...)

In addition to working for the State Department under Hillary Clinton as deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, Nossel has worked as executive director of Amnesty International USA, and for Human Rights Watch and The Wall Street Journal.

British diplomats defend Bahrain
http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2013/march/british-diplomats-defend-bahrain.htm

Yesterday, in an interview with a Bahraini newspaper, ambassador Iain Lindsay was quoted as saying that HRW’s statement about the lack of progress had been “deeply unhelpful, condescending and patronising”.

“I find their comments about the political dialogue deeply unhelpful. I think it has taken a lot of courage and a lot of effort to get people for the first time in two years to sit around a table to talk about dialogue,” he reportedly said – adding: “I think we need to take a balanced picture.”

In the same interview, ambassador Lindsay also reportedly enthused about the Bahraini government’s current attempt at
political dialogue which is widely regarded by others as mere window-dressing.

In an email commenting on the ambassador’s remarks, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, quoted President Obama’s observation last year that “you can’t have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail”.

It is still unclear whether the ambassador’s remarks were accurately reported (as I mentioned in a blog post yesterday, Bahraini media have a habit of misrepresenting quotes for propaganda purposes). However, a former British ambassador to Bahrain – Sir Harold (“Hooky”) Walker – has expressed similar views in relation to human rights organisations and Bahrain.

Qatar in the Horn of Africa: What Is an Expensive, Idyllic Resort Doing in Eritrea?

“Qatar is the only country today that has the means and the will to influence Eritrea,” says Leonard Vincent, a French journalist whose work focuses on Eritrea, and who broke the news that Eritrean information minister Ali Abdu defected in December 2012. “They want to use this for their own benefit in terms of their position in the international community, and to secure the Arab world’s influence on the Red Sea. It’s part of their political game.”

Qatar mediated a border dispute between Eritrea and neighboring Djibouti, launching an effort that culminated in an agreement signed in June 2010 and initially held in place by a small detachment of Qatari peacekeepers. “The fact that they have managed to put Djibouti and Eritrea together at the same table to stop another border war...proves that Qatar can talk to Eritrea,” says Vincent.

Yet Qatar’s success in tempering the ever-recalcitrant Afewerki came at the expense of the country’s relationship with Ethiopia, which cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar in April of 2008 on the suspicion that the emirate was aiding Eritrean meddling in Somalia. At the same time, the Djibouti agreement demonstrated the benefits of Qatari engagement. In essence, Qatar had achieved a western diplomatic objective — namely, lowering the collective temperature in the Horn of Africa — by fostering the kind of close relationship with Afewerki that a European country or the United States would have had difficulty getting away with.

according to a 2011 report of the U.N.’s Somalia-Eritrea monitoring group:

Qatar is perhaps Eritrea’s most important economic partner at the moment, and Qatari officials have acknowledged to numerous foreign diplomats that their Government has provided significant, direct financial support to the Government in Asmara. According to numerous interviews conducted by the Monitoring Group with diplomats, former Eritrean officials and businessmen, much of this support is provided in the form of cash.

[...]
The resort on Dahlak Kebir is a reminder of Qatar’s ambition to succeed where the international community had failed — to pacify and open up Eritrea, even if it meant subsidizing one of the most oppressive and arbitrary governments in Africa. But the rest of Dahlak Kebir serves as a reality check. The resort is an anomaly in an island chain more widely known for its prison camp and spy intrigues. It’s a $50 million novelty, evidence of a strategically and even morally-misguided policy, rather than a testament to Qatar’s newfound diplomatic or economic power. In a blistering rebuttal to Qatar’s efforts at being a major player in the Horn of Africa, Dahlak Kebir won’t be on anyone’s vacation itinerary any time soon — unless you’re Qatari royalty, that is.

The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/what-is-an-expensive-idyllic-resort-doing-in-eritrea/274424

La Grèce bafoue les droits des migrants, avec l’accord de l’Europe | Rue89

via la liste migreurop, lola schulmann et Apostolis Fotiadis

http://www.rue89.com/2013/03/26/grece-bafoue-les-droits-migrants-laccord-tacite-leurope-240883

Arrestations au faciès, conditions de détention inhumaines… De nombreux migrants accusent la Grèce de mauvais traitements. Sans inquiéter l’Europe, qui va rallonger les budgets de son meilleur « garde-frontière ».

(D’Athènes) En septembre dernier, alors qu’il tentait de gagner le nord de l’Europe par la Turquie, Faraj Alhamauun a été arrêté durant sa traversée de la Grèce.

#migrations #asile #grèce #europe #ue

La Grèce bafoue les droits des migrants, avec l’accord tacite de l’Europe

ASILE • Arrestations au faciès, conditions de détention inhumaines... De nombreux migrants accusent la Grèce de mauvais traitements. Sans inquiéter l’Europe, qui va rallonger les budgets de son meilleur « garde-frontière ».

http://www.lecourrier.ch/107194/la_grece_bafoue_les_droits_des_migrants_avec_l_accord_tacite_de_l_europe

#asile #Grèce #migration

European Commission Bankrolls Anti-Immigrant Policies

http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations-a-states/citizenship-and-nationality/52351-european-commission-bankrolls-anti-immigrant-policies.html?itemi

Observers are concerned that funding from the European Commission is being used to finance policies and procedures that violate the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers in Greece, many of whom are fleeing the violence in Syria. Migrants have allegedly been subjected to arbitrary detainment, mistreatment while in the custody of Greek authorities, and unsuitable detention conditions. Some European political figures note that Europe appear reluctant to aid Greece with its devastating social and economic crisis, but are actively financing anti-immigrant measures. They argue that this arrangement of priorities is incompatible with the EU’s stated commitment to human rights.

#migrations #asile #europe

Officials Turn Blind Eye to Abuse of Asylum Seekers | ReliefWeb
►http://reliefweb.int/report/greece/officials-turn-blind-eye-abuse-asylum-seekers

L’Opération « Aspis » (bouclier) pour empêcher les réfugiés (syriens et autres) de passer la frontière gréco-turque, l’opération « Zeus Xenios » (protecteur des étrangers) pour rafler les migrants dans les rues, et les conditions de détention dans les centres de rétention grecs.

Last August, Greek police deployed 1,881 new officers along the river Evros in “Operation Aspis”, an attempt to seal the border with Turkey, through which Syrian refugees were pouring into Greece.

Meanwhile, the continuing countrywide “Operation Xenios Zeus” has led to 4,849 arrests of irregular migrants or refugees and over 90,000 apprehensions based on heavy racial profiling by authorities.

Commencement of these operations coincided with the beginning of a major humanitarian crisis in Syria, with fighting transferred into big urban centres and the number of refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries skyrocketing.

In order to accommodate arrested migrants, the government has begun transferring detainees to improvised camps that were former police academies and old army depots, such as Xanthi and Komotini in northern Greece, Korinthos in the Peloponnese, and Paranesti in the northeastern region of Drama. These buildings, as former inmates like Alhamauun disclosed to IPS, are often black holes for human rights.

#Grèce #Camps #Droit_d'asile #Syrie #Réfugiés

Nowhere Home | Human Rights Watch Film Festival

signalé par CDB_77

http://ff.hrw.org/film/nowhere-home?city=4

Nowhere Home

“Is the reason we have a system that doesn’t recognise other people’s suffering because we can keep it at a distance?”
—Margreth Olin

In this compelling documentary, filmmaker Margreth Olin follows a number of boys from Salhus, a Norwegian centre offering temporary residence to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We get to know Goli who now lives back in Kurdistan after being deported from Norway the day after he turned 18. We follow him as he embarks on his journey back to country where he was given safe haven. We meet brothers Hassan and Hussein from Afghanistan. Traumatised by what they have witnessed in Afghanistan, Hussein is completely dependent on his brother as well as the support they receive from the Norwegian state. While all the boys at Salhus hope for an extension of their asylum status, the threat of deportation when they turn 18—and uncertain futures in Afghanistan, Iraq, or other war-torn countries—hangs over all their heads. A visceral and provocative film, Nowhere Home scrutinises one of Europe’s major moral dilemmas. Official Selection Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 2012

#migrations #asile