Articles by Human Rights Watch
HRW calls for more action in the DRC
(HRW/IFEX) – As President Clinton recognizes the efforts of civil society in Africa, civil society activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are facing new attacks from their government. On April 2 1998, Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged that the Congolese authorities are cracking down on numerous independent voices–including journalists, academics, development experts, and […]
HRW calls for more action against China
(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called upon British Prime Minister Tony Blair to use the first ever European Union (EU)-China summit to define concrete benchmarks for human rights improvements in China and Tibet. In a letter made public on 1 April 1998, HRW urged Blair to use the London summit to present Chinese […]
Show trial sentences teenagers
(HRW/IFEX) – On 24 February 1998, a Minsk court sentenced two teenagers, sixteen-year-old Vadim Labkovich and nineteen-year-old Alexei Shidlovsky, respectively to a one-and-a-half year suspended prison term and a one-and-a-half year unsuspended prison term in a strict regime colony for writing political graffiti and replacing an official state flag with the banned flag of “independent” […]
Human Rights Watch protests Indonesian government warning to academics
(HRW/IFEX) – HRW’s Academic Freedom Committee is gravely concerned over the formal warning recently sent to researchers at Indonesia’s prestigious National Institute of Sciences, Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) by Dr. B. J. Habibie, State Minister of Research and Technology. On 20 January 1998, a group of nineteen LIPI researchers held a press conference and […]
HRW writes open letter to authorities regarding broadcasting regulations
(HRW/IFEX) – The following is an open letter sent by Human Rights Watch on 16 February 1998 to the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia) regarding the recent announcement on 6 February 1998 of an open bid for temporary radio and television frequencies, and other laws regulating broadcasting in Serbia. It was sent […]
Documentary maker beaten
(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights Watch reports that Yuri Khashchevatsky, an internationally renowned film director and member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee who recently became a member of the pro-democracy movement “Charter ’97”, has been severely beaten. On the night of 23 December 1997, two unidentified men broke into Khashchevatsky’s film studio and beat him unconscious, […]
East Timor activist to be charged for displaying photos of torture
(HRW/IFEX) – East Timor activist Vaughan Williams from the Darwin-based Australians for a Free East Timor was due to appear at the Northern Territory’s Darwin Magistrates Court on 15 December 1997 for publicly displaying pictures of East Timorese women being tortured by the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri). He is being charged by police under the […]
Press conference on case of Alexander Nikitin
(HRW/IFEX) – On 28 November 1997 at the Russian American Press Center a press conference was to be held on the latest developments in the case of Alexander Nikitin, whom the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accuses of having committed serious anti-state crimes. Scheduled participants in the press conference were: Pavel Gutiontov (Chair of the […]