Human Rights Watch

This author's articles

• La justice court-circuitée : Les lois et procédures antiterroristes en France

  7 juillet 2008
  Depuis le milieu des années 1980, époque où elle a subi une vague d’attentats terroristes, la France a mis au point une approche préventive de justice pénale pour contrer le terrorisme que beaucoup de responsables français considèrent comme un modèle digne de susciter l’émulation ailleurs. L’approche française se caractérise par des poursuites judiciaires agressives à l’encontre de réseaux terroristes présumés opérant sur le territoire français. Elle repose sur une étroite collaboration entre les procureurs et juges d’instruction spécialisés d’une part et les services de police et de renseignement d’autre part, conjuguée à des restrictions aux garanties procédurales appliquées aux infractions de droit commun.

• Discrimination in the Name of Integration, Migrants’ Rights Under the Integration Abroad Act

  21 May 2008
  The Netherlands should abolish the overseas «integration test» that discriminatorily targets only migrants of certain nationalities trying to join their families, while citizens from other, «western» countries are exempt, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released yesterday. People of Moroccan and Turkish origin – two of the three largest «non-western» migrant communities in the Netherlands – have been especially affected.

• 2008 World Report : Democracy charade undermines rights

  5 February 2008
  The established democracies are accepting flawed and unfair elections for political expediency, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2008. By allowing autocrats to pose as democrats, without demanding they uphold the civil and political rights that make democracy meaningful, the United States, the European Union and other influential democracies risk undermining human rights worldwide

• France: Terror Expulsions Policy Lacks Basic Safeguards

  11 June 2007
  The lack of safeguards in France’s policy of expelling foreign residents with alleged links to violent extremism undermines human rights and alienates communities whose cooperation is critical to the fight against terrorism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

• France : La politique d’expulsions dans le cadre de la lutte antiterroriste manque des garanties élémentaires

  11 juin 2007
  Le manque de garanties dans la politique française d’expulsion de résidents étrangers qui auraient des liens avec l’extrémisme violent porte atteinte aux droits humains et s’aliène les communautés dont la coopération est décisive pour la lutte contre le terrorisme, selon un rapport de Human Rights Watch

• Human Rights Watch : World Report 2007

  5 February 2007
  What government is today’s champion of human rights? Washington’s potentially powerful voice no longer resonates after the US government’s use of detention without trial and interrogation by torture. The administration of President George W. Bush can still promote «democracy»—the word it uses to avoid raising the thorny subject of human rights—but it cannot credibly advocate rights that it flouts.

• Stemming the Flow : Abuses Against Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees

  20 September 2006
  Around 2000, the government began fearing that too many foreigners had come, saturating the market for jobs. In a country with just over five million people, well over one million non-Libyans had arrived. The government blamed them for rising crime, new disease and social tension. Around the same time, European governments began pressuring Libya to control illegal migration. In recent years thousands of sub-Saharan migrants, asylum seekers and refugees have left Libya or transited through it to Europe, riding in packed smugglers’ boats to Italy. The European Union has urged Libya to stem the flow.

• Lettre de Human Rights Watch sur le Projet de loi Lutte contre le Terrorisme

  26 December 2005
  Human Rights Watch est une organisation non gouvernementale internationale de défense des droits de l’homme, dont le siège social est à New York et, qui possède des bureaux autour du monde. Nous vous écrivons concernant le projet de loi relatif à la lutte contre le terrorisme, actuellement en examen au Sénat.

• A Face and a Name. Civilian Victims of Insurgent Groups in Iraq

  4 October 2005
  Human Right Watch has issued a report today that accuses the Iraqi insurgents of war crimes. If previous Human Rights Watch reports have documented the use of excessive and indiscriminate force by US forces in Iraq, this report brings to light the ‘widespread and systematic attack’ against the civilian population. It presents the arguments that insurgent forces have used to justify their attacks and challenges their rationale, arguing that these are in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

• Setting an Example? : Counter-Terrorism Measures in Spain

  21 February 2005
  After M-11 bombings in Madrid, Spain’s strict antiterrorism measures, shaped by years of grappling with ETA violence, have been applied to all those arrested for alleged links to al-Qaeda as well as for alleged participation in the events of M-11. Under these measures, spelled out in Spain’s Code of Criminal Procedure, the detainees may be held in incommunicado detention for up to four years. During that period, detainees are held in isolation and do not have the right to counsel from the outset of detention or to a lawyer of their own choosing. They are assigned a legal aid attorney, who must be present at all interrogations and statements before a judge, but with whom they may not consult in private, either before or after these events. The legal aid attorney is unable to address the detainee directly, either to ask questions or provide legal advice. Under these restrictions, the role of the defense attorney is reduced to that of a silent witness. Although incommunicado detainees are technically under judicial supervision, in practice the competent judge does not see the detainee until he or she has spent three, or even five, days in police custody. Judges may -and often do- impose secrecy, or secreto de sumario, on the investigation and judicial proceedings, in which case defense attorneys do not have access to critical information regarding the charges against their clients or the evidence against them, including the full grounds for remand to pre-trial detention. The conditions of detention does not respect the inherently dignity of all persons deprived of their liberty, since they are kept shoeless and in underground cells without natural light.