The 49-page report, “No One Is Spared: Abuses against Older People in Armed Conflict,” describes patterns of abuses documented by Human Rights Watch between 2013 and 2021 against older people affected by armed conflicts in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mali, Mozambique, Nagorno-Karabakh, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. The report also draws on the serious protracted violence in two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, Myanmar security force atrocities against older ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the experiences of older refugees in Lebanon displaced by conflict in Syria.
The 78- page report, “‘What Crime Was I Paying for? ’Abuses by South Sudan’s National Security Service” looks in depth at the patterns of abuse by the National Security Service between 2014 and 2020, and at the atmosphere of fear it creates. Human Rights Watch research identified the obstacles to justice for these abuses, including denying due process for detainees, the lack of any meaningful judicial or legislative oversight of the agency, legal immunity for NSS agents, and ultimately a lack of political will to address these widespread practices. These abuses have left victims with long-term physical and mental health conditions.
Escalating Violence and Abuses in South Sudan’s Equatorias
This report documents the spreading violence and serious abuses against civilians in the Greater Equatoria region in the last year. The report focuses on two areas: Kajo Keji county, in the former Central Equatoria state, and Pajok, a town in the former Eastern Equatoria state.
Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in South Sudan
This 65-page report names more than 15 commanders and officials from both the government Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the rebel SPLA-in Opposition, and their allies who have used child soldiers. The report is based on interviews with 101 child soldiers who were either forcibly recruited or joined forces to protect themselves and their communities. They said they lived for months without enough food, far away from family, and were thrown into terrifying gun battles in which they were injured and saw friends killed. Children also expressed deep regret that they had lost time they should have spent in school.
Destruction of Villages, Killings, and Sexual Violence in Unity State South Sudan
Thise 42-page report is based on more than170 interviews in June and July with survivors and witnesses. More than 125 of these were displaced by fighting or attacks on their villages by government troops or allied militia from the Bul Nuer ethnic group. Human Rights Watch documented shocking accounts of about 60 unlawful killings of civilian women, men, and children, including the elderly. Some were hanged and others shot, and others were burned alive. Interviewees were selected randomly and the number of cases documented by Human Rights Watch almost certainly represents only a fraction of the total.
Advancing Prosecutions for Serious Crimes Committed in South Sudan’s New War
This 38-page report draws from interviews with South Sudanese judges, prosecutors, private lawyers, victims, government officials, nongovernmental groups, UN staff, and foreign diplomats in October 2014 to explain why justice is needed, and makes recommendations to ensure perpetrators are held to account.
Israel’s Coercion of Eritrean and Sudanese Asylum Seekers to Leave Israel
This 83-page report documents how Israel’s convoluted legal rules thwart Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers’ attempts to secure protection under Israeli and international law.
The 92-page report documents how widespread killings of civilians, often based on their ethnicity, and mass destruction and looting of civilian property, have defined the conflict.
Abuses Against Civilians in South Sudan’s Pibor County
This 45-page report documents 24 incidents of unlawful killings of almost 100 members of the Murle ethnic group between December 2012 and July 2013, constituting serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Murder and deliberate targeting of civilians during an armed conflict constitute war crimes.
The 95-page report documents the consequences of child marriage, the near total lack of protection for victims who try to resist marriage or leave abusive marriages, and the many obstacles they face in accessing mechanisms of redress.
This 105-page report documents violations of due process rights, patterns of wrongful deprivation of liberty, and the harsh, unacceptable prison conditions in which detainees live. The research was done during a 10-month period before and after South Sudan’s independence, on July 9, 2011.
Rights Violations in the April 2010 Sudan Elections
This 32-page report documents numerous rights violations across Sudan by both northern and southern authorities in the period leading up to, during, and following the April elections.
This 15-page report highlights a recent surge in ethnic violence and the failure of the government of Southern Sudan and the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to protect civilians.
This 44-page report documents the most pressing human rights challenges facing the SPLM-led Government of Southern Sudan. The problems include an inability to protect civilians effectively from armed attacks and violence, a failure to address abuses by security forces, and a weak justice system.
More than a year after the Sudanese government and southern-based rebels signed the peace agreement that ended their 21-year war, Sudan’s ruling party has failed to undertake promised reforms that would help end human rights abuses throughout the country, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.
