Most Deaths From Suicides or in Botched Escapes
The high death toll of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, from unnatural causes, shows the urgent need to improve their working conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the official steering committee tasked with improving the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon to investigate the root causes of these deaths and develop a concrete national strategy to reduce them....
Assessment on Returns to Iraq Amongst the Iraqi Refugee Population in Syria (UNHCR Syria, April 2008) [text]
Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2008. Special Focus: In the Shadow of War (Plan International, May 2008) [text]
Beyond the School Gates: Supporting Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Secondary School (Refugee Council, May 2008) [text]
Hidden Cork: Perspectives of...
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Justice for Attacks on Civilians and Summary Killings Key for Future Stability
Lebanese authorities should investigate killings of civilians and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during last week’s fighting, Human Rights Watch said today. Lebanon’s political leaders, meeting in Qatar to try to resolve their differences, should support impartial judicial investigations and not try to shield their supporters....
Labor Day Campaign Challenges Employers to ‘Put Yourself in Her Shoes’
Lebanese employers, placement agencies, and the Lebanese authorities should improve the treatment of domestic workers by ensuring fair contracts, timely payment of wages, and a weekly day’s leave, Human Rights Watch said today, on the eve of Labor Day. Human Rights Watch is launching a campaign to highlight the often invisible abuses that many women who are domestic workers suffer in Lebanon....
Amnesty International et al., "The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion," A Joint Agency Report (Oxfam, March 2008) [access]
Baraka, H., “Palestinians in Lebanon: Chains of Misery (Bound by the Law and the Market),” FMRS Working Paper, no. 9 (Forced Migration & Refugee Studies, American University in Cairo, Feb. 2008) [text]
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., "The Refugee, the Sovereign and the Sea: EU...
from The Daily StarReport notes regional disparitiesBEIRUT: An international study estimates that the poverty ratio in Lebanon is around 28.5 of the population, accounting for almost a million Lebanese, with 8 percent of the population, or almost 300,000 individuals, living under conditions of extreme poverty. These figures were disclosed by the International Poverty Center (IPC), an institute jointly supported by the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Program."This means that the ratio of the nonpoor in Lebanon is at 71.5 percent. This level compares well to that prevailing around 10 years ago in 1997, as national accounts statistics suggest that the growth in real per-capita private consumption...
Several recent reports review the situation of Iraqi refugees generally and in neighboring countries:
General: "Iraq: Growing Needs Amid Continuing Displacement," Forced Migration Review, no. 29 (Nov. 2007) [text]
Egypt: "Iraqi Refugees in Egypt," Forced Migration Review, no. 29 (Nov. 2007) [text]
Jordan: Study of Iraqis in Jordan (Fafo, Nov. 2007) [access]
Lebanon: Rot Here or Die There:...
Lebanese authorities arrest Iraqi refugees without valid visas and detain them indefinitely to coerce them to return to Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....
Addressing Internal Displacement in Peace Processes, Peace Agreements and Peace-Building (Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Sept. 2007) [text]
Developing Media in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations (USIP, Oct. 2007) [text]
Exiled and Suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (Amnesty International, Oct. 2007) [text]
Human Rights Report, 1 April to 30 June 2007 (UN...
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Investigation Criticizes Wartime Conduct
Human Rights Watch today canceled a news conference planned for Thursday, August 30, 2007 in Beirut, citing reports by Hezbollah-controlled media about planned demonstrations to prevent the scheduled event at the Crowne Plaza hotel, and the hotel’s decision to disallow the news conference....
Attacks on Northern Israel Violated Laws of War
During the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately and at times deliberately at civilian areas in northern Israel, killing at least 39 civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch said that Hezbollah’s justifications for its attacks on Israeli towns – as a response to indiscriminate Israeli fire into southern Lebanon and to draw Israel into a ground war – had no legal basis under the laws of war....
DR Congo: A Regional Analysis (WriteNet, July 2007) [text]
EU needs common policy on asylum (ISN Security Watch, 31 July 2007) [text]
The New Myth about Climate Change (Foreign Policy, August 2007) [text]
Peace and Conflict 2008 (CIDCM, 27 July 2007) [access]
- Chapter extracts, supplemental materials, and executive summary provided.
Real-time evaluation of UNHCR's IDP operation in Uganda...
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Government Must Prevent Further Anti-Palestinian Violence
The Lebanese government should launch an impartial investigation into a violent attack last week on Palestinian demonstrators by army forces and Lebanese civilians that left two Palestinians dead and at least 28 injured, Human Rights Watch said today. Military personnel responsible for unlawful use of force and civilians who attacked demonstrators should be held accountable....
The Lebanese army and internal security forces have arbitrarily detained and physically abused some Palestinian men fleeing the fighting in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, Human Rights Watch said today....
Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam Must Protect Civilians in Nahr al-Bared
Civilians in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp have been killed and wounded in escalating clashes between the Lebanese army and the Palestinian armed faction Fatah al-Islam, Human Rights Watch said today....
(updated 15 May)
A Comprehensive European Migration Policy (EU, May 2007) [text]
Forced Evictions - Towards Solutions? Second Report of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions to the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT (AGFE, 2007) [text]
Human tide: the real migration crisis (Christian Aid, May 2007) [text]
International Human Rights Research Guide (GlobaLex, March 2007) [text]
Iraq...
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First Confirmed Use of Weapon Type
Hezbollah fired cluster munitions into civilian areas in northern Israel during the recent conflict, Human Rights Watch reported today. This is the first time that Hezbollah’s use of these controversial weapons has been confirmed....
Israel Must Provide Data to Save Lives
United Nations deminers beginning emergency survey and clearance work in the south of Lebanon have identified 10 locations where Israel used artillery-delivered cluster munitions during the recent hostilities, Human Rights Watch reported today. Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon have inspected two of those sites in the village of Kfar Roummane....
Civilians and Aid Work Endangered by Dud Ordnance
Massive amounts of unexploded ordnance (UXO) resulting from 33 days of heavy fighting in Lebanon threaten civilian life and limb, Human Rights Watch said today. These deadly remnants of war, including large air-dropped bombs, artillery shells, missiles and cluster submunitions, pose a danger to displaced civilians returning to southern Lebanon and relief organizations working to distribute humanitarian aid....
Failure to Condemn Abuses by All Parties Damages Credibility
By adopting a politicized resolution that looks only at Israeli abuses in the current conflict, the Human Rights Council undermined its credibility and wasted an opportunity to protect civilians in the region, Human Rights Watch said today. The council decided to establish a commission of experts to investigate deadly attacks by Israel, but took no action with regard to Hezbollah’s murderous abuses. The council concluded a special session today in Geneva....
Body Should Urge Investigation of Wartime Abuses by All Parties
The draft resolution before the U.N. Human Rights Council on the situation in Lebanon is a politicized and one-sided initiative that will do nothing to protect the victims of violence in this conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. To make a difference, the council must condemn violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both Israel and Hezbollah, and call for the U.N. Secretary-General to establish an international investigation of those abuses. The council convenes a special session today in Geneva to address the conflict....
The United Nations should immediately launch an international investigation into civilian deaths in Lebanon and northern Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded that the effects of the conflict on civilians in Lebanon and Israel require a comprehensive investigation....
Rocket Attacks on Civilians in Israel Are War Crimes
Hezbollah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. Entering the fourth week of attacks, such rockets have claimed 30 civilian lives, including six children, and wounded hundreds more....
Independent International Inquiry Required
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) inquiry into the July 30 killing of at least 28 civilians in Qana is incomplete and legally misguided, and contradicts eyewitness testimony, Human Rights Watch said today. The findings underline the need for an independent international inquiry into what took place....
Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes
Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes....
International Inquiry Needed into Israeli Air Strike
A preliminary Human Rights Watch investigation into the July 30 Israeli air strike in Qana found that 28 people are confirmed dead thus far, among them 16 children, Human Rights Watch said today....
Indiscriminate Bombing in Lebanon a War Crime
Responsibility for the Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 54 civilians sheltering in a home in the Lebanese village of Qana rests squarely with the Israeli military, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians....
Updated July 26, 2006
Since July 12, when Hezbollah launched an attack on Israeli positions killing eight Israeli soldiers and capturing two, there have been consistent and intense hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in which civilians in Lebanon and Israel have overwhelmingly been the victims....
Anti-personnel Ball Bearings Meant to Harm “Soft” Targets
Hezbollah's attacks in Israel on Sunday and Monday were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today....