World Report 2015 von Human Rights Watch, 29.1.2015 (engl. Originalfassung)
World Report 2015 is Human Rights Watch’s 25th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from the end of 2013 through November 2014.
The book is divided into two main parts: an essay section, and country-specific chapters.
In his introductory essay, “Tyranny’s False Comfort: Why Rights Aren’t Wrong in Tough Times,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth reflects on a year so tumultuous, “it can seem as if the world is unraveling.” The rise of Islamic extremists, the retreat of hoped-for gains after the Arab uprisings, and the creeping frost of Cold War-style tensions, he writes, have prompted many governments to view human rights as a “luxury for less trying periods.” But, he says, retreating from such ideals and falling back on established relationships with strongmen, as many influential governments and important international actors have done, is both myopic and counterproductive. Surveying several of the year’s most daunting security challenges—including the rise of the extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS), China’s crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang, and Mexico’s abuse-riddle war on drugs—Roth stresses the important role that human rights violations played in fomenting and aggravating those crises. He argues that ending and redressing those violations is essential if sustainable solutions are to be found and affected societies put on a firmer foundation.
Until the summer of Snowden in 2013—when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed details of the agency’s previously secret spying programs—international momentum and commitment to global Internet freedom had been building. That movement has since been derailed by revelations that the United States and United Kingdom have been engaging in mass surveillance—a practice widely condemned, but also increasingly emulated by other countries. The result, warns Cynthia Wong in “Internet at a Crossroads: How Government Surveillance Threatens How We Communicate,” could be a “truly Orwellian” scenario in which “every online search, electronic contact, email, or transaction is stored away” in government databases, vulnerable to misuse. With fundamental human rights—including freedom of expression, association, and information—on the VIIIline, Wong insists that privacy and surveillance remain on the human rights agenda of the global community, and that various United Nations institutions, as well as Germany, Brazil, and other countries that are taking up the mantle of Internet freedom, continue to pressure the US and UK to implement meaningful reforms.
Most civilians killed or wounded in warfare today are the victims of explosive weapons—a lethal range of munitions that include aircraft bombs, mortars, artillery, rockets, barrel bombs, and ballistic missiles— detonated in populated areas. In “Deadly Cargo: Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas,” Steve Goose and Ole Solvang provide a stark picture of the devastating human and physical damage caused by these weapons in such environments, where flying shrapnel finds easy targets. In the past two years alone, explosive weapons have maimed and killed tens of thousands of people—mostly civilians—in attacks that often violate inter- national law. Noting building international momentum to address the issue, Goose and Solvang call on countries to—among other steps—cease using such weapons, especially those with wide area effects, in populated areas, as well as review national policies that outline how and when they are deployed. “Curbing their use,” they write, “would have a bigger impact on the protection of civilians during armed conflict than anything else we could do.”
Finally, in “Raising the Bar: Mega-Sporting Events and Human Rights,” Minky Worden highlights the contradiction between the lofty ideals surrounding the Olympics and other large-scale sporting events, and the often-grim rights-abusing reality on the ground. Russia’s 2014 Sochi Olympics, for example, resulted in forced evictions, violations of workers’ rights, a crackdown on civil society and journalists, and anti-LGBT discrimination; construction in Qatar related to the 2022 World Cup has resulted in the death of hundreds of South Asians working in a highly abusive construction sector. With just two countries in the running to host the 2022 Winter Olympics—Kazakhstan and China, both flagrant human rights abusers—the International Olympic Committee, Worden says, faces a “crisis of choice” that provides the impetus for the IOC and other international sporting bodies to finally reform a system “that for too-long has rewarded human rights abusers while often creating misery for local populations.”
The rest of the volume consists of individual country entries, each of which identifies significant human rights issues, examines the freedom of local human rights defenders to conduct their work, and surveys the response of key international actors, such as the UN, the European Union, the US, and various regional and international organizations and institutions.
The report reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff undertook in 2014, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question. It also reflects the work of our advocacy team, which monitors policy developments and strives to persuade governments and international institutions to curb abuses and promote human rights. Human Rights Watch publications, issued throughout the year, contain more detailed accounts of many of the issues addressed in the brief summaries in this volume. They can be found on the Human Rights Watch website, www.hrw.org.
As in past years, this report does not include a chapter on every country where Human Rights Watch works, nor does it discuss every issue of importance. The absence of a particular country or issue often simply reflects staffing limitations and should not be taken as commentary on the significance of the problem. There are many serious human rights violations that Human Rights Watch simply lacks the capacity to address.
The factors we considered in determining the focus of our work in 2014 (and hence the content of this volume) include the number of people affected and the severity of abuse, access to the country and the availability of information about it, the susceptibility of abusive forces to influence, and the importance of addressing certain thematic concerns and of reinforcing the work of local rights organizations.
The World Report does not have separate chapters addressing our thematic work but instead incorporates such material directly into the country entries. Please consult the Human Rights Watch website for more detailed treatment of our work on children’s rights, women’s rights, arms and military issues, business and human rights, health and human rights, disability rights, international justice, terrorism and counterterrorism, refugees and displaced people, and lesbian, gay, bi- sexual, and transgender people’s rights, and for information about our international film festivals.
Die vollständige Studie finden Sie hier (pdf).