Human Rights Watch

This report identifies the protection of women and girls as the key to addressing the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The report notes the persistent negative impact of customary law upon women, particularly in the areas of domestic violence and property ownership and finds that legal and judicial remedies for women in these situations are insufficient. The report contains recommendations for policy responses to the gender-based human rights abuses which are linked to AIDS.

This document reviews the spread of the AIDS epidemic, its disproportionate impact upon women and girls, and the failure of governments to enact appropriate policies to respond to this impact. The paper reviews key human rights issues including domestic violence, sexual abuse and the rights of property ownership and links the violations of these rights to the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. The report concludes by outlining key areas of legal reform, policy initiatives, and public education so governments could better respond to the impact of HIV/AIDS on women.

This report documents the torture, rape and other serious human rights violations by Kenyan Security Forces in the Mandera Triangle. Human Rights Watch tracks the joint police-military operation launched by the Kenyan government in October 2008 that was planned as a deliberate attack on the local civilian population. The report reveals that over the course of several days, the Kenyan army and police targeted 10 towns where members of the security forces beat and tortured men and raped women in their own homes.

UTL

This report " is designed to provide an overview of the state of women's human rights in 1997. It focuses in particular on the problems of violence and discrimination against women as committed and tolerated by states and is drawn from the work of Human Rights Watch in these areas over the past year." The report concludes that the political rhetoric surrounding women's human rights rarely produced significant action at either the national or international levels.

"This report is a compilation of investigations by Human Rights Watch from 1990 to 1995 on women's human rights violations. It is based on the work of many staff members and consultants of the Women's Rights Project and the regional divisions of Human Rights Watch, who researched and wrote the initial reports from which the case studies in this volume are adapted". Chapter 7 of the report deals with reproductive and sexual rights in general. In addition, Chapter 7 contains a discussion and analysis of forced virginity exams in Turkey, as well as abortion law in Ireland and Poland.

Despite statements condemning the practice, the Turkish government has failed to adequately prohibit forcible viriginity control exams or to punish state agents who are involved. This report of Human Rights Watch follows from a mission to Turkey in 1993 to investigate this problem. It begins by briefly outlining the social and legal context within which this practice is found. It then outlines the