Protecting Human Rights in Africa: Roles and Strategies of Non-Governmental Organizations

This report is Human Rights Watch's fifteenth annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human right issues in sixty-four countries, drawing on events through November 2004. Each country entry 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 United Nations, European Union, Japan, the United States, and various regional and international organizations and institutions. The volume begins with four essays addressing human rights developments of global concern in 2004. The lead essay examines far-reaching threats to human rights that emerged during the year: large-scale ethnic cleansing in Darfur in western Sudan, and detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, symptomatic of a broader problem of torture and mistreatment of detainees by U.S. forces. It argues that the vitality of human rights defense worldwide depends on a firm response to both of these threats. International indifference and inaction in the face of continuing atrocities in Darfur have cost the lives of tens of thousands of people and damaged the human rights principle that sovereignty should not standing the way of protecting people from mass atrocities. The U.S. government’s use of torture at Abu Ghraib, though affecting far fewer people directly, reflects a larger pattern of disregard for human rights law and standards by the world's sole superpower. While the lead essay focuses on Abu Ghraib and its repercussions, the second essay a companion piece to the first, details what bas taken place in Darfur and the continuing reluctance of the V.N. Security Council and other powerful international actors to mount a decisive response.