Reports

“Death Was Everywhere”

Arbitrary Detention, Killings, and Forced Recruitment by the M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force

The 78-page report, “‘Death Was Everywhere’: Arbitrary Detention, Killings, and Forced Recruitment by the M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force,” documents large-scale roundups and arrests in North and South Kivu provinces in eastern Congo, as well as grave abuses against detainees at the Rumangabo and Tshanzu training camps in North Kivu, between mid-2024 and December 2025. M23 fighters, backed by Rwandan military personnel, have committed murder, torture, corporal punishment, and used forced labor and child soldiers, researchers found. These abuses are war crimes and should be investigated as possible crimes against humanity.

M23 fighters stand guard as people board a truck
A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" in front of a line of soldiers

World Report 2026

Previous World Reports

Search

  • July 1, 1994

    The Facts Speak for Themselves

    The Preliminary Report on Disappearances of the National Commissioner for the Protection of Human Rights in Honduras

    Battalion 3-16, a clandestine military death squad originally trained and equipped by the CIA, is synonymous with torture, murder and disappearance in Honduras. The nightmare began in August 1980, when twenty-five Honduran army officers were flown to a desert air strip in the southwestern U.S. to spend six months learning interrogation techniques.
  • June 1, 1994

    Restrictions on Freedom of the Press in Romania

    Despite the considerable progress that has been made to ensure an independent press both in practice and in law, there is troubling evidence of official harassment of journalists whose views are critical of the ruling powers, ranging from selective denial of press credentials to the imprisonment of a journalist who wrote an allegory considered defamatory of the President of Romania.
  • June 1, 1994

    Civilian Devastation

    Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan

    Since 1983, the civil war in southern Sudan has claimed the lives of some 1.3 million civilians as a result of targeted killings, indiscriminate fire, or starvation and disease. Both government and rebel forces are culpable as they wage war in total disregard for the welfare of civilians, violating almost every rule of war applicable in an internal armed conflict.
  • June 1, 1994

    Torture and Ill-Treatment

    Israel’s Interrogation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories

    Despite the historic peace process that is under way in the Middle East, Israel’s interrogation agencies in the occupied territories have continued to engage in a systematic pattern of torture and ill-treatment. Well over 100,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the intifada in 1987.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De León Carpió’s First Year

    The people of Guatemala have suffered savage repression at the hands of security forces, civil patrols, and guerrillas waging a thirty-year civil war. Their villages were razed and tens of thousands disappeared — presumably murdered — their bodies occasionally discovered in clandestine graves throughout the highlands.
  • June 1, 1994

    Human Rights in Guatemala During President De Leon Carpio's First Year

    The breathtaking political changes of 1993, which brought a well-respected governmental human rights advocate into the presidency of Guatemala, have one year later degenerated into turmoil and dashed hopes, with little to show for the promise that the new government appeared to bring.
  • June 1, 1994

    War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina

    U.N. Cease-Fire Won't Help Banja Luka

    Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia-Hercegovina after Sarajevo, is the scene of much of the most severe and systematic “ethnic cleansing”: torture, murder, rape, beatings, harassment, de jure discrimination, intimidation, expulsion from homes, confiscation of property, bombing of businesses, dismissal from work, outlawing of all scripts except the Cyrillic in public institutions, and
  • June 1, 1994

    A Matter of Power

    State Control of Women’s Virginity in Turkey

    An investigation of the prevalence of forcible virginity control exams and the role of the government in conducting or tolerating such exams, this report cites several separate incidents in the spring of 1992 when young females committed suicide after authorities ordered them to submit to examinations of their hymens.
  • June 1, 1994

    Restrictions on Press Freedom in the Slovak Republic

    Heightened political tension has been characterized by physical attacks on journalists critical of the former Meciar government. HRW/Helsinki urges the interim government to give special consideration to the concerns outlined in this report and to disassociate itself from the media policies of its predecessor in order to create an environment in which the independent press can flourish.
  • May 1, 1994

    Unsettled Business

    Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency

    Under former President Aylwin's four-year “transitional” administration, Chile took notable steps toward consolidating democracy, reestablishing civil and individual rights, and healing the wounds caused by decades of political strife and gross human rights violations under military rule.
  • May 1, 1994

    Denying Ethnic Identity

    The Macedonians of Greece

    Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up a large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally-recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted; several Macedonians have been prosecuted and convicted for the peaceful expression of their views.
  • May 1, 1994

    The Medan Demonstrations and Beyond

    In April 1994, tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in Medan, Indonesia, demanding higher wages, improved benefits and freedom of association. Notable for their size and anti-Chinese violence, the protests underscored the Indonesian government's urgent need to address worker's rights issues.