Discrimination in Education against Pregnant Girls and Adolescent Mothers
This report draws on extensive Human Rights Watch research on the rights of girls in Africa. Human Rights Watch examined national laws, policies, and practices that block or support pregnant girls’ and adolescent mothers’ right to primary and secondary education in all African Union (AU) member countries. Africa has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in the world. African governments should urgently adopt laws and policies to ensure that schools allow and support pregnant girls to stay in school and to return to school after having a child.
This 38-page report describes how police officers and government inspectors, often in civilian clothes without identification, mistreat street traders, including many women with children, during operations to force them off the streets.
The 13-page report describes increasing incidents of political violence and intimidation. Human Rights Watch called on the government of Angola to promptly address these concerns, and urged the Southern African Development Community and the capital's foreign diplomats to raise these issues with the government.
Sexual Violence and other Abuses against Congolese Migrants during Expulsions from Angola
This report describes an alarming pattern of human rights violations by members of Angolan security forces against Congolese migrants. Women and girls, who are often detained with their children, have been victims of sexual abuse including gang rape, sexual exploitation, and being forced to witness sexual abuse of other women and girls.
This 31-page report documents how the government took only limited steps to improve transparency after Human Rights Watch disclosed in a 2004 report that billions of dollars in oil revenue illegally bypassed the central bank and disappeared without explanation. The report details newly disclosed evidence of corruption and mismanagement and includes recommendations for reversing the pattern.
Military Detention, Torture, and Lack of Due Process in Cabinda
In this 27-page report, Human Rights Watch shows a disturbing pattern of human rights violations by the Angolan armed forces and state intelligence officials. Between September 2007 and March 2009, at least 38 people were arbitrarily arrested by the military in Cabinda and accused of state security crimes.
This 45-page report documents how the MPLA-dominated National Electoral Commission (CNE) failed to perform as an independent oversight body in those elections. The commission took no action against violations, including the ruling party's abuse of state media and resources, and obstructed the accreditation of national observers.
Forced Evictions and Insecure Land Tenure for Luanda’s Urban Poor
This 103-page report documents 18 mass evictions in Luanda that the Angolan government carried out between 2002 and 2006. In these evictions, which affected some 20,000 people in total, security forces destroyed more than 3,000 houses, and the government seized many small-scale cultivated land plots.
Rights to Freedom of Expression and Information under Angola’s New Press Law
In this 25-page report, Human Rights Watch analyses Angola’s new Press Law, which was issued in May. The report concludes that, despite improvements over previous Angolan law, the new law still contains elements that undermine press freedom. In addition, many of its crucial provisions will remain inoperable unless implementing legislation is enacted immediately.
This 39-page report documents how most families have returned to locations that still lack minimal social services, such as health care and education, let alone employment. Elderly and disabled persons, widows and female-headed households experience the worst shortfalls in government assistance, particularly in rural areas.
Two years after the April 4, 2002, ceasefire agreement between the Angolan government and the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Angola is in transition. Although no date has been set for the first national elections since 1992, these are widely expected to be held no later than 2006.
A Briefing for the 4th UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict
Throughout 2003 thousands of children were deployed as combatants, to commit abuses against civilians, as sex slaves, forced labourers, messengers, informants and servants in continuing and newly erupting conflicts. Children were usually used to perform multiple roles, and girls in particular often acted as combatants as well as being sexually exploited.
The Use of Oil Revenue in Angola and Its Impact on Human Rights
More than four billion dollars in state oil revenue disappeared from Angolan government coffers from 1997-2002, roughly equal to the entire sum the government spent on all social programs in the same period. Meanwhile, although the 27-year civil war ended in 2002, an estimated 900,000 Angolans are still internally displaced. Millions more have virtually no access to hospitals or schools.
A Call for Action on HIV/AIDS-Related Human Rights Abuses Against Women and Girls in Africa
Violence and discrimination against women and girls is fueling Africa's AIDS crisis. African governments must make gender equality a central part of national AIDS programs if they are to succeed in fighting the epidemic.
The Angolan government and the United Nations are failing to ensure the safe and voluntary return of millions of Angolans to their homes. This 29-page report documents several incidents of government authorities using violence, or the threat of violence, to drive people out of camps where they had been living sometimes for years.
Child soldiers who fought in the Angolan civil war have been excluded from demobilization programs, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. April marks the one-year anniversary of the agreement that brought peace to mainland Angola in 2002.
