Corrections

This press release was corrected after publication to note that the Dubs amendment was adopted in May, not in July.

A correction has been made to page 67 of the report in order to more accurately reflect Human Rights Watch’s data analysis. The updated version includes the sentence, "Based on these extrapolations, the data suggests that in Texas in 2015, over 78 percent of people sentenced to incarceration for felony drug possession in Texas were convicted of a state jail felony." An earlier version of the report stated: "Based on these extrapolations, the data suggests that in Texas in 2015, over 78 percent of defendants convicted of felony drug possession were sentenced to incarceration for a state jail felony.”

A correction has been made to page 147 of the report. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Senator Rand Paul as a senator from Wyoming rather than Kentucky. The report has been changed to reflect this.

Due to an error in locating GPS coordinates on a map provided by the Israeli military authorities, a previous version of this report erroneously stated that the playing field in Ma’aleh Adumim was built on private land that had been expropriated by the Israeli authorities. In fact, the Ma’aleh Adumim field is on land that was expropriated by the Jordanian authorities in 1966 and passed to Israeli control in 1967. 

Although the Jordanian authorities originally seized the land, it came under Israeli control when Israel became the occupying power in 1967. The Israeli authorities then used the land for their own purposes to build the playing field. International humanitarian law allows an occupying power to use land in the occupied territory for its military needs or for the benefit of the population living under occupation only. Human Rights Watch has found that the Israeli construction and control of the Ma’aleh Adumim field, like the other playing fields in the settlements, did not meet that standard and that such construction therefore violates international humanitarian law. 

9/18: The original news release mistakenly listed that Hall had been charged with criminal sedition. He had actually been charged with criminal defamation.

9/19: The original news release stated that government prosecutors joined the defamation case against Hall. The National Fruit Company Limited actually filed a petition with the Bangkok criminal court directly; they accepted the case and then charged him under the Computer Crimes Act. 

An earlier version of this news release misstated the time period for the recent incendiary weapon attacks recorded in Aleppo and Idlib in Syria. Incendiary weapons have been used at least 18 times over the past nine, not six, weeks. The news release has been changed to reflect this.

An earlier version of this news release misidentified the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) as the International Drug Control Consortium (IDCC). The news release has been changed to reflect this.

An earlier version of this news release misstated that the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had identified the militia forces implicated in human rights abuses in Faryab province as Junbish forces. The news release has been changed to reflect this.

The original report incorrectly described how Israel handles security offenses involving juveniles in its courts. The following sentences were added to the report on August 3,2016.

“The Israeli military court system tries Palestinian children from the West Bank for security-related offenses, with the exception of children from East Jerusalem. As of 2009, children are tried in a designated juvenile military court, whose judges receive special training.  The military justice system, however, does not focus on rehabilitation and social reintegration for children, as provided under international law.”

This edit clarifies that children who are residents of East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank but which Israel purported to annex in 1967, are prosecuted by Israeli civilian courts, because these children are considered Israeli residents and are not subject to military rule. The earlier version also omitted reference to the juvenile court that the Israeli military established in 2009, where Palestinian children outside East Jerusalem are tried.

On July 26,2016: We replaced the sentence, “IPOA has received 4,075 complaints of police abuse across the country since it started operations in 2013. It has successfully prosecuted only 10 cases in the past three years, despite initiating at least 19 investigations against the police at the coast, in the northeast, Nyanza and Nairobi,” with “IPOA has received 6, 978 complaints of police abuse across the country since it started operations in 2013. According to IPOA, it has completed investigations in 303 cases and recommended 58 to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Of those, 23 have been taken to court as of June 2016.” This edit reflects the latest data, received by Human Rights Watch from the IPOA shortly after the publication of the report. 

We stated that, “with regard to abuses in counter terrorism operations,…IPOA had investigated at least five cases in northeastern Kenya and found sufficient evidence to recommend prosecutions, but the oversight body has yet to take any measures to ensure justice with regard to the cases.” IPOA has pointed out that it is actually still investigating six cases documented in the report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Error of Fighting Terror with Terror.  

An earlier version of this dispatch stated that the weapon used in the Orlando attack was an AR-15. Subsequent reporting has identified the primary firearm as a Sig Sauer MCX, a rifle similar in appearance to the AR-15. The dispatch has been changed to reflect this.