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U.S.: Minimize Civilian Casualties in Iraq U.S. military forces in Iraq need to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties in the current air and ground offensive in Samara, north of Baghdad, Human Rights Watch said today. The dangers to civilians from air strikes were again demonstrated on Wednesday, when U.S. bombs killed as many as 11 civilians in the town of Balad during an anti-insurgency operation. March 17, 2006 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version Lebanon: Military Courts Used to Prosecute Dissent Drop Charges Against Lawyer Who Criticized Tribunals On Monday, one of Lebanon’s prominent human rights lawyers is due to appear before a Beirut military court on slander charges for having denounced the authorities’ use of such courts to prosecute critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. March 17, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Tunisia: Free Jailed Website Moderator Serving Four Years for Reposting Terror Threat Tunisian authorities should release a 29-year-old man imprisoned for copying an online statement from an obscure group that threatened terror attacks, and then pasting it in a discussion forum he moderated, Human Rights Watch said today. March 16, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Letter to President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali on Ali Ramzi Bettibi On this occasion, we are writing to urge the release of one such prisoner who is marking today the first anniversary of his arrest. The prisoner, Ali Ramzi Bettibi, has exhausted his legal remedies, after the Court of Appeals confirmed his conviction and the Court of Cassation declined on December 15 to quash it. March 16, 2006 Letter Also available in
Printer friendly version Letter to Members of the Knesset on the Criminal Procedure Bill 5765-2005 We are writing in regard to a bill, Criminal Procedure (Enforcement Powers –detention) (Non-Resident Detainee Suspected of Security Offense) (Temporary Provision) Law, 5765-2005, that is scheduled for debate in your Committee on March 16. March 15, 2006 Letter Also available in
Printer friendly version Iran: Political Prisoner at Risk of Execution Prison officials in Iran have repeatedly threatened to execute a sympathizer of an armed opposition group during the Persian New Year holidays that begin on March 21, Human Rights Watch said today. March 15, 2006 Press Release Printer friendly version Syria: Rights Activist Arrested Upon Return Home The Syrian government should immediately release from detention a spokesman for the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Syria, Dr Ammar Qurabi, Human Rights Watch said today. March 14, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Joint NGO Letter On the Occasion of the EU-Algeria Association Council on 20 - 21st March 2006 Human Rights Concerns at the EU-Algeria Association Council In light of the upcoming first EU-Algeria Association Council Meeting on 20-21st March, the undersigned organizations would like to draw your attention to three key human rights concerns, which we hope you will be able to address with the Algerian authorities. March 14, 2006 Letter Printer friendly version Iran: Police Attack Women’s Day Celebration Iranian police and plainclothes agents yesterday charged a peaceful assembly of women’s rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch said today. March 9, 2006 Press Release Also available in 
Printer friendly version Netherlands: Threat to Return Gay and Lesbian Iranians HRW Letter to Minister Verdonk On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I am writing to protest your proposal to lift the existing moratorium on the deportation of gay and lesbian asylum seekers to Iran--and to object in the strongest possible terms to any actual resumption of expulsions of gay and lesbian asylum seekers to Iran. March 8, 2006 Letter Printer friendly version U.K.-Algeria Deal to Deport Suspects Is Fig-Leaf for Torture The United Kingdom cannot deport security suspects at risk of torture to Algeria without violating international law. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after official talks in Algiers on February 16 that “good progress” had been made on a deportation agreement and that both countries wanted to sign “as soon as possible,” according to Reuters news agency. March 8, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Libya: Hopeful Sign as 132 Political Prisoners Freed Government Should Lift Restrictive Laws The Libyan government’s pardoning today of 132 political prisoners is a hopeful sign of reform, Human Rights Watch said. Most of them had spent more than seven years in detention, imprisoned for nonviolent activities after unfair trials. March 2, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Algeria: New Amnesty Law Will Ensure Atrocities Go Unpunished Muzzles Discussion of Civil Conflict A presidential decree in Algeria will consecrate impunity for crimes under international law and other human rights abuses, and even muzzle open debate by criminalizing public discussion about the nation’s decade-long conflict, four human rights groups cautioned today. March 1, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Libya: A Threat to Society? Arbitrary Detention of Women and Girls for “Social Rehabilitation” This 40-page report documents numerous and serious human rights abuses that women and girls suffer in "social rehabilitation" facilities in Libya. These include violations of their rights to liberty, freedom of movement, personal dignity, privacy and due process. Libyan authorities are holding many women and girls in these facilities who have committed no crime, or who have completed a sentence. Some are there for no reason other than that they were raped, and are now ostracized for staining their families’ “honor.” Officials transferred the majority of these women and girls to these facilities against their will, while those who came voluntarily did so because no genuine shelters for victims of violence exist in Libya. HRW Index No.: E1802 February 28, 2006 Report Also available in
Download PDF, 319 KB, 41 pgs Purchase online Read Press Release Iran: Alarming Increase in Executions Outlawed Opposition Member Put to Death Hojat Zamani, a member of the opposition Mojadehin Khalq Organization outlawed in Iran, was executed on February 7 at Karaj’s Gohardasht prison, Human Rights Watch said today, after a trial that did not meet international standards. February 27, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Libya: Women, Girls Locked Up Indefinitely Without Charge ‘Protective’ Facilities Serve as Places of Arbitrary Punishment The Libyan government is arbitrarily detaining women and girls indefinitely in “social rehabilitation” facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Officially portrayed as protective homes for women and girls “vulnerable to engaging in moral misconduct,” these facilities are de facto prisons. February 27, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Cartoon Controversy: Drop Criminal Charges for Publication Jordan, Yemen, Algeria Must Free Journalists The governments of Jordan, Yemen and Algeria should immediately drop criminal charges against editors and journalists who reproduced controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in their publications, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on Yemen, Algeria and Malaysia to immediately lift bans on newspapers closed in recent days for printing the caricatures. February 16, 2006 Press Release Also available in
Printer friendly version Questions and Answers on the Danish Cartoons and Freedom of Expression When Speech Offends On September 30, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed that its editors said they solicited as part of an experiment to overcome what they perceived as self-censorship reflected in the reluctance of illustrators to depict the Prophet. The cartoons were highly offensive to Muslims because Islam is understood to prohibit graphic depictions of the Prophet and because most of the depictions were extremely derogatory, for example, by associating him, and by implication all Muslims, with terrorism. February 15, 2006 Background Briefing Also available in
Printer friendly version Statement on Responses to Human Rights Watch Report on Abuses by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) In May 2005, Human Rights Watch issued a report on alleged human rights abuses committed by an Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK), inside its military camps in Iraq from 1991 to February 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. Following publication of this Human Rights Watch report, individuals associated with the MKO and others, in communications to Human Rights Watch as well as publicly on Web sites connected with the MKO, raised objections to the findings of the report. We have investigated with care the criticisms we received concerning the substance and methodology of the report, and find those criticisms to be unwarranted. February 15, 2006 Memorandum Printer friendly version Egypt: Government Frees Detained Sudanese Refugees Human Rights Watch played a key role in helping to stop the deportation of hundreds of Sudanese demonstrators who were violently removed from their Cairo encampment by Egyptian police. Approximately 3,000 Sudanese refugees and migrants lived in a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees, which had been the site of a three-month protest over living conditions. On December 30, 2005, around 4,000 Egyptian police surrounded the camp, fired water cannons into the crowd, and beat protestors. February 13, 2006 Advocacy Impact |
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