On Wednesday,  State Department spokesman Mark Toner expressed the United States' concern over Iran denying its citizens their human rights.   The statement followed the execution of two citizens Abdollah Fathi and Mohammad Fathi and reports over the upcoming execution of  Kurdish activist Habibollah Latifi. Toner called for transparency and due process in judicial proceedings and urged the Iranian government to halt executions, release political prisoners, and guarantee its citizens protection ...

On Friday, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hosted a hearing on the human rights situation in Bahrain.  The commission – chaired by James McGovern (D-MA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) – requested the testimony of the following individuals: Joe Stork, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa programs at Human Rights Watch (HRW); Maryam Al-Khawaja, Head of Foreign Relations Office at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR); ...

On Thursday, the Bahraini government tried 21 detainees for 10 different charges related to a terrorist plot constructed by opposition leaders to overthrow the monarchy.  Despite statements from the government thatthe hearing would be open to international observers, Brian Dooley from Human Rights First was denied access along with a lawyer from Frontline Defenders who was also threatened by security personnel who threatened forcibly remove her, if she did not ...

On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs held a hearing entitled “Human Rights and Democratic Reform in Iran.”  Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA) chaired the committee hearing, Senators James Risch (R-ID), Tom Udal (D-NM) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) were also present. Assistant Secretary of State Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Michael H. Posner; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State ...

Syria has dropped its bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council; Kuwait will replace it as a candidate.  Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari stated that the switch with Kuwait was not a response to building international pressure on Syria due to the governments brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.  Kuwait's ambassador to the U.N., Mansour Ayyad Alotaibi, also stated that Syria had not withdrawn its nomination for the council ...

On Tuesday, the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy and the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press held a panel discussion on the challenges facing press freedom in the 21st Century.  Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy made opening remarks while  David Killion, U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO moderated the event and introduced the following panelists:  Assistant Secretary  at the Bureau of ...

In remarks made with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her alarm at the situation in Syria and called for an immediate end to the use of violence stating that "we have to show the Syrian Government that there are consequences for this brutal crackdown that has been imposed on the Syrian people."  Minister Frattini also called for an end to the violence and for ...

On Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released a statement after President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order imposing economic sanctions against Syrian officials responsible for perpetuating human rights abuses. "Syrians are every bit as deserving of human rights and dignity as the Libyans, Tunisians, and Egyptians and the government should have met their protests with responsiveness not repression.  That the government would continue to respond to ...

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted on Friday for a mission to be sent to Syria to investigate claims of human rights violations by the Syrian government against civilians.  Twenty-six of the Council's forty-seven member states called for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to dispatch the mission while nine states voted against.  The Council requested a preliminary report and oral update to be submitted to its 17th session ...

On Tuesday, Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) issued a statement criticizing the likely selection of Syria to join the U.N. Human Rights Council.   "I am outraged yet not surprised that the UN will not clean up its act or hold these regimes accountable. The founders of the United Nations would be appalled at the degeneration of the institution for which they held such high hopes," she ...

About 200 officials from Syria's ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party have resigned in protest of the regime's violent repression of the country's protests. The defections were primarily from low-ranking officials from the Deraa area, and follows the resignation of some 30 officials in the city of Baniyas. At the United Nations, a Security Council draft resolution was condemning the crackdown was voted down by several members. Russia argued that ...

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) released a statement saying that the Syrian government has committed "international crimes - that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court."  FIDH said the international community, "must strongly condemn the gross and systematic violation of human rights by the Syrian authorities and urge them to put an immediate end to the violence."  They also called on the U.N. Security Council to ...