Amnesty International 21 March 2012 Available at UNHCR RefWorld The decision to convict and sentence six activists to community service and a fine for organizing a video screening on events in North Africa last year is a setback for freedom of expression in Zimbabwe, Amnesty International said. The court ordered the men to carry out [...]
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Zimbabwe: Six sentenced for watching Arab Spring video
Human Rights Watch March 21, 2012 Charges in Politically Motivated Case Should be Dropped The government of Zimbabwe should drop all charges against six civil society activists convicted for watching a video of Arab Spring protests in 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. The six, who alleged they were tortured to confess to planning violence, [...]
Iran: highest number of executions in 10 years
Reported at World Coalition Against the Death Penalty March 13 2012 Iran Human Rights has published its annual report on the death penalty in Iran in 2011. IHR’s international spokesperson Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam says the Iranian authorities are keeping the number of executions high because they use the death penalty as a political tool. The number [...]
Sri Lanka’s north: Recipe for renewed conflict
International Crisis Group 16 March 2012 The Sri Lankan military’s control over the political and economic life of the Northern Province is deepening the alienation and anger of northern Tamils and threatening sustainable peace. Sri Lanka’s North I: The Denial of Minority Rights and Sri Lanka’s North II: Rebuilding under the Military, the two latest reports from the [...]
Afghanistan: Afghans Dispute NATO Casualty Figures
Institute for War and Peace Reporting 13 March 2012 The shooting of 16 civilians in the southern Kandahar province came a week after anger erupted at a Kabul conference when participants disputed NATO civilian casualty figures and accused western forces of failing to punish the perpetrators. The March 4 conference held at the headquarters of [...]
Sri Lanka: Commentary on UKBA Operational Guidance Note
A commentary on the December 2011 Sri Lanka Operational Guidance Note Still Human Still Here 12 March 2012 This commentary identifies what the ‘Still Human Still Here’ coalition considers to be the main inconsistencies and omissions between the currently available country of origin information (COI) and case law on Sri Lanka and the conclusions reached [...]
Sri Lanka: post-war course is threatening future violence
International Crisis Group 1 March 2012 Sri Lanka’s post-war course is threatening future violence. As its 19th session in Geneva begins this week, the UN Human Rights Council has a chance to do something about it. Nearly three years since declaring victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has weakened democratic [...]
Afghanistan: deporting children and young people
Unattended children in Afghanistan By Iain Palmer On Free Movement blog 29 February 2012 This is the week in which Human Rights Watch reported that ‘Children deported to Kabul will face horrible risks‘ and Amnesty International reported that at least 28 children had died in the IDP camps around Kabul as result of the freezing [...]
Afghanistan-Pakistan: More Afghans crossing into Pakistan?
IRIN, UN news service 27 February 2012 In a tiny flat they have rented in Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan, Zarnab Bibi and her husband Aziz Khan* wait patiently for the phone to ring. “We are hoping to hear from an agent we have paid to take us and our [...]
Sri Lanka: New wave of abductions and dead bodies
Ground Views, 26 February 2012 In the past 5 months – October 2011 to February 2012 – there has been a disturbing rise in the number of abductions, especially in and around the capital, Colombo. Out of 29 abductions and 3 missing persons reported in media, most have not returned to their homes and families, [...]
