Human Rights Watch 21 May 2013 The Afghan government should take urgent steps to halt an alarming increase in women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said today. Commitments by senior government officials to end such abuses have had little practical impact. Statistics from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry indicate that the number of women [...]
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Zambia: Stop Prosecuting People for Homosexuality
Human Rights Watch 20 May 2013 Zambian authorities should dismiss all charges and release two men arrested for engaging in homosexual acts, Human Rights Watch said. The police should immediately cease forensic anal examinations, which are intrusive, invasive and constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in violation of international law. On May 6, 2013, police in [...]
Sri Lanka: No Progress Four Years On
Human Rights Watch 20 May 2013 Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war’s end. Since the end of the 26-year-long civil war, the Sri Lankan [...]
Uganda: Stop Harassing the Media
Human Rights Watch 20 May 2013 The Ugandan government should immediately end politically motivated police intimidation of newspapers and radio stations and ensure that the media can operate freely, Human Rights Watch said today. Recent raids on two newspapers and two radio stations are linked to a legal dispute in which the police have sought [...]
Cameroon: Drop Charges Against 2 Transgender Youth
Human Rights Watch 17 May 2013 The Cameroonian authorities should drop the charges against two transgender youth rather than appealing their case to the Supreme Court, five human rights organizations said today. Jonas K. and Franky D. are being prosecuted on what the appeals court has already ruled were trumped-up charges of homosexual conduct, the [...]
Bahrain: Five Bahraini men sentenced to jail for Tweets
Amnesty International 16 May 2013 Five Bahraini men, including a lawyer, were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment by the Manama Lower Criminal Court on 15 May for allegedly insulting the King of Bahrain in messages posted on Twitter. They may be prisoners of conscience. According to information received by Amnesty International, lawyer Mahdi al-Basri (25), was arrested [...]
Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers
Human Rights Watch 16 May 2013 Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of [...]
Iraq: How Baghdad Fuels Iraq’s Sectarian Fire
Human Rights Watch 15 May 2013 The Iraqi government has hurled the country to the brink of a new civil war. In under a month, Baghdad launched a vicious assault on a Sunni protest camp, resulting in 44 deaths; executed 21 alleged Sunni terrorists in one day, and suspended the licenses of 10 satellite channels, [...]
Somalia: No forced returns to ‘volatile’ situation
Amnesty International 15 May 2013 Forcibly returning people to a volatile security situation in Somalia would violate international law, Amnesty International said as the Danish Refugee Board is due to consider returning five Somali asylum seekers. The Danish hearings on Thursday and Friday come after at least two other European states – Norway and the [...]
Eritrea: Rampant repression 20 years after independence
Amnesty International 9 May 2013 Twenty years after its independence, Eritrea’s prisons are filled with thousands of political prisoners, locked up without ever being charged with a crime, many of whom are never heard from again, Amnesty International said in a report released today. Twenty years of independence but still no freedom details how throughout [...]
