• Bahrain: Human Rights Body Should Target Repression
    May 20, 2012
    Press release
    United Nations member states should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable human rights record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on May 21, 2012. The international community should push Bahrain to adopt specific measures to ensure free expression and peaceful assembly, end torture, free political prisoners, and establish credible accountability mechanisms for continuing abuses.
  • Egypt: Widespread Military Torture of Protesters Arrested in May
    May 19, 2012
    Press release
    Military soldiers beat and tortured protesters they arrested at a demonstration near the Defense Ministry on May 4, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today, after interviews with numerous victims and lawyers. The military also failed to protect the protesters from attacks by armed groups in the early morning hours of May 2, at the same demonstration, which began on April 27 in Cairo’s Abbasiyya neighborhood.
  • EBRD: Use Expansion to Promote Rights
    May 18, 2012
    Press release
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should articulate concrete human rights benchmarks for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia as it expands its operations into the Middle East and North Africa.
  • UN Security Council: Press Libya on Impunity
    May 16, 2012
    Press release
    Members of the United Nations Security Council should condemn attempts by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to prevent accountability for serious and ongoing crimes committed in Libya. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will brief the Security Council on his Libya investigation on May 16, 2012.
  • Jordan: Don’t Deport Eritrean Refugees to Yemen
    May 15, 2012
    Press release
    Jordanian authorities are about to deport nine detained Eritrean refugees, including a 7-year-old girl, to Yemen where they risk indefinite detention and possibly deportation to persecution in Eritrea. Jordan should allow the group to remain in Jordan and give the United Nations refugee agency access to the refugees.
  • Bahrain: Drop Charges Against Rights Activists
    May 15, 2012
    Press release
    Bahraini authorities should drop politically motivated criminal charges against Nabeel Rajab, a human rights activist, and release him immediately. Rajab is scheduled to go on trial on May 16, 2012, for “offending an official institution” – namely, the Interior Ministry, which he criticized for allegedly ignoring attacks against boys and young protesters as well as Shia-owned businesses.
  • Morocco/Western Sahara: No Action on Police Beating of Rights Worker
    May 15, 2012
    Press release
    The failure of Moroccan authorities to follow through on investigating the beating by police of a Human Rights Watch research assistant is a case study of impunity for police violence.
  • Iraq: Mass Arrests, Incommunicado Detentions
    May 15, 2012
    Press release
    Iraq’s government has been carrying out mass arrests and unlawfully detaining people in the notorious Camp Honor prison facility in Baghdad’s Green Zone, based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, family members, and government officials. The government had claimed a year ago that it had closed the prison, where Human Rights Watch had documented rampant torture.
  • Kuwait: Emir Should Sign New Detention Bill
    May 14, 2012
    Press release
    The Kuwaiti parliament passed a law on May 10, 2012, that would provide an important expansion of due process protections in Kuwait. The law would eliminate unlimited renewals of pretrial detention and significantly limit the periods allowed for pretrial investigative detentions. The Emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, should sign the bill into law.
  • NATO: Investigate Civilian Deaths in Libya
    May 14, 2012
    Press release
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has failed to acknowledge dozens of civilian casualties from air strikes during its 2011 Libya campaign, and has not investigated possible unlawful attacks, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.