Human Rights Watch is disturbed by the Italian authorities’ reliance upon diplomatic assurances from Tunisia to justify Saadi’s deportation as being consistent with its human rights obligations. Our research strongly indicates that assurances against torture and ill-treatment do not provide an effective safeguard for persons at risk of such abuse upon return. Such assurances are inherently unreliable and practically unenforceable. Their growing use in the Council of Europe region and elsewhere threatens to undermine the ban on torture and the nonrefoulement obligation.

Human Rights Watch raises serious concerns about the Sudanese government’s failure to comply with its obligations to execute arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In an open letter to the committee that recently gave an “International Forgiveness Award” to the prime minister for his government’s treatment of drug users, Human Rights Watch and more than 50 other organizations called on the committee to strip Thaksin of the award.