Since 2003, large numbers of Chinese citizens have been held incommunicado for days or months in secret, unlawful detention facilities known as “black jails” by state agents who violate detainees’ rights with impunity.
The verdict expected Wednesday in a landmark case may present a historic legal challenge to the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) rendition program.
The Iranian Judiciary should immediately quash the convictions that have been handed down by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran since the end of September against defendants accused of inciting post-election unrest.
The Bangladeshi government should investigate and prosecute the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers who on October 22, 2009, arrested and allegedly tortured F.M. Masum, a journalist at the New Age newspaper.
Human Rights Watch writes to Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Rt Hon David Miliband, on the consequences of the UK and Ethiopian governments signing the Memorandum of Understanding which would do little to curb acts of torture in Ethiopia.
Natalia Estemirova was Chechnya's great champion of human rights until her kidnap and murder last month. On the 40th day after her death, her friend Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch commemorates a uniquely courageous and selfless woman.
British forces did of course invade, occupy and govern part of Iraq and Saddam's torture chambers were shut down. But the evidence has grown that they were replaced with new forms of abuse of detainees, not only by the US but also by the British.
