• Press release
    Jan 31, 2012
    A Haitian judge’s decision to dismiss the case against former president-for-life Jean-Claude Duvalier for grave human rights violations ignores Haiti’s international obligation to prosecute such crimes.
  • Commentary
    Jan 25, 2012

    As Egypt marks the first anniversary of the Jan. 25 civilian revolt that eventually toppled the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, there's no agreement – on how to celebrate or even whether rejoicing is in order.

  • Press release
    Jan 23, 2012

    A new law granting amnesty to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides violates Yemen’s international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. The sweeping law provides domestic immunity from criminal prosecution for serious international crimes such as the deadly attacks on peaceful demonstrators in 2011.

  • Press release
    Dec 30, 2011

    Saudi reform advocates have staged several protests since mid-December, 2011, despite a categorical ban on protests issued last March.. In Riyadh, Buraida, and Qatif, security forces immediately arrested the protesters, who were peacefully protesting the detention without trial of hundreds of people held for long periods in intelligence prisons.

  • Press release
    Dec 21, 2011

    Libyan authorities appear to be holding Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in good physical conditions but should allow him immediate access to a lawyer.

  • Commentary
    Nov 11, 2011

    As heartening as Tunisia's successful election was for post-revolutionary democratic transition in the Arab world, the distressing signals from Egypt indicate it has veered off course from the freedom and democracy goals of Tahrir Square. The country's military rulers have become steadily more abusive, while finding excuse after excuse to delay handing over power to civilian authorities. The Obama administration, the military's principal patron, stands by the generals as it did President Hosni Mubarak, with nary a public peep about the dangerous direction in which they're taking the country.

  • Press release
    Nov 1, 2011
    Members of the United Nations Security Council should press for the arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Sanussi by Libya or any state to which the two men might have fled. On November 2, 2011, the ICC prosecutor will brief the Security Council on his Libya investigation.
  • Commentary
    Oct 20, 2011

    The glass crunched under our boots as we walked through the abandoned compound of Muammar al-Qaddafi's military intelligence headquarters in Tripoli. It was late August, and the city had just fallen. Pancaked buildings destroyed by NATO airstrikes littered the grounds, and we entered one of the remaining undamaged buildings.

  • Press release
    Oct 20, 2011
    The end of Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule over Libya offers a unique opportunity for the country to end an extraordinarily longera of human rights abuses. Media reports say forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) or a NATO air strike wounded Gaddafi during fighting in his hometown of Sirte on October 20, 2011. He died soon after, according to these sources.
  • Press release
    Oct 19, 2011
    Many parties competing in Tunisia’s election for a constituent assembly on October 23, 2011, believe that basic freedoms should be protected, but they disagree about circumstances under which freedoms could be limited, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper issued today. The paper was prepared to help voters make decisions based on the parties’ stances on basic human rights and freedoms.