• At least a dozen houses were destroyed in an attack on the Jabal Badro neighborhood in Aleppo city on February 18, 2013.

    The Syrian government launched at least four ballistic missiles that struck populated areas in the city of Aleppo and a town in Aleppo governorate during the week of February 17, 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. The attacks killed more than 141 people, including 71 children, and caused immense physical destruction.

Reports

Middle East/N. Africa

  • Apr 30, 2013
    A Yemeni court order to investigate former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and 11 aides in connection with a March 2011 massacre of anti-government protesters is a step toward justice. On April 27, 2013, a trial court in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, ordered the probe of Saleh and other former ranking officials – including his nephews Yahya Saleh and Tareq Saleh.
  • Apr 30, 2013
    Syrian men don’t usually cry. But for Yasser, the memory of his son, Mohammed, hurt too much. Sitting in the dark inside his shop on a bustling market street in Aleppo, the 63-year-old, hunched over in his chair, kept asking me: “Why did he deserve to die that way?” Yasser’s grief over his son who was apparently executed is shared by far too many Syrians caught up in this grisly war.
  • Apr 30, 2013
    The Iranian government is increasingly violating workers’ rights to peaceful assembly and association. Dozens of labor and independent trade union activists are in prison for speaking out in defense of workers.Human Rights Watch called for the government to end the crackdown and free labor rights advocates in anticipation of International Workers’ Day on May 1, as part of a joint campaign by Iranian and international rights groups to highlight the plight of workers.
  • Apr 30, 2013
    Iraq’s media commission should immediately reverse the license suspensions for ten satellite television stations and allow them to continue broadcasting. A senior official has admitted the suspension was not according to any law, nor could the commission produce any evidence of direct incitement to violence by any of the stations, leading to the conclusion that the suspension was arbitrary.
  • Apr 30, 2013
    Prime Minister David Cameron should demand a thorough and independent investigation by the UAE authorities into credible allegations of torture by three British nationals.
  • Apr 29, 2013
  • Apr 26, 2013
    New Syrian government air and missile strikes are causing high civilian casualties in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo in violation of the laws of war. A Human Rights Watch team in northern Aleppo province has investigated recent attacks that killed scores of civilians and destroyed dozens of civilian homes without damaging any apparent opposition military targets.
  • Apr 26, 2013
    British Prime Minister David Cameron should challenge the deteriorating human rights record of the United Arab Emirates during a state visit by the country’s president to Britain next week, a coalition of seven international human rights organizations said today. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan will begin a rare state visit to the United Kingdom on 29 April, but the high-profile trip comes at a time when abuses in the Gulf state are escalating, according to rights groups.
  • Apr 25, 2013
  • Apr 25, 2013
    A striking increase in executions in Iraq points out the failure of Iraq’s justice system to meet international fair trial standards.