• A man is overcome with grief in front of a destroyed mosque in Taftanaz where local residents gathered those killed after government forces attacked the town on April 3 and 4. According to local activists, at least 65 people were killed during the two-day attack.
    © 2012 Robert King/Polaris
    Syria: War Crimes in Idlib During Peace Negotiations
    Syrian government forces killed at least 95 civilians and burned or destroyed hundreds of houses during a two-week offensive in northern Idlib governorate shortly before the ceasefire. The attacks happened in late March and early April, as United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan was negotiating with the Syrian government to end the fighting.
More news »
Subscribe to content feed

Reports

Middle East/N. Africa

  • Egypt: New Law Keeps Military Trials of Civilians
    May 7, 2012

    Egypt’s parliament on May 6, 2012, approved amendments to the Code of Military Justice that failed to end the unprecedented expansion of military trials of civilians, despite pleas for reform from the legal and human rights communities. In 2011 more than 12,000 civilians, including children, faced unfair military trials which fail to provide the basic due process rights of civilian courts, more than the number of military trials of civilians during 30 years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak.

  • Bahrain: Prison Island
    May 7, 2012
    Bahrain is almost broken, but not entirely so. The government is persecuting its critics, but not killing them on a large scale as in Syria. As everyone we met told us, Bahrain is a small country: The protagonists on both sides know each other, and there still seems to be room for compromise. But the window is rapidly closing, and once it shuts – as in Syria – it will be hard to turn back.
  • Yemen: Detained, Tortured, and Disappeared
    May 7, 2012
    Yemeni security forces have arbitrarily detained dozens of demonstrators and other perceived opponents of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since anti-government protests began in February 2011. Human Rights Watch documented 37 cases in which security forces have held people for days, weeks, or months without charge, including 20 who were picked up or remained behind bars after the November 2011 power transfer.
  • Kuwait: Court Victory for Women’s Rights
    May 6, 2012
    A court decision on April 22, 2012, cancelling a ministerial order barring women from entry-level jobs at the Justice Ministry is an important victory against legally-sanctioned discrimination in Kuwait. Human Rights Watch urged the Kuwaiti government to act on the decision, to guarantee women equal access to all public jobs, and to amend or repeal gender-based discriminatory provisions from all its legislation.
  • Iran: Free Students Jailed for Speaking Out
    May 5, 2012
    Iranian authorities should immediately free dozens of university students currently behind bars solely for peacefully expressing political opinions, and end harassment of student activists on university campuses throughout the country. Human Rights Watch issued the call as part of a joint campaign initiated by Iranian and international student and rights groups to highlight the government’s systematic crackdown against university students for their political activism.
  • Libya: Revoke Draconian New Law
    May 5, 2012
    Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) should immediately revoke a new law that bans insults against the people of Libya or its institutions. The law also prohibits criticism of the country’s 2011 revolution and glorification of the deposed former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
  • The invisibility of domestic workers
    May 4, 2012

    Liesl Gerntholtz, the Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, says one of the major problems they have found in their latest research (mainly in Asia and the Middle East) is that labor law does not recognize domestic workers as workers so they are therefore not well protected. 

  • Kuwait: Security Forces Forcibly Disperse Stateless Residents
    May 3, 2012

    Kuwaiti security forces arrested at least 16 stateless residents of Kuwait, known as Bidun, during a peaceful demonstration on May 1, 2012, in support of their rights to nationality. Kuwaiti authorities should respect the rights of Bidun to peaceful assembly.

  • Justice Saudi-Style – Treat “Peaceful” Dissidents as Terrorists
    May 3, 2012

    The counter-terrorism court in Saudi Arabia is wrongly targeting people who criticise government policy and religious institutions as well as those who advocate greater respect for the rule of law – says campaign group.

  • Tunisia: Reform Legal Framework to Try Crimes of the Past
    May 3, 2012
    Tunisia’s first torture case to go to trial following the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali highlights the need to address inadequacies in the legal framework for trying torture crimes. Many other cases of torture are likely to be filed against former President Ben Ali and his associates, as other victims step forward to file complaints.
more documents on this topic »