• Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Facing Death Penalty
    Press release
    Dec 22, 2012
    Saudi authorities should immediately drop all charges against the detained editor of a website created to foster debate about religion and religious figures in Saudi Arabia
  • Syria: Strong Coalition Message Against Targeting Civilians
    Press release
    Dec 21, 2012

    The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) sent a clear signal that targeting civilians violates the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said today. The coalition’s statement on December 19, 2012, condemned attacks on civilians, regardless of their nationality. 

  • Tunisia: Stop Undermining Judicial Decision
    Press release
    Dec 21, 2012
    Tunisia’s justice minister should ensure the immediate release of Sami Fehri, the director of the privately owned Attounissia TV channel. Fehri is being held despite a decision by the highest court in Tunisia on November 28, 2012, to quash his indictment and detention order
  • Libya: Halt Military Trial of Ex-Transition Chief
    Press release
    Dec 20, 2012
    Libyan authorities should immediately cancel the impending trial of the former National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdeljalil in front of a military court.
  • Israel/Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Media
    Press release
    Dec 20, 2012
    Four Israeli attacks on journalists and media facilities in Gaza during the November 2012 fighting violated the laws of war by targeting civilians and civilian objects that were making no apparent contribution to Palestinian military operations
  • Time for an Anti-discrimination Law
    Commentary
    Dec 16, 2012
    Left unchecked, Lebanon’s sectarian dynamics have spread like a cancer across public administrations. Today, the simplest public appointment is subject to sectarian horse-trading with the predictable outcome that qualifications are rarely the main selection factor. Take the recent appointment of a six-member committee to oversee and regulate the oil and gas sector. Instead of focusing on expertise, the government focused on ensuring that the appointees came from the following six communities: Shia, Sunni, Druze, Maronite, Greek Catholic, and Greek Orthodox. Tough luck for any oil expert who may belong to the other 12 religious communities recognized in Lebanon.
  • UK: Accountability Still Needed on Libya Case
    Press release
    Dec 14, 2012
    The UK government’s compensation to a Libyan dissident over its complicity in his torture and rendition provides some relief but does not absolve it of the duty to investigate.
  • Joint Letter to States on UNGA’s Final Vote on Human Rights in Iran
    Letter
    Dec 14, 2012
  • Iran: Activists Fleeing Assault on Civil Society
    Press release
    Dec 13, 2012
    The space in Iran for civil society has been shrinking since the crackdown following the disputed presidential election in 2009, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Three-and-a-half years after government forces brutally suppressed largely peaceful anti-government demonstrations, hundreds of activists have sought temporary refuge and an uncertain future in neighboring Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan in the face of harassment and detention at home.
  • Kaveh Kermanshahi, Iranian Activist
    Media spotlight
    Dec 13, 2012
    The Iranian activist Kaveh Kermanshahi was free on bail in 2010 when an Iranian court sentenced him to four years in prison for his work on Kurdish and women’s rights. Kermanshahi, who was 26 at the time, decided he couldn’t return to prison, where he had been tortured, interrogated, and held in solitary confinement for four months after he was arrested earlier that year. He decided to leave Iran for Iraqi Kurdistan.