• UK: Accountability Still Needed on Libya Case
    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.
  • Kazakhstan: Growing Crackdown on Free Speech
    Dec 13, 2012
    The Kazakh government should end its crackdown on independent media outlets and opposition groups. The authorities appear to be targeting media and opposition groups that most extensively covered violence a year ago in Zhanaozen, in western Kazakhstan, and its aftermath.
  • Iran: Activists Fleeing Assault on Civil Society
    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.
  • US: Release Report that Addresses CIA Torture
    Dec 13, 2012
    The US Senate intelligence committee’s long-awaited review of the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret detention and interrogation program after September 11, 2001 should promptly be declassified and released.
  • Iraq: Protect Palestinians in Iraqi Prisons
    Dec 13, 2012
    Iraqi authorities should investigate allegations of torture and unfair trials of Palestinians in Iraqi prisons.A recently concluded conference in Baghdad attended by the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, addressed concerns about Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but did not examine allegations of serious abuses against Palestinians in Iraqi custody.
  • Bangladesh: Retrial Needed in Sayedee Case
    Dec 13, 2012
    Frequent changes to the three-judge panel in the war crimes trial of Delwar Hossain Sayedee mean that a fair trial is no longer possible and a new trial should be held.
  • Brazil: Rousseff Should Condemn Russian Crackdown
    Dec 12, 2012
    President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil should express concern about the crackdown on civil society in Russia when she meets with President Vladimir V. Putin.
  • Egypt: Investigate Brotherhood’s Abuse of Protesters
    Dec 12, 2012

    Egypt’s public prosecutor should investigate the detention and abuse of several dozen anti-government protesters in Cairo by Muslim Brotherhood members on December 5 and 6, 2012. At least 49 protesters opposed to President Mohamed Morsy were unlawfully held outside the Ettihadiya presidential palace gate, an area then occupied by the Muslim Brotherhood and overseen by riot police, detainees and witnesses told Human Rights Watch. The detentions followed armed clashes that resulted in the deaths of 10 people, mostly Muslim Brotherhood members, and injuries to 748 more, according to the Health Ministry.

  • Israel: Stop Raids on West Bank Rights Groups
    Dec 12, 2012
    The Israeli military should immediately return property seized from the offices of Palestinian human rights and civil society groups in the West Bank and compensate them for damages in the absence of any lawful justification for the raids.
  • Syria: Incendiary Weapons Used in Populated Areas
    Dec 12, 2012

    The Syrian military has used air-delivered incendiary bombs in at least fourlocations across Syria since mid-November 2012.