The European Union and its member states should do more to help the thousands of Syrian asylum seekers trying to reach Europe as the Syrian crisis worsens and winter sets in.
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
The Cambodian government should appoint an independent commission to investigate allegations that a ruling party municipal governor shot and wounded three women workers, Human Rights Watch said today. On December 14, 2012, the Svay Rieng provincial court closed the case against then-Bavet Municipality Governor Chhouk Bandit for allegedly firing into a crowd of striking factory employees at an industrial park in Bavet’s Special Economic Zone for foreign enterprises on February 20.
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.
The upper chamber of Russia’s parliament should reject a draft law that would ban US citizens from adopting Russian children and introduce new restrictions on civil society.
The murders of Sediqi and Safi are more than just a measure of Afghanistan’s ongoing slide toward lawlessness and violence that is likely to accelerate as the international community draws down its support in concert with the departure of international combat troops by the end of 2014. They are also highly symbolic attacks on the tentative progress toward women’s rights, embodied by the Department of Women’s Affairs offices, since the U.S. invasion toppled the repressive Taliban regime in 2001.
The Turkish government should promptly stop unlawfully blocking websites. On December 18, 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled, in the case of Ahmet Yıldırım v. Turkey, that blocking Google Sites in Turkey violated the right to freedom of expression. A Turkish court had ordered the complete blocking of Google Sites because of one person’s post. But the European Court found that Turkey’s legal framework was inadequate and did not prevent abuses and arbitrary application of blocking measures.
The new law that criminalizes enforced disappearances in the Philippines is the first of its kind in Asia and a major milestone in ending this horrific human rights violation, Human Rights Watch said today. President Benigno S. Acquino III signed the law today.
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