• A sign on a door labeled “Interrogation Booths” in both English and Arabic at Camp Honor military base in Baghdad’s Green Zone, taken before the government announced the prison was closed.
    Iraq: Mass Arrests, Incommunicado Detentions

    Iraq’s government has been carrying out mass arrests and unlawfully detaining people in the notorious Camp Honor prison facility in Baghdad’s Green Zone, based on numerous interviews with victims, witnesses, family members, and government officials. The government had claimed a year ago that it had closed the prison, where Human Rights Watch had documented rampant torture.

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Reports

Middle East/N. Africa

  • IOC: Olympic Hurdles for Saudi Women Persist
    May 23, 2012

    As the clock ticks down to the July opening ceremony, all nations except Saudi Arabia have confirmed that women athletes will participate in the London 2012 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board is meeting in Quebec City from May 23 through May 25 to hear reports on the upcoming Games.

  • Yemen’s Other Crises
    May 22, 2012
    When the Friends of Yemen group meets Wednesday in Riyadh, representatives from the US, the EU and Gulf states are likely to focus on this week’s suicide bombing in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, that killed nearly 100 soldiers and shook the fledging transition government. But international attention should not only be focused on al Qaeda and its affiliates—the need to hold human rights violators to account and a deepening humanitarian crisis should also be high on their agenda.
  • Bahrain: Human Rights Body Should Target Repression
    May 20, 2012

    United Nations member states should scrutinize Bahrain’s deplorable human rights record during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council on May 21, 2012. The international community should push Bahrain to adopt specific measures to ensure free expression and peaceful assembly, end torture, free political prisoners, and establish credible accountability mechanisms for continuing abuses.

  • Egypt: Widespread Military Torture of Protesters Arrested in May
    May 19, 2012

    Military soldiers beat and tortured protesters they arrested at a demonstration near the Defense Ministry on May 4, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today, after interviews with numerous victims and lawyers. The military also failed to protect the protesters from attacks by armed groups in the early morning hours of May 2, at the same demonstration, which began on April 27 in Cairo’s Abbasiyya neighborhood.

  • EBRD: Use Expansion to Promote Rights
    May 18, 2012
    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should articulate concrete human rights benchmarks for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia as it expands its operations into the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Comments on the EBRD's Technical Assessments for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia
    May 17, 2012

    Human Rights Watch takes this opportunity to comment on the EBRD’s technical assessments for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. Below, we highlight omissions and developments since the drafting of the assessments, which we encourage you to reflect in drafting the upcoming country assessments and operational priorities for these countries.

  • Letter to President Mirow Regarding EBRD Country Assessments and Operational Priorities for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia
    May 17, 2012

    We write to urge you to ensure that the EBRD’s upcoming process of creating country assessments and operational priorities for Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia is used to provide an honest assessment of these countries’ commitment to and application of the principles articulated in Article 1 of the EBRD's founding agreement. In particular, we urge you to articulate concrete benchmarks in these country assessments, underlining the steps each government should take to work toward the Article 1 principles. 

  • UN Security Council: Press Libya on Impunity
    May 16, 2012
    Members of the United Nations Security Council should condemn attempts by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to prevent accountability for serious and ongoing crimes committed in Libya. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will brief the Security Council on his Libya investigation on May 16, 2012.
  • Libya's Human Rights Problem
    May 15, 2012

    Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) warmly accepted the international community's military and political support for dislodging the Qaddafi government, and vowed to build a new state that would respect human rights. But it seems to be veering off course. Not only is it rejecting international human rights monitoring and the ICC's jurisdiction, but more troubling still, it has passed some shockingly bad laws, mimicking Qaddafi laws criminalizing political dissent and granting blanket immunity to any crimes committed in "support" of the revolution.

  • Jordan: Don’t Deport Eritrean Refugees to Yemen
    May 15, 2012
    Jordanian authorities are about to deport nine detained Eritrean refugees, including a 7-year-old girl, to Yemen where they risk indefinite detention and possibly deportation to persecution in Eritrea. Jordan should allow the group to remain in Jordan and give the United Nations refugee agency access to the refugees.
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