• © 2012 Human Rights Watch
    Morocco: Prison for Rapper Who Criticized Police
    The sentencing of a rapper on May 11, 2012 to one year in prison for “insulting the police” shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco’s 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions. The sentence was handed down one week before the opening of the international Mawazine music festival in Rabat, which is held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI.
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Free Speech

  • Azerbaijan: Authorities Violently Disperse Peaceful Rallies
    May 22, 2012
    Azerbaijan sent an ominous message about the government’s commitment to fundamental freedoms as the police violently dispersed two peaceful protests on May 21, 2012.
  • 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.

  • Letter to Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT)
    May 17, 2012

    The undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations write to express our desire to participate in the preparatory process undertaken for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The current preparatory process lacks the transparency, openness of process, and inclusiveness of all relevant stakeholders that are imperative under commitments made at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). We ask that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States work to resolve these process deficiencies in several concrete ways. 

  • The Azerbaijanis Who Aren't Feeling the Eurovision Glow
    May 17, 2012
    We are only days away from our annual European dose of kitsch and glamour delivered wonderfully by the Eurovision song contest, coming this year to our living rooms from Baku, Azerbaijan on 26 May.
  • Azerbaijan: Free Activists, Journalists Held on Bogus Charges
    May 17, 2012
    The Azerbaijani authorities should promptly follow the May 15, 2012 release of an opposition activist by releasing others held on politically motivated charges.
  • Why a UN Official’s Video Could Get Her Arrested
    May 16, 2012
    If Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for Human Rights, were to speak in St. Petersburg and say that the best way to combat homophobia is to discuss it at school, she would risk being arrested! It’s something to think about as we prepare to celebrate the annual International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) on May 17.
  • Bahrain: Drop Charges Against Rights Activists
    May 15, 2012
    Bahraini authorities should drop politically motivated criminal charges against Nabeel Rajab, a human rights activist, and release him immediately. Rajab is scheduled to go on trial on May 16, 2012, for “offending an official institution” – namely, the Interior Ministry, which he criticized for allegedly ignoring attacks against boys and young protesters as well as Shia-owned businesses.
  • Syria: Activists Arrested, Held Despite Pledge to Annan
    May 13, 2012

    Syrian security forces are arbitrarily arresting and holding peaceful activists incommunicado, despite the government’s commitment under Kofi Annan’s six point plan to release everyone who has been arbitrarily detained. People being arrested include peaceful protesters and activists involved in organizing, filming, and reporting on protests and humanitarian assistance providers and doctors, Human Rights Watch said after interviewing dozens of activists, witnesses, and family members.

  • Morocco: Prison for Rapper Who Criticized Police
    May 12, 2012
    The sentencing of a rapper on May 11, 2012 to one year in prison for “insulting the police” shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco’s 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions. The sentence was handed down one week before the opening of the international Mawazine music festival in Rabat, which is held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI.
  • Libya: Amend New Special Procedures Law
    May 11, 2012
    Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) should immediately amend a new law that protects from prosecution people who committed crimes if their actions were aimed at “promoting or protecting the revolution” against Muammar Gaddafi. The law also allows authorities to detain people for up to two months if they are considered “threats to security.”
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