• Jun 27, 2013
    United Arab Emirates (UAE) state security officers have subjected detainees to systematic mistreatment, including torture, say hand-written letters from detainees smuggled out of jails. The groups obtained 22 statements written by some of the 94 people on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. The mistreatment described in the letters is consistent with other allegations of torture at UAE state security facilities, and indicates that torture is a systematic practice at these facilities.
  • Jun 26, 2013
    Lebanese Internal Security Forces threaten, ill-treat, and torture drug users, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in their custody. The report was released on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Reports

Police Brutality

  • Jun 27, 2013
    United Arab Emirates (UAE) state security officers have subjected detainees to systematic mistreatment, including torture, say hand-written letters from detainees smuggled out of jails. The groups obtained 22 statements written by some of the 94 people on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. The mistreatment described in the letters is consistent with other allegations of torture at UAE state security facilities, and indicates that torture is a systematic practice at these facilities.
  • Jun 26, 2013
    Lebanese Internal Security Forces threaten, ill-treat, and torture drug users, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in their custody. The report was released on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
  • Jun 21, 2013
    Morocco’s courts are convicting defendants based on confessions they claim were obtained through torture or falsified by police, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The country’s judicial reform agenda needs to include stronger safeguards to ensure that courts discard as evidence any statement made to the police under torture or ill-treatment.
  • Jun 12, 2013
    Yemeni authorities used lethal force against an apparently peaceful demonstration in Sanaa on June 9, 2013, that caused at least nine deaths and several dozen injuries, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should ensure that its promised investigation into the incident is carried out promptly, impartially, and thoroughly, and results in appropriate prosecutions of those responsible for serious abuses
  • Jun 11, 2013
    Iraqi authorities should immediately investigate evidence that federal police executed four men and a 15-year-old boy on May 3, 2013, south of Mosul. Witnesses last saw the victims in the custody of the federal police 3rd Division, commanded by Gen. Mehdi Gharawi, who had been removed from his post as a federal police commander following claims he was implicated in torture and other abuses but was later reinstated.
  • May 15, 2013
    The Iraqi government has hurled the country to the brink of a new civil war. In under a month, Baghdad launched a vicious assault on a Sunni protest camp, resulting in 44 deaths; executed 21 alleged Sunni terrorists in one day, and suspended the licenses of 10 satellite channels, 9 of them deemed pro-Sunni.
  • May 4, 2013
    A preliminary parliamentary committee report based in part on witness interviews and given to Human Rights Watch claims top Iraqi officials ordered a raid on a demonstrators’ camp on April 23, 2013, in Haweeja.
  • May 1, 2013

    Argentina should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into allegations of excessive use of force by the City of Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police to disperse a demonstration at a public psychiatric hospital.

  • May 1, 2013
    I write to seek urgent clarification regarding steps that the Kuwaiti authorities have taken or are taking to investigate and bring to justice any special forces officers who allegedly inflicted a severe physical assault on human rights activist Sulaiman Binjassim after they apprehended him close to a demonstration in the al-Andalus area on April 17, 2013.
  • Apr 25, 2013
    Police and prosecutors in Uganda have turned a blind eye to the killings of at least nine people by security forces during protests in April 2011. Human Rights Watch issued a video in which relatives of the victims explain the impact on their families and their struggle to secure justice and compensation.