• Mansour Abdu Hamoud Ghar-Allah holds photos of his sons Muath Ghar-Allah, 24 (left), and Majid Ghar-Allah, 23. He said Muath was fatally shot on March 18, 2011, during an attack by pro-government snipers in Sanaa that killed 45 protesters. Majid was forcibly disappeared on June 28, 2011, a day after he was fired from his job for participating in anti-government protests.
    Yemeni security forces have arbitrarily detained dozens of demonstrators and other perceived opponents of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since anti-government protests began in February 2011. Human Rights Watch documented 37 cases in which security forces have held people for days, weeks, or months without charge, including 20 who were picked up or remained behind bars after the November 2011 power transfer.

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Reports

Torture

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • May 11, 2012
    The European Union and the United States should re-examine their relationships with the Uzbek government in light of its atrocious rights record.
  • May 9, 2012

    Andrea Prasow writes on Huffington Post regarding the significance of the military commission arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

  • May 7, 2012
    Yemeni security forces have arbitrarily detained dozens of demonstrators and other perceived opponents of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since anti-government protests began in February 2011. Human Rights Watch documented 37 cases in which security forces have held people for days, weeks, or months without charge, including 20 who were picked up or remained behind bars after the November 2011 power transfer.
  • May 3, 2012
    Tunisia’s first torture case to go to trial following the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali highlights the need to address inadequacies in the legal framework for trying torture crimes. Many other cases of torture are likely to be filed against former President Ben Ali and his associates, as other victims step forward to file complaints.
  • Apr 24, 2012
    Bahrain’s second UPR review also takes place following an extensive independent investigation into alleged serious human rights violations by the government in suppressing large anti-government protests that began in mid-February 2011. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), comprising a team of five renowned international jurists, concluded, in its 489-page report released in late November, that a lack of accountability had led to what the Commissioners called a “culture of impunity” for widespread and systematic violations of international human rights law as well as Bahraini law.
  • Apr 18, 2012
    The stubborn determination of Formula One’s governing body to press ahead with the grand prix in Bahrain has delighted the country’s rulers, who portray it as a sign that the Gulf state is back to normal. It is anything but.
  • Mar 23, 2012
    Iraqi authorities should order a criminal investigation into allegations that security forces tortured to death a bodyguard of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.
  • Mar 22, 2012
    Recent executions in Belarus exemplify repression on a scale unprecedented in the post-Soviet era, and the EU should apply more pressure on the Lukashenka regime.