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Witness: The Sound of Death

Attacks on Civilians in Idlib, Syria

On a hot morning in late May in the town of Ariha, in the northwest Syrian governorate of Idlib, Fadel Faham’s elderly mother woke him up at around 9:30 in the morning and asked him to go to their family’s café. He put on a light T-shirt to keep cool in…
On May 27 a large munition struck a residential area in the town of Ariha, across from the Banat Ariha school, killing at least 13 civilians and wounding at least 21, including four members of Fadel Faham’s.
News

Human Rights Activism in Post-Tiananmen China

A Tale of Brutal Repression and Extraordinary Resilience

Many have been arbitrarily detained, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared. Some died while in state custody. Some live with permanent physical ailments and mental trauma as a result of torture by the authorities. Some, after suffering years of unrelenting…
Liu Xiaobo addresses the crowd at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, May 1, 1989.
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Why Did You Leave Sinai?

Civilians Brutally Treated by Egypt’s Military and ISIS-Affiliate in North Sinai Conflict

  By a Middle East and North Africa Staff Member* When asked why he left Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, “Odeh” could only laugh, then pause. He struggles to answer any question that reminds him of his former life. Then, he told me the…
A woman yells as a neighbor’s house is destroyed. © 2014 Private
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Witness: Syrians Thrust Back into War

Refugees in Jordan Suffer Collective Expulsions to Syria

Syrians who thought they had escaped their civil war by fleeing to neighboring Jordan have been summarily deported to their war-ravaged country without explanation. Jordan’s government says refugees are being sent back to protect national security…
A lone man crosses Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. The camp population fell from 203,000 during its peak in April 2013 to 80,000 by July 2017.
News

Witness: Declared Insane for Speaking Out

Fighting Forced Labor in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields

  At age 60, Elena Urlaeva has been arrested, beaten, strip searched and threatened so many times that she stopped counting. She must slip out of her house under cover of darkness when no one is…
Uzbek human rights defender Elena Urlaeva, detained at a psychiatric hospital from March 1 to March 23, 2017.
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Safe, Yes, and Waiting for What’s Next

They survived treacherous boat journeys between Turkey and Greece, barbed wire in Hungary, and cascading border closures across the Balkans – a journey, mainly on foot, that took months. Now, safe in Germany, with the most dangerous part of their trek…
Hassan fled Damascus and after arriving in Berlin began volunteering at a refugee center, handing out clothes, food and baby carriages.
News

Witness: A Doctor Detained and Tortured in Syria

Despite the chilly morning air in Berlin, Dr. Sami Sharif prefers to sit at one of the café’s outside tables, where he can smoke. He sips his espresso and smiles, as he tells me that when he was younger, he didn’t want to be a doctor at all, he wanted to…
The café where Dr. Sami Sharif was interviewed.
News

Witness: "The Other Kids Were Cursing Me"

Samir is chatty and smart. Little of the 11-year-old’s confident demeanor reveals the horrors he has seen. Sitting bolt upright in one of his family’s two armchairs, the young Syrian politely answers questions, eager to share his story of uprooting and…
School supplies belonging to a Syrian refugee child enrolled in her local public school.
News

Yara Bader, Syria

2015 Recipient of the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism

Human Rights Watch's Alison Des Forges Award celebrates the valor of individuals who put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others. Human Rights Watch collaborates with these courageous activists to create a world in which people…
Yara Bader
News

Witness: Surviving the Monkey Cage – Sanjar’s Story

Sanjar Umarov lifted his pants legs and rolled down his socks to show the scars that criss-crossed his ankles. Umarov, a former political prisoner from Uzbekistan, said the scars served as a permanent reminder of his time in the “monkey cage,” a cell that…
News

Egpyt: Release Blogger on Hunger Strike

Maikel Nabil, a 25-year imprisoned for blogging, has been on hunger strike at Marg prison since August 23 to protest his unjust imprisonment. The strike is of extra concern because he has low blood pressure and is taking medication for a heart condition.…
News

Hossam Bahgat, Egypt

Human Rights Watch's Alison Des Forges Award celebrates the valor of individuals who put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others. Human Rights Watch collaborates with these courageous activists to create a world in which people…
News

Uzbekistan's Imprisoned Human Rights Defenders

Human Rights Watch calls on the Uzbek government to immediately and unconditionally release all wrongfully imprisoned activists, several of whom suffer from serious illness and at least seven of whom have been ill-treated or subjected to torture in…
News

Women Protesting in the Middle East

During the weeks of protests that led to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall, you saw Egyptian men and women standing together, side-by-side in the crowds. Across the Middle East, women have taken to the streets. In Egypt and Tunisia, women…
News

Liu Xiaobo: “Authoritarianism in the Light of the Olympic Flame”

Reprint of Liu Xiaobo's chapter in the anthology China's Great Leap (2008)

This essay is a reprint of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's chapter in the anthology China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges, edited by Minky Worden (Seven Stories Press, 2008), pp. 263-272. This text was translated from…

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