Tortured & Killed in Iraq: Daily Brief
New research on torture of detainees in Iraq; RIP Kofi Annan; Merkel & Putin discuss Syria; probe needed after years of abuse in Ethiopia's Somali region; brutal attack against MPs in Uganda; peaceful advocacy for rights of minorities is dangerous in Algeria; don’t expect much from latest Myanmar commission; Iran is criminalizing human rights activism.
Two former detainees and the father of a man who died in detention in Iraq have provided details of ill-treatment, torture, and death in facilities run by the Interior Ministry in the Mosul area.
Human Rights Watch is deeply saddened by the passing of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose deep commitment to the promotion and defense of human rights around the world will be missed. “The international community has lost a courageous voice for collective action in the face of atrocity,” says Bruno Stagno-Ugarte, HRW's deputy executive director for advocacy.
Who will pay for the reconstruction of war-torn Syria, mainly caused by the Assad regime and its key ally Russia? And how will it be possible for refugees to return to Syria? Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, discussed these and other topics with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on Saturday.
“To break with the past, Ethiopia’s government needs to ensure justice for more than a decade of horrific abuses in the Somali region,” says Maria Burnett, HRW's East and Horn of Africa director. “Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reform agenda should include that those responsible for serious human rights violations, however powerful, no longer avoid justice.”
Diplomats of the European Union have deplored 'brutal treatment' of MPs in Uganda after people threw stone at a convoy with president Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986.
Judges in Algeria have sentenced Amazigh activist Salim Yezza to a suspended one-year prison term for a Facebook post criticizing government discrimination.
It’s now clear that Myanmar’s new “independent commission of inquiry” into human rights violations committed in Rakhine State will not be a serious and impartial investigation that will identify alleged perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer in Iran who was arrested in June to serve a previously unrevealed prison sentence, faces new charges, apparently solely due to her human rights work. The recent release of a verdict against Sotoudeh in an earlier court case also reveals the grave degree the Iranian judiciary is criminalizing human rights activism.