IOC Must Release Confidential Host City Contract
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) admission that it consented to Chinese government censorship of certain websites ends the debate over whether the Olympics will promote rights in China, Human Rights Watch said today.
Link to HRW

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The Afghan government must prevent the country’s intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate, from suppressing media freedom, said Amnesty International today.
On Monday 28 July, NDS agents briefly detained Mohammad Nasir Fayyaz, presenter of the popular programme The Truthon Ariana TV.
The following day, Tuesday 29 July, NDS agents again detained Fayyaz and released him after one [...]

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“The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games should fulfil their commitment to ‘full media freedom’ and provide immediate uncensored internet access at Olympic media venues.  Censorship of the internet at the Games is compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values,” said Mark Allison, East Asia researcher for [...]

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Abduction and Intimidation Accompany Unfair Trial
The abduction and torture of a Ugandan HIV/AIDS activist who faces trial for holding a peaceful protest reveals the danger to those who challenge the government’s policies, Human Rights Watch, and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders said today. The three human rights organizations (the Observatory is [...]

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Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank Suffer From Factional Strife
Hamas forces in Gaza and Fatah forces in the West Bank have carried out a wave of unlawful arrests against opponents in recent days, Human Rights Watch said today. In Gaza, Hamas forces physically abused some of the people they apprehended and closed roughly 100 organizations [...]

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Iran’s government is failing in its duty to prevent discrimination and human rights abuses against its Kurdish citizens, particularly women, said Amnesty International in a new report published today. The organization expressed fears that the repression of Kurdish Iranians, particularly human rights defenders, is intensifying.
The report cites examples of religious and cultural discrimination against the [...]

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On the 10 day countdown to the Beijing Olympics (30 July), Amnesty International will be co-ordinating a global, online day of protest against Internet censorship in China. It’s about showing your solidarity for Chinese people who risk censure, arrest, torture and even imprisonment for peacefully speaking out online. The aim is to ‘occupy’ as many [...]

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Amnesty International is appalled by the mass execution of 29 men in Tehran’s Evin Prison on 27 July 2008. Their deaths brought the number of executions carried out so far this year to 187. In 2007, more executions were carried out in Iran – 317 – than in any other country except China. Yet the [...]

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Amnesty International today welcomed the UN Secretary-General’s decision to appoint Judge Navenethem Pillay as the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The organization believes that Judge Pillay’s legal career, activism in defending opponents of apartheid and her role as an international judge in the Rwanda Tribunal and the International Criminal Court will stand her in [...]

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More Than 200 Killed and 150,000 Displaced Since January Accord Signed Six months since the signing of a peace agreement, horrendous violence continues to plague eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a coalition of 64 aid agencies and human rights groups said today. The new Congo Advocacy Coalition was created in July 2008 to focus attention [...]

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