The Iranian government is escalating its attacks against women activists, subjecting them to arbitrary detention, travel bans, and harassment.
On October 26, 2008, security agents blocked Sussan Tahmasebi, a leader of the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality, from boarding a plane and confiscated her passport, without charging her with any crime. At her home, they [...]

Tags: Iran

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Visit Coincides With 10-Year Sentence for Dissident
The German government should not have permitted the head of Uzbekistan’s secret police to visit Germany immediately after the European Union lifted sanctions stemming from a 2005 massacre in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today.
Rustam Inoyatov, head of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, flew to Germany on October [...]

Tags: Germany, Uzbekistan

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Risk of Torture Too Serious to Permit Abu Qatada’s Return
The British government should drop its efforts to deport a Jordanian terrorism suspect who risks torture and an unfair trial if returned to Jordan, Human Rights Watch said today. The Jordanian government’s promises of humane treatment and a fair trial on return cannot be trusted, Human [...]

Tags: Jordan, UK

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US Measure Tightening Sanctions Has Gone Into Effect
Consumers should support a new US law banning Burmese gems by refusing to buy from jewelers unless they ensure their gems are not from Burma, Human Rights Watch said today.
The US government began enforcement on October 27, 2008, of a law that strictly bans the import of rubies [...]

Tags: Burma, Myanmar

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Several months ago eight women, three of them minors, were buried alive in Balochistan, reportedly by the same men. Those responsible have close ties to the provincial government and to the police, and investigations into the case have gone through a Kafkan array of delays and setbacks. For information on these cases please refer here. [...]

Tags: Pakistan

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The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, condemned today the recent killing of two journalists in Zagreb and called on Croatian authorities to work to ensure that journalists can carry out their work safely.
Ivo Pukanic, the owner of the leading investigative weekly newspaper Nacional and Niko Franic, the paper’s marketing executive, were [...]

Tags: Croatia

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Investigate Arbitrary Detentions and ‘Disappearances’
Yemeni security forces have systematically and unlawfully detained several hundred people, including journalists, in the context of the four-year civil war with rebel forces in northern Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch urged Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to establish an independent commission [...]

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EU Wrong to Cite ‘Progress’ in Human Rights
Uzbek authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Akzam Turgunov, a human rights defender and opposition activist who was sentenced on October 23 to 10 years in prison on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said.
A court in Manget, Karakalpakstan (a distant region of Uzbekistan), convicted him of extortion, [...]

Tags: EU, Uzbekistan

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Labor provisions in US free trade accords are weak and are not effectively enforced, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Major reforms are needed.
The 36-page report, “A Way Forward for Workers’ Rights in US Free Trade Accords,” provides a roadmap for a new US administration to strengthen the requirements for workers’ [...]

Tags: USA

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Promises From Algeria and Jordan Unreliable in Preventing Abuse
The British government should immediately halt plans to deport foreign terrorism suspects to countries that offer unreliable promises not to torture them, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 36-page report, titled “Not the Way Forward: The UK’s Dangerous Reliance on Diplomatic Assurances,” focuses on [...]

Tags: UK

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