Human Rights Watch (HRW) recommends that engagement with Syria should include human rights:
Western countries looking to increase engagement with Syria should know that Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. In May 2008, Syrian authorities detained a political writer, began the trial of two [...]
Reuters reports from Beirut:
Syrian authorities said on Sunday they had restored order at a military jail near Damascus after a riot, but dissidents said the protest was not over and that dozens of prisoners had been killed.
The riot broke out on Saturday at Sidnaya prison, a huge complex 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the [...]
From Reporters Without Borders:
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) firmly condemns the 11-year prison sentence imposed on Kurdish journalist Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand on 22 June for “activity against national security.” The organisation has also learned that the daily Tehran Emrooz was closed on 21 June, a few days after running several articles criticising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic [...]
Human Rights Watch released a report yesterday documenting that the Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists. Amidst increasing calls in Western countries to increase diplomatic engagement with Syrian authorities, Human Rights Watch urged that “an improvement in the treatment of these activists be at the heart of any [...]
Human Rights Watch last week called on Iranian authorities to grant three political prisoners access to much-needed proper medical attention.
They are being held in the notorious Evin Prison, a security unit where Human Rights Watch has previously documented abuses. Cleric Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, journalist and activist Mohammad-Sadiq Kaboudvand, and prominent human rights advocate Emad Baghi [...]
The authorities continued to suppress dissent. Journalists, writers, scholars, and women’s rights and community activists were subject to arbitrary arrest, travel bans, closure of their NGOs and harassment. Armed opposition, mainly by Kurdish and Baluchi groups, continued, as did state repression of Iran’s minority communities. Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice. Torture [...]
The state of emergency, in force since 1963, continued to give security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention. Freedom of expression and association were severely restricted. Hundreds of people were arrested and hundreds of others remained imprisoned for political reasons, including prisoners of conscience and others sentenced after unfair trials. Human rights defenders were [...]
In the wake of increased political uncertainty and army interventions, nationalist sentiment and violence increased. Freedom of expression continued to be restricted. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials persisted. Prosecutions for violations of human rights were ineffective and insufficient, and fair trial concerns persisted. The [...]
Source: Adnkronos International
Tighter security measures had led to a sharp rise in executions in Iran, according to the international rights group Amnesty International.
In its annual report released in London on Wednesday, Amnesty said at least 335 people were executed in Iran in 2007, seven of them children.
Amnesty said the number of executions had increased since [...]
Amnesty International calls upon the Turkish authorities to ensure that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is respected and that law enforcement officers use force only where strictly necessary and only to the extent required to perform their duties.
Amnesty International
In a letter to the Minister of the Interior Mr Besir Atalay, Nicola Duckworth, [...]
