Middle East Aggregator

A decision by Turkey's top court to annul a government reform which lifted a ban on Muslim headscarves at universities is a blow to freedom of religion and other fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

Turkey's Constitutional Court overturned late on Thursday a reform which would have allowed students to wear the Muslim headscarf in universities. Analysts said the decision increased the chances that the AK Party would be closed down for alleged Islamist activities in a separate case at the same court.

"This decision means that women who choose to wear a headscarf in Turkey will be forced to choose between their religion and their education," Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"This is a truly disappointing decision and does not bode well for the reform process," Cartner said. (Reuters)

Labels: Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Turkey

# posted by Mohamed Al Khalifa @ 5:54 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Ongoing political talks being held by Lebanese leaders in Qatar need to address violations of humanitarian law that occurred during recent clashes between pro-government and opposition gunmen, according to a Sunday press release by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In the statement, HRW said it documented several human rights abuses committed by both opposition and pro-government fighters, and urged the political leadership in Lebanon to "support impartial judicial investigations and not try to shield their supporters."

In addition to reports of maltreatment of captured fighters, a preliminary probe conducted by the human rights group indicated that at least 12 of those killed during the clashes had nothing to do with the fighting.

"Armed gunmen have acted as if they are above the law in Lebanon for far too long," said HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork. "The Lebanese government should bring to justice all those who killed civilians, or who executed fighters in their custody."

Opposition fighter violations included the use of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in "densely populated areas of Beirut," including two reported instances where gunmen, using automatic weapons and RPGs, shot at civilians attempting to flee the conflict in Ras al-Nabaa. (Daily Star)

Labels: Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch, Lebanon

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The UN Security Council should address serious concerns about the detention policies of the US-led forces in Iraq, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

The New York-based group says thousands of Iraqis are being held indefinitely and without judicial review.

It claims that many inmates are subject to judicial review processes that do not meet international standards.

HRW says the US improperly uses Council resolutions which permit internment for "imperative reasons of security".

Separately, the group adds that there are also concerns about what is describes as widespread torture of detainees by the Iraqi authorities.

US and Iraqi officials have so far not commented on the claims by HRW. (BBC)

Labels: Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Iraq, Torture, U.S.

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Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise "guardianship" over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said.

The New York-based group says Saudi women have to obtain permission from male relatives to work, travel, study, marry or even receive health care.

Their access to justice is also severely constrained, it says.

The group says the Saudi establishment sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Saudi clerics see the guardianship of women's honour as a key to the country's social and moral order. (BBC)

Labels: Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights

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Iran has freed a women's rights activist in her 50s whose arrest prompted a public protest letter signed by hundreds of her fellow campaigners, the Kargozaran newspaper reported on Thursday. It said women's rights and environmental activist Khadijeh Moghaddam, 56, had been freed Wednesday following her arrest on suspicion of "acting against national security" on April 8.

Moghaddam's bail of 1 billion rials ($110,000) was paid by an unidentified individual.

She has been described as a pioneer in environmental protection in Iran, working for better waste management and protesting against deforestation.

She has also been involved with the "1 million signatures" campaign - an attempt to change Iranian laws that discriminate against women by collecting signatures online and in person.

Some 600 activists signed the letter demanding that "Khadijeh Moghaddam's illegal detention end as soon as possible," reformist media reports said earlier this week. (AFP)

Labels: Free Speech, Human Rights Watch, Iran, Womens Rights

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The CIA secretly transported at least 14 "war on terror" detainees to Jordan between 2001 and 2004, making it the top "rendition" destination at that time, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday. "While a handful of countries received persons rendered by the US during this period, no other country is believed to have held as many as Jordan," the rights group said in a statement.

The prisoners were interrogated and tortured by Jordan's General Intelligence Department (GID), according to a new HRW report that documents eight previously unknown cases of rendition. GID officials who met with Human Rights Watch in Amman in 2007 denied receiving CIA prisoners and denied using torture. The group said the denials were unconvincing "given the weight of credible evidence showing otherwise."

The report is "based largely on firsthand information from Jordanian former prisoners who were detained with the non-Jordanian terrorism suspects," it said.

"We've documented more than a dozen cases in which prisoners were sent to Jordan for torture," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at HRW. (AFP)

Labels: Human Rights Watch, Jordan, Torture, U.S.

# posted by Mohamed Al Khalifa @ 12:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Human Rights Watch on Monday condemned a wave of arrests of transvestites in Kuwait and called for the scrapping of a new law which outlaws cross-dressing. "New arrests show that Kuwait has resumed enforcing a repressive dress code that criminalizes 'imitating the appearance of the opposite sex,'" HRW said in a statement. The New York-based group called on the government to investigate allegations of ill-treatment of detainees and to repeal the offending provision, which violated the emirate's human rights obligations. Last December, Kuwait's National Assembly approved an amendment to the criminal code.

HRW said it states: "Any person committing an indecent act in a public place, or imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex, shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding 1,000 dinars [$3,500]." Police began arresting people almost immediately, jailing at least 14 people in the first month, HRW said. After a two-month lull in enforcing the dress-code law, arrests began again in mid-March. Of the 14 people arrested in December 2007, police beat at least three while in detention, leaving one unconscious, HRW said, quoting their friends. (AFP)

Labels: Gay Rights, Human Rights Watch, Kuwait

# posted by Mohamed Al Khalifa @ 9:22 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Egypt's "shameless" roundup of Islamists ahead of municipal elections is a bid to fix the vote and casts serious doubt on its legitimacy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday. Egyptian authorities have detained without charge some 800 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, including about 150 would-be candidates in the April 8 local election.

The arrests, combined with ongoing military trials of Islamists, are part of a bid by President Hosni Mubarak and his ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to fix the elections, the New York-based rights group said in a statement.

"These ongoing mass arrests of opposition activists, on top of the military trial, are a shameless bid to fix the upcoming elections," said HRW's Middle East director Joe Stork. "President Mubarak apparently believes that the outcome of the elections cannot be left up to voters."

"The government has not charged any of the 800 detained Muslim Brotherhood members with actual crimes," Stork said. "It should release them now and allow fair elections." (AFP)

Labels: Egypt, Fair Elections, Human Rights Watch

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Labels: Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch, Israel, Lebanon, Weapons Ban

# posted by Mohamed Al Khalifa @ 7:12 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Editor's note: The following is the second section of a report issued by Human Rights Watch on Sunday, entitled "Flooding South Lebanon: Israel's Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006." The Daily Star published the first portion of the report on Monday and will publish the final portion on Wednesday.

Israel used only limited numbers of its new Trajectory Correction System MLRS rockets with M85 submunitions. Israeli soldiers told Human Rights Watch that the Israeli military fired a total of 130 TCS rockets and used them exclusively in the earlier stages of the conflict. An Israeli military reserve officer told a reporter that his battalion used only a small number of RAMAM rockets (the Hebrew acronym for TCS) and just in the first days of the war.

The control unit for TCS, inside an armored vehicle, required level ground for proper guidance operation. TCS fire missions involved shooting one to three rockets at a target, in contrast to the mass firing of M26 rockets in later weeks.

Soldiers in the battalion received little, but contradictory, feedback on the performance of TCS. (Link)

Labels: Human Rights Watch, Lebanon, Weapons Ban

# posted by Mohamed Al Khalifa @ 5:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Bahrain should investigate complaints that detained opposition activists have been repeatedly abused in jail, Western human rights groups said.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called on the Gulf Arab state's government to allow independent doctors to examine detainees who say they have faced torture and sexual assault.

"The silence of Bahraini authorities in the face of multiple complaints of detainee abuse casts doubt on their commitment to the rule of law," said Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, in a weekend statement.

"Bahrain should immediately allow independent physicians to examine detainees who are alleging abuse."

The detainees were among those arrested after protests by majority Shi'ites in the U.S.-allied island state in December. (Link)

Labels: Bahrain, Human Rights Watch

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