حقوق الإنسان

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat on Wednesday called for immediate international action against Israel regarding its detention of over a 100 Palestinians who have been on a hunger strike since they were held without charges. “I am writing on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President Mahmud Abbas to request your immediate intervention on behalf of the approximately 130 …

US-based consultant company Gallup this week released a new study which ranked negative emotions in 138 countries in the world for 2013. According to the study, Iraq has the “highest negative emotions” in the world; five of the top 10 nations were from the Muslim World, with four of them being Arab countries. Gallup’s method for measuring negative emotions was …

International prosecutors on Tuesday said that despite China and Russia’s efforts to block war-crimes from Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), it was still possible for them to go after those responsible for the crimes. Last month, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution which would have referred war crimes committed by both sides …

Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with government consent, were able to make a rare aid delivery in rebel-held parts of Aleppo province, a spokesman said on Monday. “Together with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, we were able to deliver food assistance and other essential items such as kitchen sets, hygiene kits, …

The announcement on 13 May by the International Criminal Court prosecutor that she is reopening a ‘preliminary examination’ into alleged British war crimes in Iraq seems to have taken many in the UK by surprise. But it’s less surprising to anyone who has followed the obstructive way UK authorities have handled numerous allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq. The UK …

In 2009, Nigerian police forces fighting Boko Haram in the northern city of Maiduguri lost about 30 officers in a violent firefight. The next day, they executed many of the men they had rounded up and detained as suspected Boko Haram fighters. The retaliatory killings often happened right outside police headquarters in full view of the public. Bodies piled up …

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, in co-operation with the UN Palestinian refugee agency and the UN Development Program, produced the report “Squandering Humanity”, which says that the Syrian civil war has had a disastrous effect on its economy, and has plunged half of its population into poverty. According to the report, the conflict is creating “economies of violence that …

The Israeli Prison Service has hospitalized 40 Palestinian prisoners, spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said on Wednesday. She described their condition as “reasonable” and said that they were, at different stages, taken to a hospital. The prisoners were on a hunger strike for over a month, protesting the terms of their imprisonment. Weizman said that all the prisoners on strike were administrative …

On Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the headquarters of a Palestinian publishing house in the occupied city of Ramallah in West Bank. They also warned the publishing house not to publish newspapers close to Hamas. Palestinian officials have criticized to move, and said that it violates their freedom of expression. Israeli authorities were not immediately available for comment. The headquarters of …

According to Amnesty International, several dozens of Syrians have for months been held in secret detention at a military camp in Egypt. New evidence gathered by the group suggests that the Syrians being held in the camp were subjected to torture to make them confess to certain crimes. Egyptian activists and lawyers have reportedly seen a list of at least …