Tag Archives: human rights

By:  Amna Guellali human rights watch There was a time Tunisia looked set to follow the path of many of the popular uprisings during the Arab Spring – first hope, then a decent into bloodshed and chaos. What helped save Tunisia’s prospects was an extraordinary coming together of civil society groups that guided a national dialogue and charted a path …

  Bahrain has given permission to the island’s only independent newspaper (Al-Wasat ) to resume publishing after banning it for two days  and after criticism from human rights groups. In a  statement from the Information Affairs Authority they said that the decision had been taken after Al-Wasat’s editors undertook to respect the law on publications. The newspaper suspended on Thursday …

  Authorities in Bahrain shut down the island’s only independent newspaper, according to a government press release. the Bahrain News Agency reported  that  “The Information Affairs Authority has temporarily suspended Al-Wasat newspaper until further notice… due to its violation of the law and repeated dissemination of information that affects national unity and the kingdom’s relationship with other countries,”. No one …

Joint Statement from Parties, Institutions, Rights Organizations, and Public Figures on the Proposed Counterterrorism Law The undersigned institutions, political parties, rights organizations, and public figures urge the government to delay the issuance of the proposed counterterrorism law, as published in the press, until a broad and genuine social dialogue takes place about its feasibility, its articles, and the ways to …

 Amnesty International An investigative online tool mapping Israeli attacks in Gaza during the conflict of July and August 2014 has been unveiled by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture today. Its purpose is to help push for accountability for war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. The Gaza Platform enables the user to explore and analyse data about Israel’s …

Supreme Court Confirms Sentence of 10 Years, 1,000 Lashes By: Human Rights Watch Saudi authorities could resume lashing liberal activist and blogger Raif Badawi on June 12, 2015. On June 7, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld a sentence of 10 years and 1,000 lashes against him. Badawi, convicted in 2013 for setting up a liberal website and allegedly insulting religious …

Amnesty International  The full extent of the horror that has unfolded across Iraq over the past year is revealed in an interactive story map published by Amnesty International today, detailing the plight of Iraqi civilians caught in a deadly spiral of horrific crimes by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) and brutal revenge attacks by the now …

 By: Samer Muscati  Human Rights Watch  The nightmare of 12-year-old “Jalila” began when Islamic State fighters abducted her, along with her family, in northern Iraq. They separated her from her family and imprisoned her in a house in north-eastern Syria with other abducted Yezidi women and girls. Then the jihadist fighters came, one after another, to inspect them. One singled …

Saudi lawyer and Human rights activist Waleed Abulkhair, awarded the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Prize for his work on defending human rights in the kingdom. The prize’s founder Bertrand Favreau said from Amsterdam that The annual legal award is one of the world’s oldest awards presented to lawyers who “through their work, activities or suffering defend the respect for human rights”. …

  On Friday, Canada offered to take in jailed Saudi activist and blogger Raif Badawi that faces flogging, to rejoin his wife and kids live in Canada as a priority immigrant on humanitarian grounds Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil announced on behalf of Quebec province that the way for Raif to come to Canada is by offering him an immigration …