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The salience of citizenship and nationality.

In most Middle Eastern countries, a woman can't pass her nationality to her children or spouse like a man can. In many countries around the world, children are relegated stateless because of who their parents are (or aren't). This brief report explores the importance of nationality to full civic participation and human rights. (Rochelle Jones, AWID, 14 April 2006)

http://www.awid.org/go.php?list=analysis&prefix=analysis&item=00311

(Added: Wed Jun 07 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 202)

Assyrians Face Escalating Abuses in "New Iraq"

The Assyrian Christian population of Iraq, historically traceable to the Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation, has increasingly become the target of both ethnic and religious attacks since the U.S.-led invasion and the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. This article reports on patrons and human rights defenders, who say that if the world doesn't wake up to the plight of this people, they will soon be shoved through the door of extinction. (Lisa Söderlindh, IPS News, 3 May 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33109

(Added: Fri May 05 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 240)

Is hanging tyrants always wrong?

In the wake of Saddam Hussein's execution, this article questions whether the relief and joy given to a once-tyrannised population outweighs the murder of a human being. The author finds that his "glee" at Saddam's death has no morally justifiable explanation. The real test of your belief in human rights is not whether you support them for the innocent - the Marsh Arabs and the Ang Sang Su Kyis. No: it is whether you support them for the disgusting, the depraved, the genocidal - the Saddams. (Johann Hari, the Independent, 31 December 2006)

http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1044

(Added: Tue Jan 09 2007   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 217)

U.S. Union, Business Group Slam Jordan Sweatshops

A leading U.S. labour coalition and an industry group have filed a complaint with the U.S. Trade Representative asking that it formally sanction the government of Jordan for "gross workers' rights violations" under a controversial free trade agreement with the United States and Israel. (Emad Mekay, IPS News, 27 September 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34904

(Added: Thu Oct 05 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 177)

"Killing You is a Very Easy Thing For Us": Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan

In late July, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report entitled Killing you is a very easy thing for us, a 101-page documentation of the chief forms of abuse prevalent today in Kabul and the densely populated provinces in the southeast of Afghanistan. These are violent armed robbery, extortion and kidnapping by armed troops, police and intelligence agents, government-led attacks on fellow politicians and the media, and Taliban-like persecution of women and girls. According to the report, the abuses are not restricted to Afghanistan's southeast, but are "emblematic" of what is happening throughout the country.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/afghanistan0703/

(Added: Wed Aug 13 2003   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 382)

Arab Human Development Report 2004

"Towards Freedom in the Arab World". United Nations, 2005. Urging a rapid acceleration of democratic reform, the "Arab Human Development Report 2004" calls for many far-reaching legal and political changes to fortify the institutional foundations of freedom, limit the monopoly on power currently enjoyed by the executive in most countries and ensure an independent judiciary and total free speech (UN News Service).

http://www.un-ngls.org/Arab_Human_Development_Report_2004_eng.pdf

(Added: Thu Apr 07 2005   Modified: Fri Feb 09 2007   Hits: 225)

B'Tselem year-end report on human rights in Israel/Palestine conflict

The 2007 report from the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories argues that there has been deterioration in many measures of human rights, particularly in the Gaza Strip, which has declined to an all time low, following Israel 's siege on the area. (B'Tselem, 31/12)

http://www.btselem.org/english/Press_Releases/20071231.asp

(Added: Thu Jan 03 2008   Hits: 51)

Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq

Nearly three years after United States (US) and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled the government of Saddam Hussain, the human rights situation in the country remains dire. The deployment of US-led forces in Iraq and the armed response that engendered has resulted in thousands of deaths of civilians and widespread abuses amid the ongoing conflict. n this report, Amnesty International focuses on another part of the equation, specifically its concerns about human rights abuses for which the US-led Multinational Force is directly responsible and those which are increasingly being committed by Iraqi security forces. The record of these forces, including US forces and their United Kingdom (UK) allies, is an unpalatable one. (Amnesty International, 6 March 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006

(Added: Tue Jun 06 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 155)

Cartoons As Weapons Of Mass Provocation

Is the global row over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad the beginning of a "clash of civilizations"? Author and scholar Paul Tiyambe Zeleza argues not, locating the controversy firmly in the realm of politics. In this context, Muslims are challenged to find ways of defending their faith in a way that advances human freedom and decency. Those in the West, he argues, must not support aggression that hides behind freedom of speech. (Pambazuka News, 2006-02-16)

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/32049

(Added: Mon May 15 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 282)

Christians In Afghanistan: A Community Of Faith And Fear

Afghan converts to Christianity lead dangerous lives and must keep their faith secret to avoid persecution by police, Islamists or even their own neighbors. Members of this secret society have to constantly keep looking over their shoulders. Afghanistan's 2004 constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, is of little use to Christians. (Matthias Gebauer, 2006)

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,408781,00.html

(Added: Mon May 15 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 174)

Iran Leads the World in Executing Children

Iran's highest judicial authorities have repeatedly upheld death sentences handed down to juvenile offenders charged with committing crimes when they were as young as 15. Such sentences violate Iran's international treaty obligations, which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people under 18. In some cases, the death sentences also violate Iranian domestic law requiring that children under 18 be tried before special juvenile courts (Human Rights Watch, 20 June 2007).

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/20/iran16211.htm

(Added: Mon Jun 25 2007   Hits: 112)

IRAQ: Surviving Somehow Behind a Concrete Purdah

Iraq, where women once had more rights and freedom than most others in the Arab world, has turned deadly for women who dream of education and a professional career. (IPS, 6 March, 2008)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41479

(Added: Mon Mar 10 2008   Hits: 34)

Judging Dujail: The First Trial

Human Rights Watch has demanded the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants for more than a decade. In this report, however, the organisation identifies numerous serious flaws in the trial of Hussein for the Dujail executions. The report finds that the Iraqi High Tribunal was undermined from the outset by Iraqi government actions that threatened the independence and perceived impartiality of the court. It discloses serious flaws in the trial, including regular failures to disclose key evidence, violations of the defendants' right to confront witnesses, and lapses of judicial demeanor. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently inhumane punishment and says that executing Hussein while other trials against him are ongoing will also deprive many thousands of victims of their day in court. (Huma Rights Watch, November 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/iraq1106/

(Added: Tue Jan 09 2007   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 124)

Land rights in crisis : restoring tenure security in Afghanistan [PDF]

By Liz Alden Wily (2003). Published by Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. This report discusses how, until recently, land tenure - the holding and transacting of land - has not been more than peripherally on Afghanistan's planning agenda. Though it is a marvel that any substantive land planning has taken place at all, what has been thought through is driven by the limited objective of helping foreign investors secure land. A more poverty-focused approach to reconstruction, within which land tenure conflicts are most visible, has been slow to emerge, which has meant that issues of land access and the concerns of the majority remain a low priority.

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN016656.pdf

(Added: Mon Jul 25 2005   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 208)

Millions in Flight: The Iraqi Refugee Crisis

Report Summary: The humanitarian crisis triggered by the mass exodus of refugees from the on-going and widespread violence in Iraq shows little sign of abating. In fact, recent estimates show this to be the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world with the number of those displaced now having reached 4.2 million(1) - 2.2 million internally displaced within Iraq(2) and over 2 million outside the country. The impact of such mass movement has resulted in an increasingly critical situation for host communities, notably Syria and Jordan, which can no longer be ignored.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140412007

(Added: Mon Oct 01 2007   Modified: Fri Oct 12 2007   Hits: 50)

No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers' Accounts of Detainee Abuse

This report is based largely on firsthand accounts by U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq, and describes abuses that took place in three separate locations in Iraq in 2003-2005. Many of the accounts are from soldiers who witnessed and in some cases participated in the abuses. First, the report discusses incidents involving a special military and CIA task force based at Camp Nama, near Baghdad, in 2003-2004, and near Balad in 2004-2005. Second, the report describes abuses in 2003-2004 at a Forward Operating Base on the Syrian border, called FOB Tiger. Third, the report details abuses in 2004 at detention facilities at the Mosul airport. The military's own investigations and reports by journalists and other observers support many of the accounts, and provide further details from soldiers about abuses at these facilities, including abuses in 2005. (Human Rights Watch, July 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0706/

(Added: Tue Jul 25 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 141)

No Room to Breathe: State Repression of Human Rights Activism in Syria

A report from Human Rights Watch on the repression of human rights activism in Syria (Human Rights Watch, October 2007).

http://hrw.org/reports/2007/syria1007/

(Added: Thu Oct 25 2007   Modified: Fri Oct 26 2007   Hits: 82)

Off the Map: Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel's Unrecognized Bedouin Villages

This 130-page report, documents how discriminatory Israeli laws and practices force tens of thousands of Bedouin in the south of Israel to live in "unrecognized" shanty towns where they are under constant threat of seeing their homes demolished and their communities torn apart.

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/iopt0308/

(Added: Tue Apr 01 2008   Modified: Fri Apr 04 2008   Hits: 40)

Pakistan: End Emergency Rule and Restore Constitution Move Against 'Militants' Brings Crackdown on Civil Society

Pakistan should immediately return to constitutional rule, restore fundamental rights and end its crackdown on the judiciary, lawyers, media, human rights activists and political opponents, says Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, 4 November 2007).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/Pakistan1.doc

(Added: Tue Nov 06 2007   Hits: 56)

Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia

In this 50-page report, Human Rights Watch draws on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women to document the effects of these discriminatory policies on woman's most basic rights (Human Rights Watch, April 2008).

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/saudiarabia0408/

(Added: Wed Apr 23 2008   Hits: 21)

Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy: Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq

A groundbreaking report on the incidence, causes, and legalisation of gender-based violence in Iraq since the US-led invasion. Amidst the chaos and violence of US-occupied Iraq, women have increasingly been targeted. This report documents the use of gender-based violence by Iraqi Islamists, brought to power by the US overthrow of Iraq's secular Ba'ath regime, and highlights the role of the United States in fomenting the human rights crisis confronting Iraqi women today.

http://www.madre.org/articles/me/iraqreport.pdf

(Added: Mon Jul 09 2007   Hits: 177)

Rot here or Die There: Bleak choices for Iraqi refugees in Lebanon

The report documents the Lebanese government's failure to provide a legal status for Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and details the impact of this policy on the refugees' lives (Human Rights Watch, December 2007) .

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/lebanon1207/

(Added: Wed Dec 12 2007   Hits: 53)

The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

A national grassroots movement against the Apartheid Wall in Palestine, this campaign is coordinated by the Palestinian Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations Network (PENGON). The website contains useful updates, contacts and resource materials.

http://www.stopthewall.org

(Added: Thu Sep 22 2005   Modified: Thu Apr 05 2007   Hits: 182)

To Stay Alive, Iraqis Change Their Names

In Iraq these days, being called Omar or Ali can get you killed. Iraqis say the country is rife with checkpoints where armed men ask for identity cards and then kill people on the spot if their names identify them with a rival religious sect. In the first seven months of this year, 1,000 Iraqis officially changed their names, far more than in any similar period since the American invasion of 2003, a New York Times reporter recently found. (New York Times through Truthout, September 6, 2006)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090606F.shtml

(Added: Wed Sep 13 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 150)

Voices: Palestinian Women Narrate Displacement

70 people, mostly women, from different regions of historic Palestine tell their stories of loss of home. They are 'ordinary' Palestinians of varying ages and social backgrounds. This is a multi-media project, a digital book in which you can hear the speakers' voices, see portraits of their faces and surroundings, and read texts that describe individual speakers and give historical background.

http://almashriq.hiof.no/voices/

(Added: Thu Jun 28 2007   Hits: 128)