Human Rights Watch

International donors who are pouring millions into the Khmer Rouge trials to end impunity should not ignore a more recent atrocity under the current prime minister, says Human Rights Watch.

Some of the BICI’s most serious concerns, like accountability for crimes such as torture and relief for people wrongly imprisoned have not been adequately addressed, says Human Rights Watch.

On 20 March, Muhammad Fahd al-Qahtani responded to a summons from Riyadh prosecutors for interrogation about his human rights activities and a travel ban was imposed on him a few days later.

Since their arrest nearly two weeks ago, Vugar Gonagov and Zaur Guliyev of Xayal TV have been kept in a police holding cell and been denied access to a lawyer, and their families haven’t been informed of their whereabouts.

“Despite the Kremlin’s repeated pledges to ensure normal working conditions for human rights defenders, Russian civil society groups operate in an increasingly hostile environment,” says Human Rights Watch.

Dissidents said that when they sought to exercise their basic rights to speak up about human rights concerns and hold rallies over the past few weeks, the authorities responded with beatings, detentions, harassment, and other repressive measures.

Human Rights Watch called for the dropping of all charges in this politically motivated case.

Civil society activists have planned a series of rallies to mark 100 days after police opened fire on unarmed protesters in the city of Zhanaozen, andauthorities have already started to arrest and fine participants.

Two months ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest, members of the popular band Bulistan report they were arrested and abused while in police custody.

On March 17 and 18, 2012, police detained over 130 peaceful protesters at three separate gatherings in Moscow. Earlier that week, over 10 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to administrative arrest in Nizny Novgorod for having participated in a peaceful protest rally.

The International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan, a coalition of international NGOs working to promote and protect freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, has condemned the blackmail and continued harassment of Ismayilova, one of the few independent investigative journalists working in the country.

Selpius Bobii, August Sananay Kraar, Dominikus Sorabut, Edison Waromi, and Forkorus Yaboisembut were convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for statements made at a Papuan People’s Congress in October 2011.

The new law on assembly rejects the previous ban on demonstrations, but still allows the government to trump the people’s basic rights based on vague criteria such as being ” contrary to Union security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquility or public order and morality.”

A coalition of 200 NGOs from 27 countries is demanding that the UN Security Council immediately unite and pass a resolution calling on the government to bring an immediate end to its indiscriminate shelling and attacks on peaceful protesters.

According to a trustworthy source within the country, Darwish has been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during his interrogation and imprisonment in the same premises, and there are reasons to believe that his life is in danger.

Human Rights Watch says the authorities violated Sokolova’s right to freedom of expression because she was prosecuted for speaking out on issues such as wage disparity and oil workers’ rights.