Human Rights Watch

“It is very clear that this attack is related to my job as an independent journalist and my vocal support for freedom,” Asos Hardi told Human Rights Watch.

The six opposition activists were sentenced to prison terms of up to three years following unfair trials over their role in anti-government protests.

Humberto Prado, director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons NGO, has been repeatedly threatened and publicly discredited.

The authorities have demonstrated with gunfire and bloodshed that their promise to allow the UN to conduct a humanitarian mission without hindrance is hollow, says Human Rights Watch.

The Regional Human Rights League in the Great Lakes Region is one of the few remaining independent human rights organisations in Rwanda – a country where reporting on human rights abuses invariably results in hostile reactions by the government.

Hamas authorities are urged to halt actions aimed at intimidating civil society activists into silence and respect their rights to free expression.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation should immediately take action against Syria for violating the organisation’s charter by systematically and brutally suppressing peaceful civilian protests, Human Rights Watch said.

Government forces fired on apparently peaceful protesters, killing at least two and wounding 10, in the town of Bani Walid, on 28 May 2011.

Defending people with grievances and peacefully criticising the government are activities that should be protected under the right of freedom of expression in international law, Human Rights Watch said.

“The military is using Asamaa Mahfouz to silence potential critics, sending the message that criticising the current military government will land them in jail,” Human Rights Watch noted.

Approximately 500 pages of internal documents have come to light, exposing the military’s surveillance of peaceful activists, politicians and clergy.

Although the release of two of three lawyers arrested since mid-July was a positive step, the government should immediately end the harassment of both lawyers and journalists, Human Rights Watch and CPJ said.

The questionnaire invites all candidates – those running both on party lists and independent lists in the 23 October 2011 election – to state their positions on key human rights issues, such as eliminating criminal penalties for nonviolent speech.

Making such actions subject to heavy criminal penalties is an illegitimate interference with the right to freedom of expression, says Human Rights Watch.

Rights advocates from Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Tunisia and Zimbabwe will be awarded the 2011 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism.

The investigation against Ales Belyatsky, allegedly for tax evasion, is a thinly veiled tactic to imprison a prominent human rights defender and should be discontinued, Human Rights Watch said.