Human Rights Watch

Article 3 of the Tunisian draft constitution “guarantees freedom of belief and religious practice and criminalizes all attacks on the sacred” without defining neither what is “sacred” nor what constitutes an “attack” on it, thereby opening the door to laws that criminalize speech.

Five activists of the pro-reform February 20 Movement to prison terms, and one to a suspended term, for assaulting and insulting police officers despite their claim that they had been tortured into signing false confessions, the sole evidence against them.

Authorities have failed to meaningfully investigate the deaths three years ago of at least 40 people during riots in Uganda.

The government of Burma was urged to immediately release all remaining political prisoners and lift travel and other restrictions on those freed.

The arrest of over a dozen peaceful reform activists signals the government’s toughening stand toward demands for political reform in Jordan.

A coalition of human rights groups has called on the UAE to reveal activist Ahmed al-Suweidi’s whereabouts and investigate torture allegations as list of political detainees grows to over 60.

Civil society groups have voiced concerns about proposals made by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that would threaten the openness of the Internet.

Human Rights Watch called on India to repeal the archaic, abusive sedition law, under which cartoonist Aseem Trivedi will be tried.

Authorities should drop charges against villagers opposed to the construction of a power plant in preparation for the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia, says Human Rights Watch.

Under the leadership of the auxiliary Supreme Court magistrate Iván Velásquez, the Supreme Court convicted approximately 50 former members of Congress for links to paramilitary groups. As a consequence of his work, he has been the target of smear efforts and illegal surveillance.

Human Rights Watch called for concerns to be raised about political prisoners during talks on the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership.

Ayoub Massoudi has been charged with impugning the reputation of the army and defamation of a civil servant after he criticised Tunisia’s armed forces.

The Thai army chief is interfering in criminal investigations of the 2010 political violence and using the country’s archaic criminal defamation law to intimidate critics.

A new Human Rights Watch report documents increasing government attacks on organizations whose focus includes oil revenue transparency, land acquisition compensation, legal and governance reform, and the protection of human rights.

Three members of the punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail for “hooliganism”, in a case IFEX members say is a blow to free expression in Russia.

The Kazakhstan authorities must ensure that due process rights are respected in the trial of two political activists and an oil worker, says Human Rights Watch.