Among the Middle East’s authoritarian leaders, there’s a mantra: economic development takes precedence over civil freedoms and human rights. Things such as free speech, assembly, association and competitive elections – these will only lead to instabili…Continue Reading

(New York) – Syrian authorities should immediately free Ghassan al-Najjar, leader of a small group called the Islamic Democratic Current, Human Rights Watch said today. Security services arrested him at his home on the morning of February 4, 2011, and …Continue Reading

Mr. Baghat has worked in coordination with Human Rights Watch and was a recipient of HRW’s 2010 Human Rights Defenders Award. He is not an HRW employee.  
Published in the Washington Post
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(London) – The Egyptian authorities should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Egyptian and international human rights activists, lawyers, and journalists arrested during a raid on the Hisham Mubarak Law Center in Cairo on the afternoon of February 3…Continue Reading

(Tunis) – Tunisia’s interim government should ease overcrowding and reverse a policy imposed more than 15 years ago to deny inmates facing the death penalty any contact with their families, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch made the req…Continue Reading

The blasphemy laws that led to the murder of Salmaan Taseer are as serious a threat as the Taliban
by Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Pakistan researcher.  (First published in the Guardian, Thursday 3 February 2011)
The murder of Punjab…Continue Reading