Human Rights Watch Archives - Iran News Daily

HRW Urges States to Vote against Saudi Bid for Seat on Rights Council

reporter 1222 — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 08:31:23 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on UN member states to vote against bids launched by Saudi Arabia for a seat on the body’s Human Rights Council, pointing to the Riyadh regime’s “massive rights violations” both at home and abroad.

The UN General Assembly is set to hold elections for 15 three-year terms on the 47-nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, but HRW has warned that a lack of candidates running for seats may result in “problematic” countries winning spots by default, the official website of the HRW said.

“So far, only the Asia-Pacific regional group has a competitive slate, with five countries running for four seats. This means that the other candidate countries, even those not qualified, are virtually assured of seats on the UN’s top human rights body,” the group said in a recent statement.

While Saudi Arabia has announced so-called reform plans, it continues to target human rights defenders and dissidents, including women’s rights activists and others it has arbitrarily detained and prosecuted, the group warned.

HRW also invoked a lack of accountability following Saudi Arabia’s murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the kingdom’s Turkish embassy in October 2018.

“Thirty-three countries at the current Human Rights Council session denounced Saudi rights violations and called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained. And the Saudi-led coalition continues to commit war crimes against civilians in Yemen,” the group said.

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Human Rights Watch condemn threats to Iranian culture sites

reporter 1222 — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:59:52 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The US-based Human Rights Watch said that Trump’s threat to attack important Iranian culture sites would be war crimes if carried out.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch condemned the president’s latest threat to Iran’s culture sites.

“President Trump should publicly reverse his threats against Iran’s cultural property and make clear that he will not authorize nor order war crimes,” said Andrea Prasow, acting Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “The US Defense Department should publicly reaffirm its commitment to abide by the laws of war and comply only with lawful military orders.”

“Trump’s threat to attack Iran’s cultural heritage shows his callous disregard for the global rule of law. Whether refusing to condemn the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi or pardoning convicted war criminals, Trump has shown little respect for human rights as part of US foreign policy,” she added.

Targeting cultural sites with military action is considered a war crime under international law, including a UN Security Council resolution supported by the Trump administration in 2017 and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property.

Yesterday, US President Donald Trump had threatened that the United States will target 52 sensitive cultural sites of the Islamic Republic of Iran in case Iran carried out its promised revenge over the US assassination of Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

Trump’s threat of Iran faced widespread condemnations both inside the outside the country but despite this, Trump repeated such threat yesterday.

The United States terrorist forces assassinated Lt. General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi — in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday.

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HRW Condemned Israel over Right Groups Expel

reporter 1222 — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 07:59:20 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – HRW (Human Rights Watch) condemned Tel Aviv’s decision to expel the rights group’s Israel director from the occupied territories over his support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In a statement on Sunday, HRW Executive Director Ken Roth said that American citizen Omar Shakir, the US-based rights group’s director for Israel and the Palestinian territories, is to be deported from Israel on Monday over his support the BDS movement and condemned Israel for that.

The movement, which is a Palestinian-led campaign promoting a total and worldwide boycott against the Israeli regime, was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations and later turned international.

BDS, which was inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, says it continues its efforts until it forces Israel to abide by “its obligations under international law” and end its occupation of Palestinian lands.

HRW rejected the idea that Shakir had supported the boycott movement against Israel, saying the occupying regime is, in fact, seeking to suppress criticism of policies towards Palestinians, according to Press TV.

Elsewhere in his statement, Roth said Tel Aviv tried “as much as it can” to silence efforts “spotlighting the human rights violations at the heart of the oppressive, discriminatory occupation (of Palestinian land).”

In a post on his Twitter account on Sunday, he noted that his expulsion was over his “human rights advocacy with HRW.”

“Israel is slated to deport me tomorrow over my work as HRW’s director in Israel,” Shakir said, adding, “It’s drawing a red line: free expression in Israel today doesn’t include basic rights advocacy (calling on businesses to refrain from complicity in abuses). We aren’t the first & won’t be the last.”

Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS movement, which calls for people and groups across the world to cut economic, cultural and academic ties to Tel Aviv, to help promote the Palestinian cause.

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Bahrain Denies Health Care to Jailed Opposition Members

reporter 1222 — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:45:43 +0000

HRW: Bahrain Denies Health Care to Jailed Opposition Members

According To Iran News, Authorities in Bahrain are denying prisoners adequate health care, Human Rights Watch warned in a statement.

HRW said Bahrain’s prison authorities arbitrarily deprive prisoners of urgent health care, refuse to allow them to be examined by specialists, do not disclose the results of their medical tests and withhold medicines as a form of punishment, Middle East Monitor reported.

The international organization said it prepared the report, in cooperation with Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), which included testimonies of two detained human rights activists and the families of four detained opposition activists.

The statement noted that the six prisoners were serving prison sentences related to their prominent roles in opposition groups and pro-democracy protests which have rocked the country since 2011.

“It is outrageous that Bahraini authorities are denying detainees medical care that they urgently need, in some cases putting their lives in danger,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.

“Many of these people should not have been imprisoned in the first place, and arbitrary denial of medical care may amount to extrajudicial punishment,” Stork added.

He explained that denying a prisoner needed medical care violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established. Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3, 2017.

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