Amnesty International today called on the USA to investigate how much US officials knew about the torture and other ill-treatment of detainees held by Iraqi security forces after new evidence emerged in files released by the Wikileaks organization on Friday.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information condemned today, the suicide attack against Alarabiya Channel office in Baghdad on July 26th , 2010, 9:00 am. A suicide bomber driving a small vehicle was able to penetrate the security barrier outside the channel's office. The explosion resulted in 4 dead and 10 injured from the channel staff none of whom are reporters.
A religious edict by the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars Union on female genital mutilation (FGM) sends a clear signal that the practice is not prescribed by Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. The edict, however, does not call for an outright ban on this harmful traditional practice.
Elections an Opportunity to Improve Conditions Across the Country
(Washington, DC) - Political parties and candidates in Iraq's parliamentary elections on March 7, 2010, should promise to uphold human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The election will be a key indicator of whether the country is moving toward greater political stability and respect for human rights and away from the sectarian violence that devastated Iraq after the 2005 election, Human Rights Watch said.
The six-page report, "Iraq's 2010 National Elections: A Human Rights Platform for Candidates," focuses on five key areas of human rights problems: electoral exclusion; abridged freedom of expression; ill-treatment and torture in detention; violence against vulnerable groups; and the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons. Human Rights Watch urged political parties to make the report's specific and feasible recommendations part of their electoral commitments.
