 Human Rights Watch |
Libya: Halt Military Trial of Ex-Transition Chief
Human Rights Watch Dragging civilians in front of a military tribunal clearly violates international law and sets a dangerous precedent for Libya's civilian justice system. Joe Stork, Middle East and North Africa deputy director. (Beirut) – Libyan authorities should … |
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UK: Accountability Still Needed on Libya Case
Human Rights Watch The UK's payment to Sami Mostefa al-Saadi and his family doesn't absolve it of the duty to hold those responsible to account. It's vital for the British police to continue their criminal investigation into his rendition and torture and for the … UK pays $3.5m to settle Libya rendition claim Libyan dissident gets £2.2m payout from Government over rendition to Libya Libya: Dissident 'Forced' to Accept Out-of-Court Settlement in Case Against UK … |
Human Rights Watch has called on President Mohamed Morsy to amend his decree giving the military the power to arrest civilians in order to prevent military courts from trying civilians.
The organization said in a statement on its website that the decision gives law enforcement authority to the armed forces without any measures to protect civilians from being referred to military courts, and said that anyone detained should immediately be transferred to Public Prosecution.
“Any deployment of the Egyptian military to help maintain security needs to be accompanied by guarantees to respect basic rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “President Morsy should be ending, not expanding, military trials of civilians.”
The HRW statement comes after Amnesty International criticized Morsy’s decision granting the army the power to arrest civilians in a report Monday.
Morsy issued the decision Sunday, saying it was necessary to assist the police in ensuring security for the controversial referendum on the draft constitution slated for 15 December. The draft constitution is bitterly opposed by secular powers.
The organization, in a report on Monday, called the new decree “a dangerous loophole which may well lead to the military trial of civilians.”
“Considering the track record of the army while they were in charge, with more than 120 protesters killed and in excess of 12,000 civilians unfairly tried before military courts, this sets a dangerous precedent,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
Last June, former Justice Minister Adel Abdel Hamid issued a decree giving military intelligence and officers the power to arrest civilians.
Rights activists at that time said the decree threatened the rights of civilians. Later in the same month, the Administrative Court struck down the decree.
Tags: President Mohamed Morsy, Amnesty International, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui
 Saudi Gazette |
Iraq – Halt Execution of Libyan Prisoner – Adel Shalani Sentenced On Unknown …
AllAfrica.com New York — Iraqi authorities should stay the execution of an imprisoned Libyan national, Adel Shalani, and provide information on his case, Human Rights Watch said today. The Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Shalani's family informed them that … Zidan: Iraq promises to delay Libyan's execution Libya: Iraq Halts Execution of Libyan National as Rallies Held in Libyan Cities Iraq promises to delay Libyan's execution: Zeidan |
Human Rights Watch slammed President Mohamed Morsy’s constitutional declaration on Monday, saying it undermines the rule of law and invites the abuse of freedoms.
If Morsy were to pass a law violating human rights, victims would have no means to challenge the law based on the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration or other constitutional precedents, the rights body said in a statement.
The decree appears to give the president the power to issue emergency-style “measures” at any time for vague reasons and without declaring a state of emergency, the statement added.
The president also issued a law ordering new investigations into suspects believed to be responsible for violence against protesters. However, HRW warns, the law also creates a new court to prosecute people under vaguely-defined and overly-broad laws dating from ex-President Hosni Mubarak’s era which have historically allowed for abuse, including prosecuting people for insulting the president or the judiciary.
Some of the declaration’s articles also seem to interfere with the independence of the judiciary, the rights group said.
“Egypt is in serious need of judicial reform but decreeing that the president rule by fiat is no way to achieve it,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Egypt’s president now has more power than last year’s military rulers who used their position to violate human rights. And President Morsy has exempted himself from any independent judicial review,” Whitson added in the statement.
The seven-article declaration renders all the president’s decrees and laws — from when he took office on 30 June until the ratification of a new constitution — immune from appeal or cancellation. It also protects both the Shura Council and the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly from dissolution by any judicial authority, and further protects the assembly by extending its mandate to draft the constitution to eight months instead of six, as stipulated in an earlier constitutional declaration.
Two cases against the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly are currently awaiting a court ruling, but those cases will now be voided by the declaration.
Tags: President Mohamed Morsy, Human Rights Watch, Shura Council
A human rights organization is accusing authorities of detaining more than 300 children during protests last year and trying minors before regular courts instead of family courts, in defiance of the law.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday the children have been "denied their rights to counsel and notification of their families." The New-York based organization "found strong evidence that police and military officers beat many of the children and in some cases subjected them to treatment amounting to torture." It quoted some children as saying that they were subjected to electric shocks and beaten with rifle butts.
The organization pointed to the Egyptian government's pledge to end all forms of human rights violations, especially the beating and torture of children.
“If the government wants a real break with the past, it should make it a top priority to investigate the abuse of children at security officials’ hands and prosecute the officials responsible," Priyanka Motaparthy, an HRW children’s rights researcher, said in the statement.
Representatives of human rights organizations have withdrawn from the country's constitution-writing assembly, citing the constitution draft's failure to conform with international law. HRW said it believes the detention of children is a violation of international law.
The report, however, said President Mohamed Morsy had taken a number of positive steps, including granting amnesty for crimes linked to the 25 January revolution, a decision the organization said should end prosecution of many detained children. It also recommended that cases involving child abuse should be given priority in investigations, and that officers involved in torturing or mistreating children should be prosecuted.
HRW said authorities had also detained more than 130 children during protests against an amateur anti-Islam film outside the US Embassy in Cairo in September. The organization said the detention of children has continued under Morsy, extending the police violations seen under the previous regime.
Tags: Human Rights Watch, Priyanka Motaparthy, human rights violations, The organization, military officers
The 25 Qursaya residents who were forcefully evicted and arrested Sunday should not face military prosecution, a human rights advocacy group said Wednesday.
New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch said in a press release that military prosecutors should immediately refer the residents of the island of Qursaya to the civilian judiciary. The group added that civilian prosecutors should also investigate reports that the military police used excessive force during the attempted eviction and lethal shooting of one of the island's residents.
The South Giza Prosecution on Monday referred investigations into fisherman Mohamed Abdu Abdel Mawgoud's death to military prosecutors. Mawgoud was shot twice, according to medical reports.
Military prosecutors have charged the 25 detained with assaulting the military and seizing land owned by the Armed Forces and ordered them held for 15 days.
"They came to the room where I was sleeping with my family," Human Rights Watch quoted local resident Ahmad Abdel Moneim as saying. "They threatened us and gave us two minutes to evacuate the room. When my cousins, Abdel Moaty Ahmed and Mostafa Ali Yassin, told the lieutenant that this is our land, he ordered their arrest, brought a tank of gasoline, poured it in the room, and set it on fire."
The Armed Forces is the registered owner of the land, a claim disputed by residents. In 2007, military bulldozers and troops stormed the island in an attempt to evict its several thousand residents. In 2008, the residents won an Administrative Court ruling that rejected a ministerial decree to evict them.
“The fact that the military is evicting people, arresting civilians, and bringing them before military courts is a serious challenge to civilian rule and President Mohamed Morsy should put a stop to it,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The group reported that military courts tried more than 12,000 civilians in 2011 and convicted at least 9,000, including hundreds of political activists.
Tags: South Giza Prosecution, Mostafa Ali Yassin, human rights advocacy group, the residents
President Mohamed Morsy’s commitment to security reform faces the challenge of holding transition-period officials accountable for the clashes between security forces and protesters in November last year, a Human Rights Watch report said Monday.
Clashes erupted on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the Interior Ministry on 19 November last year after police forcibly cleared Cairo’s Tahrir Square of protesters demonstrating against the then-ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and of family members of those killed during the 25 January revolution. The clashes left nearly 40 protesters dead and hundreds injured.
Since then, police and security forces have been harshly criticized for using excessive force against protesters. To date, only one officer has been tried for involvement in shooting at protesters.
Revolutionary groups and politicians have been calling for SCAF members to be held accountable for the clashes and other incidents of violence during their transitional rule.
“Whether there will be justice for victims of the Mohamed Mahmoud protest, named after the street where it began, is a key test of President Mohamed Morsy’s commitment to police accountability and comprehensive security sector reform,” HRW said, adding that victims’ families are still awaiting justice a year later.
The organization said the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes gave clear evidence that the police can escape punishment for violence against protesters.
“Since January 2011, the police have been literally getting away with murder, again and again,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “President Morsy should use the anniversary of the Mohamed Mahmoud protest to end this impunity and begin a comprehensive process of police reform to deter further abuse.”
Houry was referring to several police officers being acquitted of murdering protesters during the January 2011 popular uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. HRW attributed the acquittal verdicts to “poor” investigations.
Tags: Mohamed Mahmoud, President Mohamed Morsy, Human Rights Watch, President MorsyLibya: UN Security Council: Press Libya on ICC Cooperation, Impunity – AllAfrica.com
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November
8th,
2012
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Libya: UN Security Council: Press Libya on ICC Cooperation, Impunity
AllAfrica.com Members of the United Nations Security Council should send a strong message to Libya to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said today. The Council should also press the recently appointed Libyan authorities on … |
Israel has shunned tens of African asylum seekers, mostly Eritreans, since June, denying them entry through the borders with Egypt, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other NGOs.
In that period, Israeli security patrol operating along the border security fence have pushed back African migrants on at least six occasions, according to a statement released on Sunday by HRW, the Hotline for Migrant Workers, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
“In forcing asylum seekers and refugees to remain in Egypt and in deporting others, Israel is putting them at risk of prolonged detention in Egyptian prisons and police stations, where they cannot claim asylum; of forcible return to Eritrea; and of serious abuse by traffickers in the Sinai region,” the report said.
The three organizations urged Israel to change its policy in that respect, noting that Israel had signed the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees and is bound by international human rights laws.
"Not only are there credible reports that Israeli soldiers are blocking asylum seekers at the border, but also that they are using violence to do so,” the report quoted Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, as saying.
Data from the Israeli interior ministry indicates that 62,000 illegal migrants have entered Israel since 2006, mostly of Sudanese, South Sudanese and Eritrean nationalities. In May, thousands of Israelis staged violent, anti-migrant protests where stores owned by migrant Africans were assaulted.
Israel continues to build a 250-km fence along its borders with Egypt to stem the immigration flow. Work on the barrier is expected to finish by the end of 2012.
HRW said building the fence does not give Israel the right to block refugees.
Tags: asylum seekers and refugees, African migrants, Israeli security, Human Rights Watch
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