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The Weekly Update for HRINFO, no. 170
Fourth year 13 July 2007 - 19 July 2007 Jordan ======== Civil Society The elections network in the Arab world issues the issue 11of its monthly periodical under the title "the electoral observer", it determines the different political factors and changes in some Arab countries. It starts with both Lebanon and Palestine, elections in the Egyptian Shura Council , electoral liveliness in Jordan , the Moroccan government 's intention to pay $ 24 Million to fund parties' campaigns for the parliamentary elections which will be held in Algeria. Moreover, it determines discussions on the necessity to amend election law and a detailed report on the demands calling for changing election law practiced for years in some Arab countries. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/jordan ========================== Bahrain ======== Strike "I can't see the responsible officials who were discussing citizen rights, in which we didn't have it until this moment? Though I will continue my hunger strike until I have my rights completed", a quote said by a Bahraini women calling the Bahraini Ministry of Housing to give her and her daughter Miriam a residence to live in. Bahrain Youth Association for Human Rights in its release on this incident, called upon the Bahraini government to fulfill its constitutional obligations towards its citizens, moreover the UN honoring price in housing given to the government doesn't exempt the government of its obligations. Non Violence Bahrain Youth Association for Human Rights announces the establishment of "youth without violence center", which works on fulfilling the nonviolent tactics and strategies. The center will invite many youth volunteers and activists working in civil society organizations, it will train youth on fulfilling the nonviolent strategies to settle human rights principles in society and achieve democracy and freedom in the country. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/bahrain ========================== Tunisia ======== Arrests … Arrests The International Association for Defending Political Prisoners issued two releases condemning the horrible arrest conditions facing prisoners in general and political prisoners in particular and bringing up some cases. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/tunisia ========================== Syria ======== Opinion and Expression Reporters Without Boarders issued a release, in relation to the President Assad's second seven-year term in July 17, 2007, describing Assad as one of press freedom hunters in the world. Moreover, it called for freeing Michel Kilo, Mohanad Abd el Rahman and Habib Saleh and points to Assad's first term as a president, which was marked by many arrests of Syrian journalists and activists. The release states that the state of emergency seen as pretence to impose its power over mass media, also many journalists and bloggers jailed for expressing their opinions freely and it is clearly seen in the harsh verdicts imposed on many opinion writers. Prosecutions The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued two releases condemning the prosecution of Fateh Gamus and Faeq el Meir. The first release describes it as a judicial security farce and calling for the stop of security apparatuses' interference in judiciary work and an immediate and unconditional release for all opinion and conscience prisoners and on the head of the list, Aref Dalila, Michel Kilo, Kamal el Labouany, Anwar el Bony and Faeq el Meir. Moreover, it calls for unbinding public freedoms and stopping security apparatus' abusive arrests practices. On the second release, it determines the investigation session of the Syrian opposition activist Faeq Ali Asaad (Faeq el Meir), which will be held on (22/7/2007) before First Criminal Court in Damascus, in secret attended by the judge and one of the lawyers in the defense team. Enforced Disappearance Committees for Defending Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria issued a release determines cases of enforced disappearance and detentions subjecting some Syrian citizens, in which they haven't been charged and driven away from the outer world in an inhuman and humiliating conditions. The release in addition determines many cases of enforced disappearance. More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/syria/cdf/2007/pr0716.shtml Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/syria ========================== Iraq ======== Opinion and Expression Murdering and detaining media workers in Iraq is the subject of five releases issued this week. Press Freedoms Observatory issued four separate releases on murdering and detaining media workers in Iraq. The first determines murdering New York newspaper reporter south Baghdad. The second determines murdering the photographer and driver of Reuters News Agency south eastern Baghdad. Moreover, the third determines abducting a camera man working in the Associated Press US Agency by an armed group in Diyala. While the fourth determines arresting (Sha Yada) Kurdish newsletter reporter, confiscating his camera and deleted and emptied all the pictures taken during his coverage to a demonstration held by students in Duhok. Finally, the fifth release issued by Reporters Without Boarders determines some of the previously mentioned cases, in which RSF is anxious about the unknown destiny of 14 abducted Iraqi journalists and refers to the fact that some of them are still held as hostages for more than a year. Prisoners and Detainees Human Rights Watch in its release presented a letter to the US Defense Minister demanding transferring five Iranian diplomats working in Iraq (approved by the Iraqi government), detained since last January, to the Iraqi judicial system to undertake their prosecution or free them. The release also states that the US detain the five Iranians and many more Iraqis under the pretense of "detention for security reasons" and without even pointing convictions or presenting them to prosecution, counting on Security Council decision no. 1546. Finally it calls the US government to fulfill Security Council's, in a way which could be in constituency with international law's demands in treating detainees. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/iraq ========================== Palestine ======== Protecting Civilians A detained citizen died in the former residence of the intelligence held in Al-Mashtal (the Arberetum) section, west Gaza City, in which Hamas movement changed it into a center for arrest and investigation and supervised by the squads of martyr Ezz el Deen. Opinion and Expression Violations against journalists in the Palestinian territories monitored in two releases and a report. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued its first release, which determines detaining three photographers by the executive force belongs to Hamas, in which they forced them to delete all the pictures, in which it reveals the force while they were firing in the air to separate the participants during an assembly calling for unity between Palestinian squads. In addition the journalists received verbal threats by the force if they published the pictures. While the second release states that on July 5, 2007 the Israeli occupation forces intended to attack a journalist working in Al-Aqsa station in El Berig camp and fired three times on the station's photographer, in which due to his injuries his legs were cut off. Moreover, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (Mada) issued the report, monitoring the violations against the Palestinian media during the past two months, describing it by the (massacre). The report describes the scene, media institutions were broken into, burned, stolen and destroying instruments, in addition to preventing broadcasting, printing and distributing newspapers and arresting, threatening and firing on journalists. More information about the report, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/palestine/mada/2007/pr0714.shtml Unsettled Six thousand Palestinians unsettled in Rafah land crossing point are suffering, in which they are pending more than a month since its closure, it became impossible to return to their homes. The unsettled Palestinians in past times left Gaza Strip for different reasons such as healing, commerce, education and work. Accordingly, Al-Mizan (Balance) Center blamed the international society for leaving the situation without moving to lift up the suffering of thousand Palestinians (children, diseases and civilians) who are living in an extremely cruel circumstances, for example, many diseased transferred abroad for healing pending for the opening of the passage way, however their health condition is in continuous deterioration, university students threatened to leave their study and the disassembly of many families, in which a group from a family went to the strip to visit some relatives or to obtain an ID for their sons and above all they are threatened to lose their right to return and live in their countries. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/palestine ========================== Egypt ======== Torture Al-Nadeem Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture continues its campaign for clearing out torture practices in the Egyptian police stations. The center received many complaints, in which it started examining Montaza Police Station, in which found there a large number of men and women detainees without being charged, instruments designed for torturing citizens such as sticks, scouts covered with barbed wire and a lob and in a room belongs to an officer there was bottles of alcoholic drinks, drugs and cold steel ready to fabricate cases for detainees, ironically the prosecution seized on the instruments of torture and decided to free detainees from the prosecution's residence and not from the police station for fear of being tortured again, after hearing their sayings about the acts of torture they were subjected to in Montaza Police Station "Second". On the same subject, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a release calling both People's Assembly and Shura Council to make a decision immediately in the project EOHR previously presented to amend terms of the articles regarding torture in Penal Code (280, 129, 126) and Criminal Procedures Law (63, 232), and it aims to handle the defaults in both penal code and criminal procedures law regarding torture crime, cruel treatment, detaining and jailing citizens without charges, in order to make the Egyptian law agree with Combating Torture Convention. Arrest The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights re demanded an immediate release for five persons arrested since the end of May 2007 for expressing their religious opinions and beliefs. Moreover, it called the Prosecutor -General to investigate immediately in the case of a prisoner beaten and threatened of extortion during his detention in state security investigation in Shubra el Kheima. Moreover, five citizens and two others living abroad are convicted of trading on religion to spread extremist ideas for insulting Islam, in which they disbelieved the Sunna and considered the Quran (holy book) is the main source for legislation and still there is no decision delivered to transfer the defendants to prosecution. In continuous to the issue of arrest, Maat Center for Juridical and Constitutional Studies issued a release monitoring the increase in arrest campaigns which the Interior Ministry is practicing against university students like the incidents happened in Al-Azhar University, Shubra Institute, Al-Monofia University and many others. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/egypt ========================== Morocco ======== Prisoners The National Association for Joining Liability with Fateh May Prisoners announces the start of the million signatures campaign for freeing prisoners in the first of May celebrations. On the same context, Amnesty International issues a release calling the Moroccan government to give permission to the peaceful activities and assemblies aiming to join liability with the 8 opinion prisoners, in which it is determined to be a legal right to freedom of expression and assembly and an attempt to free Fateh May prisoners. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/morocco ========================== Yemen ======== The National Association for Defending Rights and Freedoms issued a release calling civil society organizations and human rights activists to describe their refusal to the policy of threatening journalists and activists by prosecuting them before State Security Court, in which the Yemeni Ministry of Defense presented an appeal against Al-Sharea (the street) newspaper and its team work before the State Security Prosecution, insisting on refusing transferring the case to the State Security Court similarly to the case of the journalist Abd el Kareem el Khiewany. On the same context, Coalition for Civil Society Organizations issued a release condemns the campaign against freedom of opinion and expression. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/mena ========================== International and Regional ======== Human Rights Watch issued a release determines a Saudi Arabian Court upheld a verdict in absentia to divorce two couples (husband and wife) by force and it will be carried out in August 2005. The verdict leans on the fact that the husband's tribal origin makes him inappropriate to continue in the marriage, declaring that this marriage defame the reputation of the wife's family, in which the husband social standard is lower than his wife. On January, Discrimination Court in Al-Riad proved the verdict to prevent appealing. The release called upon King Abd Alllah to transfer the case to the High Council for Judiciary, and the Saudi Arabian authorities to free the wife and her son unconditionally and to put an end to the annoyances practiced against the husband in order to repair the verdict, in which the responsible officials had detained the wife and her young child and they threaten to detain the husband also. Sources More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/mena ========================== The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information ======== The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) completed the sixth training session for journalists and human rights activists on how to use the internet and adhering to human rights standards in the press, in which six sessions finished attended by 14 trainers. The participants discussed issues of due concern to their professional problems such as low wages, legal pursuits and blocking information. More information, please visit: http://www.hrinfo.net/press/2007/pr0717.shtml More information about HRinfo releases: http://www.hrinfo.net/press ========================== HRinfo is a legal organization that defends the freedom of opinion and expression of the press and the right to exchange information.
Moreover, it works on collecting the publications of nearly 140 Arabic human rights organizations from 18 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, which are published in Arabic and presented in one website. It also provides human rights sources in the Arab world for media workers, journalists, activists and the public in an attempt to increase the number of internet users and those interested in human rights issues in the Arab speaking world. Though one of many human rights groups serving the Middle East and North Africa, it is the only one in the Arab world devoted exclusively to protecting the freedom of expression across the region. For more information, suggestions or membership in the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, please contact HRinfo at: Address: second floor, flat 10, 5,105 St, Horriya Square, Maadi, Cairo, Egypt. Phone Number: (00202) 5249544 Email address: info@hrinfo.net |
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The published articles reflect the author's opinion, either individual or organization, it does not necessarily present the Network's opinion
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