UN report confirms gap between law and reality, torture, secret detentions and police harassment in Tunisia under Ben Ali

The United Nations just published a report on its website which describes the fact-finding mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism in January 2010. On the basis of the evidence he gathered, he observed a pattern of unacknowledged detention being used vis-à-vis terrorist suspects. During the [...]

Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger spokesman ‘missing after arrest’

The BBC reports that two prominent Tamil Tiger leaders in Sri Lanka are missing after arrest by the army last year, their wives have told a presidential commission. LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilantherian and head of the Tiger intelligence wing in Batticaloa, Prabha have not been seen since being detained, they said. The two wives were [...]

Detainees confirm torture in secret Muthanna detention facility in Iraq

Detainees in a secret Baghdad detention facility were hung upside-down, deprived of air, kicked, whipped, beaten, given electric shocks, and sodomized, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report which adds more proof to earlier revelations that torture was being committed in a secret prison under PM’s Maliki’s control. Human Rights Watch interviewed 42 [...]

Seven Chamber Judgments against Russia Concerning Chechnya and Dagestan

The European Court of Human Rights recently issued seven judgments concerning allegations of unlawful disappearances and deaths in Chechnya and Dagestan. Seven applicants separately alleged that Russian agents operating in Chechnya and Dagestan had violated Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), 5 (right to liberty and security), and 13 [...]

Sudanese man sues US after release from Guantanamo

A Sudanese aid worker freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 sued U.S. government officials Wednesday 7 April over what he called his forced disappearance and torture. Lawyers for Adel Hassan Hamad, 52, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle seeking damages for ongoing physical and emotional problems and compensation for lost wages and [...]

Guatemala: ICRC calls for creation of a national search committee, urges gvt to accept ‘absence through disappearance as legal concept’

The vice-president of the ICRC, Ms Christine Beerli, has submitted a report to the vice-president of Guatemala, Mr Rafael Espada, and the president of the country’s Congress, Mr Roberto Alejos, highlighting the needs of the families of the missing. As part of her official visit to Guatemala, Ms Beerli will also meet with civil-society organizations. [...]

Pakistan update

1. Investigations of disappearance cases Experts say an ongoing hearing in Pakistan’s Supreme Court tests the limits of the judiciary’s ability to curb the influence of Pakistan’s security agencies, including the all-powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which has in the past been termed a “state within a state.” In the years since the 2001 attacks [...]