India: Provide Access to Pain Treatment
(New Delhi) – Hundreds of thousands of patients in India unnecessarily experience excruciating pain, Human Rights Watch said in a report today. Restrictive drug regulations, lack of training for health care workers, and poorly integrated care result in needless suffering for patients because they cannot get inexpensive and effective pain medications.
Iranian refugees released from detention in Turkey
Two Iranian refugees who were refused access to the asylum system in Turkey and unlawfully detained for more than a year have been released, following months of campaigning on their behalf by Amnesty International.
Mohsen Abdolkhani and Hamid Karimnia were set free a month after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that their deprivation of liberty was unlawful.
The two men had been held in a "Foreigners’ Guest-House" in K?rklareli, despite an ECtHR interim decision preventing their deportation from Turkey, pending its consideration of the case.
Mohsen Abdolkhani told Amnesty International: “When we heard that we would be released, it was like being reborn.”
Amnesty International remains concerned that hundreds of people in Turkey continue to be held in detention unlawfully in Foreigners’ Guest-Houses.
On 28 September, Amnesty International launched a public campaign calling for the immediate release of Mohsen Abdolkhani, Hamid Karimnia and all others who are held under the provisions found to be unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights.
The organization also called for an overhaul of the rules governing the detention of people in Foreigners’ Guest-Houses in order to prevent any future unlawful detentions.
The ECtHR ruled on 22 September that Mohsen Abdolkhani and Hamid Karimnia had been detained unlawfully and that, if the men had been returned to Iran or Iraq, this would have been a violation of their right to protection from torture or other ill-treatment.
Kimberley Process: Suspend Zimbabwe
Turkmenistan: Free Environmental Activist
(New York) – Turkmenistan should immediately release a well known environmental and civil society activist who was sentenced to five years in prison today on bogus charges, Human Rights Watch said. The trial of the activist, Andrei Zatoka, violated international fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said.
Iran must release scholar held for peaceful criticism of election
The Iranian authorities must release a 76-year-old scholar held incommunicado for 41 days, apparently for his peaceful criticism of the Iranian presidential election, said Amnesty International.
The organization also expressed grave concern for the health of Dr Mohammad Maleki, and said it fears that his life is in danger as he is suffering from serious illnesses.
Mohammad Maleki, a former Chancellor of Tehran University, has been held without charge in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest in August. His two-month temporary detention order was renewed on 22 October, though he was unable to challenge it and no reasons were given as to why it was extended.
The officials who arrested Mohammad Maleki told his wife Ghodsi Mir Moez that he was being investigated for stirring up unrest and for what they alleged were his links to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a banned opposition group.
Many of those arrested since the election have faced similar allegations by the authorities.
Dr Maleki’s family has stressed that he is not affiliated to any political party and did not vote in the 12 June presidential election in Iran.
He criticized the conduct of the elections but did not publicly express a view about any one of the four candidates that stood for election.
Amnesty International said that it considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, held solely for the peaceful expression of his views.
Before his arrest Mohammad Maleki had been receiving regular treatment for prostate cancer, which he has not been given while in custody.
On 23 October, his wife, Ghodsi Mir Moez, expressed concern in an interview with a German radio station that his health is likely to have deteriorated.
His family and lawyer were allowed to visit him once, on 14 September. Ghodsi Mir Moez said afterwards:
"I noticed the doctor’s physical condition had worsened and his hands and feet were trembling constantly and he did not have enough strength to stand on his own feet." She also said he had complained that he was "in severe pain and was suffering from an increased heart rate, low blood pressure, and a burning sensation during urination."
Amnesty International has called on the Iranian authorities to immediately provide Dr Mohammad Maleki with all necessary medical treatment, including that available outside prison if necessary.
The organization has also urged the authorities to clarify his state of health as a matter of urgency and to grant him immediate and regular visits by his family and lawyer.
??????: ????????? ???? ? ??????? ?????? ????? ??????
(??????) – ?????????? ?????? ?????? ?????????? ?????????? ????????? ????????????? ???????????? ?????????????? ?????? «????????», ??????? ?????? ????? ????.
Libya: Drop Charges against Journalist
(New York) – The Libyan government should investigate allegations of sexual harassment in a state-run residence for women who had been orphaned instead of charging the journalist who reported the story with criminal defamation, Human Rights Watch said today.
Russian authorities must investigate activist’s murder
Russian and Kabardino-Balkarian authorities must find and bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Maksharip Aushev, a leading civil society activist from Ingushetia, Amnesty International said on Monday.
“The murder of Maksharip Aushev must not become yet another unresolved attack on civil society and human rights activists in the North Caucasus,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.
Maksharip Aushev’s car was found riddled with bullets on a road in Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic neighbouring to Ingushetia, on Sunday.
In 2007 and 2008 Maksharip Aushev had been active in organizing protests that highlighted human rights violations under then President of Ingushetia, Murat Ziazikov.
For several months he had run the opposition website Ingushetia.org, after the previous owner, Magomed Yevloev, was killed in police detention on 31 August 2008.
During this period, he had been threatened and intimidated because of his activities. There had been repeated recent attempts to kidnap him, including on 15 September 2009, when suspected members of the security forces blocked the street he was driving on and tried to abduct him.
Maksharip Aushev was a member of the expert council for the North Caucasus of the Ombudsperson for human rights of the Russian Federation.
The current President of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has entered into a dialogue with human rights and civil society organizations and has started to reform law enforcement bodies there.
“Bringing those responsible for Maksharip Aushev’s killing to justice is important for the stability of the whole region,” said Nicola Duckworth.
“The authorities, including the federal authorities in Moscow, are responsible for protecting the lives of civilians in the North Caucasus,” Nicola Duckworth said. “Without that, the fuse which has been lit in the region, will ignite and bring even more violence, abuses and grief.
Amnesty International wishes to send its condolences to the family and friends of Maksharip Aushev.
France: Abolish Airport Limbo for Migrant Children
France’s system of detaining and deporting unaccompanied migrant children who arrive in Paris by air puts them at serious risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The conclusions are based on the 60-page report, "Lost in Transit: Insufficient Protection for Unaccompanied Migrant Children at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport."
The day the bulldozers came…
West Bank farmer Mahmoud al-’Alam won’t forget the day Israeli army bulldozers cut off his water supply… and destroyed his livelihood.
The village of Beit Ula, where Mahmoud lives, is not connected to the Palestinian water network. Instead the community, located north-west of Hebron, relies on rainwater, which it collects and stores in pots dug in the ground, known as cisterns.
The nine new cisterns built in 2006 as part of a European Union-funded project to improve food security became the pride of the village. The cisterns were vital to the survival of the nine families that used them… until the bulldozers arrived.
"[The Israeli army] destroyed everything; they went up and down several times
with the bulldozer and uprooted everything," recalls Mahmoud al-’Alam.
In a few hours, years of hard work had been undone. The cisterns had been built with the help of two local nongovernmental organizations, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees and the Palestinian Hydrology Group.
The cisterns provided water for 3,200 newly planted trees including olive, almond, lemon and fig trees. The farmers had also contributed a significant portion of the overall cost of the project.
“We invested a lot of money and worked very hard," said Mahmoud al-’Alam. "This is good land and it was a very good project. We put a lot of thought into how to shape the terraces and build the cisterns in the best way, to make the best use of the land, and we planted trees which need little water… the saplings were growing well…"
The story of Beit Ula is one of many cases where Israeli forces have targeted Palestinian communities in the region.
On 4 June 2009, the Israeli army destroyed the homes and livestock pens of 18
Palestinian families in Ras al-Ahmar, a hamlet in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank.
More than 130 people were affected, many of them children. Crucially, the soldiers
confiscated the water tank, tractor and trailer used by the villagers to bring in water. They were left without shelter or a water supply at the hottest time of the year.
On 28 July 2007, Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint confiscated the tractor and water tanker of Ahmad Abdallah Bani Odeh, a villager from the hamlet of Humsa.
An Israeli army official told Amnesty International that the vital items were being confiscated in an attempt to force the villagers from the area, which the army had declared a “closed military area”.
In another village, a rainwater harvesting cistern belonging to Palestinian villagers was destroyed by the Israeli army under the pretext that it was built without a permit. Permits for water projects have to be obtained from the Israeli authorities but are rarely granted to Palestinians.
In recent years the homes of Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley have been repeatedly destroyed and their water tankers confiscated.
Each time, the homes – tents and simple shacks made of metal and plastic sheets – are rebuilt. Because of the villagers’ determination to remain on their land despite extremely harsh living conditions, the Israeli army has increasingly restricted their access to water as a way of forcing them to abandon the area.
In’am Bisharat, a mother of seven from the village of Hadidiya, told Amnesty International: “We live in the harshest conditions, without water, electricity or any services.
"The lack of water is the biggest problem. The men spend most of the day…[going] to get water and they can’t always bring it. But we have no choice. We need a little bit of water to survive and to keep the sheep alive. Without water there is no life.
"The [Israeli] army has cut us off from everywhere…We don’t choose to live like this; we would also like to have beautiful homes and gardens and farms, but these privileges are only for the Israeli settlers… we are not even allowed basic services.”
The lack of water has already forced many Palestinians to leave the Jordan Valley and the survival of the communities is increasingly threatened. In Beit Ula, Mahmoud al-’Alam’s livelihood is similarly at risk.
"It is very painful for me every time to come here and see the destruction; everything we worked for is gone. Why would anyone want to do this? What good can come from [it]?” he asks.