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31/3/2011
Libya: Release Women Human Rights Defender and victim of rape, Iman al-Obeidi

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network joins other human rights organizations and civil society groups calling for the Libyan authorities to immediately release 29 year-old lawyer and defender of women’s human rights, Iman Al-Obeidi. We also demand that those who have allegedly subjected her to a violent sexual assault, and false imprisonment, be brought to trial following a thorough and independent investigation. On Saturday 26 March, Al-Obeidi approached a group of foreign reporters in a hotel in Tripoli, and in a state of considerable distress, she told them she had been repeatedly raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen. In an effort to silence her and in front of rolling television cameras Al-Obeidi was attacked and dragged away by government officials. Al-Obeidi is now facing criminal charges herself, according to a government spokesman. Her parents say their daughter is being held hostage at the Libyan leader's compound in Tripoli.

31/3/2011
International: Amnesty publishes new report on rape, sexual violence, and the ICC

In this new document, Amnesty International presents the case for incorporating human rights laws and standards in the prosecution of rape and sexual violence in international and national courts. In particular, the International Criminal Court (ICC) must do so as a requirement of its own statute.

31/3/2011
UPDATE: Gambia: Lack of Fula translator delays GAMCOTRAP case hearing

No more witnesses have testified since the testimony of the director of Yolocamba Solidaridad on the allegation of theft case against GAMCOTRAP officials Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho.  Appearing before Principal Magistrate Alagde at the Banjul Magistrate court on Monday, 28 March 2011, Prosecution Officer Superintendent Sainey Joof announced the presence of only one witness instead of four as announced at the previous seating. Prosecution witness Mariama Sumura, one of the celebrated Ex-Circumcisers trained by GAMCOTRAP, was called to the stand. The court was brought to a standstill when it was realized that the witness could only speak Fula. Joof said he met the witness that morning and realized she could only speak Fula. Magistrate Alagde asked for volunteers from the court room to translate but none was forthcoming. Update to Gambia: Witnesses did not appear in GAMCOTRAP Case hearing

30/3/2011
Libya: Women Against Fundamentalism statement on Al-Obedi

WAF is deeply concerned about the fate of Iman Al Obeidi, the Libyan woman who tried to expose rape as a war crime by telling her own story and that of her friends to the international press in the Rixos Hotel, Tripoli, on March 26th 2011. Since then she has been detained and then slandered on Libyan TV, and various contradictory stories have been told about her to the international press. She is now herself accused of slander.

30/3/2011
Algeria: The road from Sidi Bouzid to Algiers

A hundred stalwart demonstrators stand on the Place de 1er Mai (First of May Square) in Algiers, at what has become their weekly Saturday gathering. They include activists from opposition political parties, women's rights advocates, and people who are just plain fed up. This small but resolute troop is surrounded (and vastly outnumbered) by police who push them around and try to make them go away.

30/3/2011
Libya: Iman al-Obeidi faces criminal charges over Libya rape claim

The Libyan woman who burst into a Tripoli hotel to tell western reporters she had been raped by Muammar Gaddafi's militiamen is now facing criminal charges herself, a government spokesman said. Iman al-Obeidi was detained on Saturday after she entered the capital's Rixos al-Nasr hotel and told journalists she had been beaten and repeatedly raped by 15 troops at a checkpoint. With TV cameras rolling, she was tackled by waitresses, security men and government minders and dragged away struggling. At least two journalists were beaten or punched in the fracas.

29/3/2011
Iraq: Letter to Officials: Kidnapping and Torture of Youth Activist

MADRE's Executive Director Yifat Susskind and Yanar Mohammed, the Executive Director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), have written this letter to Iraqi officials in response to the kidnapping and torture of youth activist, Alaa Nabil. To download a PDF of this letter, please click here. 

29/3/2011
Syria: International civil society organizations call for immediate implementation of reforms

Over the past 12 days, peaceful protests in Syria have been faced with violence. The blood of too many people was spilled and others were arrested and beaten by security forces. As long as this violence goes on, the Syrian government’s legitimacy will diminish by the day both in the eyes of the Syrian people as in the eyes of the international community.

25/3/2011
Libya: The women fighting and organising the revolution

In a bare, shabby side room in Benghazi's central courthouse, the hub of pro-democracy Libyan operations, Salwa Bugaighis talks animatedly, hardly flinching as gunshots ring out from the raucous crowds outside. They, like her, are in a mood that veers between celebration and defiance to anxiety. They flood the area of the seafront, which is littered with boards displaying caricatures of the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and stalls selling souvenirs since the eastern part of the country was liberated on February 20.

25/3/2011
UN: Special Rapporteur has been appointed for Iran

A Special Rapporteur has been appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate the situation in Iran. When asked how this would effect the situation in Iran, human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr told Arseh Sevom that the reports of previous Special Rapporteurs (Galindopole and Copithorne), appointed before the establishment of the UNHRC, had a positive effect on the conditions in the country, particularly on those of political prisoners.