Human Rights Watch - THE WEEK IN RIGHTS - October 06, 2016

THE WEEK IN RIGHTS October 06, 2016 Follow us on:

Interview: New CIA Torture Claims » Photo © 2016 John R. Holmes for Human Rights Watch It’s public knowledge that following the 9-11 attacks on the United States, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detained and tortured terrorism suspects in secret sites around the world. But new Human Rights Watch research provides disturbing details about CIA torture techniques that have not been previously disclosed. Ridha al-Najjar and Lofti El Gherissi, both Tunisian nationals, were arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and were among the first to be sent to a notorious CIA “black site” known as Cobalt in Afghanistan. Both men independently recount being severely beaten with batons, threatened with an electric chair, subjected to various forms of water torture, and being chained by their arms to the ceilings of their cells for long periods. Laura Pitter, senior US national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, spoke with the two men and listened as they described their horrific ordeal. "He told me they [tortured him] until: 'I couldn’t handle it anymore and was on the verge of completely falling apart.'" Read more » share on:

The Horrors of a Hurricane, Doubled by Statelessness My thoughts tonight are with Haitians, but also with the perhaps thousands of stateless people—including children—along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic. They live in make-shift camps constructed from sticks. I can’t imagine many worse places to be when a hurricane dumps 40 inches of rain...  Read more »   share on:

Why No Outcry Over Nabeel Rajab?  You’d think it would be easy for governments to call for Rajab’s immediate release, as Human Rights Watch and 21 other campaign groups have asked them to do...  Read more »   share on:

Hungary's Treatment of Refugees Is A Disgrace To Its History With Hungary's leaders encouraging hostility against asylum seekers, it is hardly surprising that its border officials show little humanity for those they actually encounter at the country's borders...  Read more »   share on:

VIDEO     Ex-Detainee Describes Previously Unreported CIA Torture Watch Now » US ELECTIONS BLOG       The 2016 US presidential election has generated a great deal of debate on human rights issues. In the lead-up to the vote, our experts examine some of the key issues being debated... Click here » TAKE ACTION! Tell Justin Trudeau, #SchoolsNotBattlegrounds. Canada should sign the Safe Schools Declaration. Take part here »

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