For most of us (unless you're David Cameron, Nick Clegg or Gordon Brown), the last UK general election was nothing short of a soap-operatic, emotion-fuelled dramatic spectacle. Never before had I overheard so many people on the number 149 bus in north London chattering about a Hung Parliament. Yes, we may have been in the midst of some sort of constitutional crisis at that point, but we knew th

In recent weeks, detention of journalists has increased to an alarming scale. Customaririly, the Islamic regime would open up the atmosphere, leaving windows open for poeple to express themselves creating a false image of freedom of expression in order to attract more voters to the ballot boxes. Shortly after every election these windows would shut down and suppression and censorship would roam

In the USA children can be sentenced to life without parole, despite an almost universal legal and moral consensus that this sentence should never be imposed on someone under the age of 18 at the time the crime was committed. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which has been ratified by all states except the USA and Somalia) provides in Article 37 that: ‘States Pa

It's been quite a year for navel gazing in the British press. Leveson is on the rolling news, on the morning news, the evening news, the front page, pages 2- 36 and all over the comment section. This is news-news, hacks on hacks, editors on editors, the judgement of the judgemental. It's been an interesting year to be in the media. The invisible scribes have learnt that they are mortal, fa

Can a judge really say with a straight face that a person has been charged with ‘spreading corruption on earth'? I mean, really? Apparently so, it would seem. In Iran at least. And anyone in Iran who is unfortunate enough to have this heavy charge levelled against him finds himself faced with a death sentence in Iran. Such is the case for Saeed Malekpour. Amnesty has campaigned fo

Yet Another Heavy Sentence as Government Escalates Crackdown on Dissent (Chinese Human Rights Defenders, January 18, 2012) – Today, on the heels of recent harsh sentences of democracy and human rights activists, Chinese authorities sent another dissident, Li Tie (李铁), to prison for 10 years for “subversion of state power.” Li's sentence, issued

… as zingy catchphrases go, it's … er, different. But this is how Kate Allen opened her Channel 4 News interview last night talking about the Abu Qatada case (which I blogged on yesterday). The controversy over the presence in the UK of Abu Qatada is, in the end, an argument about how seriously you take the international ban on torture (including a ban on sending people somewhere where the

Groundbreaking Columbia law school study sets out in shocking detail the flaws that led to Carlos DeLuna's execution in 1989

Source: The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death

Short story on the web about oil and destruction in West Africa

Source: storyteller

Secret CIA video tapes of the waterboarding of Osama Bin Laden's suspected jihadist travel arranger Abu Zubaydah show him vomiting and screaming, the BBC has learned.

The tapes were destroyed by the head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, Jose Rodriguez.

In an exclusive interview for Newsnight, Rodriguez has defended the destruction of the tapes and denied waterboarding and other interrogation techniques amount to torture.

Source: 'Vomiting and screaming' in destroyed waterboarding tapes (BBC News)

ATTENTION: THIS IS AN URGENT HUMANITARIAN ISSUE.
So if you are not human, please feel free to ignore this event.

Abdulhadi Al Khawaja was arrested last year, beaten and tortured in front of his family, and has been illegally detained without a fair trial to this day. His only crime was supporting the human rights of the people of his country and promoting democracy.

He has now entered the 76th day of his hunger strike and literally on the verge of imminent death. The Bahraini government have made it very clear that they have no intention of releasing him despite pressure from Amnesty International and 15 other international human rights organisations.

Source: Solidarity with Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, Bahrain (ONLINE EVENT)

Freedom of expression is also luxury in Azerbaijan. I learned that lesson myself by exercising freedom of expression, doing it openly and publicly, peacefully and with some sense of humor. Surely there was the price to pay. Freedom of expression is not for free in Azerbaijan. It cost me 16 months of imprisonment.

Source: Emin Milli: I believe tha words can change the world

With preparations well underway for Sunday's Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, a leading human rights group has said torture and ill-treatment are continuing in the Gulf kingdom.

Amnesty International says it has evidence of people being kept in prison for participating in peaceful anti-government protests, and that security forces are using excessive and unnecessary force against demonstrators.

Source: BBC: Daily protests in Bahrain amid human rights

ast week, UN Secretary General Ban delivered the keynote address at the Global Colloquium of University Presidents, in which he made the pointed remark:

“Some dictators in our world are more afraid of tweets than they are of opposing armies.”

Source: Don’t Fear the Tweets, Fear the Tweeters

Tim Franks looks at the case of two prison inmates who have been held in solitary confinement in Louisiana for 40 years - believed to be the longest period of time in US history.

Source: BBC Radio 4: The Angola 2