Human Rights Watch Videos

Mosaic is a Peabody Award-winning daily compilation of television news reports from the Middle East. - Fatah & Iran Rapprochement - Rights group: Israel killed unarmed Palestinians - Desert Engulfing village in Mauritania Fatah & Iran Rapprochement Al Arabiya TV, UAE Qurie hints Fatah elections unclean Al Arabiya TV, UAE Israel Objects to Human Rights Watch Report on Gaza IBA TV, Israel Rights group: Israel killed unarmed Palestinians Press TV, Iran Yemen sets truce terms, rebels reject accusations Al Jazeera TV, Qatar Red Cross Marks 60th Anniversary Syria TV, Syria Lebanon's Water Crisis Future TV, Lebanon Desert Engulfing village in Mauritania Dubai TV, UAE

The Human Rights Watch's International Film Festival has now produced two editions of Youth Producing Change. As they point out, young people are on the frontline of many of the world's human rights crises, but it's all too rare that we get to hear their point of view. Well, take a listen to Sako, a thirteen year old Armenian who works in a gravestone factory. Video courtesy of the filmmakers Aram Abrahamyan and David Martirosyan.

Mosaic is a Peabody Award-winning daily compilation of television news reports from the Middle East. - Protestors Burning Basij Station - US Launches Operation Operation Khanjar In Afghanistan - Iraqis Celebrate US Withdrawal from Cities Protestors Burning Basij Station Press TV, Iran US Launches Operation Operation Khanjar In Afghanistan Dubai TV, UAE Poorly Armed Iraqi Security Forces Celebrate US Withdrawal from Mosul Al Jazeera TV, Qatar Iraqi Officials May Be Involved in Recent Explosions Al Sharqiya TV, Iraq Amnesty International Accuses Israel of War Crimes in Gaza Al Arabiya TV, UAE Amnesty International Report is Biased IBA TV, Israel AUB Students Attacked & Robbed in Jubail Future TV, Lebanon

There is more evidence that we tortured and/or abused prisoners at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan. This is so un-American. From the BBC: Bagram has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new detention centre is currently under construction at the camp. Some of the inmates are forcibly taken there from abroad, especially Pakistanis and at least two Britons. Since coming to office US President Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and ordered a review of policy on detainees, which is expected to report next month. But unlike its detainees at the US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention. (more ) From Human Rights Watch: # In November 2002, the CIA was reportedly involved in the torture and killing of a detainee in Afghanistan. A CIA case officer at the “Salt Pit,” a secret U.S.-run prison just north of Kabul, ordered guards to “strip naked an uncooperative young Afghan detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets,” the Washington Post reported on March 3, after interviewing four government officials familiar with the case. According to the article, Afghan guards “paid by the CIA and working under CIA supervision” dragged the prisoner around the concrete floor of the facility, “bruising and scraping his skin,” before placing him in a cell for the night without clothes. An autopsy by a medic listed “hypothermia” as the cause of death, and the man was buried in an “unmarked, unacknowledged cemetery.” A U.S. government official interviewed told the Post: “He just disappeared from the face of the earth.” # Two detainees were killed in December 2002 at Bagram airbase. These cases were previously reported by Human Rights Watch and were the subject of an exhaustive investigation by the New York Times. According to documents obtained by Human Rights Watch and a criminal investigation file obtained by the Times, two Afghan detainees named Dilawar and Habibullah died at Bagram airbase after being chained to the ceiling and severely beaten by U.S. guards and interrogators. Military intelligence officers knew of the pattern of abuses at the time, but failed to stop them. Although several soldiers were eventually charged with assault—in the wake of continued reporting on the case by Human Rights Watch—no personnel have been charged with homicide. In the months after the deaths, the U.S. military continued to tell journalists that the detainees had died of natural causes. (more )

presentation of the 20th Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York, June 11-25, 2009